Manual for operating RoboDIMM
1. Start up
2. Shortcut to run RoboDIMM
3. New Commands and Features in the GUI
4. Definitions or terms in the RoboDIMM software
5. Non-routine operation (for
advanced students only!)
6. Normal Shutdown for RoboDIMM (end of
night)
7. Winter Procedures for RoboDIMM and Dome
9. Observing tips overcoming cloud and
pointing problems
11. Command line options for ./robodimm
13.
Recover RoboDIMM pointing using the optical finder
14. Adjusting the RoboDIMM telescope to park position
marks
15.
Recover RoboDIMM pointing (at night from the control room)
16. Optical alignment of the LX200
finder scope
18 .Shutdown (thunderstorm bad weather)
20. Webcam link
(not active in the moment)
Procedure for
recovering communication and pointing of the RoboDIMM telescopes
1.
If communication is lost, it most likely means the telescope has hit its
slewing limits and its power
has been shut down. Shut down the
software completely (control room).
2. Go the tower in daytime (or night-time if observing conditions allows)
and check the position and
power status of the telescope. If telescope power
indicator is lit, then the rest of this procedure is
NOT pertinent.
Instead check the RS232 cable and reboot the RoboDIMM pc. Once the pc is
back, check
communication again using the . /robodimm t
command. (Xterm ssh
whtobs@taurus and
ssh Xl robodimm robodimm)
If this fails, repeat cable check at both ends and reboot pc. If it fails
twice, enter a fault report.
3.
If the telescope is powered up but not on its pointing reference marks (at
zenith), correct this and
park the telescope in software using the ./robodimm
p command.
4.
If this causes the telescope to slew, allow the motors to run to the end by
releasing the brakes
holding the telescope upright to prevent it from
triggering the limit switches.
(Alternatively, press the override
limit switches but do not allow telescope to become entangled or
hit
physical limits). Apply the clamps again and return to previous item (3).
5. If the telescope power is
off, return telescope to approximate zenith position and press the "reset
limits"
button on the limit switch pox. The power should
return. Set slewing speed to 2 using the handset
(MENU >TELESCOPE > scroll to SLEW, hit ENTER, then MODE).
Go back to item (3) again (and then item (4) if needed).
6.
Make sure the focus mechanism is not at one extreme (inward = upper limit,
outward = lower limit)
of its movement. Move it (with the hand-held focus
controller) to the default mark if necessary.
7. Once telescope is reliably parked and slewing speed is set to 2, it is ready for attempted use that
night.
Set the mosaic size to 5000 to improve chances of finding a star. Use profile cloudy
in the presence
of clouds. [ return
]
Procedure for recovering the pointing of the RoboDIMM telescope MEADE
LX200 using
the optical finder
Note that some of the steps will not be necessary (e.g. power cycle the
telescope or opening the clamps)
if the pointing error is not very large or the
star appears in the field of view of the finder.
1. If for some reason
the program is not working properly apply a shutdown r.
Before going to the tower take note of the sidereal time to choose later a
brilliant star close to zenith.
2. On the tower apply
a power cycle to the T/S (important step to recover from a communication or
time out error with the T/S.) and un-screw the prism plate (watch for the position marks).
3. Release the clamp
for RA, align to the scratched mark and clamp on again but just finger tight.
Then do the same for DEC. (Pictures
park position)
4. Choose a star out
of the list of the black manual file . In case of
problems of identifying constellations
use
star ALKAID (!) which is located in URSA MAJOR (Eta Ursa Major)
visible the whole year.
5. Get the handset,
go to the MENU, choose ALIGN and change the mode from LAND
to POLAR.
6. Press now button 6
(STAR) and enter the number of the star (in this case) 140 (the
apparent
magnitude will be shown) and press ENTER.
7. Alternatively you
can use the catalogue of stars of the RoboDIMM program to choose a brilliant
star close to zenith, but there is a risk to align on
a different star (since field of view of the finder of
the T/S is probably to small
to identify the region or constellation in the sky.
