Automadome, the sky 6 and the G11 - how can i get all 3 working together?

[h0ughy (David)]

Originally Posted by MrC

Hi David and Marcus,

I'm trying to run Automadome with a dome automation system by Meridian Controls. Also, I have The Sky6 and Orchestrate.

Long story short, I inherited an observatory as a part of a new job. It has been unused for at least five years. At some point, Automadome was able to slew the dome. The old computer, however, died.

Now, I can slew the dome with a hand paddle but can't connect the dome to the new computer. I know that COM 1 is correct and works.

I get a receive time-out, error code = 209. Were you guys seeing a similar error?

It is very possible the hardward is now dead, but I don't want to give up yet.

You have a slightly different problem to what I had – though if your operating system is win7 there may be more configuration issues there especially if it’s a 64 bit system. I tried to communicate to software biscuit but it really fell on a deaf keyboard. I tried to do what they said – to the letter. At one stage I reinstalled my OS twice to refresh with new drivers and even changed the installation of software, method of startup etc. Maxdome just was not recognised with Automadome whatsoever within the sky6. However the ASCOM dome control worked really well - not within the sky6 but externally just with the paddle and the dome control. The slit was slewed to where the scope was pointing at startup and then the mount was connected to the dome – worked like a treat under win7. That was a G11 Gemini 1 mount and maxdome, loaded the Gemini mount ASCOM controller and I was off.. I gave up on the crumbly biscuit software – it just didn’t play at all – wasted 250 US on the stupid thing. do the dome control board lights come on?

[marc4darkskies (Marcus)]

Originally Posted by h0ughy

..... I gave up on the crumbly biscuit software – it just didn’t play at all – wasted 250 US on the stupid thing. do the dome control board lights come on?

Sorry MrC - can't help - you have a different setup to me and the slightest differences can cause many issues.

Even though I've now used Automadome and Maxdome on 3 different machines (1 x winXP and 2 x Win7 64 bit) with TheSky6 and TheSkyX without the slightest issue, I wasn't even able to help Houghy!

Cheers, Marcus