Telescope - User contributions [en]

Notes on upgrading observatory computer to Windows 10, Summer 2020

2020-09-18T19:26:30Z

Ejensen1: /* Software installation */

Just as we did for the upgrade of the computer from Windows XP to Windows 7 in 2012, this page is to document the process of installing a new computer in the observatory, and noting any steps we need to take or problems we encountered. It is mostly for our own internal records, but perhaps it could help someone else installing observatory software as well.

== Software installation ==

* Installed UltraVNC on both old and new computers so we can transfer files easily via VNC.
* Installed ASCOM platform 6.5 from [http://www.ascom-standards.org/ here].
** As part of that installation, I found that the system required me to [https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/framework/install/dotnet-35-windows-10 enable Microsoft .NET 3.5 via the Control Panel]. Ultimately that only worked when logged in to my normal user account, not the telescope account; that is probably related to trying to contact the local Windows Update server, but not being logged into the Swarthmore domain. It worked just fine from my domain account.
* Installed the ASCOM 2X mount adapter for TheSky (used to be called "TheSky-controlled telescope driver") from [https://www.bisque.com/downloads/ascom2xmount-adaptor-installer/ the Software Bisque site], linked from [https://ascom-standards.org/Downloads/ScopeDrivers.htm the ASCOM page].
* The Edgeport/4 (USB-serial converter) - plug and play. Windows recognized it right away and set it up automatically. The COM ports show up in Device Manager as COM3, COM4, COM5, COM6, corresponding to ports 1-4 on the device.
* Now working on the RCOS TCC. This could be exciting as they went out of business and the software is so old. Fortunately we have [https://wikis.swarthmore.edu/telescope/index.php?title=Notes_on_upgrading_observatory_computer_to_Windows_7 good notes from the previous update].
# Download the full installation package (1.5.17) and the update (1.5.26) from the archived [https://www.rcopticalsystems.com/support/index.html RCOS support site]. I'm going to keep local copies of these installers this time, in case they disappear off the web.
# The last full installer there is 1.5.17, so download and install that first.
# Then download and copy over just the 1.5.26 RCOS-ae.exe file into the Program Files (x86) -> RCOS TCC folder, replacing the copy of RCOS-ae.exe in that folder.
# To get the presets from the old install, copy over the file RCOS.dat from the old installation. This has those values saved. There is also a file named RCOS-rotator.dat that I copied over, though I don't think we have saved much in the way of rotator settings.
# Based on last time, these programs can run into problems with Windows User Account Control, and need to be run as Administrator (at least once). This sequence worked:
#* Right-click the RCOS-ae executable and then choose "Properties", and in that dialog, select "Run as administrator." Answer "yes" in the resulting dialog about allowing the program to make modifications.
#* Do the same thing for the RCOS executable, again choosing "Run as administrator."
#* Having done that once, it now works to simply double-click the RCOS executable - so something about that initial run sets things up to work on subsequent runs.
# Connected to the telescope and tested this out - everything works! The RCOS TCC is set up on <code>COM3</code>.
# Hmm, several days later this stopped working, and it only worked to run it as administrator every time. That's a pain since you always have to acknowledge the dialog. A little searching turned up [http://woshub.com/how-to-disable-uac-for-specific-applications/ these instructions] for how to make it possible to run an application using "Run as Invoker" to get it run as needed without having to acknowledge the admin dialog. After following those instructions (and adding both RCOS TCC and RCOS ae to the recipe) things work as they should. Will have to keep an eye on this, but it's working for now.
* ACE SmartDome - I transferred the whole folder over from the old PC and put it in Program Files (x86). After a few false starts with bad serial cables, I made sure I had a known-working cable and it worked just fine.
* TheSkyX Professional - downloaded from Software Bisque website.
** The version there is nominally the same as what we have installed already, 10.5.0, but the build is quite a bit newer (10305 old vs. 12545 new).
** Initial installation was uneventful. Now to get settings transferred as much as possible so we don't have to transfer everything by hand. It looks like settings are stored in My Documents -> Software Bisque.
** Copied over the file <code>AppSettings</code> as well as several files from the subfolder "Field of View Indicators". On restarting TheSkyX, it has the correct FOV indicators, though I'm sure we'll need to configure some other things, including the telescope interface.
** Also three files (those that appeared to have been modified) into the subfolder "TPoint": "TPoint base run in", "TPoint base run outmod", "TPoint Settings.tptx". We may need to revisit the pointing model once we're up and running, since I believe it has shifted from being a standalone program to now being integrated within TheSkyX itself. And it wouldn't hurt to check the model, especially at low elevations.
** Had to go in and set up the mount manually. Chose "Paramount ME" as that is what we had specified before.
** After that was set up and we could connect to the mount (currently using a serial port connection - has been robust for us), go to "Tools" in the main Telescope panel in TheSkyX and choose "Bisque TCS". This connects to the mount and lets you set a few more parameters:
*** Under "Periodic Error Correction", choose "Get" to read the parameters from the mount, check that they look appropriate, then check the box for "Apply PEC".
*** The max slew speed was set to 20% because we have been having some issues with cold weather last winter. I set it back up to 70%, but we may want to revisit that when it cools down.
*** I read all parameters from the mount and saved them to a text file along with the drivers.
** Slightly out of order here (done after some of what is below), but to get an ASCOM connection to work from MaximDL, at one point I had to right-click on TheSkyX and choose "run as administrator". I'm not 100% sure that was the key factor in making it work, but it was suggested somewhere, and things started working right after that.
* Apogee Camera (U16M) and filter wheel (AFW-50-10S):
** This one required a little digging. Apogee sold to Andor a while back, who sold to Oxford Instruments. And although they have some links here and there that would seem relevant, all were dead ends, and it appears that the necessary drivers are no longer anywhere on their website, at least not that I could find.
** A little digging on the [https://forum.diffractionlimited.com/forums/maxim-dl.5/ MaximDL support forum] led to [https://forum.diffractionlimited.com/threads/windows-10-drivers-for-apogee-alta-u16m-camera.7086/#post-38195 this post], which revealed that the filename for the driver installer is apgSwInstall-x86. Searching for that string on the old computer revealed that I still had a downloaded copy of it from 2013! Good thing I didn't clear out the Downloads folder...
** After unzipping that file and running the installer, the camera and filter wheel showed up fine in the Device Manager, under "Apogee USB".
** Just for posterity, I'm going to link to my copy of the driver installer here: [https://astro.swarthmore.edu/telescope/old_drivers/apgSwInstall-x86.5.4.506.2907.zip apgSwInstall-x86.5.4.506.2907.zip]. That file is dated July 2013 (at least that's when I downloaded it) but as of July 2020, those drivers are working fine for me running Windows 10.
* MaximDL:
** To get the installer, I opened MaximDL on the old PC, and chose "Check for updates" from the menu. That took me to the Diffraction Limited website with a link to download the latest version, 6.22. This is a big jump from our installed 6.13. Reading release notes, it looks like there are number of improvements to guiding, including a multistar guiding mode.
** Basic installation from the downloaded installer was uneventful.
** Current filter order:
**# B
**# z'
**# V
**# Halpha_contin
**# Halpha
**# R
**# g'
**# r'
**# i'
**# u'
** Need to get settings copied over, and note filter order in the filter wheel in particular. It may be simplest to re-enter these manually using the above list. I saved current settings as a "Configuration" on the old computer, with the current date in the configuration name.
** Started MaxIm DL once on the new computer to enter the license info, and so it would create the Settings folder.
** Copied the Settings folder from old computer which was in Documents -> MaxIm DL 6. From that folder, I copied all of the text files (not the subfolders, which seem to be hardware/plugins) into the corresponding location on the new computer.
** Even with settings copied over, I had to go through the camera setup, to have it search the USB bus for the camera, and same for the filter wheel. But once the drivers were installed in the previous step, this worked fine in MaximDL. (I tried it once before installing those drivers, and it didn't work - so the separate install of drivers outside of MaximDL is definitely necessary.
** I entered the filter names as outlined above.
** Compared the guiding interface on old and new machines and copied in the settings.
** Copied the Lodestar calibration files into D:\Telescope Data, so MaximDL could find them to calibrate the Lodestar images.
* ACP -
** On the old computer, I started ACP and exported the current profile, which saves everything in a zip file. Copied that zip file over to the new computer.
** Installed ACP from the installer, and all seemed to go smoothly.
** Now going through the setup process for ACP from the Users' Guide.
** Copied the Guide Star Catalog folder (needing for plate-solving) over from our old installation. This lives in C:\Users\Public\Documents\ACP Web Data\.
** Copied over our UserActions.wsc file from the old computer. Compared it to the template UserActions file (using Meld) to keep any changes to overall file since old ACP version, but insert our new code. Ran the command from ACP docs to register this file with Windows scripting services.
** Also copied the Python script for shutter control (<code>ShutterOpen.py</code>) to the C:\Program Files (x86)\ACP Obs Control folder (which is where UserActions lives as well). A test plan shows this to be working correctly to control the shutter if invoked from ACP.
** Compared the old AutoFlat.vbs file to the one in the new version, and copied in (again using Meld) just our edited lines that handle controlling the shutter when flats are run. Haven't tested yet.
** Initially ACP wouldn't connect to the dome - seemed to be having issues with the ASCOM driver. After communication with ACE, a run of the ACE software as Administrator seems to have gotten that installed correctly, and now ACP connects.
* Anaconda Python. We need this to run the Arduino. Installed it and also added the <code>pyserial</code> library.
* [http://meldmerge.org/ Meld] for file comparison/merging.
* Tried to mount the tel_data disk as before, didn't work. Realized that I needed to enable NFS access for Windows. Followed instructions [https://docs.datafabric.hpe.com/61/AdministratorGuide/MountingNFSonWindowsClient.html here] to enable this, and make write access use the telescope:research UID and GID. Also set up a batch script to mount this, and put script in Startup folder.
* [https://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/Software Arduino IDE] to enable use of the Arduino over a USB port.
* Installed a driver for our Philips webcam SP900NC, but so far am unable to get it to work.
* Now working on installing / configuring the Shelyak eShel spectrograph.
** Tried to get our QSI camera working - so far the drivers won't load correctly. Still pending on this, reverting to SBIG camera (ST10-XME) for now.
** SBIG: Downloaded Driver Checker and CCDOps from [https://diffractionlimited.com/legacy-product-support/ Diffraction limited website]. Ran Driver Checker first, downloaded and installed latest drivers. Then plugged in camera, and it was recognized in the Device Manager. Then installed CCDOps, and verified that I could connect to the camera. All pretty smooth.
** Download and install latest beta of Demetra software from Shelyak.

== Hardware / system settings ==

* Formatted D: drive as NTFS, named as "Telescope data".

== To consider for later ==

* Windows subsystem for Linux (enable via Control Panel --> Turn Windows Features On or Off). This enables installing a Linux distribution as well and running some Linux executables. I don't have a specific use case for this yet, but it's an interesting option to have.
* Anaconda Python distribution.

Notes on upgrading observatory computer to Windows 10, Summer 2020

2020-08-11T20:45:08Z

Ejensen1: /* Software installation */

Just as we did for the upgrade of the computer from Windows XP to Windows 7 in 2012, this page is to document the process of installing a new computer in the observatory, and noting any steps we need to take or problems we encountered. It is mostly for our own internal records, but perhaps it could help someone else installing observatory software as well.

