n APP Select the software application:
s CTA Turns Continuous acquisition ON (s = 1) or OFF ( s = 0). At Cassegrain, the whole field is read out, at UES, those fibres selected are read out.
nfib int ncent CEN Reads the fibre nfib ncent times, centroids the image to provide the centroid, fwhm average & fwhm variance. Available only at Autofib.
x y CUR Places a cursor at x,y on the ccd image.
n FLD Acquire a full frame field from the current CCD, and search for n stars within the acquisition window ( or within the fibre windows at UES ) Enter the resulting stars into the autoguider starlog.
s GUI Start/Stop the Guiding loop. s=0 to stop and s=1 to start.
n GLP Set the number of guide star centroid positions to be averaged in the error signal sent to the TCS. Not yet implemented in the D-task.
n HED Select the CCD controller to get data from.
t INT Set the integration time to t mS.
n LOG Sets the number of stars returned by the network LOG command.
n MAG Sets the effective neutral density of the current filter in the CCD light path to calibrate the star magnitude data.
x1 y1 x2 y2 SAW Sets the acquisition window where stars are logged to a rectangle with bottom left corner (x1,y1) and top right (x2,y2).
n SEL Selects a star from the star log to guide with. At UES, adds a fibre to the list of those to display. 0 SEL clears the list of selected fibres.
SH-LOG Displays the current Star log data.
n SPB Selects one of the fibres of the autofib instrument. 0=fixed, 1=mobile. The next FIELD command will look in the area defined by this fibre for stars.
STA Resets the statistics data buffer.
s- s+ ns dm- dm+ ndm b TOL Sets Tolerances for seeing, magnitude and CCD border detection.
x0 y0 WMO Moves the tracking window to new absolute co-ordinates.
n WSZ Changes the tracking window to n pixels square
7.2. Autoguider Network commands
The network command are defined in the accompanying document WHT-AUTO-1, and have the the same syntax as the Engineering versions listed above. The Autoguider can be exercised
wihtout the network by selecting the network vocabulary with NETWORK then entering each
command as necessary. Each command has its appropriate status routine with the three digit name prefixed by a query, thus ?WSZ will return the window size status information on the stack.
ACQUIRE ON / OFF
DESCRIPTION
ACQUIRE ON and ACQUIRE OFF Are high level commands which turn on and off continuous acquisition. At UES, this repeatedly intgrates and displays either one or more fibres. At Cassegrain, the full frame of the CCDis read out. The field acquisition integration time is used and the fibres are selected with AGSTAR. This command is a shroud for CTA.
Acquire itself sets the command-type to #acq-type for ON to interpret and call ACQUIRE-ON or ACQUIRE-OFF. As a result entering OFF on its own will cancel the last action, though there is no interlock with the lower level network commands.
CALLING PARAMETERS
ON or OFF after the word.
RETURN VALUES
None - errors are printed on the screen.
RESTRICTIONS
This command cannot be used while any of the interlocked commands AGSTAR FIELD GUIDE ACQ APP or HED are active.
EXAMPLE
AUTOGUIDER> ACQUIRE ON
AUTOGUIDER>
SEE ALSO
AGSTAR FIELD GUIDE ON OFF CTA
ACQWIND [ x1 y1 x2 y2 ]
DESCRIPTION
ACQWIND is a high level command which specifies the acquisition window to be used in the next FIELD. This defines the area on the CCD where guide stars are searched for. Default parameters are used if none are given.
CALLING PARAMETERS
x1 y1 The coordinates of the bottom left hand corner of the acquisition window.
x2 y2 The coordinates of the top right hand corner of the acquisition window.
11 <= x1,x2 < = 396 0 < y1,y2 < 278
INITIAL/DEFAULT VALUE
x1 = 32 , y1 = 20 , x2 = 374 , y2 = 276
RETURN VALUES
None
RESTRICTIONS
The bottom left hand corner must be below and left of the top right hand corner.
Until the new D-task version is used, the FIELD command will overwrite the parameters set up with this command.
EXAMPLE
AUTOGUIDER> ACQWIND 1 2 3 4 Parameter error: number limits: 12 , 394 error in x1 argument
AUTOGUIDER> ACQWIND 40 40 200 200
AUTOGUIDER>
ADD COARSE/FINE/SLIT
DESCRIPTION
ADD is used at UES to add a window to the display list. This causes the specified window to be display but not used in the centroiding process for guiding. The first window specified with either the ADD or the SELECT command is used as the guide window. The results of this command affect both the guide and acquire loops.
CALLING PARAMETERS
COARSE or FINE or SLIT after the word.
RETURN VALUES
None - errors are printed on the screen.
RESTRICTIONS
None.
