I just had a strange experience: My shutter was not displayed as „At Home”, even though it clearly was. Find Home failed, and even a simple goto also failed. I then connected with the Arduino Test App, and did a „getStatus” – here I noticed that it reported as Clamshell, not Master. Connecting with USB and setting Preset as Master restored everything to normal working conditions.
So the problem is solved, but this is actually the second time I experience that without my intervention it has suddenly re-configured as Clamshell (last time was in august 2024). There are no signs in the logs of any re-configuration either. Do you have any idea what can cause this – and how to avoid it?
I really don’t know why this happened. I personally suspect that someone accidentally reprogrammed the card.
I can understand why you would think so, but consider this:
* The dome is locked with a padlock that only I have the key for – no-one else has been in the observatory
* The control PC inside the dome is on a network that only I have access to
* The control PC inside the dome is not USB connected to the dome card – I had to physically go out there and connect the USB cable to re-program it to MASTER
* The „switch back to clamshell” has happened twice under these circumstances
I am rather sure that there exists conditions where the card will „revert to clamshell”. My best guess is that it might be related to when the rollers generate sparks, and that this sends back electrical spikes that affect the card. But this is purely a guess – what is certain, however, is that I (or anyone else) have not been in the dome, connected a PC to the dome card with USB, and actively re-programmed it.
I have learned to recognise the symptoms now, and it does not take long to fix – so consider this more of a „FYI” in case someone else experiences something similar and you might eventually want to look into what the root cause is.
Thanks,
Christian