== Software installation ==

* Installed UltraVNC on both old and new computers so we can transfer files easily via VNC.
* Installed ASCOM platform 6.5 from [http://www.ascom-standards.org/ here].
** As part of that installation, I found that the system required me to [https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/framework/install/dotnet-35-windows-10 enable Microsoft .NET 3.5 via the Control Panel]. Ultimately that only worked when logged in to my normal user account, not the telescope account; that is probably related to trying to contact the local Windows Update server, but not being logged into the Swarthmore domain. It worked just fine from my domain account.
* Installed the ASCOM 2X mount adapter for TheSky (used to be called "TheSky-controlled telescope driver") from [https://www.bisque.com/downloads/ascom2xmount-adaptor-installer/ the Software Bisque site], linked from [https://ascom-standards.org/Downloads/ScopeDrivers.htm the ASCOM page].
* The Edgeport/4 (USB-serial converter) - plug and play. Windows recognized it right away and set it up automatically. The COM ports show up in Device Manager as COM3, COM4, COM5, COM6, corresponding to ports 1-4 on the device.
* Now working on the RCOS TCC. This could be exciting as they went out of business and the software is so old. Fortunately we have [https://wikis.swarthmore.edu/telescope/index.php?title=Notes_on_upgrading_observatory_computer_to_Windows_7 good notes from the previous update].
# Download the full installation package (1.5.17) and the update (1.5.26) from the archived [https://www.rcopticalsystems.com/support/index.html RCOS support site]. I'm going to keep local copies of these installers this time, in case they disappear off the web.
# The last full installer there is 1.5.17, so download and install that first.
# Then download and copy over just the 1.5.26 RCOS-ae.exe file into the Program Files (x86) -> RCOS TCC folder, replacing the copy of RCOS-ae.exe in that folder.
# To get the presets from the old install, copy over the file RCOS.dat from the old installation. This has those values saved. There is also a file named RCOS-rotator.dat that I copied over, though I don't think we have saved much in the way of rotator settings.
# Based on last time, these programs can run into problems with Windows User Account Control, and need to be run as Administrator (at least once). This sequence worked:
#* Right-click the RCOS-ae executable and then choose "Properties", and in that dialog, select "Run as administrator." Answer "yes" in the resulting dialog about allowing the program to make modifications.
#* Do the same thing for the RCOS executable, again choosing "Run as administrator."
#* Having done that once, it now works to simply double-click the RCOS executable - so something about that initial run sets things up to work on subsequent runs.
# Connected to the telescope and tested this out - everything works! The RCOS TCC is set up on <code>COM3</code>.
# Hmm, several days later this stopped working, and it only worked to run it as administrator every time. That's a pain since you always have to acknowledge the dialog. A little searching turned up [http://woshub.com/how-to-disable-uac-for-specific-applications/ these instructions] for how to make it possible to run an application using "Run as Invoker" to get it run as needed without having to acknowledge the admin dialog. After following those instructions (and adding both RCOS TCC and RCOS ae to the recipe) things work as they should. Will have to keep an eye on this, but it's working for now.
* ACE SmartDome - I transferred the whole folder over from the old PC and put it in Program Files (x86). After a few false starts with bad serial cables, I made sure I had a known-working cable and it worked just fine.
* TheSkyX Professional - downloaded from Software Bisque website.
** The version there is nominally the same as what we have installed already, 10.5.0, but the build is quite a bit newer (10305 old vs. 12545 new).
** Initial installation was uneventful. Now to get settings transferred as much as possible so we don't have to transfer everything by hand. It looks like settings are stored in My Documents -> Software Bisque.
** Copied over the file <code>AppSettings</code> as well as several files from the subfolder "Field of View Indicators". On restarting TheSkyX, it has the correct FOV indicators, though I'm sure we'll need to configure some other things, including the telescope interface.
** Also three files (those that appeared to have been modified) into the subfolder "TPoint": "TPoint base run in", "TPoint base run outmod", "TPoint Settings.tptx". We may need to revisit the pointing model once we're up and running, since I believe it has shifted from being a standalone program to now being integrated within TheSkyX itself. And it wouldn't hurt to check the model, especially at low elevations.
** Had to go in and set up the mount manually. Chose "Paramount ME" as that is what we had specified before.
** After that was set up and we could connect to the mount (currently using a serial port connection - has been robust for us), go to "Tools" in the main Telescope panel in TheSkyX and choose "Bisque TCS". This connects to the mount and lets you set a few more parameters:
*** Under "Periodic Error Correction", choose "Get" to read the parameters from the mount, check that they look appropriate, then check the box for "Apply PEC".
*** The max slew speed was set to 20% because we have been having some issues with cold weather last winter. I set it back up to 70%, but we may want to revisit that when it cools down.
*** I read all parameters from the mount and saved them to a text file along with the drivers.
** Slightly out of order here (done after some of what is below), but to get an ASCOM connection to work from MaximDL, at one point I had to right-click on TheSkyX and choose "run as administrator". I'm not 100% sure that was the key factor in making it work, but it was suggested somewhere, and things started working right after that.
* Apogee Camera (U16M) and filter wheel (AFW-50-10S):
** This one required a little digging. Apogee sold to Andor a while back, who sold to Oxford Instruments. And although they have some links here and there that would seem relevant, all were dead ends, and it appears that the necessary drivers are no longer anywhere on their website, at least not that I could find.
** A little digging on the [https://forum.diffractionlimited.com/forums/maxim-dl.5/ MaximDL support forum] led to [https://forum.diffractionlimited.com/threads/windows-10-drivers-for-apogee-alta-u16m-camera.7086/#post-38195 this post], which revealed that the filename for the driver installer is apgSwInstall-x86. Searching for that string on the old computer revealed that I still had a downloaded copy of it from 2013! Good thing I didn't clear out the Downloads folder...
** After unzipping that file and running the installer, the camera and filter wheel showed up fine in the Device Manager, under "Apogee USB".
** Just for posterity, I'm going to link to my copy of the driver installer here: [https://astro.swarthmore.edu/telescope/old_drivers/apgSwInstall-x86.5.4.506.2907.zip apgSwInstall-x86.5.4.506.2907.zip]. That file is dated July 2013 (at least that's when I downloaded it) but as of July 2020, those drivers are working fine for me running Windows 10.
* MaximDL:
** To get the installer, I opened MaximDL on the old PC, and chose "Check for updates" from the menu. That took me to the Diffraction Limited website with a link to download the latest version, 6.22. This is a big jump from our installed 6.13. Reading release notes, it looks like there are number of improvements to guiding, including a multistar guiding mode.
** Basic installation from the downloaded installer was uneventful.
** Current filter order:
**# B
**# z'
**# V
**# Halpha_contin
**# Halpha
**# R
**# g'
**# r'
**# i'
**# u'
** Need to get settings copied over, and note filter order in the filter wheel in particular. It may be simplest to re-enter these manually using the above list. I saved current settings as a "Configuration" on the old computer, with the current date in the configuration name.
** Started MaxIm DL once on the new computer to enter the license info, and so it would create the Settings folder.
** Copied the Settings folder from old computer which was in Documents -> MaxIm DL 6. From that folder, I copied all of the text files (not the subfolders, which seem to be hardware/plugins) into the corresponding location on the new computer.
** Even with settings copied over, I had to go through the camera setup, to have it search the USB bus for the camera, and same for the filter wheel. But once the drivers were installed in the previous step, this worked fine in MaximDL. (I tried it once before installing those drivers, and it didn't work - so the separate install of drivers outside of MaximDL is definitely necessary.
** I entered the filter names as outlined above.
** Compared the guiding interface on old and new machines and copied in the settings.
** Copied the Lodestar calibration files into D:\Telescope Data, so MaximDL could find them to calibrate the Lodestar images.
* ACP -
** On the old computer, I started ACP and exported the current profile, which saves everything in a zip file. Copied that zip file over to the new computer.
** Installed ACP from the installer, and all seemed to go smoothly.
** Now going through the setup process for ACP from the Users' Guide.
** Copied the Guide Star Catalog folder (needing for plate-solving) over from our old installation. This lives in C:\Users\Public\Documents\ACP Web Data\.
** Copied over our UserActions.wsc file from the old computer. Compared it to the template UserActions file (using Meld) to keep any changes to overall file since old ACP version, but insert our new code. Ran the command from ACP docs to register this file with Windows scripting services.
** Also copied the Python script for shutter control (<code>ShutterOpen.py</code>) to the C:\Program Files (x86)\ACP Obs Control folder (which is where UserActions lives as well). A test plan shows this to be working correctly to control the shutter if invoked from ACP.
** Compared the old AutoFlat.vbs file to the one in the new version, and copied in (again using Meld) just our edited lines that handle controlling the shutter when flats are run. Haven't tested yet.
** Initially ACP wouldn't connect to the dome - seemed to be having issues with the ASCOM driver. After communication with ACE, a run of the ACE software as Administrator seems to have gotten that installed correctly, and now ACP connects.
* Anaconda Python. We need this to run the Arduino. Installed it and also added the <code>pyserial</code> library.
* [http://meldmerge.org/ Meld] for file comparison/merging.
* Tried to mount the tel_data disk as before, didn't work. Realized that I needed to enable NFS access for Windows. Followed instructions [https://docs.datafabric.hpe.com/61/AdministratorGuide/MountingNFSonWindowsClient.html here] to enable this, and make write access use the telescope:research UID and GID. Also set up a batch script to mount this, and put script in Startup folder.
* [https://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/Software Arduino IDE] to enable use of the Arduino over a USB port.
* Installed a driver for our Philips webcam SP900NC, but so far am unable to get it to work.

== Hardware / system settings ==

* Formatted D: drive as NTFS, named as "Telescope data".

== To consider for later ==

* Windows subsystem for Linux (enable via Control Panel --> Turn Windows Features On or Off). This enables installing a Linux distribution as well and running some Linux executables. I don't have a specific use case for this yet, but it's an interesting option to have.
* Anaconda Python distribution.

Notes on upgrading observatory computer to Windows 10, Summer 2020

2020-08-05T16:54:59Z

Ejensen1: /* Software installation */

Just as we did for the upgrade of the computer from Windows XP to Windows 7 in 2012, this page is to document the process of installing a new computer in the observatory, and noting any steps we need to take or problems we encountered. It is mostly for our own internal records, but perhaps it could help someone else installing observatory software as well.

== Software installation ==

* Installed UltraVNC on both old and new computers so we can transfer files easily via VNC.
* Installed ASCOM platform 6.5 from [http://www.ascom-standards.org/ here].
** As part of that installation, I found that the system required me to [https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/framework/install/dotnet-35-windows-10 enable Microsoft .NET 3.5 via the Control Panel]. Ultimately that only worked when logged in to my normal user account, not the telescope account; that is probably related to trying to contact the local Windows Update server, but not being logged into the Swarthmore domain. It worked just fine from my domain account.
* Installed the ASCOM 2X mount adapter for TheSky (used to be called "TheSky-controlled telescope driver") from [https://www.bisque.com/downloads/ascom2xmount-adaptor-installer/ the Software Bisque site], linked from [https://ascom-standards.org/Downloads/ScopeDrivers.htm the ASCOM page].
* The Edgeport/4 (USB-serial converter) - plug and play. Windows recognized it right away and set it up automatically. The COM ports show up in Device Manager as COM3, COM4, COM5, COM6, corresponding to ports 1-4 on the device.
* Now working on the RCOS TCC. This could be exciting as they went out of business and the software is so old. Fortunately we have [https://wikis.swarthmore.edu/telescope/index.php?title=Notes_on_upgrading_observatory_computer_to_Windows_7 good notes from the previous update].
# Download the full installation package (1.5.17) and the update (1.5.26) from the archived [https://www.rcopticalsystems.com/support/index.html RCOS support site]. I'm going to keep local copies of these installers this time, in case they disappear off the web.
# The last full installer there is 1.5.17, so download and install that first.
# Then download and copy over just the 1.5.26 RCOS-ae.exe file into the Program Files (x86) -> RCOS TCC folder, replacing the copy of RCOS-ae.exe in that folder.
# To get the presets from the old install, copy over the file RCOS.dat from the old installation. This has those values saved. There is also a file named RCOS-rotator.dat that I copied over, though I don't think we have saved much in the way of rotator settings.
# Based on last time, these programs can run into problems with Windows User Account Control, and need to be run as Administrator (at least once). This sequence worked:
#* Right-click the RCOS-ae executable and then choose "Properties", and in that dialog, select "Run as administrator." Answer "yes" in the resulting dialog about allowing the program to make modifications.
#* Do the same thing for the RCOS executable, again choosing "Run as administrator."
#* Having done that once, it now works to simply double-click the RCOS executable - so something about that initial run sets things up to work on subsequent runs.
# Connected to the telescope and tested this out - everything works! The RCOS TCC is set up on <code>COM3</code>.
* ACE SmartDome - I transferred the whole folder over from the old PC and put it in Program Files (x86). After a few false starts with bad serial cables, I made sure I had a known-working cable and it worked just fine.
* TheSkyX Professional - downloaded from Software Bisque website.
** The version there is nominally the same as what we have installed already, 10.5.0, but the build is quite a bit newer (10305 old vs. 12545 new).
** Initial installation was uneventful. Now to get settings transferred as much as possible so we don't have to transfer everything by hand. It looks like settings are stored in My Documents -> Software Bisque.
** Copied over the file <code>AppSettings</code> as well as several files from the subfolder "Field of View Indicators". On restarting TheSkyX, it has the correct FOV indicators, though I'm sure we'll need to configure some other things, including the telescope interface.
** Also three files (those that appeared to have been modified) into the subfolder "TPoint": "TPoint base run in", "TPoint base run outmod", "TPoint Settings.tptx". We may need to revisit the pointing model once we're up and running, since I believe it has shifted from being a standalone program to now being integrated within TheSkyX itself. And it wouldn't hurt to check the model, especially at low elevations.
** Had to go in and set up the mount manually. Chose "Paramount ME" as that is what we had specified before.
** After that was set up and we could connect to the mount (currently using a serial port connection - has been robust for us), go to "Tools" in the main Telescope panel in TheSkyX and choose "Bisque TCS". This connects to the mount and lets you set a few more parameters:
*** Under "Periodic Error Correction", choose "Get" to read the parameters from the mount, check that they look appropriate, then check the box for "Apply PEC".
*** The max slew speed was set to 20% because we have been having some issues with cold weather last winter. I set it back up to 70%, but we may want to revisit that when it cools down.
*** I read all parameters from the mount and saved them to a text file along with the drivers.
** Slightly out of order here (done after some of what is below), but to get an ASCOM connection to work from MaximDL, at one point I had to right-click on TheSkyX and choose "run as administrator". I'm not 100% sure that was the key factor in making it work, but it was suggested somewhere, and things started working right after that.
* Apogee Camera (U16M) and filter wheel (AFW-50-10S):
** This one required a little digging. Apogee sold to Andor a while back, who sold to Oxford Instruments. And although they have some links here and there that would seem relevant, all were dead ends, and it appears that the necessary drivers are no longer anywhere on their website, at least not that I could find.
** A little digging on the [https://forum.diffractionlimited.com/forums/maxim-dl.5/ MaximDL support forum] led to [https://forum.diffractionlimited.com/threads/windows-10-drivers-for-apogee-alta-u16m-camera.7086/#post-38195 this post], which revealed that the filename for the driver installer is apgSwInstall-x86. Searching for that string on the old computer revealed that I still had a downloaded copy of it from 2013! Good thing I didn't clear out the Downloads folder...
** After unzipping that file and running the installer, the camera and filter wheel showed up fine in the Device Manager, under "Apogee USB".
** Just for posterity, I'm going to link to my copy of the driver installer here: [https://astro.swarthmore.edu/telescope/old_drivers/apgSwInstall-x86.5.4.506.2907.zip apgSwInstall-x86.5.4.506.2907.zip]. That file is dated July 2013 (at least that's when I downloaded it) but as of July 2020, those drivers are working fine for me running Windows 10.
* MaximDL:
** To get the installer, I opened MaximDL on the old PC, and chose "Check for updates" from the menu. That took me to the Diffraction Limited website with a link to download the latest version, 6.22. This is a big jump from our installed 6.13. Reading release notes, it looks like there are number of improvements to guiding, including a multistar guiding mode.
** Basic installation from the downloaded installer was uneventful.
** Current filter order:
**# B
**# z'
**# V
**# Halpha_contin
**# Halpha
**# R
**# g'
**# r'
**# i'
**# u'
** Need to get settings copied over, and note filter order in the filter wheel in particular. It may be simplest to re-enter these manually using the above list. I saved current settings as a "Configuration" on the old computer, with the current date in the configuration name.
** Started MaxIm DL once on the new computer to enter the license info, and so it would create the Settings folder.
** Copied the Settings folder from old computer which was in Documents -> MaxIm DL 6. From that folder, I copied all of the text files (not the subfolders, which seem to be hardware/plugins) into the corresponding location on the new computer.
** Even with settings copied over, I had to go through the camera setup, to have it search the USB bus for the camera, and same for the filter wheel. But once the drivers were installed in the previous step, this worked fine in MaximDL. (I tried it once before installing those drivers, and it didn't work - so the separate install of drivers outside of MaximDL is definitely necessary.
** I entered the filter names as outlined above.
* ACP -
** On the old computer, I started ACP and exported the current profile, which saves everything in a zip file. Copied that zip file over to the new computer.
** Installed ACP from the installer, and all seemed to go smoothly.
** Now going through the setup process for ACP from the Users' Guide.
** Copied the Guide Star Catalog folder (needing for plate-solving) over from our old installation. This lives in C:\Users\Public\Documents\ACP Web Data\.
** Copied over our UserActions.wsc file from the old computer. Compared it to the template UserActions file (using Meld) to keep any changes to overall file since old ACP version, but insert our new code. Ran the command from ACP docs to register this file with Windows scripting services.
** Also copied the Python script for shutter control (<code>ShutterOpen.py</code>) to the C:\Program Files (x86)\ACP Obs Control folder (which is where UserActions lives as well).
* Anaconda Python. We need this to run the Arduino. Installed it and also added the <code>pyserial</code> library.
* [http://meldmerge.org/ Meld] for file comparison/merging.
* Tried to mount the tel_data disk as before, didn't work. Realized that I needed to enable NFS access for Windows. Followed instructions [https://docs.datafabric.hpe.com/61/AdministratorGuide/MountingNFSonWindowsClient.html here] to enable this, and make write access use the telescope:research UID and GID. Also set up a batch script to mount this, and put script in Startup folder.
* [https://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/Software Arduino IDE] to enable use of the Arduino over a USB port.
* Installed a driver for our Philips webcam SP900NC, but so far am unable to get it to work.

== Hardware / system settings ==

* Formatted D: drive as NTFS, named as "Telescope data".

== To consider for later ==

* Windows subsystem for Linux (enable via Control Panel --> Turn Windows Features On or Off). This enables installing a Linux distribution as well and running some Linux executables. I don't have a specific use case for this yet, but it's an interesting option to have.
* Anaconda Python distribution.

Notes on upgrading observatory computer to Windows 10, Summer 2020

2020-08-05T16:31:57Z

Ejensen1: /* Software installation */

Just as we did for the upgrade of the computer from Windows XP to Windows 7 in 2012, this page is to document the process of installing a new computer in the observatory, and noting any steps we need to take or problems we encountered. It is mostly for our own internal records, but perhaps it could help someone else installing observatory software as well.