EXAMPLE
AUTOGUIDER>SELECT COARSE
AUTOGUIDER>ADD SLIT
AUTOGUIDER>GUIDE ON
SEE ALSO
SELECT GUIDE ACQUIRE
APP-STATUS
DESCRIPTION
APP-STATUS is a high level diagnostic routine which displays the current state of the CCD controller/Application interface. It displays which application, focal station serial port fibre header code and CCD controller virtual head are in use. It is called when APP and HED are used from the engineering terminal. It can be useful when setting up a particular non-standard hardware setup, for example during commissioning tests.
Application:
How the software interprets the CCD data - fibres vs tracking windows etc - selected with the APP command.
Focus:
Which focal station has been selected with the HED command
Port
Which serial port is being used to communicate with the CCD controller.
Header
Which Fibre header is being used to identify the CCD data in the FOX rack by the DICI card.
Head
Which Virtual head in the CCD controller is being addressed with CCD commands. - N.B only head 1 is currently supported. by the CCD controller software. The autoguider maintains a table of the Focal station/virtual head relationships.
CALLING PARAMETERS
None.
INITIAL/DEFAULT VALUE
None
RETURN VALUES
See example
RESTRICTIONS
None.
EXAMPLE
AUTOGUIDER> APP-STATUS
Port Focus Header Application Head
Cass Cass Cass Cass 1
AUTOGUIDER>
SEE ALSO
APP HED
AF2
AUTOFIB
DESCRIPTION
AUTOFIB or AF2 is a high level user command. This runs a procedure which uses the common command set command APP and HED to selecte the Prime focus CCD controller and the Autofib Application. This is intended for use with the AutoFib instrument. Two fibres are imaged onto the CCD. A Mobile probe attached to the robotic positioner and a Fixed probe, attached to a conventional probe at the edge of the field. During calibration, the Autoguider is expected to calculate averaged centroids of a the star image from one of the fibres. This can be done whilst guiding on the other fibre. Either fibre can be used to guide with and either fibre can be used for the centroiding process. While centroiding, the guide loop ( if active) is temporarily suspended. The TCS should not drop out of AUTOGUIDE during this process. Each probe can be selected, and the results of a FIELD command is entered into a starlog associated with that fibre.
CALLING PARAMETERS
None.
INITIAL/DEFAULT VALUE
None.
RETURN VALUES
None.
RESTRICTIONS
None.
EXAMPLE
SEE ALSO
A
AUTOGUIDE [ ON n ]
DESCRIPTION
AUTOGUIDE is a high level user command in the USER-VOC vocabulary which automates the process of finding a guide star and starting to guide on it. A default field acquisition is done with the default parameters and then , if no star rank is given, the brightest star found in the standard search window. This star is then used in the guide loop. If no guide star is found, the guiding loop will not be entered. Whatever action the autoguider in currently undergoing is terminated cleanly before this command starts. A full field is always acquired. At UES, the brightest light source from each of the three fibres is used to determine which fibre to guide from. The optional parameters ON n may be added to the command line, when an attempt to select the given star from the starlog will be made before starting to guide.
CALLING PARAMETERS
ON n where n is the rank of the star to be used for guiding.
INITIAL/DEFAULT VALUE
All default values are used, including for the CCD controller selection. If the ON parameter is not used then the brightest star is chosen.
RETURN VALUES
None
RESTRICTIONS
None.
EXAMPLE
SEE ALSO
ACQINT ACQUIRE ACQWIND FIELD GUIDE GUIINT GUISIZE GUIWIND GUILOOPS
CASSEGRAIN
CASS
DESCRIPTION
CASSEGRAIN changes the application and the focal station to the Cassegrain system .
CALLING PARAMETERS
None.
INITIAL/DEFAULT VALUE
None
RETURN VALUES
None
RESTRICTIONS
This command cannot be used whilst other high level commands are running. The commands that are interlocked are: CASSEGRAIN UES PRIME AUTOFIB APP HED SELECT SEL FIELD FLD GUIDE GUI ACQ-ON ACQ-OFF CTA.
EXAMPLE
ok
CASSEGRAIN
Port Focus Header Application Head
Cass Cass Cass Cass 1
ok
ok
CASSEGRAIN Cass CCD Controller not responding !
ok
SEE ALSO
UES PRIME AUTOFIB APP HED
CCD-STATUS
DESCRIPTION
CCD-STATUS prints a summary of the CCD controller link status on the engineering
terminal. Information is only returned for the current CCD controller. Information displayed about internal CCD controller variables is taken from a local mimic variable, not from the controller itself. To initialise a CCD controller, select that focal station.
CALLING PARAMETERS
None.
