What am I doing wrong?

I have come back to POE after several years away and am finding it as great as I ever did but I'm having a problem that I cannot sort, that is getting my map device to accept anything other than maps & scarabs.
First of all I found the device unwilling to accept Maven's invitation after maven had 'stood over' me for three levels (7,8 & 9) of maps when I got to lvl 10, I tried to open a lvl 10 map with the invitation thingy but as soon as I whack it in the 'activate' button dims & I cannot start the map.
I didn't worry too much about that as I figured that lvl 10 may be too low a level.
However today I decided to capture a boss's soul on the lvl 10 'Dig' map by booting up a 'rare' iteration of the map with a divine vessel but the same thing happened as with the invitation, I couldn't activate the device.
The only thing I can think of is that I haven't finished the last part of the uber series of labs.
Is that what it is, that map bosses cannot be captured until all labs have been done? I have picked up a couple of divine vessels in general course of game, so I thought I'd be sweet, but I'm not.
I would like to know as trials are quite thin on the ground and when they do come up a couple of times it has been for trials I've already completed if I'm right about having to have completed uber before being able to capture no prob, just more fun but I would like to know if there's a bug.
thanks

What nodes have you selected on your Atlas skill tree? Check them very carefully, as there is one that disallows using anything apart from Divine Vessels in the map device - Unwavering Vision. But it's probably not that as you say you have used Scarabs. Hmm, puzzling.

As for the Maven Invitations - the green ones that you pick up - you don't need a map to run them, they ARE the map ;)

Uber lab is not necessary for anything apart from the 2 extra Ascendancy points. You don't need to run all of the map trials either, just one to get an Offering.

I'm not sure why you can't use a Divine Vessel with that Dig map - did you put anything else in the map device with it?

Most of these items cannot be opened if you have anything else in the map device. Remove any fragments and scarabs and see if that allows you to open them. Invitations, etc. are like maps but cannot be "modified" with frags/scarabs.

Thanks for your responses. I now get what you are saying about maven's invitation and will try it later.
I am still having a problem with divine vessel which won't activate with a Dig map in rare, magic or plain vanilla. Maybe there's a bug I certainly haven't activated anything on my Atlas map which would preclude it I also tried it on Atlas 2 where I have only activated half a dozen nodes so far and it still doesn't work. It's got me stymied but I will keep plugging away in the hope I can sort it out or someone here may have an insight.

"

UreKismet wrote:

I am still having a problem with divine vessel which won't activate with a Dig map in rare, magic or plain vanilla.

Is the vessel that's in the map device glowing white? If so just right click it and it will update your pantheon.

If not, then you might already have that boss vesseled, double check your pantheon.

OR, that map doesn't have a boss to capture in a vessel.

Those are the only 3 scenarios that I can think of for it to not work.

I have no idea what I was doing incorrectly yesterday. After trying & failing repeatedly yesterday, this morning I went to take a screenshot & it worked!
Whatever it was I did it right today so thanks to everybody for your help & sorry to be so clumsy.