Документ взят из кэша поисковой машины. Адрес оригинального документа : http://www.astro.louisville.edu/software/xmtel/archive/xmtel-5.2/TELESCOPES Дата изменения: Thu Oct 14 09:21:17 2010 Дата индексирования: Mon Oct 1 21:07:42 2012 Кодировка: Поисковые слова: dark nebula

XmTel is intended for interactive remote telescope operation. It is not
primarily a robotic telescope control system, but rather a "hands-on" remote
telescope interface with a server that permits remote robotic operation.


LX200
=====

XmTel was originally developed to control a Meade LX200 16-inch fork-mounted
telescope. The command set provides for several basic functions that enable
slewing, pointing, fine guiding, and control of the telescope focus, reticle,
and fans. XmTel uses only the basic features of the command set and it should
function equally well for any telescope that uses this interface. It is
essential to have the LX200 hand control initialized for the location and
local time before starting xmtel with this protocol


NexStar
=======

XmTel supports the Celestron NexStar command sets, including auxiliary commands
that access hardware directly. Presently the serial port of the computer should
be connected to the hand controller, not to the "computer" or "PC" port on the
mounting. However, two different command sets are available for this port.

XmTel is actively being used and developed with the Celestron Corrected
Dall-Kirkham C20 telescope. The mounting for this telescope is similar to, but
much more massive than, the CGE Pro series mounting widely available for
11- and 14-inch Schmidt Cassegrains. The extraordinary OTA is now manufactured
by Planewave Instruments as the CDK20.

Any Celestron NexStar telescope should operate with the present version of the
protocol. It has been tested on the C20, the CGE-11, and the GPS-11
alt-azimuth.

The "aux" version, which enables remote, stand alone, startup without use of the
keypad, has only been tested with the the C20. It requires explicitly setting
the gear ratios in software, and these factors will be different on other
telescopes. Some NexStar features of the C20 -- the fan, temperature reading,
and focus control -- are not presently available on other Celestron telescopes.


Software Bisque Paramount
=========================

The Paramount using the MKS controller is supported natively in Linux. However,
the software provided here does not include the proprietary module of routines
needed to commumicate with the mount hardware. See bisque/mks if this is of
interest and contract the developer of RTS2 to obtain the necessary module.

Alternative, TheSkyX and the TheSky Professional Version 6 have options that
enable it to read and write local files. With TheSky running in a VMWare
virtual Windows machine under Linux, xmtel and TheSky can share the information
necessary to enable operation of the Paramount through the xmtel/INDI
interface. Note that this method of using the Paramount requires a licensed
version of the telescope software such as supplied with the mount. In the
current version it also requires "Orchestrate" to enable the scripting
operations.


RC Optical Systems Professional Series Fork Mount
=================================================

A protocol to use this precision encoded mount with a Telescope Control Systems
controller is available on request.


Galil Motion Controls Servo Controller
======================================

We have a telescope system with Galil's industrial DMC-40x0 servo
controllers in use. This controller will operate small or large DC or
AC servo motors in a single- or dual- encoder modes. It is suitable controlling
larger telescopes, and could be used as a high end replacement for the drive
system in commercial telescope mounts. The Galil controller can operate up to
four axes, sense switches or contact closure, and be applied to operate
auxiliary instruments on the telesccope as well. With two servos, power supply,
and controller including built-in motor amplifiers the cost in 2010 was
about $4000 (US).

Our use of the Galil controller in this application is recent and under
development. The driver included here works for a German equaltorial and
can be configured for an equatorial fork. It should also work for an
alt-az mounting with modification.

We intend to add support for a Renishaw absolute encoder subsystem soon.
More information is available on request.


Planewave mounts
================

Coming soon.



John Kielkopf
kielkopf@louisville.edu