INITIAL/DEFAULT VALUE
None.
RETURN VALUES
None.
RESTRICTIONS
None.
EXAMPLE
AUTOGUIDER>ccd-status
HEAD : Prime
status : NO REPLY
interlock : 0 0
timeout count : 0
HUNG FLAG : ok
timeout length: 5000 mS
cont readout : OFF
int time : 0 mS
dly time : 0 mS
Window mode : Full
AUTOGUIDER>
SEE ALSO
.CONTROLLERS CASS UES PRIME AUTOFIB
ENGINEER
DESCRIPTION
ENGINEER Allows access to the full range of forth definitions for the autoguider source code and other modules within the system. All engineering functions become available. use OBSERVER to reseal the vocabulary search path to only those command normally used. Working in the ENGINEER mode is NOT recommended for normal use, mistyping a command could have drastic effects. For this reason, all the normal engineering commands, such as RT, ?NET etc have been included in the sealed vocabulary.
CALLING PARAMETERS
None.
INITIAL/DEFAULT VALUE
None.
RETURN VALUES
None.
RESTRICTIONS
None.
EXAMPLE
AUTOGUIDER>engineer type OBSERVER to seal vocabulary again
AUTOGUIDER>
SEE ALSO
OBSERVER
n EXPOSURE
DESCRIPTION
EXPOSURE is one of the few real FORTH words in the sealed vocabulary. It clears the CCD, integrates for n milliseconds then reads and displays the full CCD frame. No processing is done to
the CCD image data other that displaying in false colour. The VME system times the integration, so the actual exposure time may have a slight error, due to serial line transmission delays, though this is not thought to be significant. The actual minimum exposure time has not been empirically measured.
CALLING PARAMETERS
n where n is theintegration time. Operation is undefined if n < 0
INITIAL/DEFAULT VALUE
0 - The actual exposure time is probably around 20 mS.
RETURN VALUES
None
RESTRICTIONS
A stack error will result if no parameter is given, or the garbage on the top of the stack will be used.
EXAMPLE
AUTOGUIDER> 0 EXPOSURE
AUTOGUIDER>
SEE ALSO
FIELD ACQUIRE
DARK-PATTERNS
DESCRIPTION
DARK-PATTERNS averages ten frames of both 0 and 10 second exposure times. These averaged frames are stored on the Quantum hard disk. There is one set for each camera head: Cass, UES, Prime AND Autofib. From these two dark current frames is calculated the dark current associated with any given integration time. The routine SCALED-DARK will produce a scaled dark current frame on the stack. During use, a copy of the scaled dark current frame for the current integration time is kept in Data collection area #1 for easy access.
When creating dark current frames using this command, make sure that the camera head is not illuminated at all. Choose a head and run dark-patterns. This is all that is needed to update the dark frames. The dark frames are dependent on the chip temperature and thus need to be updated when this changes.
With the current system of leaving the Peltier controllers on continuously; the temperature of the CCD in the head varies with the temperature of the atmosphere. This means that the dark current returned from the chip will vary. Thus the stored dark current frames will need to be updated regularly, say each month to cope with seasonal variations in the ambient temperature.
CALLING PARAMETERS
None.
INITIAL/DEFAULT VALUE
None.
RETURN VALUES
None.
RESTRICTIONS
Only the currently selected Camera head is read out and only its dark current frames are updated.
EXAMPLE
AUTOGUIDER> 1000 EXPOSURE
AOTOGUIDER>
SEE ALSO
EXPOSURE
FIELD [ n ]
DESCRIPTION
FIELD is a high level user command which calls AG-FLD via FLD in a background task. It does a full frame exposure of the CCD, exposing it for the time set with the ACQINT command. Then, n stars are searched for within the acquisition window within the CCD image. The coordinates and magnitudes of these stars are entered into a log which can be viewed with the STARLOG command. The brightest star is selected for guiding on. If no parameters are given, the defaults are used.
CALLING PARAMETERS
n The number of stars to search for. 1 < = n < =8
INITIAL/DEFAULT VALUE
n=1
RETURN VALUES
None
RESTRICTIONS
The CCD has to be cooled to obtain a sensible image without saturation from excessive dark current. If the CCD is above -20 degrees C then a warning message will be issued.
EXAMPLE
ok
FIELD 1
star xmax ymax signal
1 61 137 37880 <--
2 0 0 0
3 0 0 0
4 0 0 0
5 0 0 0
6 0 0 0
7 0 0 0
8 0 0 0
ok
SEE ALSO
AUTOGUIDE ACQWIND ACQINT AUTOFIB CASSEGRAIN GUIDE PRIME UES
GUIDE ON [ n ] / OFF
DESCRIPTION
GUIDE ON and GUIDE OFF call GUI to start or stop guiding.