== Software installation ==

* Installed UltraVNC on both old and new computers so we can transfer files easily via VNC.
* Installed ASCOM platform 6.5 from [http://www.ascom-standards.org/ here].
** As part of that installation, I found that the system required me to [https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/framework/install/dotnet-35-windows-10 enable Microsoft .NET 3.5 via the Control Panel]. Ultimately that only worked when logged in to my normal user account, not the telescope account; that is probably related to trying to contact the local Windows Update server, but not being logged into the Swarthmore domain. It worked just fine from my domain account.
* Installed the ASCOM 2X mount adapter for TheSky (used to be called "TheSky-controlled telescope driver") from [https://www.bisque.com/downloads/ascom2xmount-adaptor-installer/ the Software Bisque site], linked from [https://ascom-standards.org/Downloads/ScopeDrivers.htm the ASCOM page].
* The Edgeport/4 (USB-serial converter) - plug and play. Windows recognized it right away and set it up automatically. The COM ports show up in Device Manager as COM3, COM4, COM5, COM6, corresponding to ports 1-4 on the device.
* Now working on the RCOS TCC. This could be exciting as they went out of business and the software is so old. Fortunately we have [https://wikis.swarthmore.edu/telescope/index.php?title=Notes_on_upgrading_observatory_computer_to_Windows_7 good notes from the previous update].
# Download the full installation package (1.5.17) and the update (1.5.26) from the archived [https://www.rcopticalsystems.com/support/index.html RCOS support site]. I'm going to keep local copies of these installers this time, in case they disappear off the web.
# The last full installer there is 1.5.17, so download and install that first.
# Then download and copy over just the 1.5.26 RCOS-ae.exe file into the Program Files (x86) -> RCOS TCC folder, replacing the copy of RCOS-ae.exe in that folder.
# To get the presets from the old install, copy over the file RCOS.dat from the old installation. This has those values saved. There is also a file named RCOS-rotator.dat that I copied over, though I don't think we have saved much in the way of rotator settings.
# Based on last time, these programs can run into problems with Windows User Account Control, and need to be run as Administrator (at least once). This sequence worked:
#* Right-click the RCOS-ae executable and then choose "Properties", and in that dialog, select "Run as administrator." Answer "yes" in the resulting dialog about allowing the program to make modifications.
#* Do the same thing for the RCOS executable, again choosing "Run as administrator."
#* Having done that once, it now works to simply double-click the RCOS executable - so something about that initial run sets things up to work on subsequent runs.
# Connected to the telescope and tested this out - everything works! The RCOS TCC is set up on <code>COM3</code>.
* ACE SmartDome - I transferred the whole folder over from the old PC and put it in Program Files (x86). After a few false starts with bad serial cables, I made sure I had a known-working cable and it worked just fine.
* TheSkyX Professional - downloaded from Software Bisque website.
** The version there is nominally the same as what we have installed already, 10.5.0, but the build is quite a bit newer (10305 old vs. 12545 new).
** Initial installation was uneventful. Now to get settings transferred as much as possible so we don't have to transfer everything by hand. It looks like settings are stored in My Documents -> Software Bisque.
** Copied over the file <code>AppSettings</code> as well as several files from the subfolder "Field of View Indicators". On restarting TheSkyX, it has the correct FOV indicators, though I'm sure we'll need to configure some other things, including the telescope interface.
** Also three files (those that appeared to have been modified) into the subfolder "TPoint": "TPoint base run in", "TPoint base run outmod", "TPoint Settings.tptx". We may need to revisit the pointing model once we're up and running, since I believe it has shifted from being a standalone program to now being integrated within TheSkyX itself. And it wouldn't hurt to check the model, especially at low elevations.
** Had to go in and set up the mount manually. Chose "Paramount ME" as that is what we had specified before.
** After that was set up and we could connect to the mount (currently using a serial port connection - has been robust for us), go to "Tools" in the main Telescope panel in TheSkyX and choose "Bisque TCS". This connects to the mount and lets you set a few more parameters:
*** Under "Periodic Error Correction", choose "Get" to read the parameters from the mount, check that they look appropriate, then check the box for "Apply PEC".
*** The max slew speed was set to 20% because we have been having some issues with cold weather last winter. I set it back up to 70%, but we may want to revisit that when it cools down.
*** I read all parameters from the mount and saved them to a text file along with the drivers.
** Slightly out of order here (done after some of what is below), but to get an ASCOM connection to work from MaximDL, at one point I had to right-click on TheSkyX and choose "run as administrator". I'm not 100% sure that was the key factor in making it work, but it was suggested somewhere, and things started working right after that.
* Apogee Camera (U16M) and filter wheel (AFW-50-10S):
** This one required a little digging. Apogee sold to Andor a while back, who sold to Oxford Instruments. And although they have some links here and there that would seem relevant, all were dead ends, and it appears that the necessary drivers are no longer anywhere on their website, at least not that I could find.
** A little digging on the [https://forum.diffractionlimited.com/forums/maxim-dl.5/ MaximDL support forum] led to [https://forum.diffractionlimited.com/threads/windows-10-drivers-for-apogee-alta-u16m-camera.7086/#post-38195 this post], which revealed that the filename for the driver installer is apgSwInstall-x86. Searching for that string on the old computer revealed that I still had a downloaded copy of it from 2013! Good thing I didn't clear out the Downloads folder...
** After unzipping that file and running the installer, the camera and filter wheel showed up fine in the Device Manager, under "Apogee USB".
** Just for posterity, I'm going to link to my copy of the driver installer here: [https://astro.swarthmore.edu/telescope/old_drivers/apgSwInstall-x86.5.4.506.2907.zip apgSwInstall-x86.5.4.506.2907.zip]. That file is dated July 2013 (at least that's when I downloaded it) but as of July 2020, those drivers are working fine for me running Windows 10.
* MaximDL:
** To get the installer, I opened MaximDL on the old PC, and chose "Check for updates" from the menu. That took me to the Diffraction Limited website with a link to download the latest version, 6.22. This is a big jump from our installed 6.13. Reading release notes, it looks like there are number of improvements to guiding, including a multistar guiding mode.
** Basic installation from the downloaded installer was uneventful.
** Current filter order:
**# B
**# z'
**# V
**# Halpha_contin
**# Halpha
**# R
**# g'
**# r'
**# i'
**# u'
** Need to get settings copied over, and note filter order in the filter wheel in particular. It may be simplest to re-enter these manually using the above list. I saved current settings as a "Configuration" on the old computer, with the current date in the configuration name.
** Started MaxIm DL once on the new computer to enter the license info, and so it would create the Settings folder.
** Copied the Settings folder from old computer which was in Documents -> MaxIm DL 6. From that folder, I copied all of the text files (not the subfolders, which seem to be hardware/plugins) into the corresponding location on the new computer.
** Even with settings copied over, I had to go through the camera setup, to have it search the USB bus for the camera, and same for the filter wheel. But once the drivers were installed in the previous step, this worked fine in MaximDL. (I tried it once before installing those drivers, and it didn't work - so the separate install of drivers outside of MaximDL is definitely necessary.
** I entered the filter names as outlined above.
* ACP -
** On the old computer, I started ACP and exported the current profile, which saves everything in a zip file. Copied that zip file over to the new computer.
** Installed ACP from the installer, and all seemed to go smoothly.
** Now going through the setup process for ACP from the Users' Guide.
** Copied the Guide Star Catalog folder (needing for plate-solving) over from our old installation. This lives in C:\Users\Public\Documents\ACP Web Data\.
** Copied over our UserActions.wsc file from the old computer. Compared it to the template UserActions file (using Meld) to keep any changes to overall file since old ACP version, but insert our new code. Ran the command from ACP docs to register this file with Windows scripting services.
** Also copied the Python script for shutter control (<code>ShutterOpen.py</code>) to the C:\Program Files (x86)\ACP Obs Control folder (which is where UserActions lives as well).
* Anaconda Python. We need this to run the Arduino. Installed it and also added the <code>pyserial</code> library.
* Meld from [http://meldmerge.org/] for file comparison/merging.
* Tried to mount the tel_data disk as before, didn't work. Realized that I needed to enable NFS access for Windows. Followed instructions [https://docs.datafabric.hpe.com/61/AdministratorGuide/MountingNFSonWindowsClient.html here] to enable this, and make write access use the telescope:research UID and GID. Also set up a batch script to mount this, and put script in Startup folder.

== Hardware / system settings ==

* Formatted D: drive as NTFS, named as "Telescope data".

== To consider for later ==

* Windows subsystem for Linux (enable via Control Panel --> Turn Windows Features On or Off). This enables installing a Linux distribution as well and running some Linux executables. I don't have a specific use case for this yet, but it's an interesting option to have.
* Anaconda Python distribution.

Notes on upgrading observatory computer to Windows 10, Summer 2020

2020-08-03T21:17:11Z

Ejensen1: /* Software installation */

Just as we did for the upgrade of the computer from Windows XP to Windows 7 in 2012, this page is to document the process of installing a new computer in the observatory, and noting any steps we need to take or problems we encountered. It is mostly for our own internal records, but perhaps it could help someone else installing observatory software as well.

== Software installation ==

* Installed UltraVNC on both old and new computers so we can transfer files easily via VNC.
* Installed ASCOM platform 6.5 from [http://www.ascom-standards.org/ here].
** As part of that installation, I found that the system required me to [https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/framework/install/dotnet-35-windows-10 enable Microsoft .NET 3.5 via the Control Panel]. Ultimately that only worked when logged in to my normal user account, not the telescope account; that is probably related to trying to contact the local Windows Update server, but not being logged into the Swarthmore domain. It worked just fine from my domain account.
* Installed the ASCOM 2X mount adapter for TheSky (used to be called "TheSky-controlled telescope driver") from [https://www.bisque.com/downloads/ascom2xmount-adaptor-installer/ the Software Bisque site], linked from [https://ascom-standards.org/Downloads/ScopeDrivers.htm the ASCOM page].
* The Edgeport/4 (USB-serial converter) - plug and play. Windows recognized it right away and set it up automatically. The COM ports show up in Device Manager as COM3, COM4, COM5, COM6, corresponding to ports 1-4 on the device.
* Now working on the RCOS TCC. This could be exciting as they went out of business and the software is so old. Fortunately we have [https://wikis.swarthmore.edu/telescope/index.php?title=Notes_on_upgrading_observatory_computer_to_Windows_7 good notes from the previous update].
# Download the full installation package (1.5.17) and the update (1.5.26) from the archived [https://www.rcopticalsystems.com/support/index.html RCOS support site]. I'm going to keep local copies of these installers this time, in case they disappear off the web.
# The last full installer there is 1.5.17, so download and install that first.
# Then download and copy over just the 1.5.26 RCOS-ae.exe file into the Program Files (x86) -> RCOS TCC folder, replacing the copy of RCOS-ae.exe in that folder.
# To get the presets from the old install, copy over the file RCOS.dat from the old installation. This has those values saved. There is also a file named RCOS-rotator.dat that I copied over, though I don't think we have saved much in the way of rotator settings.
# Based on last time, these programs can run into problems with Windows User Account Control, and need to be run as Administrator (at least once). This sequence worked:
#* Right-click the RCOS-ae executable and then choose "Properties", and in that dialog, select "Run as administrator." Answer "yes" in the resulting dialog about allowing the program to make modifications.
#* Do the same thing for the RCOS executable, again choosing "Run as administrator."
#* Having done that once, it now works to simply double-click the RCOS executable - so something about that initial run sets things up to work on subsequent runs.
# Connected to the telescope and tested this out - everything works! The RCOS TCC is set up on <code>COM3</code>.
* ACE SmartDome - I transferred the whole folder over from the old PC and put it in Program Files (x86). After a few false starts with bad serial cables, I made sure I had a known-working cable and it worked just fine.
* TheSkyX Professional - downloaded from Software Bisque website.
** The version there is nominally the same as what we have installed already, 10.5.0, but the build is quite a bit newer (10305 old vs. 12545 new).
** Initial installation was uneventful. Now to get settings transferred as much as possible so we don't have to transfer everything by hand. It looks like settings are stored in My Documents -> Software Bisque.
** Copied over the file <code>AppSettings</code> as well as several files from the subfolder "Field of View Indicators". On restarting TheSkyX, it has the correct FOV indicators, though I'm sure we'll need to configure some other things, including the telescope interface.
** Also three files (those that appeared to have been modified) into the subfolder "TPoint": "TPoint base run in", "TPoint base run outmod", "TPoint Settings.tptx". We may need to revisit the pointing model once we're up and running, since I believe it has shifted from being a standalone program to now being integrated within TheSkyX itself. And it wouldn't hurt to check the model, especially at low elevations.
** Had to go in and set up the mount manually. Chose "Paramount ME" as that is what we had specified before.
** After that was set up and we could connect to the mount (currently using a serial port connection - has been robust for us), go to "Tools" in the main Telescope panel in TheSkyX and choose "Bisque TCS". This connects to the mount and lets you set a few more parameters:
*** Under "Periodic Error Correction", choose "Get" to read the parameters from the mount, check that they look appropriate, then check the box for "Apply PEC".
*** The max slew speed was set to 20% because we have been having some issues with cold weather last winter. I set it back up to 70%, but we may want to revisit that when it cools down.
*** I read all parameters from the mount and saved them to a text file along with the drivers.
** Slightly out of order here (done after some of what is below), but to get an ASCOM connection to work from MaximDL, at one point I had to right-click on TheSkyX and choose "run as administrator". I'm not 100% sure that was the key factor in making it work, but it was suggested somewhere, and things started working right after that.
* Apogee Camera (U16M) and filter wheel (AFW-50-10S):
** This one required a little digging. Apogee sold to Andor a while back, who sold to Oxford Instruments. And although they have some links here and there that would seem relevant, all were dead ends, and it appears that the necessary drivers are no longer anywhere on their website, at least not that I could find.
** A little digging on the [https://forum.diffractionlimited.com/forums/maxim-dl.5/ MaximDL support forum] led to [https://forum.diffractionlimited.com/threads/windows-10-drivers-for-apogee-alta-u16m-camera.7086/#post-38195 this post], which revealed that the filename for the driver installer is apgSwInstall-x86. Searching for that string on the old computer revealed that I still had a downloaded copy of it from 2013! Good thing I didn't clear out the Downloads folder...
** After unzipping that file and running the installer, the camera and filter wheel showed up fine in the Device Manager, under "Apogee USB".
** Just for posterity, I'm going to link to my copy of the driver installer here: [https://astro.swarthmore.edu/telescope/old_drivers/apgSwInstall-x86.5.4.506.2907.zip apgSwInstall-x86.5.4.506.2907.zip]. That file is dated July 2013 (at least that's when I downloaded it) but as of July 2020, those drivers are working fine for me running Windows 10.
* MaximDL:
** To get the installer, I opened MaximDL on the old PC, and chose "Check for updates" from the menu. That took me to the Diffraction Limited website with a link to download the latest version, 6.22. This is a big jump from our installed 6.13. Reading release notes, it looks like there are number of improvements to guiding, including a multistar guiding mode.
** Basic installation from the downloaded installer was uneventful.
** Current filter order:
**# B
**# z'
**# V
**# Halpha_contin
**# Halpha
**# R
**# g'
**# r'
**# i'
**# u'
** Need to get settings copied over, and note filter order in the filter wheel in particular. It may be simplest to re-enter these manually using the above list. I saved current settings as a "Configuration" on the old computer, with the current date in the configuration name.
** Started MaxIm DL once on the new computer to enter the license info, and so it would create the Settings folder.
** Copied the Settings folder from old computer which was in Documents -> MaxIm DL 6. From that folder, I copied all of the text files (not the subfolders, which seem to be hardware/plugins) into the corresponding location on the new computer.
** Even with settings copied over, I had to go through the camera setup, to have it search the USB bus for the camera, and same for the filter wheel. But once the drivers were installed in the previous step, this worked fine in MaximDL. (I tried it once before installing those drivers, and it didn't work - so the separate install of drivers outside of MaximDL is definitely necessary.
** I entered the filter names as outlined above.
* ACP -
** On the old computer, I started ACP and exported the current profile, which saves everything in a zip file. Copied that zip file over to the new computer.
** Installed ACP from the installer, and all seemed to go smoothly.
** Now going through the setup process for ACP from the Users' Guide.
** Copied the Guide Star Catalog folder (needing for plate-solving) over from our old installation. This lives in C:\Users\Public\Documents\ACP Web Data\.
**
* Anaconda Python. We need this to run the Arduino. Installed it and also added the <code>pyserial</code> library.

