Alcor System CSSMS User manual

© ALCOR-SYSTEM 1
Continuous Solar Seeing Measurement
System
CSSMS
Installation and user manual
April 12th, 2021

© ALCOR-SYSTEM 2
Table of Contents
1 CSSMS installation ..................................................................................................................................................... 3
1.1 Control Box installation ..................................................................................................................................... 3
1.2 Sensor installation ............................................................................................................................................. 8
2 Software .................................................................................................................................................................. 10
2.1 System requirement and operating system .................................................................................................... 10
2.2 installation software ....................................................................................................................................... 11
2.3 Software User Interface .................................................................................................................................. 15
2.3.1 Recorded data ......................................................................................................................................... 19
3 System maintenance ............................................................................................................................................... 20
4 Trouble shooting ..................................................................................................................................................... 21
4.1 System does not deliver any measurements .................................................................................................. 21
5 Product terms of use ............................................................................................................................................... 21

© ALCOR-SYSTEM 3
1 CSSMS installation
The system is made of two parts, a control box and a sensor mounted to a ball support that allows any
orientations. The sensor cannot be detached from the control box, and in located 50 cm apart.
Fig. 1 Complete system without cables to computer and power supply, left main control box and right the sensor
made of photodiode and green filter.
The system works outdoor, it is weather-tight and can withstand wind, rain and snow. it will prevent all
intrusion of insects, even the smallest one. Nevertheless, the system is not submersible into water.
The base plate to attach the box and the sensor is not provided.
1.1 Control Box installation
The box has two fixing brackets on the side which allows to fix the system on a wall or other robust surface.
It is also possible to fix it on a vertical surface, in that case have the 2 connectors downward. Bracket hole
diameter are 6mm or ¼ ’’. Attachment screws are not provided because their types are defined accordingly
to the material where the box will be located.

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Fig. 2 Control box
Fig. 3 Fixing brackets
Take care of the coaxial cable at the output of the box, it is short and fragile. Do not stretch it to the
maximum length or/and avoid to twist it.
Connector keying and different number of pins are preventing connection errors. However, user must look at
the number of connector pins at the end of the cord before connecting the camera, in order to avoid forcing
the pins and damage the camera connector.
∅6 mm
/
¼’’

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Fig. 4
Control box connectors side
Connector Role Gender (camera side)
#1 USB connector Male 5 pins
#2 Power connector Male 2 pins
USB connector (#1)
This is tied up to a 6 pins connector. Please connect the CSSM first and then connect to PC second. The cable
that goes to the PC is 20m length.
Power connector (#2)
This is tied up to a 2 pins connector. This is 24V power supply. This is a 20m cable.
The 2 waterproof connectors (USB connector and Power connector) connect as follows:

Identify the number of connector pins of the system, its type (male / female)

Identify the number of pins of the connector cord and match.

Identify the key pin inside the camera connector and the key at the connector cord side.

Apply a rectilinear motion. If insertion force strength persists, please repeat steps for
locating the pin number and key. Excessive force applied to connector can cause
the
destruction of the connector or a bad connection can damage the system. In case of
damage due to trials to attach cable to the wrong connector kind, warranty could be
canceled.

© ALCOR-SYSTEM 6
Fig. 5 Connectors’ definition
Turn the connector a little bit, when you fell the two parts of the connector are facing, then the connector
can be pushed into its counterpart. You should never force it; it should be gentle!
Fig. 6 Connector attachment step #1: go straight with proper key orientation
When the connector is correctly pushed you can turn the locking ring clockwise to attach it.

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Fig. 7 Connector attachment step #2: rotate clockwise to have to lock the ring to prevent the cable from detaching
Fig. 8 Connectors opposite side from box
1
2

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When the connector is correctly pushed you can turn the locking ring clockwise to attach it. On the other
side connector #2 goes to the 24V/1.5A power supply, and connector #1 goes to any USB port of your PC.
This is an USB 2.0 Link.
1.2 Sensor installation
The sensor is a photodiode placed into a waterproof casing in the backside of a special green filter (see
below filter transmission) it peaks at 550 nm.
The sensor is placed on a mount head ball that can allow any angle of sight. This angle of sight is set once for
all, depending on the latitude of the place and north/south directions.
Fig. 9 Green filter transmission plot
It should face the SUN, more particularly the South (for northern hemisphere operation) or the North (for
southern hemisphere operation) direction. The angle of the sensor with respect to horizontal plane is equal
to 90° minus Latitude place angle.
For instance, if latitude is 30° North, it should be put aiming South in azimuth and at 60° angle of elevation
from the horizontal plane.
Positioning accuracy is not critical, and +/- 5° error can be accepted.
Ensure that no building will hide the Sun during its path from sunrise to sunset. Also think, that over the
course of the year the Sun position is changing, extreme values are from winter solstice to summer solstice.

© ALCOR-SYSTEM 9
The base of the ball support has a female thread 3/8’’ 16 TPI UNC thread, allowing to attach it in a
permanent position nearby the control box. Please, be sure both axis (azimuth and elevation) are tightened
very firmly, so that it does not move over the course of the time because of the wind or the effect of the
rain.
Fig. 10 Photodiode/sensor angle azimuth is set to north (or south) axis and elevation to 90° - latitude of the observing
place.

