astroDeviceServer

Goal

This console application enables to drive all astronomical devices connected to the local host. It is a service on Microsoft Windows and a daemon on Linux and Mac OS X. It supports:

• the communication with different devices through:
  • the Universal Serial Bus (USB),
  • the IEEE 1394 interface (or FireWire),
  • the Bluetooth;
• the astronomical algorithms and calculations,
• the image processing,
• the access and update data in the database,
• the listening of requests from client applications through a wired or Wireless network (LAN).

Features

• Detect, recognize, and alert in real-time all device connections.
• Transmit commands from clients to the appropriate device.
• Execute all necessary treatments like:
  • calculations of coordinates,
  • calculations of sidereal time,
  • calculations of telescope alignment,
  • solving of RGB calibration coefficient,
  • image acquisition by a CCD,
  • video acquisition by a camera,
  • RGB processing,
  • all other image processing,
  • auto-focusing,
  • etc...
• Manage the different observing sites (with the piloting of a GPS).

Modules

The modules are libraries for adding functionalities to the application. The module types are:

• the bus modules used for detect connections and disconnections of devices on a bus (USB, FireWire, Bluetooth, etc...),
• the network listener modules used for communicate with the remote or local clients (IIOP, INDI, ASCOM, etc...),
• the DAO module used for access to the database.

The astroDeviceServer application may include several modules of the same type with the exception of the DAO module.

Plug-ins

As for modules, plug-ins are libraries for adding functionalities to the application. These functionalities are related to the device support.

Each astronomical device is supported through a plug-in. This enables to include a new device without modification of astroDeviceServer. Part of the success of astroDevice platform depends on number of supported devices: the plug-in writing must be as simple as possible.

The astronomical device types that the platform can support are:

• the telescope mounts,
• the CCD and cameras,
• the filters wheels,
• the focusers,
• the rotators,
• the domes and roofs,
• the safety monitors.

The astroDeviceServer application can to control several instruments of the same type or even identical. For example, it is possible to control a Hα telescope and another telescope in same time. One exception to this, the GPS is necessarily unique.

Directory tree

The directory tree is as follows:

astroDeviceServer
 |
 |- etc
 |- bin
 |- lib
 |   |
 |   |- external
 |- modules
 |- plugins
 |- log

Projects:

Several projects constitute the astroDeviceServer application:

• astroDeviceServer-core representing the main project.
• astroDevice-common containing all common classes with astroDeviceServer application and client applications.
• astroDeviceServer-plugin containing all common classes with astroDeviceServer application and plug-ins.
• The bus module projects:
  • astroDeviceServer-usb used for integrate the functionalities enabling access to USB devices.
  • astroDeviceServer-ieee1394 used for integrate the functionalities enabling access to FireWire devices.
  • astroDeviceServer-bluetooth used for integrate the functionalities enabling access to bluetooth devices.
• The network listener module projects:
  • astroDeviceServer-iiop used for integrate the astroDevice protocol for communicate with client applications. This protocol is very inspired by the ASCOM platform but uses technology RMI/IIOP instead of COM Automation/ActiveX not portable to other OS than MS Windows.
  • astroDeviceServer-ascom used for integrate the ASCOM protocol for communicate with astronomy softwares under MS Windows.
  • astroDeviceServer-indi used for integrate the INDI protocol for communicate with astronomy softwares under Linux.
• The DAO module project:
  • astroDeviceServer-hibernate used for access to database with Hibernate framework.
• The plug-in project:
  • astroDeviceServer-SyntaPlugin for support the telescope mount using the Synta protocol (Atlas mounts).