== Hardware / system settings ==

* Formatted D: drive as NTFS, named as "Telescope data".

== To consider for later ==

* Windows subsystem for Linux (enable via Control Panel --> Turn Windows Features On or Off). This enables installing a Linux distribution as well and running some Linux executables. I don't have a specific use case for this yet, but it's an interesting option to have.
* Anaconda Python distribution.

Notes on upgrading observatory computer to Windows 10, Summer 2020

2020-08-03T19:59:33Z

Ejensen1: /* Software installation */

Just as we did for the upgrade of the computer from Windows XP to Windows 7 in 2012, this page is to document the process of installing a new computer in the observatory, and noting any steps we need to take or problems we encountered. It is mostly for our own internal records, but perhaps it could help someone else installing observatory software as well.

== Software installation ==

* Installed UltraVNC on both old and new computers so we can transfer files easily via VNC.
* Installed ASCOM platform 6.5 from [http://www.ascom-standards.org/ here].
** As part of that installation, I found that the system required me to [https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/framework/install/dotnet-35-windows-10 enable Microsoft .NET 3.5 via the Control Panel]. Ultimately that only worked when logged in to my normal user account, not the telescope account; that is probably related to trying to contact the local Windows Update server, but not being logged into the Swarthmore domain. It worked just fine from my domain account.
* Installed the ASCOM 2X mount adapter for TheSky (used to be called "TheSky-controlled telescope driver") from [https://www.bisque.com/downloads/ascom2xmount-adaptor-installer/ the Software Bisque site], linked from [https://ascom-standards.org/Downloads/ScopeDrivers.htm the ASCOM page].
* The Edgeport/4 (USB-serial converter) - plug and play. Windows recognized it right away and set it up automatically. The COM ports show up in Device Manager as COM3, COM4, COM5, COM6, corresponding to ports 1-4 on the device.
* Now working on the RCOS TCC. This could be exciting as they went out of business and the software is so old. Fortunately we have [https://wikis.swarthmore.edu/telescope/index.php?title=Notes_on_upgrading_observatory_computer_to_Windows_7 good notes from the previous update].
# Download the full installation package (1.5.17) and the update (1.5.26) from the archived [https://www.rcopticalsystems.com/support/index.html RCOS support site]. I'm going to keep local copies of these installers this time, in case they disappear off the web.
# The last full installer there is 1.5.17, so download and install that first.
# Then download and copy over just the 1.5.26 RCOS-ae.exe file into the Program Files (x86) -> RCOS TCC folder, replacing the copy of RCOS-ae.exe in that folder.
# To get the presets from the old install, copy over the file RCOS.dat from the old installation. This has those values saved. There is also a file named RCOS-rotator.dat that I copied over, though I don't think we have saved much in the way of rotator settings.
# Based on last time, these programs can run into problems with Windows User Account Control, and need to be run as Administrator (at least once). This sequence worked:
#* Right-click the RCOS-ae executable and then choose "Properties", and in that dialog, select "Run as administrator." Answer "yes" in the resulting dialog about allowing the program to make modifications.
#* Do the same thing for the RCOS executable, again choosing "Run as administrator."
#* Having done that once, it now works to simply double-click the RCOS executable - so something about that initial run sets things up to work on subsequent runs.
# Connected to the telescope and tested this out - everything works! The RCOS TCC is set up on <code>COM3</code>.
* ACE SmartDome - I transferred the whole folder over from the old PC and put it in Program Files (x86). After a few false starts with bad serial cables, I made sure I had a known-working cable and it worked just fine.
* TheSkyX Professional - downloaded from Software Bisque website.
** The version there is nominally the same as what we have installed already, 10.5.0, but the build is quite a bit newer (10305 old vs. 12545 new).
** Initial installation was uneventful. Now to get settings transferred as much as possible so we don't have to transfer everything by hand. It looks like settings are stored in My Documents -> Software Bisque.
** Copied over the file <code>AppSettings</code> as well as several files from the subfolder "Field of View Indicators". On restarting TheSkyX, it has the correct FOV indicators, though I'm sure we'll need to configure some other things, including the telescope interface.
** Also three files (those that appeared to have been modified) into the subfolder "TPoint": "TPoint base run in", "TPoint base run outmod", "TPoint Settings.tptx". We may need to revisit the pointing model once we're up and running, since I believe it has shifted from being a standalone program to now being integrated within TheSkyX itself. And it wouldn't hurt to check the model, especially at low elevations.
** Had to go in and set up the mount manually. Chose "Paramount ME" as that is what we had specified before.
** After that was set up and we could connect to the mount (currently using a serial port connection - has been robust for us), go to "Tools" in the main Telescope panel in TheSkyX and choose "Bisque TCS". This connects to the mount and lets you set a few more parameters:
*** Under "Periodic Error Correction", choose "Get" to read the parameters from the mount, check that they look appropriate, then check the box for "Apply PEC".
*** The max slew speed was set to 20% because we have been having some issues with cold weather last winter. I set it back up to 70%, but we may want to revisit that when it cools down.
*** I read all parameters from the mount and saved them to a text file along with the drivers.
** Slightly out of order here (done after some of what is below), but to get an ASCOM connection to work from MaximDL, at one point I had to right-click on TheSkyX and choose "run as administrator". I'm not 100% sure that was the key factor in making it work, but it was suggested somewhere, and things started working right after that.
* Apogee Camera (U16M) and filter wheel (AFW-50-10S):
** This one required a little digging. Apogee sold to Andor a while back, who sold to Oxford Instruments. And although they have some links here and there that would seem relevant, all were dead ends, and it appears that the necessary drivers are no longer anywhere on their website, at least not that I could find.
** A little digging on the [https://forum.diffractionlimited.com/forums/maxim-dl.5/ MaximDL support forum] led to [https://forum.diffractionlimited.com/threads/windows-10-drivers-for-apogee-alta-u16m-camera.7086/#post-38195 this post], which revealed that the filename for the driver installer is apgSwInstall-x86. Searching for that string on the old computer revealed that I still had a downloaded copy of it from 2013! Good thing I didn't clear out the Downloads folder...
** After unzipping that file and running the installer, the camera and filter wheel showed up fine in the Device Manager, under "Apogee USB".
** Just for posterity, I'm going to link to my copy of the driver installer here: [https://astro.swarthmore.edu/telescope/old_drivers/apgSwInstall-x86.5.4.506.2907.zip apgSwInstall-x86.5.4.506.2907.zip]. That file is dated July 2013 (at least that's when I downloaded it) but as of July 2020, those drivers are working fine for me running Windows 10.
* MaximDL:
** To get the installer, I opened MaximDL on the old PC, and chose "Check for updates" from the menu. That took me to the Diffraction Limited website with a link to download the latest version, 6.22. This is a big jump from our installed 6.13. Reading release notes, it looks like there are number of improvements to guiding, including a multistar guiding mode.
** Basic installation from the downloaded installer was uneventful.
** Current filter order:
**# B
**# z'
**# V
**# Halpha_contin
**# Halpha
**# R
**# g'
**# r'
**# i'
**# u'
** Need to get settings copied over, and note filter order in the filter wheel in particular. It may be simplest to re-enter these manually using the above list. I saved current settings as a "Configuration" on the old computer, with the current date in the configuration name.
** Started MaxIm DL once on the new computer to enter the license info, and so it would create the Settings folder.
** Copied the Settings folder from old computer which was in Documents -> MaxIm DL 6. From that folder, I copied all of the text files (not the subfolders, which seem to be hardware/plugins) into the corresponding location on the new computer.
** Even with settings copied over, I had to go through the camera setup, to have it search the USB bus for the camera, and same for the filter wheel. But once the drivers were installed in the previous step, this worked fine in MaximDL. (I tried it once before installing those drivers, and it didn't work - so the separate install of drivers outside of MaximDL is definitely necessary.
** I entered the filter names as outlined above.
* ACP -
** On the old computer, I started ACP and exported the current profile, which saves everything in a zip file. Copied that zip file over to the new computer.
** Installed ACP from the installer, and all seemed to go smoothly.
* Anaconda Python. We need this to run the Arduino. Installed it and also added the <code>pyserial</code> library.

== Hardware / system settings ==

* Formatted D: drive as NTFS, named as "Telescope data".

== To consider for later ==

* Windows subsystem for Linux (enable via Control Panel --> Turn Windows Features On or Off). This enables installing a Linux distribution as well and running some Linux executables. I don't have a specific use case for this yet, but it's an interesting option to have.
* Anaconda Python distribution.

Notes on upgrading observatory computer to Windows 10, Summer 2020

2020-08-03T19:58:44Z

Ejensen1: /* Software installation */

Just as we did for the upgrade of the computer from Windows XP to Windows 7 in 2012, this page is to document the process of installing a new computer in the observatory, and noting any steps we need to take or problems we encountered. It is mostly for our own internal records, but perhaps it could help someone else installing observatory software as well.

== Software installation ==

* Installed UltraVNC on both old and new computers so we can transfer files easily via VNC.
* Installed ASCOM platform 6.5 from [http://www.ascom-standards.org/ here].
** As part of that installation, I found that the system required me to [https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/framework/install/dotnet-35-windows-10 enable Microsoft .NET 3.5 via the Control Panel]. Ultimately that only worked when logged in to my normal user account, not the telescope account; that is probably related to trying to contact the local Windows Update server, but not being logged into the Swarthmore domain. It worked just fine from my domain account.
* Installed the ASCOM 2X mount adapter for TheSky (used to be called "TheSky-controlled telescope driver") from [https://www.bisque.com/downloads/ascom2xmount-adaptor-installer/ the Software Bisque site], linked from [https://ascom-standards.org/Downloads/ScopeDrivers.htm the ASCOM page].
* The Edgeport/4 (USB-serial converter) - plug and play. Windows recognized it right away and set it up automatically. The COM ports show up in Device Manager as COM3, COM4, COM5, COM6, corresponding to ports 1-4 on the device.
* Now working on the RCOS TCC. This could be exciting as they went out of business and the software is so old. Fortunately we have [https://wikis.swarthmore.edu/telescope/index.php?title=Notes_on_upgrading_observatory_computer_to_Windows_7 good notes from the previous update].
# Download the full installation package (1.5.17) and the update (1.5.26) from the archived [https://www.rcopticalsystems.com/support/index.html RCOS support site]. I'm going to keep local copies of these installers this time, in case they disappear off the web.
# The last full installer there is 1.5.17, so download and install that first.
# Then download and copy over just the 1.5.26 RCOS-ae.exe file into the Program Files (x86) -> RCOS TCC folder, replacing the copy of RCOS-ae.exe in that folder.
# To get the presets from the old install, copy over the file RCOS.dat from the old installation. This has those values saved. There is also a file named RCOS-rotator.dat that I copied over, though I don't think we have saved much in the way of rotator settings.
# Based on last time, these programs can run into problems with Windows User Account Control, and need to be run as Administrator (at least once). This sequence worked:
#* Right-click the RCOS-ae executable and then choose "Properties", and in that dialog, select "Run as administrator." Answer "yes" in the resulting dialog about allowing the program to make modifications.
#* Do the same thing for the RCOS executable, again choosing "Run as administrator."
#* Having done that once, it now works to simply double-click the RCOS executable - so something about that initial run sets things up to work on subsequent runs.
# Connected to the telescope and tested this out - everything works! The RCOS TCC is set up on <code>COM3</code>.
* ACE SmartDome - I transferred the whole folder over from the old PC and put it in Program Files (x86). After a few false starts with bad serial cables, I made sure I had a known-working cable and it worked just fine.
* TheSkyX Professional - downloaded from Software Bisque website.
** The version there is nominally the same as what we have installed already, 10.5.0, but the build is quite a bit newer (10305 old vs. 12545 new).
** Initial installation was uneventful. Now to get settings transferred as much as possible so we don't have to transfer everything by hand. It looks like settings are stored in My Documents -> Software Bisque.
** Copied over the file <code>AppSettings</code> as well as several files from the subfolder "Field of View Indicators". On restarting TheSkyX, it has the correct FOV indicators, though I'm sure we'll need to configure some other things, including the telescope interface.
** Also three files (those that appeared to have been modified) into the subfolder "TPoint": "TPoint base run in", "TPoint base run outmod", "TPoint Settings.tptx". We may need to revisit the pointing model once we're up and running, since I believe it has shifted from being a standalone program to now being integrated within TheSkyX itself. And it wouldn't hurt to check the model, especially at low elevations.
** Had to go in and set up the mount manually. Chose "Paramount ME" as that is what we had specified before.
** After that was set up and we could connect to the mount (currently using a serial port connection - has been robust for us), go to "Tools" in the main Telescope panel in TheSkyX and choose "Bisque TCS". This connects to the mount and lets you set a few more parameters:
*** Under "Periodic Error Correction", choose "Get" to read the parameters from the mount, check that they look appropriate, then check the box for "Apply PEC".
*** The max slew speed was set to 20% because we have been having some issues with cold weather last winter. I set it back up to 70%, but we may want to revisit that when it cools down.
*** I read all parameters from the mount and saved them to a text file along with the drivers.
** Slightly out of order here (done after some of what is below), but to get an ASCOM connection to work from MaximDL, at one point I had to right-click on TheSkyX and choose "run as administrator". I'm not 100% sure that was the key factor in making it work, but it was suggested somewhere, and things started working right after that.
* Apogee Camera (U16M) and filter wheel (AFW-50-10S):
** This one required a little digging. Apogee sold to Andor a while back, who sold to Oxford Instruments. And although they have some links here and there that would seem relevant, all were dead ends, and it appears that the necessary drivers are no longer anywhere on their website, at least not that I could find.
** A little digging on the [https://forum.diffractionlimited.com/forums/maxim-dl.5/ MaximDL support forum] led to [https://forum.diffractionlimited.com/threads/windows-10-drivers-for-apogee-alta-u16m-camera.7086/#post-38195 this post], which revealed that the filename for the driver installer is apgSwInstall-x86. Searching for that string on the old computer revealed that I still had a downloaded copy of it from 2013! Good thing I didn't clear out the Downloads folder...
** After unzipping that file and running the installer, the camera and filter wheel showed up fine in the Device Manager, under "Apogee USB".
** Just for posterity, I'm going to link to my copy of the driver installer here: [https://astro.swarthmore.edu/telescope/old_drivers/apgSwInstall-x86.5.4.506.2907.zip apgSwInstall-x86.5.4.506.2907.zip]. That file is dated July 2013 (at least that's when I downloaded it) but as of July 2020, those drivers are working fine for me running Windows 10.
* MaximDL:
** To get the installer, I opened MaximDL on the old PC, and chose "Check for updates" from the menu. That took me to the Diffraction Limited website with a link to download the latest version, 6.22. This is a big jump from our installed 6.13. Reading release notes, it looks like there are number of improvements to guiding, including a multistar guiding mode.
** Basic installation from the downloaded installer was uneventful.
** Current filter order:
**# B
**# z'
**# V
**# Halpha_contin
**# Halpha
**# R
**# g'
**# r'
**# i'
**# u'
** Need to get settings copied over, and note filter order in the filter wheel in particular. It may be simplest to re-enter these manually using the above list. I saved current settings as a "Configuration" on the old computer, with the current date in the configuration name.
** Started MaxIm DL once on the new computer to enter the license info, and so it would create the Settings folder.
** Copied the Settings folder from old computer which was in Documents -> MaxIm DL 6. From that folder, I copied all of the text files (not the subfolders, which seem to be hardware/plugins) into the corresponding location on the new computer.
** Even with settings copied over, I had to go through the camera setup, to have it search the USB bus for the camera, and same for the filter wheel. But once the drivers were installed in the previous step, this worked fine in MaximDL. (I tried it once before installing those drivers, and it didn't work - so the separate install of drivers outside of MaximDL is definitely necessary.
** I entered the filter names as outlined above.
* ACP -
** On the old computer, I started ACP and exported the current profile, which saves everything in a zip file. Copied that zip file over to the new computer.
* Anaconda Python. We need this to run the Arduino. Installed it and also added the <code>pyserial</code> library.