GUIDE ON n selects the nth star with SEL and then starts guiding.
At Cassegrain and Prime, the small tracking window is read out from the CCD repeatedly, the image centroided to provide an error signal. This error, relative to the centroid found during the field acquisition is output to the TCS every n loops where n is set by the GUILOOPS command. The tracking window stars at the position set up when the guide star was selected from the starlog with the AGSTAR command. The GUIWIND command can be used to manually set the tracking window to a predefined position before guiding is started, or during guiding. The size of the guide tracking window can be varied with the GUISIZE command, if seeing conditions are bad. If the telescope rotator is switched off, for some reason, the guide star will track across the CCD image and the tracking window will follow it. If the tracking window nearly reaches the edge of the CCD or fibre, the loop will terminate with error status.
At UES, one or more of the fibre windows is read out, typically the slit or the slit and the Coarse fibre. The fibre selected, as opposed to added to the list, is centroided and ths error signal send to the TCS. This allows for both on axis guiding and Off axis guiding. The fibre windows are fixed and do not track the guide star across the CCD.
At Autofib, one Fibre will be read out and guided on, with a small tracking window. The Probe fibre will be integrated on demand and the centroids of stars in the window calculated whilst the guide loop is running. This is not yet fully implemented.
Guide itself sets the command-type to #gui-type for ON to interpret and call GUIDE-ON or GUIDE-OFF. As a result entering OFF on its own will cancel the last action, though there is no interlock with the lower level network commands.
CALLING PARAMETERS
ON or OFF after the word, or ON n to select a star from the starlog first.
INITIAL/DEFAULT VALUE
Off, brightest star selected by FIELD and SELECT.
RETURN VALUES
None.
RESTRICTIONS
A valid guide star, or fibre, must have been set up with the FIELD and possibly the SELECT commands.
The guide loop time is approxmately 0.2 seconds greater than the guide integration time due to CCD controller overheads. The time taken to display the tracking window is a function of how large it is. The Autoguider system may not be able to display large windows in the time available. Thus the observed loop time may differ significantly from the integration time. The two will be independent in later versions.
This command cannot be used whilst other high level commands are running. The commands that are interlocked are: CASSEGRAIN UES PRIME AUTOFIB APP HED SELECT FIELD GUIDE GUI ACQUIRE.
There is a border defined round the edge of the CCD with the TOL command. If the tracking window is moved into this border area either by tracking a star or with the GIUWIND command, the loop will terminate with error status and an GUI802 network message will be output. At Prime, this border is defined from the outside of the fibre window.
EXAMPLE
ok
GUIDE ON
ok
ok
GUIDE ON Less than n stars in window !
ok
SEE ALSO
ACQUIRE FIELD SELECT GUIINT GUISIZE GUILOOPS
GUILOOPS [ n ]
DESCRIPTION
GUILOOPS is a high level user command which sets the number of integrations whose mean centroid error signal is sent to the TCS on the direct link.
CALLING PARAMETERS
n Number of integrations to average. 1 <= n < 100
INITIAL/DEFAULT VALUE
1
RETURN VALUES
None
RESTRICTIONS
None.
EXAMPLE
AUTOGUIDER> GUILOOPS 123 Parameter error: number limits: 1 , 100
USAGE: GUILOOPS [ #loops ]
AUTOGUIDER> GUILOOPS 5
AUTOGUIDER>
SEE ALSO
GUIDE SETINT GUISIZE GUIWIND
GUISIZE [ n ]
DESCRIPTION
GUISIZE is a high level command which sets the guide window size. It can be used whether the guiding loop is on or off. The guide loop will be temnporarily suspended while this command is running
CALLING PARAMETERS
n The window size in pixels. 1 < n < 100 The default value is used if no parameter is given. If the new window would overlap the bottom or left hand edge of the CCD, the window is shifted to have its bottom left corner at (0,0)
INITIAL/DEFAULT VALUE
15 pixels square.
RETURN VALUES
None
RESTRICTIONS
At UES, the window sizes are defined by the fibre sizes, and the guide window size is fixed.
EXAMPLE
AUTOGUIDER> GUISIZE 30
AUTOGUIDER>
SEE ALSO
GUIDE SELECT FIELD
GUIWIND [ x y ]
DESCRIPTION
GUIWIND Sets the position of the tracking window to the given centre coordinates. This can be used to manually move the window during guiding, so as to acquire a new guide star when the telescope is moved by an accurately known amount. It can also be used when not guiding, to start guiding at a predefined position. The WMO routine is used to do the work. At the engineering terminal, the new window position is printed, though the origin and size are given, not the centre and size.