8. On the white
override control box check that the safety limit switch to OVERRIDE OFF but
be
prepared to open a
clamp in time in the case that the T/S moves to a limit in RA or/and DEC.
Connect to the T/S:
telnet
robodimm 3505
findtarget 40 and choose a brilliant
star close to zenith.
resume
goto < saoxxxxx>
If it does so let it run (the motor(s) until they stop. Finally align the T/S
to the star using the finder.
10. Align the star to
the centre (hair-cross) of the finder using the handset, moving the T/S by hand
or using the SNAPPER program.
11. Once the star is
well aligned in the finder press on the handset the ENTER button for
3 seconds
until you hear a beep which tells you
that the T/S is successfully synchronized to this region in
the sky. As well there will appear a message on
the handset saying the same.
12. Check the pointing
with a different star some +/-10 degrees off in RA or DEC e.g. STAR xxx.
The new target should appear very close to the centre of the hair-cross of the
finder and bring the
T/S back to park position.
13. Back in the
control room start the RoboDIMM program in automatic mode:./robodimm. The T/S
will start normally a spiral search to find the target
which can take some time. When the star is
found and RoboDIMM is tracking on it, you can apply
another SYNC to synchronize the T/S to
the current region on sky. [ return ]
Adjusting the RoboDIMM telescope to park position marks
In the RA park position picture you will see a groove on the top the RA
plate of RD with seven scale lines,
the large one is the reference for the RA which has to
be lined up with a scratch on the scale of the
RD fixed base plate which has five scale lines.
On the picture the "0 upon 0" lines nearly up to the scratched line.
For the DEC park position please see the DEC
park position picture ...it's a bit aside
of the 25 degree scale
line ~ 25.1 degrees. [return ]
I suggest you put the following aliases in the .postcshrc
file in your account. You should normally log
into the RoboDIMM pc from your personal account, but
in case of Network problems, use an account
with a directory at the
telescopes, such as lplogs.
Please use username 'robodimm':
alias robo
'xterm -e ssh
-Xl robodimm robodimm.ing.iae.es &' or
alias loquesea 'xterm -e ssh -Xl robodimm robodimm &'
The -X
(capital) is for X11 graphics but appears to make no difference in SunOs or
linux versions
Currently in use. You can abbreviate the RoboDIMM pc address as shown, but on
first use ssh will
request confirmation.
With alias like this, all you have to do is type 'robo'
and you will get a new xterm where you enter the
password. You can then use 'up-arrow' to get the cd
command from the buffer.
I suggest to open 2 X terminals: in one you run ./robodimm
and in the other run ./ru [ return ]
The new GUI (vl.99p) has some new command buttons and a menu system for the
management of
configuration parameters. (There is also a bug whereby the Status tab is
out oil on the right hand side).
On the command prompt tab there are some new buttons, which have the following
functions:
"shutdown" causes the server program
(./robodimm) to exit. It should be used instead of Ctrl-C,
but only after the robot has stopped and parked
the telescope, e.g. at the very end of the night.
abort", in automatic mode (Robot started), has the same effect as
"stop robot", that is, once the
current action is completed, it parks the telescope
and turns off tracking.
In manual mode' (i.e. no robot running, but telescope is controlled by
individual commands) "abort"
causes the current action to stop but does
not park or switch off tracking!
The
"current action" can mean slewing, searching or taking
measurements.
Searching takes a long time to respond to abort or stop robot
simply because it takes a long time
to complete. The "park telescope"
button has no effect if the robot routine is running. It only
works in manual operation (see below). If you want to
park the telescope without starting the server
or GUI, use the command option: ./robodimm -p
There are two "profile" buttons, which optimise the robot
search procedure for cloudy and
clear conditions respectively. The program starts
with profile clear by default and searches for stars
between 2 and 4 magnitudes.
Profile clouded will switch the robot over to
using stars between -0.9 and 3rd magnitude, but first
it waits until the current star goes below 60 degrees
elevation. The two profiles also have small
differences in their search
algorithms.