== Hardware / system settings ==

* Formatted D: drive as NTFS, named as "Telescope data".

== To consider for later ==

* Windows subsystem for Linux (enable via Control Panel --> Turn Windows Features On or Off). This enables installing a Linux distribution as well and running some Linux executables. I don't have a specific use case for this yet, but it's an interesting option to have.
* Anaconda Python distribution.

Notes on upgrading observatory computer to Windows 10, Summer 2020

2020-07-30T15:52:48Z

Ejensen1: /* Software installation */

Notes on upgrading observatory computer to Windows 10, Summer 2020

2020-07-30T15:50:24Z

Ejensen1: /* Software installation */

Notes on upgrading observatory computer to Windows 10, Summer 2020

2020-07-30T15:46:30Z

Ejensen1: /* Software installation */

Notes on upgrading observatory computer to Windows 10, Summer 2020

2020-07-30T15:34:07Z

Ejensen1: /* Software installation */

Notes on upgrading observatory computer to Windows 10, Summer 2020

2020-07-30T15:31:05Z

Ejensen1: /* Software installation */

Notes on upgrading observatory computer to Windows 10, Summer 2020

2020-07-29T16:48:39Z

Ejensen1: /* Software installation */

Notes on upgrading observatory computer to Windows 10, Summer 2020

2020-07-29T16:47:55Z

Ejensen1: /* Software installation */

Notes on upgrading observatory computer to Windows 10, Summer 2020

2020-07-28T21:06:29Z

Ejensen1: /* Software installation */

Notes on upgrading observatory computer to Windows 10, Summer 2020

2020-07-28T20:40:32Z

Ejensen1: /* Software installation */

Notes on upgrading observatory computer to Windows 10, Summer 2020

2020-07-28T20:40:00Z

Ejensen1: /* Software installation */

Notes on upgrading observatory computer to Windows 10, Summer 2020

2020-07-28T19:54:33Z

Ejensen1: /* Software installation */

Notes on upgrading observatory computer to Windows 10, Summer 2020

2020-07-28T19:41:59Z

Ejensen1: /* Software installation */

Notes on upgrading observatory computer to Windows 10, Summer 2020

2020-07-28T19:29:24Z

Ejensen1: /* Software installation */

Notes on upgrading observatory computer to Windows 10, Summer 2020

2020-07-28T19:28:48Z

Ejensen1: /* Software installation */

Notes on upgrading observatory computer to Windows 10, Summer 2020

2020-07-28T19:24:19Z

Ejensen1: /* Software installation */

Notes on upgrading observatory computer to Windows 10, Summer 2020

2020-07-28T19:23:34Z

Ejensen1: /* Software installation */

Notes on upgrading observatory computer to Windows 10, Summer 2020

2020-07-28T19:10:23Z

Ejensen1: /* Software installation */

Notes on upgrading observatory computer to Windows 10, Summer 2020

2020-07-28T19:06:43Z

Ejensen1: /* Software installation */

Notes on upgrading observatory computer to Windows 10, Summer 2020

2020-07-25T13:43:03Z

Ejensen1: /* To consider for later */

Notes on upgrading observatory computer to Windows 10, Summer 2020

2020-07-25T13:39:31Z

Ejensen1:

Notes on upgrading observatory computer to Windows 10, Summer 2020

2020-07-25T13:34:59Z

Ejensen1:

Notes on upgrading observatory computer to Windows 10, Summer 2020

2020-07-25T13:33:01Z

Ejensen1: /* Software installation */

Notes on upgrading observatory computer to Windows 10, Summer 2020

2020-07-25T13:23:05Z

Ejensen1: /* Software installation */

Notes on upgrading observatory computer to Windows 10, Summer 2020

2020-07-24T21:05:43Z

Ejensen1: /* Hardware / system settings */

Notes on upgrading observatory computer to Windows 10, Summer 2020

2020-07-24T20:48:35Z

Ejensen1: RCOS TCC install notes

Notes on upgrading observatory computer to Windows 10, Summer 2020

2020-07-24T20:32:00Z

Ejensen1:

Notes on upgrading observatory computer to Windows 10, Summer 2020

2020-07-24T20:29:42Z

Ejensen1: /* Software installation */

Notes on upgrading observatory computer to Windows 10, Summer 2020

2020-07-24T20:22:40Z

Ejensen1:

Notes on upgrading observatory computer to Windows 10, Summer 2020

2020-07-24T20:05:12Z

Ejensen1: /* Software installation */

Notes on upgrading observatory computer to Windows 10, Summer 2020

2020-07-24T20:04:27Z

Ejensen1:

Notes on upgrading observatory computer to Windows 10, Summer 2020

2020-07-24T18:47:55Z

Ejensen1: Initial creation

Main Page

2020-07-24T18:30:11Z

Ejensen1:

<big>Swarthmore College Observatory Wiki</big>

This website is for information relating to commissioning and operation of the Peter van de Kamp Observatory, funded by the National Science Foundation through its Program for Research and Education with Small Telescopes.

== Observatory ==
* [[Location|Location: 39 degrees 54.426 minutes N latitude, 75 degrees 21.333 minutes W longitude]]
* [http://astro.swarthmore.edu/observatory_directions/index.html Directions]

== Telescope ==
* [http://www.rcopticalsystems.com/telescopes/24truss.html RCOS 0.61m]

== Instrumentation ==
We do both imaging and photometry with the Apogee large-format CCD camera and the filter wheel. We use the eShel spectrograph in conjunction with the SBIG camera for spectroscopy. The spectrograph and its camera along with its calibration unit are in the control room.

* [http://www.ccd.com/alta_u16m.html Apogee U16M] 4096x4096 pixel camera, 9-micron pixels; 0.39 arcsec per pixel (unbinned) and 26.6 arcmin full field of view
* [http://www.ccd.com/filterwheels.html Apogee filter wheel] with [http://www.omegafilters.com/index.php?page=prod_astro_index Omega Optical 50 mm square filters], Johnson-Cousins UBVRCIC and SDSS u'g'r'i'z'
* [http://www.shelyak.com/rubrique.php?id_rubrique=7&lang=2 Shelyak eShel] fiber-fed echelle spectrograph with SBIG ST-10 camera
* Eyepieces

== Equipment and Technical Information ==
* [[Spectrograph Setup]]
* [[Dome Control]]
* [[Software/hardware troubleshooting and workarounds]]
* [[Apogee Alta Test Report|Apogee Alta U16M Test Report (read noise, dark current)]]
* [[Slit Width and Resolution]]
* [[Autoguiding|Autoguiding]]

== Documentation ==
* [[Documentation| Software/Hardware Manuals]]
* [[Local operation documentation]]
* [[Focusing the telescope]]
* [[Notes on upgrading observatory computer to Windows 7]]
* [[Notes on upgrading observatory computer to Windows 10, Summer 2020]]
* [[Notes on software updates - log any new/updated software here]]
* [[Observing Log|Observing Log (PDF template for paper log sheet in control room)]]
* [[Problem reports]]



== Wiki Information ==
* MediaWiki [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Cheatsheet Cheat Sheet] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:How_to_edit_a_page How To Edit a Page]
* [[Sandbox]]

Main Page

2020-07-24T18:28:20Z

Ejensen1: /* Documentation */

<big>Swarthmore College Observatory Wiki</big>

This website is for information relating to commissioning and operation of the Peter van de Kamp Observatory, funded by the National Science Foundation through its Program for Research and Education with Small Telescopes.

== Observatory ==
* [[Location|Location: 39 degrees 54.426 minutes N latitude, 75 degrees 21.333 minutes W longitude]]
* [http://astro.swarthmore.edu/observatory_directions/index.html Directions]

== Telescope ==
* [http://www.rcopticalsystems.com/telescopes/24truss.html RCOS 0.61m]

== Instrumentation ==
We do both imaging and photometry with the Apogee large-format CCD camera and the filter wheel. We use the eShel spectrograph in conjunction with the SBIG camera for spectroscopy. The spectrograph and its camera along with its calibration unit are in the control room.

* [http://www.ccd.com/alta_u16m.html Apogee U16M] 4096x4096 pixel camera, 9-micron pixels; 0.39 arcsec per pixel (unbinned) and 26.6 arcmin full field of view
* [http://www.ccd.com/filterwheels.html Apogee filter wheel] with [http://www.omegafilters.com/index.php?page=prod_astro_index Omega Optical 50 mm square filters], Johnson-Cousins UBVRCIC and SDSS u'g'r'i'z'
* [http://www.shelyak.com/rubrique.php?id_rubrique=7&lang=2 Shelyak eShel] fiber-fed echelle spectrograph with SBIG ST-10 camera
* Eyepieces

== Equipment and Technical Information ==
* [[Spectrograph Setup]]
* [[Dome Control]]
* [[Software/hardware troubleshooting and workarounds]]
* [[Apogee Alta Test Report|Apogee Alta U16M Test Report (read noise, dark current)]]
* [[Slit Width and Resolution]]
* [[Autoguiding|Autoguiding]]

== Documentation ==
* [[Documentation| Software/Hardware Manuals]]
* [[Local operation documentation]]
* [[Focusing the telescope]]
* [[Notes on upgrading observatory computer to Windows 7, Summer 2012]]
* [[Notes on upgrading observatory computer to Windows 10, Summer 2020]]
* [[Notes on software updates - log any new/updated software here]]
* [[Observing Log|Observing Log (PDF template for paper log sheet in control room)]]
* [[Problem reports]]



== Wiki Information ==
* MediaWiki [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Cheatsheet Cheat Sheet] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:How_to_edit_a_page How To Edit a Page]
* [[Sandbox]]

Notes on software updates - log any new/updated software here

2015-06-19T19:51:17Z

Ejensen1:

== Software updates and upgrades, June 2015 ==

Upgraded MaximDL from v 5.23 to v 6.08, week of June 8, 2015. Copied settings from MaximDL 5 settings folder, all seemed to work fine. MaximDL 5 is still installed. ACP will use whichever version was last started manually.

Installed TheSkyX. TheSky6 is still installed. ACP will use the version specified in the ASCOM chooser. (Do telescope setup within ACP.) Initial tests show that guiding is not working properly. Probably need to upgrade ASCOM driver.

June 19: Updated [http://ascom-standards.org/ ASCOM platform] from 6.0 SP1 (6.0.0.0) to 6.1 SP1 (6.1.1.2627).

Notes on software updates - log any new/updated software here

2015-06-19T19:43:39Z

Ejensen1: Initial creation.

Main Page

2015-06-19T19:39:09Z

Ejensen1: Added link to page on software updates

<big>Swarthmore College Observatory Wiki</big>

This website is for information relating to commissioning and operation of the Peter van de Kamp Observatory, funded by the National Science Foundation through its Program for Research and Education with Small Telescopes.

== Observatory ==
* [[Location|Location: 39 degrees 54.426 minutes N latitude, 75 degrees 21.333 minutes W longitude]]
* [http://astro.swarthmore.edu/observatory_directions/index.html Directions]

== Telescope ==
* [http://www.rcopticalsystems.com/telescopes/24truss.html RCOS 0.61m]

== Instrumentation ==
We do both imaging and photometry with the Apogee large-format CCD camera and the filter wheel. We use the eShel spectrograph in conjunction with the SBIG camera for spectroscopy. The spectrograph and its camera along with its calibration unit are in the control room.

* [http://www.ccd.com/alta_u16m.html Apogee U16M] 4096x4096 pixel camera, 9-micron pixels; 0.39 arcsec per pixel (unbinned) and 26.6 arcmin full field of view
* [http://www.ccd.com/filterwheels.html Apogee filter wheel] with [http://www.omegafilters.com/index.php?page=prod_astro_index Omega Optical 50 mm square filters], Johnson-Cousins UBVRCIC and SDSS u'g'r'i'z'
* [http://www.shelyak.com/rubrique.php?id_rubrique=7&lang=2 Shelyak eShel] fiber-fed echelle spectrograph with SBIG ST-10 camera
* Eyepieces

== Equipment and Technical Information ==
* [[Spectrograph Setup]]
* [[Dome Control]]
* [[Software/hardware troubleshooting and workarounds]]
* [[Apogee Alta Test Report|Apogee Alta U16M Test Report (read noise, dark current)]]
* [[Slit Width and Resolution]]
* [[Autoguiding|Autoguiding]]

== Documentation ==
* [[Documentation| Software/Hardware Manuals]]
* [[Local operation documentation]]
* [[Focusing the telescope]]
* [[Notes on upgrading observatory computer to Windows 7]]
* [[Notes on software updates - log any new/updated software here]]
* [[Observing Log|Observing Log (PDF template for paper log sheet in control room)]]
* [[Problem reports]]



== Wiki Information ==
* MediaWiki [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Cheatsheet Cheat Sheet] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:How_to_edit_a_page How To Edit a Page]
* [[Sandbox]]

Problem reports

2013-04-05T14:22:49Z

Ejensen1: Added text about resolution of these problems. Added info about problems with guiding.

1 Feb 2013: Six good hours of observing with a chain of ACP scripts, last script ended about 1:30 AM (darks and biases), scope pointing to the west and low. Scope doesn't home automatically (should it?) so I home it via The Sky and the software reports slewing but it never reports reaching home. I go to the observatory, physically, and find the scope's RA alarm on and the scope pointing west still. The Sky seems to have lost contact with the scope.

9 Feb 2013: Ran a YETI 2x2 mosaic field. Then separately started up darks plan then an autoguided KELT field chained to a dawn flats + bias plan. In the morning, the science data were taken, but the dawn flats and biases weren't. Telescope low and west, RA alarm going off, The Sky hung (dialog box showing slewing was going).

14 Feb 2013: Had some strange guiding problems (star looked strong, pointing kept drifting away). Turned out (the next day) that the guide settings had been messed with somehow - the manual calibration speeds and angle were off, quite off in the case of x. The next evening we did a calibration and it worked and those values were reset to something reasonable.

17 Feb 2013: Smooth start up of script (R band transit with autoguiding); manually aborted the ACP plan simply to change the exposure time, but when we started the plan back up, MaximDL hung. We had to restart all the hardware (just restarting MaximDL wasn't enough - camera connection couldn't be made), and then reconnect the software (didn't restart the computer, just the scope and camera, and made sure the dome was homed).

The plan started up fine. But a few minutes into it, guiding started acting funny again (much like 14 Feb) but the settings look OK.

18 Feb 2013: switching plans at 11pm, autoguiding problems upon starting the second plan (after Eric saw similar problems related to 1x1 binning, but then he got it working by bypassing ACP). Image is 1x1, and after just taking the first full-frame guide camera image, it doesn't really seem to be trying to start autoguiding.

