MCMTII
Lien vers la page officielle. MCMTII (Motorisation Compatible Multi Télescope II) est une motorisation de télescope libre. Elle utiliser deux micro-contrôleurs pour commander des moteurs pas-à-pas. Elle offre plusieurs moyens de contrôle : une raquette, une liaison série (RS232) qui sert aussi bien à la configuration et au contrôle total de la motorisation, et enfin une interface compatible SBIG ST-4 pour lautoguidage.
Les versions récentes de la MCMTII (depuis 2011), qui ont subi quelques évolutions depuis la description originelle de la motorisation sur le site officiel, ne fonctionnent qu'avec Windows et le logiciel non-libre PRISM version 7 ou 8, ou bien le driver Ascom. Le logiciel interne de la MCMTII et PRISM sont développés par Alcor System. Le but de cette page est de fournir les ressources qui permettront de contrôler la MCMTII avec des logiciels libres sur des systèmes d'exploitation compatibles POSIX.
Le code source disponible sur la page de téléchargement officielle est assez vieux. Les auteurs ont été assez gentils pour nous donner les versions actuelles utilisées par PRISM (Août 2012). Il y a deux façons de comprendre le protocole série de la MCMTII, en utilisant le code source des deux cotés du lien :
- le code source de la DLL de communication, utilisée par PRISM et le driver Ascom. L'archive contient les sources du programme de configuration de la motorisation, et de la DLL. Voici une copie locale de la version disponible sur le site : version 1.2.3.8.zip. Et voici l'archive de la version courante donnée par les développeurs : version 2012.08.zip. Le code est en langage Delphi pour Windows.
- le code source des micro-contrôleurs, un fichier C, aussi disponible sur le site officiel, et qui est plus facile à lire que le code de la DLL pour comprendre le contenu des paquets du protocole série. Vous trouverez ici une copie locale du fichier fourni sur le site (v2.7.1), et [:File:McmtII_MCU_v2.7.5_source.c|ici]] la version actuelle (v2.7.5, Août 2012).
Implémentation d'une bibliothèque pour système POSIX
Le choix évident serait de développer une bibliothèque (library) portable en C POSIX. Cependant, on doit considérer que le bon choix n'est pas forcément le choix le plus évident, mais le plus utile. Vaut-il mieux écrire une bibliothèque ou une API ? Si c'est une API, en quel langage ? Les logiciels qui utiliseront la bibliothèque doivent être étudiés avant de se lancer dans n'importe quoi.
La couche d'abstraction INDI permet à tout type de dispositif de décrire ses capacité et permet aux programmes utilisateurs de les utiliser sans les connaitre a priori. Cela semble prometteur. Quelques classes de dispositifs standards, comme les télescopes ou les focusers existent déjà, et définissent les interfaces de base qui devraient être fournies par un driver INDI. Évidemment, si un dispositif supporte plus de fonctionnalités que celles décrites dans l'interface standard, le driver INDI peut être étendu. L'interface de guidage] sera probablement utile aussi. Pour la création d'un driver INDI, l'idéal serait de développer une bibliothèque pour la MCMTII, comme ce qui a été fait pour Ascom.
Une interface logicielle de simulation de LX200 pour la MCMTII pourrait être créée. Cela rendrait beaucoup de logiciels existants compatibles avec la motorisation. Cela nécessite toutefois de bien connaitre les deux protocoles.
Le code source de l'implémentation actuelle est stocké dans une base subversion, située à l'adresse https://free-astro.vinvin.tf/svn/MCMTII/ . La base est en lecture seule pour les utilisateurs anonymes ; vous pouvez obtenir un compte (contact) et participer au développement.
Update January 5th, 2013: first live test, serial link connection, basic commands (device ready?, version getting, EEPROM content getting, encoder value getting, slewing order, stop slewing order) confirmed to be operational. GoTo fixing for the INDI Telescope Driver is on the way, using the gathered data.
Update December 2012: a C library has been made to control the MCMTII, called libmcmtii. It supports GoTo and guiding, virtual hand-controller operation, getting and displaying the EEPROM data, getting the version, changing the current guiding speed. It does not support any writing to the EEPROM, using the MCMTII's periodic error correction. Code is on the SVN base.
An INDI Telescope driver has been made for the MCMTII, using libmcmtii. Skychart and XEphem have been tested offline and are able to use the telescope. Code is on the SVN base.
Use in existing GoTo software
Stellarium can interact with mounts in two ways, and for only two functionalities: send GoTo and receive current position. The first way is to establish a direct serial link with the mount, in which case it needs to have a file in the Telescope control plug-in that creates the connection and interacts with the mount. The second way is to use a standalone server that communicates with Stellarium with a simple protocol. In both cases, the code is C++, and a library giving access to MCMTII would be a good start. There is no INDI support in Stellarium.