The
button "goto another target star", used after a change of
profile, forces the robot to move to
the next star in a new list, once the current action
is completed. Once the clouds have cleared, it is
necessary to switch back to profile clear because very
bright stars cause problems for the search
algorithm and no seeing data will be taken. Normally
the clouds have to be quite thick, for example,
causing some problems for the WHT auto-guider or
even the observing program, before the profile
clouded is required. Anyway if clouds are too
thick to observe on the WHT, the RoboDIMM
should be stopped and the dome closed.
Other commands can still be written into the Command box (sunset is
currently written there and
activated by pressing return.
However, the buttons will not send any command unless there is a current
(telnet) session. Therefore,
before you first press a command button, you need to
press "reconnect" (to the right and below the
command prompt box) to open a telnet session for the
GUI.. Pressing it causes a prompt to appear in
the box labelled "response", but if
the server (./robodimm) is not running, an error message will appear
in
the response box. [ return ]
The server is the program which manages connections to the RoboDIMM pc, which
are made by
telnet or from the GUI (by entering a command in the
command prompt). Those sessions are the only
way to start/stop the robot or to send other
individual commands. The window where the server is
running also displays all messages on the status of
the RoboDIMM instrument. The robot cannot work
if these messages cannot be displayed (see below). The
server is started by issuing ./robodimmin
the directory /data/robodimm/robodimm and can
only be excited by Ctrl-C after stop robot and
park telescope.
The robot schedules all tasks, including acquisition, slewing, exposures,
calculations and database
storage. Once it is started using startrobot, the
telescope tracking motors are activated and remain
active until the stop robot command is
executed, even during daytime, and even if the server is exited.
Tracking is the only hardware function not controlled by the robotic routine:
it is only controlled by the
start/stop robot commands.
So it is dangerous to interrupt the server (Ctrl-C or Hold-Screen
on the. /robodimm terminal) for a
long time without first stopping the robot.
This is because the Meade telescope will continue tracking and will keep
running the tracking motors
even after the telescope is touching the base plate!
However, on 14 July 2003, 3 limit switches have been installed on the telescope
to prevent tracking to
low elevations. When the limit switches is activated, the telescope power is switched
off and the user must
go outside to the dome to recover the telescope. [ return ]
This section describes some consequences of operating outside of the routine stop
robot/ start robot,
e.g. running the robot continuously (see next)
but is also useful as background knowledge when
solving
problems. The robot also switches tracking off automatically after sunrise or
parking the telescope.
The status page of the GUI says "RoboDIMM will stop in xx minutes"
- this is the effective time
before the robot will park the telescope and switch off
tracking. Tracking is switched off by changing
the telescope mode from POLAR to LAND.
So if the robot is left running beyond sunrise, it correctly displays
"parked" on the GUI (it doesnt do
this after stop robot command - a bug).
Therefore there is no need to do a stop robot before you
leave. During the daytime, the only task the active
robot will carry out is to monitor the time until sunset,
which it calculates approximately, and for which it
needs to have a correct UT. The robot will then
start searching for the first star automatically a few
minutes before sunrise, without the need for a new
start robot command from the user.
However, to do this, it needs the server to be running.
This is because the robot can't really take any action on the hardware
(slewing, exposures) if no messages
can be written to the terminal where the server (./robodimm)
is running. So if Hold-Screen is on, or
the server has been exited , the robot's activity is
interrupted.
If the telescope is powered down while the server is running (e.g.
spontaneously or after running into
a safety limit) then any further commands
will be ignored and the server cannot be restarted until the
telescope is powered up again. If you then re-start
the server, the robot will continue from the point
where it was interrupted, which may again cause the
telescope to run into a safety limit. The best thing
to do in power-down cases is to release the RA and Dec
clamps, restart the server and send a stop robot
command. Then wait for the message of the robot
"telescope is parked" before parking it manually.
The pointing then
needs to be corrected because of the power down → ./robodimm p and adjust the
telescope
to the park position in RA and DEC.