CALLING PARAMETERS
x y Centre of window in CCD pixel coordinates. 11 <= x <= 396, 0 < y < 279
INITIAL/DEFAULT VALUE
(200,144) or the coordinates of the currently selected star.
RETURN VALUES
None
RESTRICTIONS
If the window is moved into the border region defined with the TOL command, the guide loop will exit with error status.
EXAMPLE
AUTOGUIDER> GUIWIND 123 234
AUTOGUIDER> GUIWIND 0 0 Parameter error: number limits: 20 , 380 for X
AUTOGUIDER> GUIWIND 40 1000 Parameter error: number limits: 20 , 278 for Y
AUTOGUIDER>
SEE ALSO
FIELD SELECT GUIDE GUISIZE
HELP
DESCRIPTION
HELP on its own gives an index of headings with firther information about high level autoguider commands. A command such as HELP GUIDE will give the help screen for the guide command only. The help text varies with the current Application.
CALLING PARAMETERS
None.
INITIAL/DEFAULT VALUE
None
RETURN VALUES
None
IDLE
DESCRIPTION
IDLE is a useful command which stops the current mode ( if possible). If the acquire loop is running, it is stopped. If the Guide loop is running, it is stopped. This is not expected to be used in normal use.
CALLING PARAMETERS
None.
INITIAL/DEFAULT VALUE
None.
RETURN VALUES
None.
RESTRICTIONS
None.
EXAMPLE
AUTOGUIDER>idle
AUTOGUIDER>
SEE ALSO
ACQUIRE GUIDE
INIT-DISP
DESCRIPTION
INIT-DISP completely redraws the Autoguider display. The current values of the variables containing Seeing, Magnitude Relative transparency, etc will be read out.
CALLING PARAMETERS
None.
INITIAL/DEFAULT VALUE
None
RETURN VALUES
None
RESTRICTIONS
The CCD temperature may be up to 20 seconds out of date.
If the display task has stalled or been stopped, then this command will have no effect. In this case try ENGINEER then DISP-KO then INIT-DISP which should restart the display task and redraw the screen.
The CCD head is sometimes not cleared properly when being redrawn. This is a bug in the opal display driver.
EXAMPLE
AUTOGUIDER> ENGINEER type OBSERVER to seal vocabulary again
AUTOGUIDER> DISP-KO
DISP-TASK TASK ABORTED >>
AUTOGUIDER> INIT-DISP
AUTOGUIDER> OBSERVER sealing up the vocabulary
AUTOGUIDER>
INTERLOCKS
DESCRIPTION
INTERLOCKS displays debugging information about various bits of the software tasks. Command status indocates whether the guide or acquire loops are active. Follow mode is a mechanism to implement a form of standard error stream which can display output from background tasks. tw-status shows where the tracking window task is in its process. dt-status shows what the display task is doing. ccd-sync-tag synchronises the image reception from DICI with other tasks. disp-track tag synchronises the displat task with the centroid task. ccd-view tag synchronises the display of centroid parameters with the centroid process. CCD timeout shows whether the CCD controller accepted the last command sent to it or not. The display command buffer contains the queue of message tokens to the display task.
CALLING PARAMETERS
None.
INITIAL/DEFAULT VALUE
None.
RETURN VALUES
None
RESTRICTIONS
None.
EXAMPLE
AUTOGUIDER>interlocks
command status: idle
follow mode -1
tw-status 0
dt-status 0
ccd-sync-tag 0
disp-track-tag 0
ccd-view-tag 0
ccd-timeout 0
display command buffer :
start FF162936
input FF16293B
output FF16293B
end FF162945
FF162936 01 13 0A 13 13 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ________ ________
AUTOGUIDER>
SEE ALSO
A
KILL-TRACK
DESCRIPTION
KILL-TRACK stops the guide or acquire loops without any attempt at synchronisation. The tasks are killed and action taken to restore the ccd controller interface to a sane state. It is useful for the few occasions when the system fails to respond to the GUIDE OFF or ACQUIRE OFF commands. The software is getting more reliable, and this command is rarely needed.
CALLING PARAMETERS
None.
INITIAL/DEFAULT VALUE
None.
RETURN VALUES
None.
RESTRICTIONS
This may take a long time to timeout if the CCD controller has crashed or hung.
EXAMPLE
AUTOGUIDER>kill-track
AUTOGUIDER>
SEE ALSO
IDLE ACQUIRE GUIDE
MARK [ x y ]
DESCRIPTION
MARK places a cursor onto the display at CCD coordinates ( x,y) . If the coordinates are 0,0 then the cursor is placed at (0,0) but not displayed, ie turned off.
