David's Astronomy Pages Notes - Session 603 (2017-11-02)

Notes (S601.2)

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Notes (S604)

	2017-11-02
	Operational Issues
	Desktop Computer Upgrade to Windows 10 - Preparation - Windows 10 Installation - Graphics Card Replacement - Software - Virtual Weather Station (VWS)
	SharpCap (3.10) - Version 3.10 & Sharpcap Pro License
	PHD2 Guiding (2.6.4) - Version 2.6.4
	Flat Frames
	Images from 2017-11-02 >>

Operational Issues (2017-11-02, S603)

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• Minor Issues (0)
• Small Defects (0)
• Continuous Improvement (0)

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Critical Issues

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On attempting to start up the observatory a couple of issues arose

- CCDSoft initially unable to connect to camera.   After installing new drivers and looking at lead connections it turned out the USB lead for the observatory's USB Hub wasn't plugged into the laptop (a USB cable used for ASI178MC camera was mistakenly plugged in instead, so hence no connection to the camera)

- Observatory roof difficult to move/slide.  Due to continued warping and consequential spreading of the two sides of the roof the wheels on the underside of each side of the roof are wider than the tracks that they are supposed to ride upon, making opening/closing of the roof more problematical than when original constructed

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Desktop Computer Upgrade to Windows 10

The operating system on the HP desktop computer (Intel 6600, 32-bit, 3 GB Ram) used for remote monitoring and control of observatory from indoors, was upgraded from Windows Vista to Windows 10.  This was performed as Windows Vista was limited to running IE9 and couldn't properly display certain webpages that require IE11 and the fact that Vista is no longer supported by Microsoft.   It was also an opportunity to begin moving all household computers towards Windows 10.

Preparation
- Specification of existing HP Desktop Computer were checked against the Minimum Specification for Windows 10
- A Vista to Windows 7 Upgrade Checker (had it on my machine already) was run to understand any potential
  issues with existing hardware etc. (this showed a potential issue with the ATI Radeon X1650 SL graphics card,
  but after updating the Graphics driver, the warning disappeared)
- Windows 10 Home Licence Key was bought online from Cairnquay (from Amazon Marketplace) for £13.55
 ( I was a bit hesistant over whether this was a fully legitimate key and whether Windows 10 would activate ok or not,
  but sellers reviews looked favourable and the key that was duly sent via email and worked ok (see below))
- Windows 10 Software (32 bit) was put onto a bootable USB stick using Windows Media Creation Tool
- Key/useful files and folders were backed-up.

Windows 10 Installation
- Installation performed as a fresh OS install
  (the bootable USB stick with Windows 10 software was placed in a USB slot and the computer turned on.
   The computer bios was accessed (DEL key) and temporarily updated to set the USB drive as the top priority device to boot from.
   Note that the USB drive is found under list of hard drives and not on the list with  the A:/Floppy drive and USB card readers as initially expected)

- Installation went smoothly,  Windows 10 activated ok with the purchased licence key.
  (The software activated as Windows 10 Pro, rather than the Home version expected, but fine !)

Graphics Card Replacement
- After upgrade to Windows 10 it was immediately noticed that the maximum resolution that could be viewed was 1280 x 1024 (rather than the monitor's 1920 x 1200 resolution).   Checking showed that the ATI X1650 weren't supported by Windows 10 and there were no new drivers.   
- In order to conveniently monitor and remotely control the observatory laptop (1920x1080) it was clear that a new (more modern) graphic card was going to be required.   Since the HP computer isn't used for gaming, it wasn't necessary to get an expensive card.   After a quick check online, a nVidia GeForce GT 730 1 GB card (GT730-SL-1GD3-BRK) was reserved and picked up later the same day from PC-World for £39.
- It was a bit stressful removing the old graphics card and not full knowing if the new card (PICe 2.0) was going to fit into and work with the older and larger PCIe slot on the HP computer. But it did and the computer fired up ok. 
- After installing Geforce GT 730 drivers the screen was set to the desired full resolution of 1920 x 1200

