Figure 4
Figure 4 below shows PulseGuide as it comes up. If this is your first time using PulseGuide please also take a look at the Getting Started section. In order to control your Astro-Physics GTO mount you must have a serial port connection (or USB to serial adapter) to your mount. For most PC’s and laptops you will need to connect a “straight through” DB9 to DB9 Male to Female cable.
All Astro-Physics GTO mounts have two serial ports so if you also need to control your mount with TheSky or other planetarium software then you will need a second serial port on your PC and another cable. Again, you can use a USB to serial adapter if your PC does not have a second serial port. Iogear makes one that works well for me (GUC232A).
Figure 4
Once you have connected your PC to the mount you need to select the serial port that you are using. If you have only one serial port then the port is likely COM1. If you have two ports then they are probably COM1 and COM2. If in doubt, start with COM1 and increase the port number sequentially.
When testing a port for the first time, make sure to uncheck the checkbox Ignore Mount Timeouts. PulseGuide will report an error if the mount does not respond.
If the mount does respond, the Firmware version will display and PulseGuide will fill the status bar with information as shown in figure 5:
Figure 5
However, if the mount does not respond then PulseGuide will automatically disconnect in about 15 seconds. If this happens, check your cable and/or try another serial port until you have found the correct port.
The latest firmware available for general distribution as of May 2003 is version “D” or “KD”. I happen to have a prototype of version “E” installed but it is essentially no different in functionality than version D/KD.
Pressing this button brings up help. Internet Explorer 4 or later must be installed for help to work. You can also press F1 to activate help for the specific page that you are on.
Pressing the Log Window button will open the Command Log window. This may be useful in debugging communications to your mount.
Commands sent to the mount are in green and replies from the mount are in blue.
If a command times out a message will display in red.
The decimal number at the start of each line is the relative time in seconds since the first command was printed. The time is in seconds and is accurate to the nearest millisecond.
Click
the About button to open the dialog to see the version of PulseGuide.
The mount type selection does not do anything at the moment but I intend to use it to set a countdown timer in the PEM page.
Ask if OK to Exit: If this option is checked then PulseGuide will ask if you really wanted to exit the application when you close it. This may prevent you from accidentally closing PulseGuide when you did not mean to.
Always on top: If this option is checked then PulseGuide will attempt to keep itself on top of all other windows.
Ignore Mount Timeouts: If checked if the mount does not respond then PulseGuide will not automatically disconnect. This option is useful when becoming familiar with PulseGuide without actually connecting to your mount.
If you are having communication difficulties you may also want to check this option. You
Note: This option is grayed and cannot be changed when connected to the mount. If you need to change it, disconnect first, change it, and then reconnect.
Disable
RA/Dec, Alt/Az: If selected this option will stop PulseGuide
from querying the mount for RA/Dec and Alt/Az. Typically you will leave
this unchecked but sometimes when debugging the other features with the
log window enabled it is easier to see the commands you are interested
in.
Confirm GOTOs: If selected a dialog will pop up whenever you click the GOTO button in the Guide/Slew Page.
Confirm Syncs: If selected a dialog will pop up whenever you click the SYNC button in the Guide/Slew Page.
Display Alt/Az: If selected Altitude and Azimuth will display in the status bar instead of RA/Dec. PulseGuide still queries for RA/Dec because some of the other features need it (like the hour-angle in the status bar).
When connected a status bar with 5 panes appears in the bottom of PulseGuide. Here is the description of each pane:
RA: This field shows the current Right Ascension of the mount. PulseGuide updates this field once a second.
Dec: This field shows the current Declination of the mount. PulseGuide updates this field once a second.
Side: This is the side of the mount the telescope is on as reported by the mount. The actual side may be different if you set a meridian delay in the Time Page. PulseGuide updates this field once a minute.
LST: This is the local sidereal time, which is obtained by adding the time zone to the sidereal time received from the mount. PulseGuide queries the mount once a minute for this parameter but automatically increments the time every second.
HA: This is the hour angle of the telescope, which is the angle from the meridian. A negative value tells how many hours, minutes, and seconds before the scope crosses the meridian. A positive value indicates how long ago the current object passed the meridian.