Cartes du Ciel (skychart), XEphem and KStars use INDI to communicate with the telescopes. There are two issues regarding the default Telescope driver interface: there is no "allow flip" property, or any other flip control way, and the coordinates are given in absolute RA/DEC which need to get converted to local HA/DEC values. A property could be added to control the flip, or the flip can be done automatically on GoTo and not on guiding for example.
XEphem configuration: see the nice documentation. The strings to enter in the configuration window's goto and marker lines are MCMTII Telescope.EQUATORIAL_EOD_COORD.RA and .DEC.
Skychart configuration: put the telescope type to "MCMTII Telescope" in the telescope settings window (and INDI driver interface).
Use in existing Autoguiding software
See the full list of autoguiding software. To sum up, nothing is really working fine right now on Linux for amateur telescope autoguiding.
GoQat establishes a direct serial link with the mount (only the Losmandy Gemini) and opens the camera with the V4L2 or Unicap API. INDI support may be coming soon, for cameras to begin with. Adding support for a new mount will be complicated because lots of things are based on the capabilities of the Gemini mount. Code is C.
OpenPHD Guiding mainly uses INDI to communicate with the telescopic mount and the camera. It also supports V4L2 natively for the camera, but there does not seem to be a native alternative for mounts supported in POSIX systems. Code is C, with a bit of C++.
It should be noted that simply displaying the guiding camera image in VGA format and detecting a star in it already eats 95% CPU in OpenPHD Guiding (because it stacks frames for long exposures if the camera does not support it) and 60% in GoQat, with an AMD64 2.0GHz CPU).
RS232 protocol
The protocol for the serial link is quite simple, based on request-response exchanges.
The first byte is the axis identifier, because there are two micro-controllers in the MCMTII, one for the right-ascension and one for the declination axis. axis_id is `E0' for alpha axis (right ascension), `E1' for delta axis (declination). In the request and response fields of the tables below, values or identifiers represent bytes, and they are separated by commas. PIC is big-endian; most data listed in the requests or replies 2- (or more) byte long must be converted if the computer is little-endian (Intel). Numbers below are in hexadecimal, characters enclosed in quotes mean that's the ASCII value, as in many programming languages. Comments are between parentheses.
There are two main modes of operation of the MCMTII: the guiding mode and the slewing mode. Additionally, there are some specific modes such as the EEPROM update mode and the parking mode, not yet documented here.
- when guiding, the main task is to provide a constant motor rotation rate. It gives priority to the clocks and backgrounds the processing of the serial link. All commands are replied with an ACK even if they are not processed correctly.
- when slewing, the main task is to provide an accurate positioning. It gives priority to steps counting. Only 2-byte serial commands, with the heavyweight bit high (non-ASCII commands), are processed as interruptions. The list of these commands is just below. During the slewing, a specific timer is used to adjust the number of steps to move to, as function of the time spent to slew. Slewing mode is entered when medium or max speed are used (by physical or virtual hand controller or 'p' command).
- when flashing the EEPROM, commands are 16 bytes long.
Below is the table of the three non-ASCII, 2-byte, interrupting commands.
| Command | Request | Response |
|---|---|---|
| device ready | axis_id, FF | 01 (ready, guiding) or 00 (slewing) |
| read encoder | axis_id, F1 + byte number [0..3] (must start with F4, as it copies the value in the 4 byte buffer for subsequent requests) | the requested byte from the int32 value |
| stop slewing (interrupts the positioning loop) | axis_id, F0 | 06 (ACK) or nothing if not in slewing mode |
ASCII commands, 8 bytes, non-interrupting, are structured as follows.
| ASCII command | Response |
|---|---|
| axis_id, {ASCII id}, {4 data bytes}, {heavyweight bits for the 4 previous bytes}, {checksum} | 06 (ACK) or 15 (NOACK, never used), {data} (if response data is available) |
The 5 bytes composed of the identifier and the 4 data bytes are those listed in the tables below. The identifier is the ASCII value of a letter, which are always lower than 7F and thus don't throw interrupts. The 4 data bytes are cut to 7 bit values to prevent interruptions, a 5th byte is added and contains the heavyweight-bit value for these 4 bytes. The last byte is a checksum. Below are lists of ASCII commands, separated in three categories: the list of usual runtime commands, the list of periodic error correction commands, and the list of setup commands.
Bytes from the response buffer are referenced as {i} where i is the ith byte. KING refers to a method for refraction compensation by offsetting the telescope pointing. from SomeFunction indicates in what function of the DLL the command is used.
