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--- telescope_and_observatory_control [2024/02/22 01:49] – holtz
+++ telescope_and_observatory_control [2025/05/21 15:20] (current) – holtz
@@ Line 3: / Line 3: @@
 ===== Telescope control system ======
-Telescope is a Planewave PW1000. Software control is through Planewave's PWI4 software. This runs
+Telescope is a Planewave PW1000. It is controlled through the pwi1m computer in the 1m dome, running Windows. pwi1m has two network interfaces. One connects to the telescope internal network on 192.168.10.XXX. pwi1m is 192.168.10.40, the Maestro controller on the telescope is 192.168.10.50, and the OTA controller on the telescope is 192.168.10.60.
-under Windows, and provides a graphical user interface, as well as an ASCOM driver and also a custom
-Planewave HTTP API. This is run from a Windows computer in the dome, pwi1m.
-pwi1m has two network interfaces. One connects to the telescope internal network on 192.168.10.XXX. pwi1m is 192.168.10.40, the Maestro controller on the telescope is 192.168.10.50, and the OTA controller on
+Software control is through Planewave's PWI4 software. This runs  under Windows on pwi1m, and provides a graphical user interface, as well as an ASCOM driver and also a custom Planewave HTTP API.
-the telescope is 192.168.10.60.
-==== Planewave software ====
+Normal telescope control is done remotely through the ASCOM interface, but interacting with PWI4 directly provide additional functionality. In particular, PWI4 incorporates its own pointing model software.
-Normal operation is from a remote Linux host, but the Windows computer that is connected to the PW1000 is
+The telescope ASCOM driver should be registered through ASCOM Remote to make it available through an ASCOM/Alpaca interface.
-accessible via VNC to pwi1m if direct interaction with the telescope system is desired.
-On starting PWI4, devices are controlled from the left panel, which has five tabs: Mount/Focus/Rotate/M3/Temp. You connect to the telescope using the Connect button on the Mount tab, and
+===== Camera control system =====
-you can enable/disable the azimuth and altitude motors. On the Focus tab, you connect to the
-focuser and enable/disable it, and on the Rotate tab, you connect and enable/disable the rotator. On
-the Temp tab, you connect the OTA, which allows you to get temperature monitoring, control fans, etc. The M3 tab is used to position the tertiary to the Nasmyth ports: Port 1 is the port with the rotator and
-focuser.
-{{scope:scope:software:pwi4.png}}
+Acquisition camera is connected to pwi1m via USB. PWI4 has the capability to connect to an ASCOM camera, and this is needed for doing pointing models.
-{{scope:scope:software:mount.png?130}}
+Normal camera control is done remotely through the ASCOM interface. The camera ASCOM driver should be registered through ASCOM Remote to make it available through an ASCOM/Alpaca interface.
-{{scope:scope:software:focus.png?130}}
-{{scope:scope:software:rotate.png?130}}
-{{scope:scope:software:m3.png?130}}
-{{scope:scope:software:temp.png?130}}
-You can slew the telescope using the SkyViewer tab: click on the desired location, then confirm with Goto
+===== Observatory control system ======
-button. You can also just enter coordinates directly on the Goto tab. Tracking should be started after the slew. You can monitor the tracking performance with the Tracking tab. Temperatures can be viewed on the
-Temperature tab. Finally, a camera can be controlled through the Camera tab; you need to select the camera (ASCOM or MaximDL), and then connect to it.
-==== Remote software ====
+==== Dome hardware ====
-Software is implemented so that all devices can be controlled from a single command-line program running on a separate computer, using software in the APOsong repository. Given that all of the devices are on the internal APO network, the main control computer, song1m, is located on this network, and remote operation
+The dome has motorized upper and lower slit sections. Control of the upper slit and dome rotation is done through a custom relay box on the S side of the dome constructed by the Autoscope Corporation; the lower slit is controlled through a box on the N side, designed and constructed by Dave Woods. There is a manual/automatic toggle to allow dome control either through switches on the side of the boxes, or via remote control. Relays to control the dome motors are 24V relays and are activated by setting input control lines to ground. The 24V power is supplied externally. A watchdog is implemented in automatic mode such that +24V needs to be supplied or else dome shutter will automatically close.
-can be done using VNC with an openVPN or tunneling connection. On song1m, the software environment is set up for the song user.
-The control software is run from a Python environment; APOsong provides commands to control telescope, dome, camera etc., but you can also use all regular Python functionality, providing for a powerful environment. Within the APOsong software, interactive image display is enabled using the pyvista display tool and built-in, e.g. for the expose() command, but of course any other Python packages can be used interactively.
+There is an encoder (BEI Motion Systems Optical Encoder E206-1000-3G) coupled to the dome motor drive shaft.
-To access the software:
+There is a magnetic home sensor installed on the E side of the dome; the home position when the magnet on the dome lines up with the sensor places the slit at an azimuth of 80 degrees.
-<code>
+==== Dome control ====
-from aposong import *
-</code>
-==== Robotic software ====
+Dome control is implemented through software running on a Raspberry Pi, dome1m. . The Raspberry Pi has a RELAYPlates card with 7 relays, which control shutter direction, shutter power, dome direction, dome power, and watchdog reset. These relays connect the control lines to ground. The watchdog timer (Peltec) is set to drop power ~4 minutes after input power is turned off; hence, that relay should be triggered by cycling on/off every 3 minutes or so. Better to cycle instead of leaving it on in case some software failure occurs, but leaves relay energized.
