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FAQ

Can we use Pyra on an offline system?​

Yes. Pyra only requires an internet connection for the installation. Pyra releases from 4.0.8 download astronomical data (until 2053) during installation, so no further internet connection during operation is required.

During Setup, the following error occurs: "executing .ps1 scripts is not allowed due to an ExecutionPolicy"​

This can be solved by running the following command in a PowerShell (credits to https://stackoverflow.com/a/49112322/8255842):

Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope CurrentUser -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted

Pyra Shows a filelock._error.Timeout Exception​

In theory, Pyra may encounter a deadlock when writing and reading state or log files. It is very rare (< once per instrument per 5 years) and mostly self-resolving since Pyra 4.2.1. The error message will say something like this:

filelock._error.Timeout: The file lock 'C:\Users\ga56fem\Downloads\pyra\pyra-4.0.6\config\.state.lock' could not be acquired.

Stopping and restarting Pyra core resolves this error.

note

We are using the Python library filelock to enforce exclusive use of state- and log-files: There should not be two processes simultaneously interacting with one of these files. This semaphore is necessary because Pyra runs many threads accessing these files in parallel.

Pyra Shuts Down The CamTracker Very Frequently​

The config setting config.camtracker.motor_offset_threshold, set to 10 degrees by default, controls the shutdown of CamTracker if it drifts too much.

CamTracker reports its motor's offset from the theoretical sun position every few seconds. When CamTracker has been running for at least 5 minutes, Pyra will check whether that reported offset is greater than the threshold. If so, Pyra will restart the CamTracker because this might mean that the CamTracker has lost the sun and is tracking something else in the sky.

In normal operation, you would see (debug) log lines like this every iteration:

DEBUG - CamTracker motor position is valid

If the motor position is not valid, you will see something like this:

INFO - CamTracker motor position is over threshold.
INFO - Stopping CamTracker. Preparing for reinitialization.

If that restart happens too often for your use case, you can increase this factor - or set it to 360 to disable it completely.

Exception "OPUS HTTP interface did not start within 90 seconds"​

When setting up a new system, it can happen that Pyra cannot connect to OPUS via the HTTP interface.

  1. The first time you start Pyra core, you will be asked to grant it some firewall permissions – in a Windows popup.

  2. After that, it is possible that some other software is using the localhost with a webserver. You have to turn off this other software or move it to another port. Common software being enabled by default: "Microsoft Internet Information Service" and "XAMPP".

The system storage is very full even though there is not much data on it​

Due to the 24/7 operation of the systems, Windows might collect large amounts of temporary files and not remove them on restarts. We cannot influence this behavior but only raise an exception when the system's storage is filled up by more than 90%.

You can use the app TreeSize or its free version TreeSize Free to check where the storage is used.