After watching it take unguided images, continually failing to start autoguiding, for 20 minutes, I aborted the script (which MaximDL was not exposing an image, but rather while it was plate-solving the just-downloaded image. Then I simply took a guide camera image with MaximDL (it was 2x2 and looked good), started guiding, and it ran fine. After a couple of minutes, I started the Kelt target plan, and it started up fine, took the pointing image, the first target image, guiding kept running seamlessly. ACP console reported "guider check OK." Few minutes later and everything's still going fine. A few hours later and everything's going fine.

21 Feb 2013: Problems with guiding, similar to some of the stuff we've seen the last few weeks. Plan started up, autoguiding started up just fine (from within the plan). Images (both science and guide) looked fine. But after a few minutes, the guide errors got bigger and systematic -- always in one direction. ACP stopped guiding because of the big errors. I aborted the plan. Took a guide image directly with MaximDL and started guiding from MaximDL. Once I verified it was going well, I started the plan anew, but MaximDL crashed after taking the first image. Homed and shut down the hardware. Closed all software. Started hardware and software back up. Started up the plan (without getting guiding going separately in MaximDL), and everything seemed to work fine. It's 20 minutes later and everything, including the guiding, is going smoothly. While the guiding was having its problems, I verified that the guide camera image was 2x2 binned. And it was.

24 Feb 2013: YETI 2x2 observing went just fine; there was a brief power outage on campus, but while the Mac in the control room went down, everything in the dome continued to operate normally and observing was never interrupted. After the YETI observing (and dark-taking) ended around midnight, I did some recreational observing till 5pm (automated) and then dawn flats in three filters were taken, without a problem. (The last few weeks, long periods of inactivity seemed to make the system more likely to fail when ACP finally issued pointing commands to the telescope via the Sky; that didn't happen this time, perhaps because the scope was actively being used for most of that time; and also, therefore, not tracking far to the west.)

19 Mar 2013: (after aborting and restarting a plan) autoguiding ran away in one direction, despite having a nice bright star; ACP stopped it eventually, restarted, and it went fine for a few minutes but then started systematically drifting away again. (A few days later: in retrospect, this seems like the guide camera binning problem discussed above (21 Feb 2013); and I note that we had to restart the plan at the beginning of the evening and may not have started clean.)

1 Apr 2013: 2nd plan in chain did not complete; bug in ACP appears to have made the target seem unobservable and so observing was skipped and dawn plan initiated. But during the hours the telescope was waiting for dawn, it appears to have kept tracking and hit the RA limit (it was found at this limit when Eric came in in the morning). ''Update 5 April 2013: (1) Eric found the bug in the ACP code that caused it to improperly skip one target, and posted a fix to the ACP support forum. However, this is not yet fixed in the ACP code, so take care with using WAITAIRMASS in ACP plans - will not always work as advertised. (2) The problem with tracking turning back on spontaneously is a bug in TheSky, according to Bob Denny. It appears that it may be fixed in TheSky X; Eric ordered a copy of the software this week, and will upgrade TheSky and test if the fix works.''

5 April 2013: Realized on 4 April what may have been causing the guiding problems. ACP automatically connects the camera in MaximDL, and ACP itself talks to the telescope and the dome. But if ''MaximDL'' is not connected to the telescope (through the ACP hub; initiated by clicking the "Connect" button in MaximDL's Observatory window), then Maxim has no way to send guiding commands to the telescope. So it will take images of the guide star, but won't be able to make any corrections. I think this is consistent with the times where we've seen the guiding just run away, using a bright guide star. Fortunately, ACP v. 7.0 now initiates this connection automatically at startup. Eric installed this new version on 4 April and verified that the connection is made automatically. Hopefully this will fix the guiding problems.

Notes on upgrading observatory computer to Windows 7

2012-08-24T19:04:26Z

Ejensen1: /* Ports / connectivity */

This page is to document our upgrade to a new observatory computer with Windows 7. The original machine used to control the telescope (from commissioning in 2009 through summer of 2012) ran Windows XP. So there may be some issues encountered in the upgrade. Thorough documentation here should (hopefully) help with next time we need to upgrade hardware or software.

Initial testing was done with the same computer, but with a fresh Windows 7 install on a separate disk; so not everything in the first section may be completely the same with the new computer. (Eric Jensen, July 12-13 2012)

== Software installation ==
(New notes with new computer, August 16- 2012.) To determine best plan for software installation, I contacted Bob Denny at DC3-Dreams (publisher of ACP) for advice on order of installation. He said ''"Install the ASCOM Platform 6 first. Then install the TheSky Controlled Telescope driver. Then the TCC Software. Then TheSky. Check TheSky out with your scope. Then check it via the ASCOM driver using the POTH tool that comes with the ASCOM Platform. Then MaxIm as ACP will be looking for it during installation. Then ACP and Hot Fix 4. Make sure at the end of the Hot Fix to use the "Register TCC for ASCOM" option, their software fails to do this and is no longer maintained by them. Next install the Digital Domeworks ASCOM Driver (DDWCP is not needed though can be useful for troubleshooting)."''

* Installed RealVNC free version
* Installed Norton Ghost and backed up the computer in initial state.
* Installed ASCOM platform 6 SP1 from [http://www.ascom-standards.org/ here].
* Installed TheSky Controlled Telescope Driver version 5.2.10 from [http://ascom-standards.org/Downloads/ScopeDrivers.htm here]. During installation, chose the option to also have it install the source files.
* Installed RCOS TCC:
# Get files from the [http://customer.rcopticalsystems.com/eve/forums/a/frm/f/355604 RCOS support forum].
# The last full installer there is 1.5.17, so download and install that first.
# Then download and copy over just the 1.5.26 RCOS-ae.exe file into the Program Files -> RCOS TCC folder.
# These programs run into problems with Windows User Account Control, so either need to turn that off completely, or do the workaround below:
#* Make shortcuts for both RCOS TCC and RCOS-ae on the desktop.
#* Right-click and then choose "Properties", and in that dialog, select "Run as administrator."
#* Before the TCC starts up, you will then always be asked if it's OK to run a program from an unknown publisher - just click "Yes".
# In order for the TCC to run under Windows 7, the executable RCOS-ae has to be run first (just once per reboot). When you run this, nothing appears to happen, but if you don't the TCC won't work - you'll just get "unable to connect to RCOS COM object" or something like that. To make this simple:
#* Move the shortcut for RCOS-ae (created in the step above) into the "Startup" folder in the Start menu (under the "All Programs" listing).
#* RCOS-ae will then run at startup without any user intervention, and so starting the TCC is just as simple as before under Win XP - just double-click the file.
# Finally, to get the presets from the old install, copy over the file RCOS.dat from the Program Files -> RCOS TCC folder. This has those values saved.

* TheSky 6:
# Use the DVD we have to install TheSky 6. (This installs 6.0.0.32; need to enter serial number from packaging.)
# Apply the updater to update to 6.0.0.65 (downloaded from [http://www.bisque.com/sc/media/p/28096.aspx here].)
# Apply a "daily build" update; download from [http://www.bisque.com/sc/media/p/47002.aspx here], then replace only the executable file "TheSky6". This updates to 6.0.0.68.
# To copy over previous settings:
#* Copy old Normal.sky file to new installation; it lives in Documents/Software Bisque/TheSky6/Documents. It should contain the Tpoint model as well.
#* Also copy over the folder "Field of View Indicators" in Documents/Software Bisque/TheSky6/.
# After telling it that the telescope is a Paramount ME, then also had to configure the server that lets it talk to ASCOM, via the "TheSky-controlled-telescope" plugin. To do this, go to Telescope -> Server Settings and check all the boxes there, as described in more detail [http://www.cyanogen.com/help/maximdl/TheSky_Controlled_Telescope.htm here].
# To test the ASCOM connection to the telescope, I used the POTH tool that came with the ASCOM distribution. I found that I could not connect to the telescope unless I disabled Windows 7's UAC, so I did that (which makes some other things simpler, anyway).
# I also had to choose Telescope -> Options -> PEC -> Enable to get it to apply the periodic error correction (stored in the telescope's flash memory); it wasn't enabled by default.
# ''Note added after an evening test:'' All seemed to go pretty smoothly, with only the following small glitch:
#* When I first pointed the telescope, the pointing seemed to be off - I couldn't match the starfield I was seeing with what I expected. I wondered about the pointing model, so I double-clicked on the Tpoint model window in TheSky, and at first it said that it couldn't connect to the object. I tested to make sure I could (separately) start Tpoint, then I quit Tpoint and tried again to open the Tpoint model from within TheSky. This time it opened up fine, and showed me the data for the latest pointing model. After I closed that and tried again to point the telescope, the pointing was just fine. So it seems like somewhat TheSky wasn't connected properly to the pointing model? Not sure, but it seems to be working fine now.

* Tpoint: Download the installer from [http://www.bisque.com/sc/media/p/27940.aspx here]. Version 1.00.512; need to enter serial number from inside the manual.

* Apogee camera and filter wheel. Before installing MaximDL, I wanted to make sure that the camera and filter wheel were talking to the USB bus for the computer.
# I downloaded the driver package from the Apogee website, [http://www.ccd.com/downloads.html], and unzipped and installed the drivers. On installing, I initially got the error "setupEventLogging has stopped working" and couldn't continue. I realized that I hadn't rebooted since disabling Windows UAC (a pretty major system change), so I rebooted and tried the install again, and it went smoothly the second time.
# I powered up the CCD camera and plugged it in. Windows recognized it, installed the necessary drivers, and then reported that it was working.
# Same for the filter wheel - powered it up, plugged it in, and Windows found it without incident.

* Meade DSI camera: going to the Meade download site, [http://www.meade.com/support/downloads.html], I wasn't sure whether to install the full Autostar Suite or just Envisage. The latter was smaller, so I went with that to see if it would work. It installed smoothly (version 7.09), and then when I plugged in the DSI camera (our guide camera), Windows recognized it and reported that it was working.

* MaxImDL:
# Download latest version from [http://www.cyanogen.com/check_upgrade.php Diffraction Limited website]. Currently version 5.21.
# Installed just fine - I entered our license info, which is currently good through November 2012.
# Following instructions from Doug George in the Yahoo MaximDL group [http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/MaxImDL/message/50008 here], I copied over the Users\telescope\My Documents\MaxIm DL 5\Settings folder to the new installation to preserve our old settings.
# Testing this out, the connection to the telescope worked just fine. It didn't initially find the camera and filter wheel on the USB bus, so I went into the configuration and choose the Advanced option where it can search for a device. In this way, it easily found both the camera and filter wheel. I gave it the model of the filter wheel, AFW50-10S.
# For the filter wheel, after discovery it could talk to the filter wheel, but didn't have the correct filter names - it had some default set instead. To fix this, I quit MaximDL and then searched through the new and old settings files. It turns out that the filter names are in Settings/MaxImCCD/SetupFilterWheel.txt. That file had the old filter names in a set of entries with names like Camera0_ApogeeUSBFilterF1, Camera0_ApogeeUSBFilterF2, etc., but it also had a new, default set of filter names with entries like Camera0_ApogeeFilterF1, Camera0_ApogeeFilterF2, etc. (without the "USB" in the name). I copied the old set of filter names and used them to replace the new set, deleting the "USB" from all the names. Then when I restarted MaximDL, the correct set of filter names was there.
# Other than that, the MaximDL settings all seem to be there and to be working fine, though I haven't yet given it a full night-time test.
# ''Note added after an evening test:'' All seemed to go pretty smoothly, with only the following small glitch:
#* I needed to change/set the path to the Guide Star Catalog so that Pinpoint Astrometry could plate-solve images correctly.

* Digital Dome Works version 5.2, revision date 12/02/2008, downloaded from [http://www.homedome.com/downloads.htm here].
# When I tried to install it, I got an error that the file "VB6STKIT.dll" was not installed, and it couldn't proceed with the installation. Searching the web indicated that some other people have had this problem, too. I checked with Jerry Smith at TI, who offered to send me the file. In the end, I just copied the file from our old Windows XP installation onto the new machine - it goes in directory C:/Windows/System32/ . Putting this file in place then allowed the installation to run to completion.
# During the installation, the installer asked about overwriting certain already-installed system files; in each case, I chose to keep the (newer) installed file rather than overwrite it with the older version from the installer.
# To recover our old settings, I copied the file ddw.ini from our old installation into the folder Program Files/TIDigitalDomeWorks.
# Tested it out - seems to work fine.

* ACP (version 5)
# Installed the latest version from the CD-ROM, then ran the installer to download and install the latest hot-fix from their website.
# GSC installer didn't work - confirmed with Bob Denny that this is a bug in the latest installer. Instead, I copied the GSC files directly off the CD-ROM onto the disk. I put them in Libraries\Documents\ACP Web Data\ (since that was already an ACP folder) and then ran the installer to configure ACP to use that location.
# ''Note after an evening test:'' When MaximDL is connected to the telescope through ACP (which is itself talking to TheSky), it seemed that using the "Nudge" panel in MaximDL did not actually move the telescope. I need to test this out more thoroughly, though. Entering coordinates to slew from MaximDL ''did'' work, however.

* FocusMax.
# Got the latest FocusMax installer from [http://focusmax.org/downloads.html here]. Version 3.6.0.77. Haven't yet tried to transfer over our old settings and Vcurves.

* Dimension4. Downloaded and installed Dimension4 (for keeping the clock accurately set) from [http://www.thinkman.com/dimension4/download.htm here].

* AAG CloudWatcher: Downloaded from [http://www.aagware.eu/ here] (version 7.10) and installed with no problems. Plugged the cloud sensor into the (only) hardwired serial port on the PC itself, so it is using COM1.
** Currently it is logging its data to the PC, but we might want to set it up so that it copies its data and/or graphs to a directory available to the Linux machines so that it is web-accessible.
** The default parameters for cloud sensing seem to work pretty well - on the evening of 08-23-2012 is was reporting "Cloudy" but not "Overcast", and looking at the moon, I could see that there was definitely significant haze/cirrus, but that the moon and some stars were still visible. Daytime test indicate that the boundaries between Clear/Cloudy and Cloudy/Overcast seem to be about right. Haven't had a chance to test the rain sensor yet.

* PEMPro:
** Downloaded and installed from [http://www.ccdware.com/downloads/ here] and entered the old license key we have.
** Copied all the settings over from the "My Documents/CCDWare" folder from the old installation - chose not to replace the handful of files that the installer had created in that folder, but just let it copy the files that weren't already present there.
** Tested it out on the night of 08-23-2012. The PEC table we had uploaded seemed off, so I measured a new one. I fit it with just a few frequencies (I think just 0.5, 1, and 2 times the worm period); the amplitude was roughly +/- 1.5 arcsec, maybe a little less. I chose "Create Paramount PEC table", said "Yes" when asked to invert the curve, and pasted it into TheSky. With this table uploaded, I re-measured the PEC. After 10 worm gear cycles, it appeared to be only noise, with an RMS of about 0.5 arcsec. Success! And no evidence of that weird phase shift we saw when we tried to do this a few years ago. Need to update our page on PEC.

