problems reporting alt az

[GoogleCodeExporter]

LNA folks have been reporting weird problems when trying to point the scope to 
alt - az.

I am not yet convinced this is a real problem or an operator problem.

Apparently the telescope will go and report correct alt -az IF and ONLY IF it 
has been started correctly.  Right 

[obs@minerva .chimera]$ chimera-tel --info
======================================== 
telescope: /Meade/meade (/dev/ttyS6). 
current position ra/dec: 11:31:30.000 +00:48:01.000 
current position alt/az: +66:39:20.000 +358:08:35.000 
tracking: enabled. 
======================================== 

tried moving the scope to alt=60 az=358

and the scope moved south and PicaPau had to turn it off:

[obs@minerva .chimera]$ chimera-tel --slew --alt 60 --az 358:08:35
======================================== 
current position ra/dec: 11:31:30.000 +00:48:01.000 
current position alt/az: +66:36:31.000 +355:45:06.000 
======================================== 
slewing to +60:00:00.000 +178:08:35.000 (J2000.0)...  OK. 
======================================== 
Something wrong with 'slew' action. 
Traceback (most recent call last):

Note how the slew message says it is moving to AZ=178 instead of AZ=358

New test:

scheduler and webadmin turned off on chimera.config

(well, just found that in spite of my using chimera-admin --shutdown there were 
two instances ofchimera)

starting off from scratch:

same problem: try slewing scope to alt=60 az=358 scope says it is going to 
alt=60 az=178 and ends up moving south and after that moves east

the problem is there and it is really weird

it is not caused by the scheduler,
not caused by webadmin
not caused by the telescope not being correctly initialized

Original issue reported on code.google.com by ankan...@gmail.com on 7 Jun 2010 at 9:54

[GoogleCodeExporter]

chimera-tel --info output is inconsistent:

sometimes it will return RA=DEC=0  when the scope is on the zenith.  I thought 
this could be only when the scope is parked, so I unparked it, asked for info 
and it was fine.  BUT then I parked it again and the info was fine again.

[obs@minerva .chimera]$ chimera-dome --info
======================================== 
Dome: /DomeLNA40cm/dome (/dev/ttyS9). 
Current dome azimuth: +168:00:00.000. 
Current dome mode: Stand. 
Dome slit is closed. 
======================================== 
[obs@minerva .chimera]$ chimera-dome --close
Closing dome slit ...  OK 
[obs@minerva .chimera]$ chimera-tel --info
======================================== 
telescope: /Meade/meade (/dev/ttyS6). 
current position ra/dec: 19:01:28.000 -00:31:01.000 
current position alt/az: +41:32:14.000 +290:45:45.000 
tracking: enabled. 
======================================== 
[obs@minerva .chimera]$ chimera-tel --park
======================================== 
parking ...  OK 
======================================== 
[obs@minerva .chimera]$ chimera-tel --info
======================================== 
telescope: /Meade/meade (/dev/ttyS6). 
current position ra/dec: 00:00:00.000 +00:00:00.000 
current position alt/az: -22:32:04.000 +180:03:50.000 
tracking: disabled. 
======================================== 
[obs@minerva .chimera]$ chimera-tel --start-tracking
======================================== 
starting telescope tracking...  OK 
======================================== 
[obs@minerva .chimera]$ chimera-tel --info
======================================== 
telescope: /Meade/meade (/dev/ttyS6). 
current position ra/dec: 22:00:59.000 -22:32:04.000 
current position alt/az: +89:47:54.000 +269:37:53.000 
tracking: enabled. 
======================================== 
[obs@minerva .chimera]$ chimera-tel --park
======================================== 
parking ...  OK 
======================================== 
[obs@minerva .chimera]$ chimera-tel --info
======================================== 
telescope: /Meade/meade (/dev/ttyS6). 
current position ra/dec: 22:00:59.000 -22:32:04.000 
current position alt/az: +89:40:36.000 +269:43:43.000 
tracking: enabled. 
======================================== 

Original comment by ankan...@gmail.com on 8 Jun 2010 at 7:58

[GoogleCodeExporter]

More in the same family:

shouldn't chimera-tel --park stop tracking???

======================================== 
[obs@minerva .chimera]$ chimera-tel --park
======================================== 
parking ...  OK 
======================================== 
[obs@minerva .chimera]$ chimera-tel --info
======================================== 
telescope: /Meade/meade (/dev/ttyS6). 
current position ra/dec: 22:00:59.000 -22:32:04.000 
current position alt/az: +88:48:29.000 +269:41:50.000 
tracking: enabled. 
======================================== 
[obs@minerva .chimera]$ chimera-tel --stop-tracking
======================================== 
stopping telescope tracking...  OK 
======================================== 
[obs@minerva .chimera]$ chimera-tel --info
======================================== 
telescope: /Meade/meade (/dev/ttyS6). 
current position ra/dec: 00:00:00.000 +00:00:00.000 
current position alt/az: -22:32:04.000 +181:20:20.000 
tracking: disabled. 
======================================== 

Original comment by ankan...@gmail.com on 8 Jun 2010 at 8:00