If the robot has not been shut down, it will start acting on the hardware again
as soon as ./robodimm
is started again (unless
it's between sunrise and sunset). [ return ]
Closing down RoboDIMM in routine
operation:
stop robot
This button in the GUI Command Prompt tab sends the "stop robot"
command, which parks the
telescope and turns off tracking, after stopping the
automatic monitoring processes as soon as it can.
Ctrl-C is the currently the only way to exit the server and GUI programs after
a "stop robot".
Ctrl-C can also be used if you want to temporarily interrupt the robot.
If you do only Ctrl-C and restart
the programs, the robot will resume working and send a
warning email asking "did robodimm crash?".
However Ctrl-C does NOT stop the telescope from tracking.
The park telescope button is ignored if the robot is still running.
The abort button is
also for manual operation. [ return ]
Winter is coming! Please read
the Bad Weather for RoboDIMM
Normal shutdown at the end of the night:
Press the stop robot button, (or write the command in the dialog box
in the GUI command prompt
page, or in the telnet session if you are not using the
GUI). This command is now supposed to work as
soon as the telescope finishes its current task, e.g. search
mosaic.
Use
park telescope, in the case where the robot was not running. The
command stop robot is
supposed to send a park telescope, but you can send
another park command, just to confirm.
park telescope stops the telescope
from tracking by putting it into LAND
mode.
In case that stop robot and/or park telescope fails press the
abort button.
When the telescope is parked, press the shutdown
button to close the
communication. Then close
the dome completely using the red close button on the DOME GUI. [ return ]
Opening the dome:
There are two control panels for the dome, one in the RoboDIMM tower and one in
the WHT control
room. All of the functions are related to the dome and
none to the telescope, e.g. the emergency stop
prevents the dome from being closed but doesn't stop the
telescope from tracking. (To stop it tracking,
it should be switched to LAND mode using the
hand-set).
In order to open the dome of RoboDimm on the tower,
you first need:
1. The entry hatch to the dome to be closed (interlocked with dome power)
2. The DOME CONTROL power key on the panel to be switched ON
3. The blue SYSTEM RESET button to be pressed → all LED indicators
light up.
Now you can open the dome, by pressing and holding the DOME OPEN buttons until the red LED's
comes ON (on the tower there are two buttons, for left and right sides of the
Dome).
The CCD power supply is connected to mains by a programmable timer plug. Note
that you cannot
run the ./robodimm program with the CCD switched off. [ return ]
Shutdown procedure for thunderstorms
and bad weather
RoboDimm
pictures can be seen at
http://www.ing.iac.es/astronomy/tonotes/MASS-DIMM/RoboDimmpictures.html
[ return ]
(1) The robot task is
in an apparently endless search loop. This can happen if clouds move in or
pointing is bad.
The robot simply starts a new findtarget
if the previous one did not locate the star. This can now be
interrupted using
the abort button.
(2) If the telescope has been powered down,
you will need to follow Carlos Martin's recovery
procedure
(3) Bad pointing: If the robot is not
running, you can send commands manually to improve the pointing:
Open a new window:
telnet robodimm 3505
selecttarget 40
goto saoxxxxxx
findtarget
This does a spiral search out to 2.000 arcsec and can take up to 20
min to complete
centertarget
This gives output on the ./robodimm session showing the centroid of images
If the x or y of these is outside the range 50~200 it may be too close to the
edge, then use:
move ra dec
Where ra and dec are increments in arcsec (30 to 40 is a good
number) dec
+ or direction. We have found that Dec pointing errors are
the most common
cause of bad pointing. Try a move of 120
(+/-).
centertarget
To check if the Centroids are now closer to the
centre.
sync RA DEC
Where RA and DEC are the coords of the target you are pointing at
according to
the SAO catalogue. Enter these in format
hh:mm:ss dd:mm:ss
start robot
Should now return you to routine operation
However, if the pointing is so bad that findtarget
did not work, you will have to go to the tower and
"help" the software to find its target. Use
goto saoxxxxx to get close to the star - you
should now be
able to see it in the field of view of the finder of
the telescope.