CALLING PARAMETERS
x CCD x coordinate 0 <= x < 400
y CCD y coordinate 0<= y < 288
INITIAL/DEFAULT VALUE
(0,0)
RETURN VALUES
None.
RESTRICTIONS
None.
EXAMPLE
AUTOGUIDER>mark 0 0
AUTOGUIDER>
SEE ALSO
PCENT INIT-DISP
MESSAGES
DESCRIPTION
MESSAGES is an alias for MB-TYPE, which prints out all of the messages in the message queue from background tasks. These can be used to follow the software through its routines. For an example of this commands output, type ENGINEER FOLLOW-ON FIELD FOLLOW-OFF SEALED to see what happend with the field command.
CALLING PARAMETERS
None.
INITIAL/DEFAULT VALUE
None.
RETURN VALUES
None.
RESTRICTIONS
None.
EXAMPLE
SEE ALSO
( In the source code )
MON-MB MB-TYPE FOLLOW-ON FOLLOW-OFF FTEXT .FTEXT
OBSERVER
DESCRIPTION
OBSERVER turns off engineering mode. The forth vocabulary search path is limited to the SEALED vocabulary. Only those commands used in normal autoguider operation are available. This is expected to be the normal way to use the autoguider. To turn on engineering mode type ENGINEER.
CALLING PARAMETERS
None.
INITIAL/DEFAULT VALUE
None.
RETURN VALUES
None.
RESTRICTIONS
None.
EXAMPLE
AUTOGUIDER>observer sealing up the vocabulary
AUTOGUIDER>
AUTOGUIDER>
SEE ALSO
ENGINEER
PCENT [ nfib Tint ncent ]
DESCRIPTION
PCENT is a command designed for use with the AutoFib instrument. It calculates the average of several centroid estimates from one of the Autofib fibres. Statistics of the centroiding process are displayed on the engineering terminal. If the star signal was too low for a reliable centroid, then the returned centroid has the coordinates (0,0). This can be used with the MARK command to calibrate telescope pointing errors. If the guide loop or the acquire loop is active, it is temporarily suspended during the operation of this command.
CALLING PARAMETERS
nfib - Fibre to read out from CCD
0= fixed fibre ( Autoguider probe )
1= mobile fibre ( robot )
Tint - Integration time for these exposures, 50 < tint < 50000
ncent - Number of centroids to average, 1 < ncent < 100
INITIAL/DEFAULT VALUE
If no parameters are given, nfib=1, Tint=1000 and ncent = 1 will be used.
RETURN VALUES
Displayed on the engineering terminal is the following:
ccdX averaged x centroid, in 1/10 pixel
ccdY averaged y centroid, in 1/10 pixel
magnitude averaged stellar magnitude, to 2 d.p corrected for current ND filter
fwhm averaged seeing value of star profile in 1/10 arcSecond
#samples number averaged over.
int-time integration time for these calculations.
RESTRICTIONS
Either all the parameters or none should be given.
Beware of requesting the average of many centroids with long integration times, the resulting delay between guide packets to the TCS may cause unacceptable telescope drift during the centroiding process.
The ND value used in the magnitude calculations is not currently updated by the instrument computer when the filter wheel is changed.
EXAMPLE
AUTOGUIDER>PCENT
Probe used: fixed
ccdX ccdY magnitude fwhm #samples int-time
455 542 1024 75 1 1000
AUTOGUIDER>
SEE ALSO
MARK FIELD GUIDE ACQUIRE SELECT
PRIME
DESCRIPTION
PRIME changes the application and the focal station to use Prime Focus.
CALLING PARAMETERS
None.
INITIAL/DEFAULT VALUE
None
RETURN VALUES
None
RESTRICTIONS
This command cannot be used whilst other high level commands are running. The commands that are interlocked are: CASSEGRAIN UES PRIME AUTOFIB APP HED SELECT SEL FIELD FLD GUIDE GUI ACQ-ON ACQ-OFF CTA.
EXAMPLE
AUTOGUIDER> PRIME
Port Focus Header Application Head
Prime Prime Prime Prime 1
AUTOGUIDER>
SEE ALSO
CASSEGRAIN UES AUTOFIB APP HED
RT [ ON n ]
DESCRIPTION
RT Prints the utility network recieve table. This is useful for debugging network operation.
CALLING PARAMETERS
None.
INITIAL/DEFAULT VALUE
None.
RETURN VALUES
None.
RESTRICTIONS
None.
EXAMPLE
No meaningful example text available at the time of writing.
SEE ALSO
TT ?NET
RUN-DEVELOPMENT
DESCRIPTION
RUN-DEVELOPMENT edits one of the load blocks to cause this system, version 3.3.0 to be loaded after a reset. To change between versions. enter RUN-DEVELOPMENT or RUN-RELEASED then reset the Autoguider VME rack. Make sure that you reset the correct rack or you will get a lot of complaints from others in the control room. The reset switch is the bottom switch on the left hand board in the rack.