== Ports / connectivity ==

* The Icron Ranger 2104 (4-port USB hub over ethernet) just worked - no installation of drivers needed. Plugged in a flash drive in the USB hub to test.
* The Edgeport/4 (USB-serial converter), plugged into the Icron hub, did not work instantly. But without prompting, Windows found and installed the necessary drivers without incident, and then it started working. COM ports showed up in Device Manager. There is a standalone application that can configure the device to map its ports to particular COM port numbers if it's necessary to change these. For some reason, the order in which the ports became visible to the computer causes it to report that the serial ports 1,2,3,4 on the device are mapped to COM ports 4,5,7,6. (Note the swapped 7 and 6.) I used the tool to remap these to 4,5,6,7, but on reboot, they revert to 4,5,7,6. '''However''': when I was setting up devices later, it turns out that the third port from the left on the hub really ''is'' COM 6, not COM 7, although the OS reports port 3 as being mapped to COM 7. So despite the odd reporting by the OS, it appears that the serial ports on the device really are, left to right, COM 4,5,6,7.
* Current serial port usage:
# Port 1 / COM 4: TCC
# Port 2 / COM 5: Digital Dome Works
# Port 3 / COM 6: Telescope
# Port 4 / COM 7: empty

Notes on upgrading observatory computer to Windows 7

2012-08-24T19:04:02Z

Ejensen1: /* Software installation */

Notes on upgrading observatory computer to Windows 7

2012-08-24T19:02:13Z

Ejensen1: /* Software installation */

This page is to document our upgrade to a new observatory computer with Windows 7. The original machine used to control the telescope (from commissioning in 2009 through summer of 2012) ran Windows XP. So there may be some issues encountered in the upgrade. Thorough documentation here should (hopefully) help with next time we need to upgrade hardware or software.

Initial testing was done with the same computer, but with a fresh Windows 7 install on a separate disk; so not everything in the first section may be completely the same with the new computer. (Eric Jensen, July 12-13 2012)

== Software installation ==
(New notes with new computer, August 16- 2012.) To determine best plan for software installation, I contacted Bob Denny at DC3-Dreams (publisher of ACP) for advice on order of installation. He said ''"Install the ASCOM Platform 6 first. Then install the TheSky Controlled Telescope driver. Then the TCC Software. Then TheSky. Check TheSky out with your scope. Then check it via the ASCOM driver using the POTH tool that comes with the ASCOM Platform. Then MaxIm as ACP will be looking for it during installation. Then ACP and Hot Fix 4. Make sure at the end of the Hot Fix to use the "Register TCC for ASCOM" option, their software fails to do this and is no longer maintained by them. Next install the Digital Domeworks ASCOM Driver (DDWCP is not needed though can be useful for troubleshooting)."''

* Installed RealVNC free version
* Installed Norton Ghost and backed up the computer in initial state.
* Installed ASCOM platform 6 SP1 from [http://www.ascom-standards.org/ here].
* Installed TheSky Controlled Telescope Driver version 5.2.10 from [http://ascom-standards.org/Downloads/ScopeDrivers.htm here]. During installation, chose the option to also have it install the source files.
* Installed RCOS TCC:
# Get files from the [http://customer.rcopticalsystems.com/eve/forums/a/frm/f/355604 RCOS support forum].
# The last full installer there is 1.5.17, so download and install that first.
# Then download and copy over just the 1.5.26 RCOS-ae.exe file into the Program Files -> RCOS TCC folder.
# These programs run into problems with Windows User Account Control, so either need to turn that off completely, or do the workaround below:
#* Make shortcuts for both RCOS TCC and RCOS-ae on the desktop.
#* Right-click and then choose "Properties", and in that dialog, select "Run as administrator."
#* Before the TCC starts up, you will then always be asked if it's OK to run a program from an unknown publisher - just click "Yes".
# In order for the TCC to run under Windows 7, the executable RCOS-ae has to be run first (just once per reboot). When you run this, nothing appears to happen, but if you don't the TCC won't work - you'll just get "unable to connect to RCOS COM object" or something like that. To make this simple:
#* Move the shortcut for RCOS-ae (created in the step above) into the "Startup" folder in the Start menu (under the "All Programs" listing).
#* RCOS-ae will then run at startup without any user intervention, and so starting the TCC is just as simple as before under Win XP - just double-click the file.
# Finally, to get the presets from the old install, copy over the file RCOS.dat from the Program Files -> RCOS TCC folder. This has those values saved.

* TheSky 6:
# Use the DVD we have to install TheSky 6. (This installs 6.0.0.32; need to enter serial number from packaging.)
# Apply the updater to update to 6.0.0.65 (downloaded from [http://www.bisque.com/sc/media/p/28096.aspx here].)
# Apply a "daily build" update; download from [http://www.bisque.com/sc/media/p/47002.aspx here], then replace only the executable file "TheSky6". This updates to 6.0.0.68.
# To copy over previous settings:
#* Copy old Normal.sky file to new installation; it lives in Documents/Software Bisque/TheSky6/Documents. It should contain the Tpoint model as well.
#* Also copy over the folder "Field of View Indicators" in Documents/Software Bisque/TheSky6/.
# After telling it that the telescope is a Paramount ME, then also had to configure the server that lets it talk to ASCOM, via the "TheSky-controlled-telescope" plugin. To do this, go to Telescope -> Server Settings and check all the boxes there, as described in more detail [http://www.cyanogen.com/help/maximdl/TheSky_Controlled_Telescope.htm here].
# To test the ASCOM connection to the telescope, I used the POTH tool that came with the ASCOM distribution. I found that I could not connect to the telescope unless I disabled Windows 7's UAC, so I did that (which makes some other things simpler, anyway).
# I also had to choose Telescope -> Options -> PEC -> Enable to get it to apply the periodic error correction (stored in the telescope's flash memory); it wasn't enabled by default.
# ''Note added after an evening test:'' All seemed to go pretty smoothly, with only the following small glitch:
#* When I first pointed the telescope, the pointing seemed to be off - I couldn't match the starfield I was seeing with what I expected. I wondered about the pointing model, so I double-clicked on the Tpoint model window in TheSky, and at first it said that it couldn't connect to the object. I tested to make sure I could (separately) start Tpoint, then I quit Tpoint and tried again to open the Tpoint model from within TheSky. This time it opened up fine, and showed me the data for the latest pointing model. After I closed that and tried again to point the telescope, the pointing was just fine. So it seems like somewhat TheSky wasn't connected properly to the pointing model? Not sure, but it seems to be working fine now.

* Tpoint: Download the installer from [http://www.bisque.com/sc/media/p/27940.aspx here]. Version 1.00.512; need to enter serial number from inside the manual.

* Apogee camera and filter wheel. Before installing MaximDL, I wanted to make sure that the camera and filter wheel were talking to the USB bus for the computer.
# I downloaded the driver package from the Apogee website, [http://www.ccd.com/downloads.html], and unzipped and installed the drivers. On installing, I initially got the error "setupEventLogging has stopped working" and couldn't continue. I realized that I hadn't rebooted since disabling Windows UAC (a pretty major system change), so I rebooted and tried the install again, and it went smoothly the second time.
# I powered up the CCD camera and plugged it in. Windows recognized it, installed the necessary drivers, and then reported that it was working.
# Same for the filter wheel - powered it up, plugged it in, and Windows found it without incident.

* Meade DSI camera: going to the Meade download site, [http://www.meade.com/support/downloads.html], I wasn't sure whether to install the full Autostar Suite or just Envisage. The latter was smaller, so I went with that to see if it would work. It installed smoothly (version 7.09), and then when I plugged in the DSI camera (our guide camera), Windows recognized it and reported that it was working.

* MaxImDL:
# Download latest version from [http://www.cyanogen.com/check_upgrade.php Diffraction Limited website]. Currently version 5.21.
# Installed just fine - I entered our license info, which is currently good through November 2012.
# Following instructions from Doug George in the Yahoo MaximDL group [http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/MaxImDL/message/50008 here], I copied over the Users\telescope\My Documents\MaxIm DL 5\Settings folder to the new installation to preserve our old settings.
# Testing this out, the connection to the telescope worked just fine. It didn't initially find the camera and filter wheel on the USB bus, so I went into the configuration and choose the Advanced option where it can search for a device. In this way, it easily found both the camera and filter wheel. I gave it the model of the filter wheel, AFW50-10S.
# For the filter wheel, after discovery it could talk to the filter wheel, but didn't have the correct filter names - it had some default set instead. To fix this, I quit MaximDL and then searched through the new and old settings files. It turns out that the filter names are in Settings/MaxImCCD/SetupFilterWheel.txt. That file had the old filter names in a set of entries with names like Camera0_ApogeeUSBFilterF1, Camera0_ApogeeUSBFilterF2, etc., but it also had a new, default set of filter names with entries like Camera0_ApogeeFilterF1, Camera0_ApogeeFilterF2, etc. (without the "USB" in the name). I copied the old set of filter names and used them to replace the new set, deleting the "USB" from all the names. Then when I restarted MaximDL, the correct set of filter names was there.
# Other than that, the MaximDL settings all seem to be there and to be working fine, though I haven't yet given it a full night-time test.
# ''Note added after an evening test:'' All seemed to go pretty smoothly, with only the following small glitch:
#* I needed to change/set the path to the Guide Star Catalog so that Pinpoint Astrometry could plate-solve images correctly.

* Digital Dome Works version 5.2, revision date 12/02/2008, downloaded from [http://www.homedome.com/downloads.htm here].
# When I tried to install it, I got an error that the file "VB6STKIT.dll" was not installed, and it couldn't proceed with the installation. Searching the web indicated that some other people have had this problem, too. I checked with Jerry Smith at TI, who offered to send me the file. In the end, I just copied the file from our old Windows XP installation onto the new machine - it goes in directory C:/Windows/System32/ . Putting this file in place then allowed the installation to run to completion.
# During the installation, the installer asked about overwriting certain already-installed system files; in each case, I chose to keep the (newer) installed file rather than overwrite it with the older version from the installer.
# To recover our old settings, I copied the file ddw.ini from our old installation into the folder Program Files/TIDigitalDomeWorks.
# Tested it out - seems to work fine.

* ACP (version 5)
# Installed the latest version from the CD-ROM, then ran the installer to download and install the latest hot-fix from their website.
# GSC installer didn't work - confirmed with Bob Denny that this is a bug in the latest installer. Instead, I copied the GSC files directly off the CD-ROM onto the disk. I put them in Libraries\Documents\ACP Web Data\ (since that was already an ACP folder) and then ran the installer to configure ACP to use that location.
# ''Note after an evening test:'' When MaximDL is connected to the telescope through ACP (which is itself talking to TheSky), it seemed that using the "Nudge" panel in MaximDL did not actually move the telescope. I need to test this out more thoroughly, though. Entering coordinates to slew from MaximDL ''did'' work, however.

* FocusMax.
# Got the latest FocusMax installer from [http://focusmax.org/downloads.html here]. Version 3.6.0.77. Haven't yet tried to transfer over our old settings and Vcurves.

* Dimension4. Downloaded and installed Dimension4 (for keeping the clock accurately set) from [http://www.thinkman.com/dimension4/download.htm here].

* AAG CloudWatcher: Downloaded from [http://www.aagware.eu/ here] (version 7.10) and installed with no problems. Plugged the cloud sensor into the (only) hardwired serial port on the PC itself, so it is using COM1.
** Currently it is logging its data to the PC, but we might want to set it up so that it copies its data and/or graphs to a directory available to the Linux machines so that it is web-accessible.
** The default parameters for cloud sensing seem to work pretty well - on the evening of 08-23-2012 is was reporting "Cloudy" but not "Overcast", and looking at the moon, I could see that there was definitely significant haze/cirrus, but that the moon and some stars were still visible. Daytime test indicate that the boundaries between Clear/Cloudy and Cloudy/Overcast seem to be about right. Haven't had a chance to test the rain sensor yet.

* PEMPro: Downloaded and installed from [http://www.ccdware.com/downloads/ here] and entered the old license key we have. Tested it out on the night of 08-23-2012. The PEC table we had uploaded seemed off, so I measured a new one. I fit it with just a few frequencies (I think just 0.5, 1, and 2 times the worm period); the amplitude was roughly +/- 1.5 arcsec, maybe a little less. I chose "Create Paramount PEC table", said "Yes" when asked to invert the curve, and pasted it into TheSky. With this table uploaded, I re-measured the PEC. After 10 worm gear cycles, it appeared to be only noise, with an RMS of about 0.5 arcsec. Success! And no evidence of that weird phase shift we saw when we tried to do this a few years ago. Need to update our page on PEC.

== Ports / connectivity ==

* The Icron Ranger 2104 (4-port USB hub over ethernet) just worked - no installation of drivers needed. Plugged in a flash drive in the USB hub to test.
* The Edgeport/4 (USB-serial converter), plugged into the Icron hub, did not work instantly. But without prompting, Windows found and installed the necessary drivers without incident, and then it started working. COM ports showed up in Device Manager. There is a standalone application that can configure the device to map its ports to particular COM port numbers if it's necessary to change these. For some reason, the order in which the ports became visible to the computer causes it to report that the serial ports 1,2,3,4 on the device are mapped to COM ports 4,5,7,6. (Note the swapped 7 and 6.) I used the tool to remap these to 4,5,6,7, but on reboot, they revert to 4,5,7,6. '''However''': when I was setting up devices later, it turns out that the third port from the left on the hub really ''is'' COM 6, not COM 7, although the OS reports port 3 as being mapped to COM 7. So despite the odd reporting by the OS, it appears that the serial ports on the device really are, left to right, COM 4,5,6,7.
* Current serial port usage:
# Port 1 / COM 4: TCC
# Port 2 / COM 5: Digital Dome Works
# Port 3 / COM 6: Telescope
# Port 4 / COM 7: empty

Notes on upgrading observatory computer to Windows 7

2012-08-24T19:01:29Z

Ejensen1: /* Software installation */

This page is to document our upgrade to a new observatory computer with Windows 7. The original machine used to control the telescope (from commissioning in 2009 through summer of 2012) ran Windows XP. So there may be some issues encountered in the upgrade. Thorough documentation here should (hopefully) help with next time we need to upgrade hardware or software.

Initial testing was done with the same computer, but with a fresh Windows 7 install on a separate disk; so not everything in the first section may be completely the same with the new computer. (Eric Jensen, July 12-13 2012)

== Software installation ==
(New notes with new computer, August 16- 2012.) To determine best plan for software installation, I contacted Bob Denny at DC3-Dreams (publisher of ACP) for advice on order of installation. He said ''"Install the ASCOM Platform 6 first. Then install the TheSky Controlled Telescope driver. Then the TCC Software. Then TheSky. Check TheSky out with your scope. Then check it via the ASCOM driver using the POTH tool that comes with the ASCOM Platform. Then MaxIm as ACP will be looking for it during installation. Then ACP and Hot Fix 4. Make sure at the end of the Hot Fix to use the "Register TCC for ASCOM" option, their software fails to do this and is no longer maintained by them. Next install the Digital Domeworks ASCOM Driver (DDWCP is not needed though can be useful for troubleshooting)."''

* Installed RealVNC free version
* Installed Norton Ghost and backed up the computer in initial state.
* Installed ASCOM platform 6 SP1 from [http://www.ascom-standards.org/ here].
* Installed TheSky Controlled Telescope Driver version 5.2.10 from [http://ascom-standards.org/Downloads/ScopeDrivers.htm here]. During installation, chose the option to also have it install the source files.
* Installed RCOS TCC:
# Get files from the [http://customer.rcopticalsystems.com/eve/forums/a/frm/f/355604 RCOS support forum].
# The last full installer there is 1.5.17, so download and install that first.
# Then download and copy over just the 1.5.26 RCOS-ae.exe file into the Program Files -> RCOS TCC folder.
# These programs run into problems with Windows User Account Control, so either need to turn that off completely, or do the workaround below:
#* Make shortcuts for both RCOS TCC and RCOS-ae on the desktop.
#* Right-click and then choose "Properties", and in that dialog, select "Run as administrator."
#* Before the TCC starts up, you will then always be asked if it's OK to run a program from an unknown publisher - just click "Yes".
# In order for the TCC to run under Windows 7, the executable RCOS-ae has to be run first (just once per reboot). When you run this, nothing appears to happen, but if you don't the TCC won't work - you'll just get "unable to connect to RCOS COM object" or something like that. To make this simple:
#* Move the shortcut for RCOS-ae (created in the step above) into the "Startup" folder in the Start menu (under the "All Programs" listing).
#* RCOS-ae will then run at startup without any user intervention, and so starting the TCC is just as simple as before under Win XP - just double-click the file.
# Finally, to get the presets from the old install, copy over the file RCOS.dat from the Program Files -> RCOS TCC folder. This has those values saved.

