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Simple Dome Control

aka the "Ed Henry Dome Controller"

This small application is an extremely simple control panel for doing crude control of an astronomical observatory. A far better option would be to buy a professional solution such as Digital DomeWorks. However, if you really have to do astronomy on a shoestring, then this might work for you.

My application is specific to an off-the-shelf computer-driven relay board called a PICNet controller, manufactured by SinterPhase and was basically written to Ed Henry's specifications (that's why I refer to it as the 'Ed Henry Controller'). Questions about the hardware should be directed to Ed at Clearview Farm Observatory. Using the relay board, which has an RS-232 serial interface, my program can perform the following operations:

• Rotate dome left
• Rotate dome right
• Stop rotation
• Turn on a light in the observatory
• Simulate telescope slaving by pulsing the dome motor for a few seconds

The last item in the list is really the meat of what the program was designed to do. The user must input two values, in seconds. The first value is the idle time, during which the program simply waits. The second value is the length of time to run the motor. The program simply alternates between motor on and motor off, repeatedly, using the user-supplied time intervals. With carefully chosen values and a little experience, telescope synchronization can be maintained for fairly long periods of time.

Download

The program is freeware and can be downloaded here. No source code is available. The program is provided 'as is' without any warranty nor technical support. If you require any modifications to the program (e.g. to work with different interface hardware) then we will be happy to provide an estimate for the work - please visit our Services pages for more information.

Conditions of Use

Use the program with my compliments, on the understanding that there is no support whatsoever. Please do not give copies of the program away - anyone can download it here for free. Anyone wishing to have the program changed is welcome to request my services for custom software development, which will attract a fee. Please do not ask me to make changes to this software for free - I charge a fee for custom development services.

Oh, if you do use the program and you have a web site, please link to this web page or the home page of this site.

Good luck,

Tim Long