Use the telescope handset to centre the star in the finder (the 4 left-hand
buttons select the speed, indicated
by a LED). Now run findtarget on the PC
outside: it should locate the star after a few minutes. In fact,
you can move the telescope in this way while the robot
is doing a findtarget, but this is for the " advanced"
user only!
If the star does not
appear in the finder after a goto (eg. after you have
interrupted the robot; see
point (3) then the "zeroset" is out.
Release the clamps and park the telescope manually at the HA=0 scratch and
DEC=25.1 positions,
Type "resume"
into the telnet session and now try a goto
saoxxxxxx .
You should now be able to see the star in the finder. If not, check that the
sidereal time (UST) is correct
(the RA coordinates must match the UST in the park position).
[ return ]
To check the pointing (and adjust the finder to target at large distance) you
can use snapper to see
the image of the SBIG camera attached to RoboDimm. (picture snapper_image)
On the tower you have to login
in the pc as root with password t . . . . .
The program should be started with ./snapper
at /home/robodimm/data/robodimm/robodimm.
To be sure you can find the program snapper in the file system using locate
snapper.
Accept all default
settings with Enter then a small window will appear (camera image) which is
updated
continuously. Now search for the star.
If it's a bright one, the default exposure time will cause it to saturate and
"bleed" the display (the star image
will be elongated vertically). If not you have the
wrong star!
But as long as you can identify with certainty it in the finder, you can use it
to align the finder too.
Then use the robodimm command sync to update the pointing OR you can choose a
star from the lx200
handset, (see the catalogue page in the manual, select
a proper star for the season, goto star [number]) and
after centred on the star hold down the ENTER button
for some 3 seconds to synchronize the telescope to the
region in the sky
..you will hear a beep when done.
[return ]
Optical alignment
of the LX200 finder scope:
Mark the positions of the camera, prism plate and primary mirror focus knob in
their places for
references later. Remove the prism plate, the camera,
only the camera, not the focuser. The idea
is to keep the back focal distance similar when using
an eye piece.
Use a 26mm eyepiece on the main telescope and centred it on a fixed position on
the DOT tower
(weather mast) or the JKT (comm
mast on the roof) using the hand box. Override the limits to let
it slew this far
down.
The correct adapter for the eye pieces is just connected to the face of the
robodimm camera.
Disconnect it from the camera to mount the eye piece(s).
To get the eye piece in focus you need to move the primary mirror focuser some
2.5 turns clockwise
(record the exact value of turns you did).
Adjust the finder in the way
that the reference object appears centred in the cross-hair.
Put the prism plate back on the reference position, same for the camera and
turn back the primary
mirror focuser anticlockwise to its original position.
[ return ]
Error messaging has been improved in the version 0.99 software and while most
error messages do
not require action from the user, they need some
explanation. The program sends emails containing
error messages to Neil OMahony (user nom) by default,
and if you want to change this and receive
the error emails yourself, you have to issue:
./robodimm --email yournamc@ing.iac.es note the double
dash (--), or use the -e option which
is equivalent.
The different command options are outlined in the next section and can be
listed by issuing options
--help or h (which are
equivalent).
In any case, the RoboDIMM software also sends pop-up error messages to the
currently active
workspace, with
the same content as the email error messages. The
currently known error messages are as follows:
RoboDimm lost the communication with the telescope.
The telescope is well parked but the software can`t send the commands to the
telescope.
Also the
RoboDimm PC after a remote reboot didn`t come up.
Do again a proper reboot of the pc (ensures data integrity by terminating
processes and synchronizing
the file system: shutdown -r now or init 6 as user root.
Command interface problem (executing the previous command instead of the
actually typed
in or applied via the GUI radio buttons)
In this case rebooting the application will not solve the problem but will
instead affect RoboDimm
in a way not to find any stars further on.
This can be fixed by pressing the reconnect radio button on the GUI before
typing or applying via
radio button a new command.
findtarget(): Time out! Telescope should have reached
position by now, but it didn't.
Is it
still connected?