Software

Key sofware was then re-installed:
- Kaspersky (Antivirus/Firewall Software)
- Ultravnc (for Remote Monitoring and Control of Observatory Laptop)
- TheSky6 (for previewing potential targets offline)
- Virtual Weather Station, VWS (for accessing and viewing current weather data)
- Weather Station Repeater (for fowarding current weather data)
- IE 11 (for web browsing)
- Textpad 4 (for text file reading & editing )
- PaintShopPro 5 (for image capture and editing)

Of these the VWS package was the most problematical item to re-install and work correctly within the new operating system.

Virtual Weather Station (VWS)

The VWS software package (from Ambient Weather) is used to monitor current weather data collected by my WMR180 Weather Station (Oregon Scientific). The program records weather data to a .csv file every minute and a small VB.Net program (called Weather Station Repeater) is used to send on weather data record to the Observatory Laptop and the AllSky Camera Laptop for a general session record and for documentating alongside any astronomical or All Sky images acquired .

Initially the VWS software that my Weather Station came with (v14) wouldn't work in the Windows 10 environment.  It would give an error message complaining about a particular .dll file ( ./vws/wininet.dll)

I then installed the current version of the VWS software from online (v15),  but a key folder (./vws/data) containing the key data file (gbase.csv) became hidden to view.  It was only visible from within the VWS software itself. All normal and advanced attempts to make the hidden folder and its contents visible just wouldn't work.  

In the end the solution to v14 not working in Windows 10 was to rename  ../vws/WININET.dll to old-WININET.dll, after which VWS would start and work ok.  This was discovered by reading a posting on the wxforum (http://www.wxforum.net).

I couldn't find a method to unhide the ./vws/data folder but the workaround as I though was to copy the old ./data folder from Windows Vista environment (Windows.old) into the new ./vws/ program folder.   

I finally put v15 onto the computer (the licence key for my original V14 Base Edition CD worked ok).

On trying out my VB.Net program to replicate weather data to Observatory and All Sky Laptops however I found that it wasn't able to access current weather data, but found old static data.  Textpad could see current dat, but notepad and my program couldn't.

After over a week of attempted diagnosis I eventually found that in the Windows 10 environment the VWS program was writing weather data out to a .csv file with pathname 
  "C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\vws\data\dbase.csv"
instead of "C:\Program Files\vws\data\dbase.csv" (which was used by the program on Windows Vista)

Once I modified my VB.Net program to read from the dbase.csv file in the user \AppData area, I was finally able to again get current (live) weather data to be replicated to other computers in my home network (in particular my Observatory laptop)

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SharpCap (3.10)

On attempting to use by 2.9 beta version of SharpCap a message was recieved to say that the time limited version has expired.
I went to the SharpCap website (www.sharpcap.co.uk) and downloaded and installed the latest version (3.10). This version contains some functionality that requires a SharpCap Pro license to use at a cost of £10 per year.  This includes python based scripting functionality that was free in previous versions.

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PHD2 Guiding (2.6.4)

Upgraded PHD2 Guiding from 2.6.2 to latest version 2.6.4 (Sept 17th 2017).
New features & changes in versions 2.6.3/2.6.4 are listed on the PHD2 change log at https://openphdguiding.org/changelog/

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Flat Frames

A new set of Flat Frames were acquired for C Filter at 3x3, 2x2 and 1x1 binning

Comparison of New Master Clear(C) Flat Frame (left) with previous master flats (right)
New Flat (C, clear filter)		Previous Flat (C, clear filter)
New Master Flat (50% size) 3x3 binning, C Filter, 21 x 1.5s (Av. Median) 2017-11-02,  S603		Previous Master Flat (50% size) 3x3 binning, C Filter, 21 x 1s (Av. Median) 2017-11-02,  S581

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