+-pin connector J808A : Watchdog (dome box needs +24V or else shutter will close on Automatic)
+| Dome box |         |  Peltec timer | | | |
+| 1        | gnd, white     |    18   |   15 |   gnd | 15 connects to 18 for ~4 minutes after power is dropped between A1 and A2 |
+| 3        | +24V DC, purple |    28   |   25 |  +24V | same for 25 and 18 |
+|          |         |    A1   |   relay 5 | gnd | trigger for relay, must cycle every 3 minutes to keep dome open (but don't leave energized permanently! |
+|          |         |    A2   |  +24V | | same |
-===== Observatory control system ======
+Note that connectors J805A and J0806A, both 4-pin, go to a single 9-pin connector, as originally implemented in Autoscope control box.
-==== Dome hardware ====
+connector J805A : Supplies power and ground to box, and relay for dome power (org yel blu wires)
+|J805A pin | 9 pin connector | function | comment |
+| 4 | 4 | +24V red | voltage always supplied |
+| 3 | 1 | gnd white | ground always supplied
+| 2 | 2 |relay 1 grey | trigger connects pin to ground |
-The dome has motorized upper and lower slit sections. Control of the upper slit and dome rotation is done through a custom relay box on the S side of the dome constructed by the Autoscope Corporation; the lower slit is controlled through a box on the N side, designed and constructed by Dave Woods. There is a manual/automatic toggle to allow dome control either through switches on the side of the boxes, or via remote control. Relays to control the dome motors are 24V relays and are activated by setting input control lines to ground. The 24V power is supplied externally.
+connector J806A : Supplies (redundant?) power and ground to box, and relay for dome direction (brn red grn wires)
+|J806A pin | 9 pin connector| function | comment |
+| 4 | 9 |+24 red | voltage always supplied |
+| 3 | 8 | gnd white | ground always supplied
+| 2 | 7 | relay 3 brown | trigger connects pin to ground |
-There is an encoder coupled to the motor drive shaft.
+connector J807A : Supplies relays for shutter power and direction
+| J807A pin| function | comment |
+| 2 | relay 2 purple | trigger connects pin to ground |
+| 3 | gnd black| ground always supplied |
+| 4 | relay 4 orange | trigger connects pin to ground |
+| 5 | gnd black | ground always supplied |
-There is a magnetic home sensor installed on the E side of the dome; the home position when the magnet on the dome lines up with the sensor places the slit at an azimuth of 80 degrees.
+===== Encoder =====
-==== Dome control ====
+The dome encoder gets +5V and ground from the RPi, and receives 5VDC signals from the A and B phases of the quadrature encoder. These are wired into RPi GPIO ports through a level converter that converts 5V to 3.3V. DC +5 and ground are connected to RPi power, A and B outputs are connected to level shifter input channels; level shifter output channels are connected to RPi GPIO pins. An independent ground from the
-Dome control is implemented through software running on a Raspberry Pi (dome1m). Initial implementation controls dome motors through the Autoscope box with Opto 22 relays, but goal would be to just control the dome relays directly. The Raspberry Pi has a RELAYPlates card with 7 relays, which control shutter direction, shutter power, dome direction, dome power, and watchdog reset. These relays connect the control lines to ground.
-The dome encoder gets +5V and ground from the RPi, and receives 5VDC signals from the A and B phases of the quadrature encoder. These are wired into RPi GPIO ports through a level converter that converts 5V to 3.3V.
-DC +5 and ground are connected to RPi power, A and B outputs are connected to level shifter input channels; level shifter output channels are connected to RPi GPIO pins. An independent ground from the
 cable shield may be very important, do not ignore!
@@ Line 78: / Line 75: @@
 | 8 | A     | 8 | brn | B1 - A1 - GPIO 5 |
 |   | shield| 9 | grey | independent ground |
+===== Home sensor =====
 The home sensor gets +5VDC and ground from the RPi, and receives a signal on a GPIO port that is normally low, but goes high when the home magnet is in proximity to the sensor.S
@@ Line 86: / Line 85: @@
 | grn | +DC   | 4 | red | RPi +5V |
-==== Dome software ====
-Dome control is implemented through software running on a Raspberry Pi (dome1m).
+===== Cabling =====
+  - four-pin AMP to dome box
+  - four-pin AMP to dome box
+  - nine-pin AMP to dome box
+  - four-pin AMP to home sensor
+  - Ethernet cable
+  - power cord for power supply
+  - power cord for Raspberry Pi ?
+  - ground wire
+  - cable for lower dome
+===== Old setup for relays =====
-Low-level functions are implemented in the APOAshDome.py module. An ASCOM Alpaca interface was implemented using the templates from the [[https://github.com/ASCOMInitiative/AlpycaDevice|AlpycaDevice]] package.
+OLD Setup through Autoscope control box, which uses 5V Opto 22 relays.
-Software is archived at [[https://github.com/holtzmanjon/APOAshDome]].
-User account on dome1m is ocs.To run Alpaca device, cd APOAshdome/device, python app.py
+|OCS |RPi |
+|50 grn  | 5 | watchdog |
+|49 Pur  | 7 | |
+|48 org  | 2 | shutter power |
+|47 yel  | 1 | dome power |
+|2  blu  | 6 |  |
+|3  brn  | 4 | shutter direction |
+|4  red  | 3 | dome direction |
+| 42 blk  | gnd | |
+An ASCOM/Alpaca driver was written to provide remote access to the dome control. The driver needs to
+be started when dome1m is rebooted.