The "killer fault". Means the telescope has had one of its mysterious
hardware freeze-ups. You will
Probably have to go outside to correct the pointing
before you can use RoboDIMM again.
Check the limits, reboot the RoboDimm pc if necessary, if RoboDIMM is driven to
limits move it
out to the marks and send a ./robodimm p and check
again the park position.
.
TCcmdImportSAO::ExecuteCmd():Error opening
database
This means that the change of profile (clear/cloudy) has not worked because the
catalogue could
not be opened for some reason. This is a rare fault.
Try profile clear/cloudy again.
Cant select a suitable target star within 30.000000 zenithal distance!
This occurs only in "cloudy" profile when the number of (bright)
stars available is much less.
Try using the clear profile. If this does not work, close RoboDIMM and
wait some time for better weather.
Cant find any suitable star within the specified area.
This is a repeated version of the previous error message. Redundant its a
bug.
Both configured atomic clock NTP time servers (c1ock2.net.cetera.dk and bigben.ing.iac.es)
have been unreachable for more than an hour now. The
CMOS/system clock isn't synchronized
during that Time!
This is caused by internet outages. (frequent
recently). Not important in the short term, starts becoming
important if it occurs more than two nights in
succession. The telescope needs an accurate UTC for
good pointing. This can be updated on the tower using
the handset.
TCmdTelescopeGoto::ExecuteCmd(): Distance to
target = 0d0m39s
TTP_Alt::Set(): invalid
coordinate entered!! Altitude degrees=90.0000
This is easily resolved by loading the catalogue.
Select the profile first:
telnet robodimm 3505 (when the server
(program) is running)
profile clear
importsao 2 4.5
(this sets the range of magnitudes used in clear conditions)
profile cloudy
importsao 1.5 2.5
(sets the range of magnitudes for cloudy conditions)
if still no change then type ./fixconfigfile
The GUI disappeared given an error message of segmentation fault. Message from
talker is:
CenterCCD()
failed. Going to select another target to try again...(No
objects were detected)
TTCPClient::CommThread(): select() error, session ID=3, error: Bad file descriptor
Segmentation fault.
Try to restart the GUI on the xterm: ./ru and send a
./fixconfigfile or reboot the RoboDIMM pc.
Frozen GUI
Exit the GUI and restart it on the proper xterm: ./ru
.no success reboot the RoboDIMM pc on the tower.
"Error trying to read out the CCD ! TSBIGdriver()::ReadOut()" (buttelescope
is moving)
1) Maybe the socket timer is not properly set (e.g. to random (RAND))
2) CCD controller needs to be reset (power cycled) using the "manual
mains" button in the PLC Dome
remote control panel.
The telescope doesn`t start to move (although the program is
running and the GUI shows telescope
parked).
The telescope is probably in limits and therefore switched off. It is
necessary to go up onto the tower
to reset the limits and park thetelescope
at the correct marks in RA and DEC (./robodimm p).
Dont forget to set the slewing rate to "2 using the handset of
the LX200!!!
You are not allowed to do that!
This message appears in the GUI while pressing start robot, park telescope or
any other radio button.
This appears mostly because of a corrupt configuration file. As user
robodimm just run on the
./robodimm window: "fixconfigfile".
A good idea also is to check that the telescope is parked correctly and not in
limits.
Not able to do valid measurements. Trying to locate the target object again...
SBIG error: SBIG_TX_TIMEOUT
Error trying to read out the CCD ! TSBIGdriver()::ReadOut()
SBIG error: SBIG_TX_TIMEOUT
Dome GUI shows no status, no clock. At the bottom line appears: `RESET_MCR` has
failed:
Application layer timed out while waiting for a response. A ping robodimm
responds:
destination host unreachable. Probably problems with
the net switch SW4WHT or the fibres themselves.
Reboot and check.
Testing CCD camera....
- Trying to connect to the CCD camera...
- CCD camera not found!
Check all cables especially the RS232 link telescope to pc. As well try to
power cycle the CCD controller
using the "manual mains" button on the PLC
Dome remote control panel.
