Astrel Instruments AST-8300-A User manual

Astrel Instruments AST-8300-A
Astrel Instruments
AST-8300-A
GETTING STARTED
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Getting started wit t e Astrel Instruments AST8300 camera
Thank you for purchasing an Astrel Instruments AST8300 CCD camera. Your new camera is a
lea ing e ge scientific instruments: please take your time to rea carefully the following User's
Manual to learn how to get the best out of your equipment.
The philosophy behin the AST8300 is the concept that the CCD camera coul be the real brain
of your astronomical equipment. This is possible thanks to the powerful microprocessor that is
in charge of managing not only the camera itself but also, through the exten e set of I/O
available on-boar , the other components of your system.
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Camera connections
The following picture shows the I/O interfaces available on the AST8300:
The following connectors are available on the camera:
•POWER SUPPLY: the camera nee s a 12V 3A power supply. The inclu e 3 meters
cable can be use to connect the camera to a car lighter using the inclu e a apter, or to
the optional 12V 3A power supply.
•ETHERNET: the camera can be connecte to a PC using a normal cat.5 Ethernet cable.
•LCD: this connector is use to attach the touch LCD monitor to the camera. Please pay
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attention to the polarization key inserte insi e one of the connector's pins: this is use to
avoi reverse connection that coul amage the camera.
WARNING: connect the LCD monitor only while the camera is powere own: connecting the
LCD when the camera is powere coul amage the monitor an the camera.
•USB FULL SPEED HOST: this 12Mbit/sec full spee USB connector can be use to
attach a wi e range of peripherals, inclu ing USB ongles, keyboar s an mice. A USB
hub can be use when multiple connections are nee e . It is typically use for the wifi
a apter
•USB HI SPEED HOST/DEVICE: this 480Mbit/sec hi spee micro USB connector can be
use to connect evices that nee s maximum ban wi th, like fast USB ongles or gui e
cameras. This connector is use as a host by efault in the current Linux istribution.
•EXT1: this is a 12 pin general purpose connector giving access to 3.3V an 5V power, an
SPI interface an one general purpose I/O pin that can be use to trigger external
evices.
•EXT2: this is a 10 pin general purpose connector giving access to 3.3V an 12V power, a
UART (serial port) connection which can be use for bringing the Linux serial console to
a PC, an an I2C port that can be use to connect the (not inclu e ) opto-couple mount
motors cable use for autogui ing or any other I2C evice.
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Powering up t e camera
To correctly power up the camera, please follow this sequence:
•When nee e , connect the touch LCD monitor paying attention to the polarization key.
•When nee e , connect the Ethernet cable to the camera an to the PC.
•When nee e , connect the wifi USB a apter using the USB port. The wifi a apter must
be connecte to the camera before power up in or er to start the wifi host access point
uring the camera boot sequence.
•Cables other than USB, for example the mount motors cable or the serial cable, can be
connecte an isconnecte at any time, but it's always a goo rule to connect any
nee e evice before power up.
•Connect the power supply cable.
After the power supply is connecte , the camera boots the Linux operating system an then
starts the Desktop application, from where all the camera's applications can be accesse .
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Powering down t e camera
WARNING: never power own the camera by simply isconnecting power supply: your camera
has a true PC insi e running Linux an , as any other PC, you shoul shut it own in the correct
way. The Shut own application in the main page of the Desktop will take care of all this
sequence, so, before powering own the camera you must run the Shut own application. At the
en of this application the system can be safely powere own.
The Linux istribution insi e the camera is store into the internal 8Gb SD car , which is the
main storage of the camera. In unlikely situations, removing the power supply while the
operating system or any application is writing on the SD car coul amage the files store on
it.
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Wifi and Et ernet operations
When the wifi USB a apter is connecte to the camera uring the boot sequence, the camera
becomes an access point, like a normal wifi router, that you can connect to using a
PC/tablet/smartphone. The wifi connection is open, no passwor require , an by efault the
network name is 'ast8300ap' while the ip a ress is 10.0.0.1.
When the camera is connecte using an Ethernet cable, the efault ip a ress is 192.168.0.18.
Your PC/smartphone/tablet shoul connect automatically when the camera powers up.
The network configuration can be mo ifie using the correspon ing application.
WARNING: remember to connect the USB a apter before powering up the camera or the wifi
network connection may not be establishe .
Once connecte , you can operate the camera in Connecte mo e like escribe in the
following paragraph.
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Stand Alone and PC/tablet/smartp one Connected modes
The AST8300 camera is operate using the collection of applications available on-boar , which
can be accesse using the touch LCD monitor in the Stan Alone mo e, or in the Connecte
mo e using any VNC compatible remote esktop application on a PC/tablet/smartphone with
Ethernet/wifi connection. There's only one set of applications for both the Stan Alone an
Connecte mo es, so the users on't nee to learn ifferent interfaces, the only ifference is
the way to interact with them.
These applications are collecte on the Desktop, which is organize in pages of icons
correspon ing to applications. When choosing one tab, a ifferent page of icons is isplaye .
The applications an tabs can be customize mo ifying the esktop.cfg fileHere follows a
screenshot of the main Desktop page:
The camera automatically senses the presence of the touch LCD monitor at boot. When the
monitor is not etecte , the applications are starte in VNC server mo e an can be accesse
by a VNC client.
When operate in Stan Alone mo e, the camera is very similar to any smartphone or tablet:
just touch the icon of the selecte application to start it or touch a tab to navigate to other
pages.
When operate in Connecte mo e, you only have to install a VNC client application on the
PC/tablet/smartphone, which is an application use to show the camera Desktop in a win ow in
the PC screen. There's no nee to install any river on the PC because the applications always
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run on the camera, not on the PC, an all the communications use Ethernet. This is why you
can run the same applications even with a tablet/smartphone.
Many free VNC client are available for many architectures: here follows a brief list of the teste
ones:
•PC/Win ows: TightVNC (http://www.tightvnc.com/)
•PC/Linux: TightVNC (http://www.tightvnc.com/)
•An roi : akRDC Free (available on the store)
•Win ows Phone: TinyVNC (available on the store)
To install them just follows the steps in icate on their websites.
WARNING: closing the VNC client application oesn't shut own the camera: the VNC client
only shows the camera applications on the PC screen. That means that you always have to run
the Shut own application before powering own the camera.
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Accessing t e camera storage
The camera main storage is the internal 8Gb SD car , where the operating system an the
photos are store . You can a more storage by simply connecting a USB ongle or even a
USB har isk to either USB connectors.
If you nee to access other fol ers (for example a USB ongle or har isk) or simply prefer to
use a file-manager like application, you can use any remote file-manager application using the
ssh protocol: here follows a brief list of the teste ones:
•PC/Win ows: WinSCP (http://winscp.net)
•PC/Linux: any file manager opening the location ssh://<camera ip a ress>
The username is root an the passwor is empty.
WARNING: when connecte with a remote file-manager application, you log in as root, meaning
that you have full access to any irectory an file, inclu ing the system ones so, unless you
know exactly what you're oing, avoi erasing or mo ifying any file which is not a FITS image
(extension .fits) otherwise you may severely amage the camera.
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