ASCII commands for basic telescope operation
| Command | Request | Response |
|---|---|---|
| move number of steps at max speed, the slewing command, from TelescopeMoveAxe | 'p', {4 bytes of signed int32 number of steps} | none |
| north or west move max (slewing) speed, from MoveTelescope | 'X', 0, 0, 0, 0 | none |
| north or west move medium (slewing) speed, from MoveTelescope | 'G', 0, 0, 0, 0 | none |
| south or east move max (slewing) speed, from MoveTelescope | 'W', 0, 0, 0, 0 | none |
| south or east move medium (slewing) speed, from MoveTelescope | 'F', 0, 0, 0, 0 | none |
| north or west move min (guiding correction) speed, from MoveTelescope | 'D', 0, 0, 0, 0 | none |
| south or east move min (guiding correction) speed, from MoveTelescope | 'Q', 0, 0, 0, 0 | none |
| stop moving, resume sidereal speed (cancel guiding corrections), from Stop_Telescope | 'S', 0, 0, 0, 0 | none |
| set parking mode (sets internal flag and stops guiding), from STOP_ALL_Telescope | 'P', 0, 0, 0, 0 | none |
| unset parking mode, from ReturnToSideralSpeed | 'N', 0, 0, 0, 0 | none |
| update current guiding (sidereal) speed (or stop moving). Can be done only when sidereal speed is the current speed. The new value is reset to EEPROM's guiding speed when using commands above. from RetrieveData AlphaDelta_Internal |
'R', {3 bytes (same format than 3 first bytes of 'r' reply)}, 1 for guiding direction or 0 for the other direction | none |
ASCII commands for periodic error correction (PEC)
The commands listed below are used when the internal PEC is used. In most cases (in PRISM for example), this code is not used, and the PEC is managed on the computer side by software changing the current guiding speed periodically (see the 'R' command above). The MCMTII's internal PEC records the changes of guiding speed and replays them when activated.
| Command | Request | Response |
|---|---|---|
| get current guiding speed and data for internal PEC, from RetrieveData AlphaDelta_Internal |
'r', 0, 0, 0, 0 | 10 bytes, containing as follows (decimal values): |
| current guiding speed steps per second = 625000 / {3} / 10 + {2} + 256 * {1} | ||
| index PecC (PEC_BASE) = {4} | ||
| Pec step = 256*{5} + {6} | ||
| another step value? 256*{7}+2*{8} | ||
| Pec state 1 = {9} (0: no PEC, 1: PEC activated, 2: PEC recording about to start, 3: PEC recording) | ||
| Park state = {10} (0 or 1) | ||
| activate PEC, from RetrieveData AlphaDelta_Internal |
'L', 2F, activate?1:0, 0, 0 (see setup commands below) | none |
| erase PEC, from RetrieveData AlphaDelta_Internal |
'e', 0, 0, 0, 0 | none |
| save PEC (start recording), from RetrieveData AlphaDelta_Internal |
'E', 0, 0, 0, 0 | none |
ASCII commands for telescope setup
| Command | Request | Response |
|---|---|---|
| read byte from MCMTII's EEPROM | 'J', address, 0, 0, 0 | the_byte from EEPROM |
| read all from MCMTII's EEPROM (setup data) | 'K', 0, 0, 0, 0 | 48 bytes, containing the EEPROM's content as described below |
| saving setup (write to EEPROM) | 'L', address, one or two data bytes (see below) | none |
| get MCMTII's version | 'V', 0, 0, 0, 0 | a string up to 80 characters |
| flash EEPROM (put device in special programming mode) | 'M', 0, 0, 0, 0, followed by data: | none |
| dev_id (initialize transfer) | EB (IDACK) | |
| E3 (WRITEBOOT), address high, address low, length (10), checksum, {10 bytes data} | E7 (DATA_OK), E4 (WOK) (success) | |
| ED (DONE), {whatever?} | E4 (WOK) (success) |
For save setup, ('L' command), there are two bytes read if((address < 11 && address != 2) || address > 47) (decimal values), else, only one. See code of procedure TSetupTelescope.Button_EcrireClick in Setup.pas (from the DLL code) or better, the defines at the beginning of the C code of the microcontroller. Speeds, power, precisions and corrections are set using these commands.
EEPROM content
| Address (dec) | Address (hex) | Content |
|---|---|---|
| {0..2} | {00..02} | guiding speed |
| {3..4} | {03..04} | correction + speed |
| {5..6} | {05..06} | correction - speed |
| {7..8} | {07..08} | slewing low speed |
| {9..10} | {09..0a} | slewing high speed |
| {11} | {0b} | acceleration |
| {12} | {0c} | the direction of guiding |
| {13} | {0d} | the direction of correction + |
| {14} | {0e} | the direction of correction - |
| {15} | {0f} | the direction of slewing low + |
| {16} | {10} | the direction of slewing low - |
| {17} | {11} | the direction of slewing high + |
| {18} | {12} | the direction of slewing high - |
| {19} | {13} | the guiding resolution |
| {20} | {14} | the correction + resolution |
| {21} | {15} | the correction - resolution |
| {22} | {16} | the slewing slow resolution |
| {23} | {17} | the slewing high resolution |
| {24} | {18} | the guiding amperage |
| {25} | {19} | the slewing low amperage |
| {26} | {1a} | the slewing high amperage |
| {28..29} | {1c..1d} | the resolution? |
| {30} | {1e} | first bit is the park mode |
| {47} | {2f} | first bit is PEC enabled |