Server not responding
Possibly the telescope ran into limits and is powered off. Switch on the
telescope power and send the
./robodimm p park command.
check that it is parked at the marks and slew rate set to 2 (handset)
The robodimm rsview32 (dome GUI) cant be loaded. Error message:
OLE Automation failure. Exception caught [80010105][]
Re-start the application or if this fails re-boot the pc. Login as whtobs
The (Seeing)GUI is running slowly or even not
responding.
Exit and re-start the GUI with ./ru in
the proper xterm window. If this fails open another telnet
terminal and send abort and park telescope
commands to stop the robot.
The telescope must already have been parked before you sent the shutdown and
the GUI was not responding.
For future reference:
Open a new X-window and type:
telnet robodimm 3505
type: abort and wait (sometimes a long while)
for a response to the command. When you get the
prompt
back, type "park telescope"
If the GUI is not responding, you can simply kill the window with exit
or (X) and park the telescope
using the procedure above. Finally type the command "shutdown,
reboot the pc and restore the
configuration file if necessary>>> ./fixconfigfile and park using ./robodimm p.
No star can be found in clear conditions (Telescope and CCD are working fine)
Check and change the parameters to previous values or defaults to give the
telescope a good chance
of finding a star. Before you change parameters you
must first send a stop robot, park telescope
and exit the ./robodimm program. Only the
GUI should be running when you edit parameters.
The selected horizontal range (x/width) is out of boundaries!
Not able to do valid measurements. Trying to locate the target object again...
TLX200driver::SendCommand(): LX200 timed out!! Response expected, command=#:GZ#
Shutdown the Robodimm program and restart.
Robodimm is out of action. The telescope seems fine, but the control software
does not respond
as expected.
Suspected a problem with the postgres database
manager on the robodimm computer.
When trying to restart this service as root the following error message
appears:
/sbin/service postgresql
restart
Stopping postgresql service: [
OK ]
Starting postgresql service: su:
warning: cannot change directory to /var/lib/pg
sql: Permission denied
.... and similar error is displayed on startup when the machine is rebooted.
Login to robodimm as postgres
and execute the following:
/usr/bin/pg_ctl -D /var/lib/pgsql/data -p /usr/bin/postmaster start
or as root:
[root@robodimm usr]# su - postgres
su: warning: cannot change
directory to /var/lib/pgsql:
Permission denied
bash-2.05a$ /usr/bin/pg_ctl -D /var/lib/pgsql/data -p /usr/bin/postmaster
start
postmaster successfully started
enter: service postgresql
restart (as root)!
TSBIGdriver::TakeExposure(): frame=(X=93,Y=14,127x113), shutter=opened File size
limit
exceeded
The
log file/home/robodimm/logs/robodimm.log had reached 2.0G which happens to be a
file size
limit in redhat 7 linux and is probably the reason why the program
spontaneously exited, closing the
telnet connection.
To
fix this change the name of the log file to a backup name. The program then
starts a new robodimm.log
PLC
is indicating "fault" It is not possible to operate robodimm dome either local
and/or remote.
Can
be a Major Error at the PLC: The controller cannot communicate with an
expansion I/O module.
To
fix the problem clear the Major Error.
The
RSVIEW program to drive the robodimm dome crashed
Restart
the rsview32 application
OLE
Automation failure. Exception caught[80010105][]
The robodimm rsview32 plc program can`t be loaded
Reboot
the robodimm rsview32 pc
The
dome opens and then closes again after a few seconds.
A
reset of the dome plc (on the tower) does not fix it.
Start
the open dome sequence and stop at half way. [ return ]
Command line options for the ./robodimm
program
BEWARE:
Some of these options are hazardous!
For
normal operation, please log onto robodimm pc as user "robodimm",
to avoid executing some of
these options by mistake.
RoboDIMM v0.99p, 18 Dec 2003
usage: ./robodimm [option ...]
[other-arguments ...]