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Fig. 11 Locking / Unlocking process of the elevation angle ball
System installation is complete and ready to go.
Important: the system works daytime, but does not provide any seeing data when Sun is hidden by clouds.
2 Software
Latest product software can be found in our web site:
http://www.alcor-system.com/common/CSSMS/software/CSSMS_Installer.exe
2.1 System requirement and operating system
Hardware requirement (Minimum) for CSSMS V1
 PC with AMD or Intel CPU, (with passmark index above 2000)
o Intel Core i3-4012Y @ 1.50GHz (passmark index : 2000)
 2 GB Memory
 50 GB hard disk. Software requires 20 MB for installation, but storage must be granted for images.
Operating system requirement
 Windows 10, 8, and 7. 32- or 64-bits OS.
May work with windows XP, but no support will be provided for this deprecated OS.
LOCK UNLOCK

© ALCOR-SYSTEM 11
2.2 installation software
Warning, to make this installation it is important to connect the device first and only after install the
software, this operation allows to change device’s name to see if it’s correctly connected. If you miss this
step to check whether your device is connected or not could be more difficult.
The system is powered and connected, run CSSMS_Installer.exe, it will install all the software required for
this device. The next screen copy shows you how installation runs.
Fig. 12 Setup software
Fig. 13 Software folder definition

© ALCOR-SYSTEM 12
Fig. 14 Last installation step
At the end of the installation, two program icons on your desktop must appear. The first one is the main
application which allows to use the CSSMS system. The second application icon is a java application which
allows to carry out hardware update (if needed).
Fig. 15 Icons
Application files can be found at “C:\Program Files (x86) \Alcor-System\CSSMS_Solar_seeing”.
This folder is meant to allow firmware updates
“C:\Program Files (x86) \Alcor-System\CSSMS_Solar_seeing\Bootloader_App”
Fig. 16 Files needed for upgrading system firmware

© ALCOR-SYSTEM 13
This system uses HID, Human Interface Device, so no specific driver needs to be installed. The device in
Windows’s Device Manager named as “CSSMS Seeing Monitor Device” can be found in the HID list of
devices. This shows that the CSSMS system is tied to the PC properly.
Fig. 17 Device Manager
To check that the product is properly connected to the PC, PID and VID figures can be retrieved and checked.
PID : Product ID must be 003F
VID : Vendor ID must be 04D8
There is a quite useful software, that can help to check whether the CSSMS device has connected properly.
https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/usb_log_view.html
It can be installed and will help out to be sure the device is properly recognized. On USB connect this line
should be added
Vendor ID and Product ID are equal to the figures above.
Otherwise, another method can be used. Device manager properties must be opened and user have to
search which one has the PID/VID figures written above.

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In “Details” then “Device instance path” the PID/VID of your device can be found and check whether it
matches or not.
Browse all HID devices that are listed in the device manager, until the good one is found.
Under Windows 10, after 30 to 60 seconds, if your device is correctly connected, this message should appear
(at the bottom right of the screen)

© ALCOR-SYSTEM 15
Fig. 18 Device Connection ack message
Important: If the CSSMS device is not recognized by Windows, the application, on startup seeks for the
CSSMS, and if not detected will display an error message and close himself.
Control box USB cable must be connected both side, and powered properly prior starting the software that
performs measurements.
2.3 Software User Interface
This software has 5 panels
Fig. 19 Main program panel
2
4
3
5
1

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Part #1 Setup Menu
Part #2 Seeing plot versus time
Part #3 Photodiode / SUN mean signal chart
Part #4 Seeing figure and other information
Part #5 Log output
 Part 1: Setup Menu
Fig. 20 Setup menu
1: Time span which can be plotted, before graphics will scroll horizontally.
2: Minimum of Sun signal to allow seeing data to be computed.
 Part 2: Seeing plot versus time

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Fig. 21 Seeing versus time
This plot shows the seeing (expressed in arcsec) measured by the system over the time. One
measurement point is added each second of time (based on 25 000 measurements per sec of SUN’s
scintillation).
A good “seeing” figure is below 2 arcsec. This is a seeing figure computed in compliance with the
Fried’s theory definition of seeing.
NOTE : the seeing computed by this system, is from the line of sight of the SUN and the
photodiode, this is not zenithal equivalent seeing.
 Part 3: Photodiode signal
This part shows the signal received by the photodiode versus time. Y axis shows the voltage of the
photodiode in mV.
This mean SUN signal can change with atmosphere transparence, and especially with clouds
presence. Also with SUN position, because the sensor does not track the SUN. Photodiode and SUN
angle is changing with the course of the time. If thin clouds are present, level can be above
threshold but seeing figure will be close to zero, and thus not valid also.
Under a given threshold, no seeing measurement are performed. This threshold can be set by the
user.

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Fig. 22 Photodiode mean SUN signal
 Part 4: Information
This part shows the main information about the system.
Fig. 23 system Information
Last Seeing figure measured, last minute mean and last 5 min mean (1).
Information about photodiode, reflecting mean SUN signal (2).
Advanced information, with noise levels, mostly used for debugging purposes (3).
Last measured temperature inside the box (4).
 Part 5: Log panel

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The log panel writes information that the software can display. This is for debugging purposes.
Fig. 24 Log
2.3.1 Recorded data
The software records all the seeing data into a text file and appends new data to this file. This is the
folder where the measurements are stored
C:\Users\[Logged user name]\Documents\Solar_seeing
This is a simple ASCII text file and can be opened with any software such as notepad++, excel, or
other software called “YYYY_MM_DD_result.txt”. The filename is set so that one file is produced
per day.
Where YYYY is the current year i.e 2021 … MM is the month of the year from 01 to 12, and DD is
from 01 to 31 (depending on the month).
Here is the ascii data, edited with notepad++ each line is a measurement (once a second).
The first line will provide information of each column and is self-explanatory.

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3 System maintenance
It is advisable to clean from time to time (say three time a year), the top of the SUN sensor, to avoid
accumulation of unwanted dusts or atmospheric contaminants that will dim the signal. Use alcohol, and
clean and soft tissue. The input window is quite resilient to scratches (hard coating).
Fig. 25 SUN sensor