CALLING PARAMETERS
None.
INITIAL/DEFAULT VALUE
None.
RETURN VALUES
None.
RESTRICTIONS
Only takes effect the next time the software is loaded.
EXAMPLE
SEE ALSO
RUN-RELEASED
RUN-RELEASED
DESCRIPTION
RUN-RELEASED edits one of the load blocks to cause the previous ( 3.2.1 ? ) system to be loaded after a reset. To change between versions. enter RUN-DEVELOPMENT or RUN-RELEASED then reset the Autoguider VME rack. Make sure that you reset the correct rack or you will get a lot of complaints from others in the control room. The reset switch is the bottom switch on the left hand board in the rack.
CALLING PARAMETERS
None.
INITIAL/DEFAULT VALUE
None.
RETURN VALUES
None.
RESTRICTIONS
Only takes effect the next time the software is loaded.
EXAMPLE
SEE ALSO
RUN-DEVELOPMENT
SELECT
SELECT COARSE
SELECT FINE
SELECT SLIT
SELECT STAR n
SELECT PROBE n
DESCRIPTION
SELECT STAR n Normally chooses a star from the starlog to use for guiding. The tracking window will be centred on the star when guiding begins. The entry given must be valid, and have non zero magnitude.
SELECT PROBE n At Autofib, this command choses which fibre is searched for stars during the FIELD command. It is not available at other focal stations.
SELECT COARSE/FINE/SLIT At UES, there is no starlog as such. Instead, there is a display list of fibres. The fibre to be displayed, or used for guiding is chosen with the SELECT command, for example SELECT COARSE. Additional fibres for display only can be chosen with the ADD command.
CALLING PARAMETERS
UES: COARSE / FINE / SLIT
Cassegrain & Prime: STAR n 1 <= n ,= 8
Autofib STAR n 1 < = n <= 8 or 11 < n <= 18
PROBE n 0 <= n <= 1
INITIAL/DEFAULT VALUE
Cassegrain: 1
UES: none selected. The slit will always be displayed when guiding.
Prime: star 1
Autofib: star 1, probe 0 ( fixed )
RESTRICTIONS
None.
EXAMPLE
AUTOGUIDER> SELECT STAR 1
AUTOGUIDER> SELECT STAR 9 Parameter error: number limits: 1 , 8
AUTOGUIDER> SELECT STAR 2 less than n stars in star log
AUTOGUIDER>
SEE ALSO
ADD ACQUIRE GUIDE FIELD
SETINT [ n ]
DESCRIPTION
SETINT is a high level version of the INT command. It inserts default parameter of 1 second if the stack is empty and calls INT which in turn calls AG-INT to change the integration time and report any error status which is returned. The Acquisition integration time is used for field acquisitions and also in the contiuous acquisition loop. It can be used whether the continuous acquisition loop is running or not. An Appropriate delay is set if a loop is running.
CALLING PARAMETERS
n - Integration time in milliseconds
INITIAL/DEFAULT VALUE
1000
RETURN VALUES
None
RESTRICTIONS
Limits are 50 to 50000 ( 50 seconds ).
EXAMPLE
AUTOGUIDER> SETINT 5 Parameter error: number limits: 100 , 50000
USAGE: SETINT [ n ] ( n in mS )
AUTOGUIDER> SETINT 1500
AUTOGUIDER>
STARLOG [ n ]
DESCRIPTION
STARLOG is a high level command which displays the log of stars found in the field acquisition window. These stars ar ranked in order of brightness. At the engineering terminal, the magnitudes are displayed in adu's, as received from the CCD controller, along with the local sky backgound level.
Note that when AutoFib is integrated into the autoguider operation, the star log will have two parts, one for the guide fibre and one for the probe fibre, showing the results of two different acquisitions.
CALLING PARAMETERS
n The number of stars to show, 1<= n <= 8.
INITIAL/DEFAULT VALUE
8
RETURN VALUES
None
RESTRICTIONS
At the engineering terminal, all 8 stars are always displayed.
EXAMPLE
STARLOG
SEE ALSO
FIELD GUIDE AUTOGUIDE
SHUT-DOWN
DESCRIPTION
SHUT-DOWN Prepares the system for shutting down by raising the temperature of the CCD chips to above freezing, to avoid Ice crystals forming on the surface of the CCD if moist air were to get into the enclosure.