The
following table gives a detailed description and explanation of the output of
command: ./robodimm --help
option (multi) Long form synonym, single option* |
Function |
Notes |
-m --manual |
Does not start the robot automatically. Requires
"startrobot" command. |
otherwise the robot will start automatically, minutes before
sunset |
-E --emulate |
Emulates the CCD camera and telescope hardware |
"Simulation mode", for software tests. |
-p --park |
Park the telescope and exit the program (robot is
NOT started) |
The Park position can be at zenith or the pole, as set in the
configuration file. |
-ln --loglevel=n |
Start robot with a logging level (n=0..8), as follows: |
The logging level applies to the current session only |
|
0 = 'Emergency',
system is unusable |
|
|
1 = 'Alert', serious error, action must be taken immediately |
|
|
2 = 'Critical',
critical conditions |
|
|
3 = 'Error', standard error
conditions |
|
|
4 = 'Warning', user is normally informed about it but may be ignored |
|
|
5 = 'Notice', normal but significant conditions |
|
|
6 = 'Info', informational messages (a.k.a. verbose) |
|
|
7 = 'Debug', normally not shown to the user, disabled in release mode |
currently used value in the configuration file |
|
8 = 'Debug level 2', extra verbose debug output |
|
-e --email=EMAILADDR |
Start the robot but email the error reports to the given address |
to send error reports to an address different
from that in the configuration file (currently nom), e.g. yourself. |
-d --daemon |
run in the background (as a daemon) |
not yet used at ING |
-t --testtelescope |
Check whether the telescope is online and then exit |
Does not start robot. Useful check for telescope power. |
-c --testccd |
Check whether the CCD camera is online and then exit |
Does not start robot. Useful check for CCD power. |
-r --recalcseeing=DBNAME |
Recalculate all seeing values for the centroids in the database
DBNAME. Note: to recalculate data that was recorded in emulation mode,
combine the -E option with this |
DANGER! Executable by "root". Can overwrite current DB!!! |
-x --recalcext=DBNAME |
Recalculate all extinction AND seeing values for the centroids in the database
DBNAME. Note: to recalculate data recorded in emulation mode, combine the -E
option with this |
DANGER! Executable by "root". Can overwrite current DB!!! |
-n --dbnowrite
|
Test mode, does not write recalculated seeing values to the database. |
Only works in combination with the option '-r' |
-v --version |
Print version information
and exit |
Prints version at start with all options in any case. |
-s --status |
Starts robot using current window as a Status Screen (ncurses) |
Alternative to a scrolling-message output. Can be unclear unless
correct size of window |
-S --testseeing
[files] |
Calculate a seeing value from the fits-files given on the command
line. Also shows detailed information on the way it is calculated. The altitude is read from the files. |
|
-D --watchdogcheck
|
Check whether the RoboDIMM software (this
software) is still functioning properly. If that is not the case, the
telescope will be parked and all robodimm instances
will be killed. |
|
*A
double-dash (--') indicates that the rest of the line is not to be scanned for
options. [return ]
Default
Values:
All
default values can be seen in the Configuration section (GUI),
choosing expert mode under
help for each item.
Example:
The
drift correction (object tracking parameter in config)
default value should be: 0.15
Version |
Date |
Author |
Changes |
1.0 |
04/04/2013 |
Karl W. Kolle |
Document created |
1.1 |
16/04/2013 |
Karl W. Kolle |
Command glossary and Hyperlinks added |
1.2 |
27/07/2013 |
Karl W. Kolle |
Snapper & finder
alignment added |
1.3 |
21/08/2014 |
F. Jimenez |
Check focus mechanism while recovering procedure added |
1.4 |
15/01/2015 |
Karl W. Kolle |
RD manual update |
1.5 |
05/07/2015 |
Karl W. Kolle |
RD manual pictures update |
2.0 |
06/10/2015 |
Karl W. Kolle |
Shutdown procedure (bad
weather) added |
2.1 |
24/02/2016 |
Karl W. Kolle |
RD manual update |
2.2 |
30/04/2018 |
Karl W. Kolle |
RD manual update |
2.3 |
30/12/2019 |
Neil O'Mahony |
revised bad weather procedure |
[ return ]