With the new Nitrogen Flushing rate monitoring system the need for this command will disappear, and the chips will be permanently cooled, unless the flow rate is too low, when they will automatically be allowed to warm up. The Nitrogen flow status can be seen from the engineering terminal with the command .FLOW
CALLING PARAMETERS
None.
INITIAL/DEFAULT VALUE
None
RETURN VALUES
None
RESTRICTIONS
None.
EXAMPLE
AUTOGUIDER> SHUT-DOWN
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* WARMING Cass CCD CHIP TO ABOVE ZERO DEGREES *
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START-UP
DESCRIPTION
START-UP Cools the CCD chips in the autoguider system down to their operating temperature with a command to the individual CCD controller. Each of the Autoguider CCD chips on the telescope is cooled to approximately -35 degrees Celsius at which point the dark current becomes useable.
At this temperature, there is a real danger of Ice crystals forming on the surface of the CCD if any moisture is allowwed to enter the CCD Peltier enclosure. This would shorten the life of the CCD to a few hours, and cause irrepairable damage. To prevent this, the enclosure is flushed with dry Nitrogen gas continuously. This must be operational at all focal stations where the CCD controller is powered up and connected before this command is used.
In Comparison to the previous version of this command, this one does not wait for the chips to cool down but returns after turning on the coolers. Once the new Nitrogen Flow Rate monitoring system in installed with the new CCD controller software shortly, this routine will become redundant, as the chips will be cooled by default when there is nitrogen flowing.
CALLING PARAMETERS
None.
INITIAL/DEFAULT VALUE
None
RETURN VALUES
None
RESTRICTIONS
None.
EXAMPLE
**********************************************************************<> * *
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* WHT Cass AUTOGUIDER SYSTEM *
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**********************************************************************<>
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* MAKE SURE THE Cass NITROGEN FLUSHING SYSTEM IS OPERATIVE *
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* COOLING Cass CCD TO -35 DEGREES *
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**********************************************************************<>
SEE ALSO
SHUT-DOWN TEMP STEMP CASSEGRAIN UES PRIME
TT [ ON n ]
DESCRIPTION
TT Prints the utility network transmit table. This is useful for debugging network operation.
CALLING PARAMETERS
None.
INITIAL/DEFAULT VALUE
None.
RETURN VALUES
None.
RESTRICTIONS
None.
EXAMPLE
No meaningful example text available at the time of writing.
SEE ALSO
TT ?NET
STATS n
DESCRIPTION
STATS Displays statistics on the guiding process on the autoguiders display screen. This can be done whether guiding or not. The statistics are reset when the guide integration time , number of loops or window size are changed and each time the guide loop is restarted. The staistics can be reset at will bt issuing a STATS 0 command. The guide error values are averaged over the number samples since the guide loop started or since the statistice were last reset.
CALLING PARAMETERS
n - n=0 reset statistics, n =! 0 means display the current values.
INITIAL/DEFAULT VALUE
None.
RETURN VALUES
None.
RESTRICTIONS
There exists a small probability that the time taken to operate the stats command will mean that the guide loop fails to complete in the time available. This risk will always be present, though it is rare that the autoguider is running close to its limit.
EXAMPLE
No meaningful example text available at the time of writing.
SEE ALSO
GUIDE
STEMP n
DESCRIPTION
STEMP Sets the temperature of the CCD peltier controller to n degrees centigrade. This is also affected by the Nitrogen flow interlock system which warms up the ccd if there is not enough flow of Nitrogen to keep the CCD dry.
CALLING PARAMETERS
n where n is the temperature in degrees centigrade.
INITIAL/DEFAULT VALUE
-35 Degrees C
RETURN VALUES
None
RESTRICTIONS
Only affects the currently selected CCD controller.
EXAMPLE
SEE ALSO
TEMP CCD-STATUS .ILOCK .FLOW
TEMP
DESCRIPTION
TEMP reads the current CCD temperature from the CCD controller and displays it both on the autoguiders display and also the engineering terminal.
CALLING PARAMETERS
None.
INITIAL/DEFAULT VALUE
None.
RETURN VALUES
None.
RESTRICTIONS
None.
EXAMPLE
SEE ALSO
STEMP
UES
DESCRIPTION
UES changes the application and the focal station to the UES system .
CALLING PARAMETERS
None.
INITIAL/DEFAULT VALUE
None
RETURN VALUES
None
RESTRICTIONS
This command cannot be used whilst other high level commands are running. The commands that are interlocked are: ACQUIRE AUTOFIB CASSEGRAIN FIELD GUIDE PRIME SELECT UES .
EXAMPLE
AUTOGUIDER> UES
Port Focus Header Application Head
UES UES UES UES 1
AUTOGUIDER>
SEE ALSO
CASSEGRAIN PRIME AUTOFIB