* TheSky 6:
# Use the DVD we have to install TheSky 6. (This installs 6.0.0.32; need to enter serial number from packaging.)
# Apply the updater to update to 6.0.0.65 (downloaded from [http://www.bisque.com/sc/media/p/28096.aspx here].)
# Apply a "daily build" update; download from [http://www.bisque.com/sc/media/p/47002.aspx here], then replace only the executable file "TheSky6". This updates to 6.0.0.68.
# To copy over previous settings:
#* Copy old Normal.sky file to new installation; it lives in Documents/Software Bisque/TheSky6/Documents. It should contain the Tpoint model as well.
#* Also copy over the folder "Field of View Indicators" in Documents/Software Bisque/TheSky6/.
# After telling it that the telescope is a Paramount ME, then also had to configure the server that lets it talk to ASCOM, via the "TheSky-controlled-telescope" plugin. To do this, go to Telescope -> Server Settings and check all the boxes there, as described in more detail [http://www.cyanogen.com/help/maximdl/TheSky_Controlled_Telescope.htm here].
# To test the ASCOM connection to the telescope, I used the POTH tool that came with the ASCOM distribution. I found that I could not connect to the telescope unless I disabled Windows 7's UAC, so I did that (which makes some other things simpler, anyway).
# I also had to choose Telescope -> Options -> PEC -> Enable to get it to apply the periodic error correction (stored in the telescope's flash memory); it wasn't enabled by default.
# ''Note added after an evening test:'' All seemed to go pretty smoothly, with only the following small glitch:
#* When I first pointed the telescope, the pointing seemed to be off - I couldn't match the starfield I was seeing with what I expected. I wondered about the pointing model, so I double-clicked on the Tpoint model window in TheSky, and at first it said that it couldn't connect to the object. I tested to make sure I could (separately) start Tpoint, then I quit Tpoint and tried again to open the Tpoint model from within TheSky. This time it opened up fine, and showed me the data for the latest pointing model. After I closed that and tried again to point the telescope, the pointing was just fine. So it seems like somewhat TheSky wasn't connected properly to the pointing model? Not sure, but it seems to be working fine now.

* Tpoint: Download the installer from [http://www.bisque.com/sc/media/p/27940.aspx here]. Version 1.00.512; need to enter serial number from inside the manual.

* Apogee camera and filter wheel. Before installing MaximDL, I wanted to make sure that the camera and filter wheel were talking to the USB bus for the computer.
# I downloaded the driver package from the Apogee website, [http://www.ccd.com/downloads.html], and unzipped and installed the drivers. On installing, I initially got the error "setupEventLogging has stopped working" and couldn't continue. I realized that I hadn't rebooted since disabling Windows UAC (a pretty major system change), so I rebooted and tried the install again, and it went smoothly the second time.
# I powered up the CCD camera and plugged it in. Windows recognized it, installed the necessary drivers, and then reported that it was working.
# Same for the filter wheel - powered it up, plugged it in, and Windows found it without incident.

* Meade DSI camera: going to the Meade download site, [http://www.meade.com/support/downloads.html], I wasn't sure whether to install the full Autostar Suite or just Envisage. The latter was smaller, so I went with that to see if it would work. It installed smoothly (version 7.09), and then when I plugged in the DSI camera (our guide camera), Windows recognized it and reported that it was working.

* MaxImDL:
# Download latest version from [http://www.cyanogen.com/check_upgrade.php Diffraction Limited website]. Currently version 5.21.
# Installed just fine - I entered our license info, which is currently good through November 2012.
# Following instructions from Doug George in the Yahoo MaximDL group [http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/MaxImDL/message/50008 here], I copied over the Users\telescope\My Documents\MaxIm DL 5\Settings folder to the new installation to preserve our old settings.
# Testing this out, the connection to the telescope worked just fine. It didn't initially find the camera and filter wheel on the USB bus, so I went into the configuration and choose the Advanced option where it can search for a device. In this way, it easily found both the camera and filter wheel. I gave it the model of the filter wheel, AFW50-10S.
# For the filter wheel, after discovery it could talk to the filter wheel, but didn't have the correct filter names - it had some default set instead. To fix this, I quit MaximDL and then searched through the new and old settings files. It turns out that the filter names are in Settings/MaxImCCD/SetupFilterWheel.txt. That file had the old filter names in a set of entries with names like Camera0_ApogeeUSBFilterF1, Camera0_ApogeeUSBFilterF2, etc., but it also had a new, default set of filter names with entries like Camera0_ApogeeFilterF1, Camera0_ApogeeFilterF2, etc. (without the "USB" in the name). I copied the old set of filter names and used them to replace the new set, deleting the "USB" from all the names. Then when I restarted MaximDL, the correct set of filter names was there.
# Other than that, the MaximDL settings all seem to be there and to be working fine, though I haven't yet given it a full night-time test.
# ''Note added after an evening test:'' All seemed to go pretty smoothly, with only the following small glitch:
#* I needed to change/set the path to the Guide Star Catalog so that Pinpoint Astrometry could plate-solve images correctly.

* Digital Dome Works version 5.2, revision date 12/02/2008, downloaded from [http://www.homedome.com/downloads.htm here].
# When I tried to install it, I got an error that the file "VB6STKIT.dll" was not installed, and it couldn't proceed with the installation. Searching the web indicated that some other people have had this problem, too. I checked with Jerry Smith at TI, who offered to send me the file. In the end, I just copied the file from our old Windows XP installation onto the new machine - it goes in directory C:/Windows/System32/ . Putting this file in place then allowed the installation to run to completion.
# During the installation, the installer asked about overwriting certain already-installed system files; in each case, I chose to keep the (newer) installed file rather than overwrite it with the older version from the installer.
# To recover our old settings, I copied the file ddw.ini from our old installation into the folder Program Files/TIDigitalDomeWorks.
# Tested it out - seems to work fine.

* ACP (version 5)
# Installed the latest version from the CD-ROM, then ran the installer to download and install the latest hot-fix from their website.
# GSC installer didn't work - confirmed with Bob Denny that this is a bug in the latest installer. Instead, I copied the GSC files directly off the CD-ROM onto the disk. I put them in Libraries\Documents\ACP Web Data\ (since that was already an ACP folder) and then ran the installer to configure ACP to use that location.
# ''Note after an evening test:'' When MaximDL is connected to the telescope through ACP (which is itself talking to TheSky), it seemed that using the "Nudge" panel in MaximDL did not actually move the telescope. I need to test this out more thoroughly, though. Entering coordinates to slew from MaximDL ''did'' work, however.

* FocusMax.
# Got the latest FocusMax installer from [http://focusmax.org/downloads.html here]. Version 3.6.0.77.

* Dimension4. Downloaded and installed Dimension4 (for keeping the clock accurately set) from [http://www.thinkman.com/dimension4/download.htm here].

* AAG CloudWatcher: Downloaded from [http://www.aagware.eu/ here] (version 7.10) and installed with no problems. Plugged the cloud sensor into the (only) hardwired serial port on the PC itself, so it is using COM1.
** Currently it is logging its data to the PC, but we might want to set it up so that it copies its data and/or graphs to a directory available to the Linux machines so that it is web-accessible.
** The default parameters for cloud sensing seem to work pretty well - on the evening of 08-23-2012 is was reporting "Cloudy" but not "Overcast", and looking at the moon, I could see that there was definitely significant haze/cirrus, but that the moon and some stars were still visible. Daytime test indicate that the boundaries between Clear/Cloudy and Cloudy/Overcast seem to be about right. Haven't had a chance to test the rain sensor yet.

* PEMPro: Downloaded and installed from [http://www.ccdware.com/downloads/ here] and entered the old license key we have. Tested it out on the night of 08-23-2012. The PEC table we had uploaded seemed off, so I measured a new one. I fit it with just a few frequencies (I think just 0.5, 1, and 2 times the worm period); the amplitude was roughly +/- 1.5 arcsec, maybe a little less. I chose "Create Paramount PEC table", said "Yes" when asked to invert the curve, and pasted it into TheSky. With this table uploaded, I re-measured the PEC. After 10 worm gear cycles, it appeared to be only noise, with an RMS of about 0.5 arcsec. Success! And no evidence of that weird phase shift we saw when we tried to do this a few years ago. Need to update our page on PEC.

== Ports / connectivity ==

* The Icron Ranger 2104 (4-port USB hub over ethernet) just worked - no installation of drivers needed. Plugged in a flash drive in the USB hub to test.
* The Edgeport/4 (USB-serial converter), plugged into the Icron hub, did not work instantly. But without prompting, Windows found and installed the necessary drivers without incident, and then it started working. COM ports showed up in Device Manager. There is a standalone application that can configure the device to map its ports to particular COM port numbers if it's necessary to change these. For some reason, the order in which the ports became visible to the computer causes it to report that the serial ports 1,2,3,4 on the device are mapped to COM ports 4,5,7,6. (Note the swapped 7 and 6.) I used the tool to remap these to 4,5,6,7, but on reboot, they revert to 4,5,7,6. '''However''': when I was setting up devices later, it turns out that the third port from the left on the hub really ''is'' COM 6, not COM 7, although the OS reports port 3 as being mapped to COM 7. So despite the odd reporting by the OS, it appears that the serial ports on the device really are, left to right, COM 4,5,6,7.
* Current serial port usage:
# Port 1 / COM 4: TCC
# Port 2 / COM 5: Digital Dome Works
# Port 3 / COM 6: Telescope
# Port 4 / COM 7: empty

Notes on upgrading observatory computer to Windows 7

2012-08-24T19:00:20Z

Ejensen1: /* Software installation */

This page is to document our upgrade to a new observatory computer with Windows 7. The original machine used to control the telescope (from commissioning in 2009 through summer of 2012) ran Windows XP. So there may be some issues encountered in the upgrade. Thorough documentation here should (hopefully) help with next time we need to upgrade hardware or software.

Initial testing was done with the same computer, but with a fresh Windows 7 install on a separate disk; so not everything in the first section may be completely the same with the new computer. (Eric Jensen, July 12-13 2012)

== Software installation ==
(New notes with new computer, August 16- 2012.) To determine best plan for software installation, I contacted Bob Denny at DC3-Dreams (publisher of ACP) for advice on order of installation. He said ''"Install the ASCOM Platform 6 first. Then install the TheSky Controlled Telescope driver. Then the TCC Software. Then TheSky. Check TheSky out with your scope. Then check it via the ASCOM driver using the POTH tool that comes with the ASCOM Platform. Then MaxIm as ACP will be looking for it during installation. Then ACP and Hot Fix 4. Make sure at the end of the Hot Fix to use the "Register TCC for ASCOM" option, their software fails to do this and is no longer maintained by them. Next install the Digital Domeworks ASCOM Driver (DDWCP is not needed though can be useful for troubleshooting)."''

* Installed RealVNC free version
* Installed Norton Ghost and backed up the computer in initial state.
* Installed ASCOM platform 6 SP1 from [http://www.ascom-standards.org/ here].
* Installed TheSky Controlled Telescope Driver version 5.2.10 from [http://ascom-standards.org/Downloads/ScopeDrivers.htm here]. During installation, chose the option to also have it install the source files.
* Installed RCOS TCC:
# Get files from the [http://customer.rcopticalsystems.com/eve/forums/a/frm/f/355604 RCOS support forum].
# The last full installer there is 1.5.17, so download and install that first.
# Then download and copy over just the 1.5.26 RCOS-ae.exe file into the Program Files -> RCOS TCC folder.
# These programs run into problems with Windows User Account Control, so either need to turn that off completely, or do the workaround below:
#* Make shortcuts for both RCOS TCC and RCOS-ae on the desktop.
#* Right-click and then choose "Properties", and in that dialog, select "Run as administrator."
#* Before the TCC starts up, you will then always be asked if it's OK to run a program from an unknown publisher - just click "Yes".
# In order for the TCC to run under Windows 7, the executable RCOS-ae has to be run first (just once per reboot). When you run this, nothing appears to happen, but if you don't the TCC won't work - you'll just get "unable to connect to RCOS COM object" or something like that. To make this simple:
#* Move the shortcut for RCOS-ae (created in the step above) into the "Startup" folder in the Start menu (under the "All Programs" listing).
#* RCOS-ae will then run at startup without any user intervention, and so starting the TCC is just as simple as before under Win XP - just double-click the file.
# Finally, to get the presets from the old install, copy over the file RCOS.dat from the Program Files -> RCOS TCC folder. This has those values saved.

* TheSky 6:
# Use the DVD we have to install TheSky 6. (This installs 6.0.0.32; need to enter serial number from packaging.)
# Apply the updater to update to 6.0.0.65 (downloaded from [http://www.bisque.com/sc/media/p/28096.aspx here].)
# Apply a "daily build" update; download from [http://www.bisque.com/sc/media/p/47002.aspx here], then replace only the executable file "TheSky6". This updates to 6.0.0.68.
# To copy over previous settings:
#* Copy old Normal.sky file to new installation; it lives in Documents/Software Bisque/TheSky6/Documents. It should contain the Tpoint model as well.
#* Also copy over the folder "Field of View Indicators" in Documents/Software Bisque/TheSky6/.
# After telling it that the telescope is a Paramount ME, then also had to configure the server that lets it talk to ASCOM, via the "TheSky-controlled-telescope" plugin. To do this, go to Telescope -> Server Settings and check all the boxes there, as described in more detail [http://www.cyanogen.com/help/maximdl/TheSky_Controlled_Telescope.htm here].
# To test the ASCOM connection to the telescope, I used the POTH tool that came with the ASCOM distribution. I found that I could not connect to the telescope unless I disabled Windows 7's UAC, so I did that (which makes some other things simpler, anyway).
# I also had to choose Telescope -> Options -> PEC -> Enable to get it to apply the periodic error correction (stored in the telescope's flash memory); it wasn't enabled by default.
# ''Note added after an evening test:'' All seemed to go pretty smoothly, with only the following small glitch:
#* When I first pointed the telescope, the pointing seemed to be off - I couldn't match the starfield I was seeing with what I expected. I wondered about the pointing model, so I double-clicked on the Tpoint model window in TheSky, and at first it said that it couldn't connect to the object. I tested to make sure I could (separately) start Tpoint, then I quit Tpoint and tried again to open the Tpoint model from within TheSky. This time it opened up fine, and showed me the data for the latest pointing model. After I closed that and tried again to point the telescope, the pointing was just fine. So it seems like somewhat TheSky wasn't connected properly to the pointing model? Not sure, but it seems to be working fine now.

* Tpoint: Download the installer from [http://www.bisque.com/sc/media/p/27940.aspx here]. Version 1.00.512; need to enter serial number from inside the manual.

* Apogee camera and filter wheel. Before installing MaximDL, I wanted to make sure that the camera and filter wheel were talking to the USB bus for the computer.
# I downloaded the driver package from the Apogee website, [http://www.ccd.com/downloads.html], and unzipped and installed the drivers. On installing, I initially got the error "setupEventLogging has stopped working" and couldn't continue. I realized that I hadn't rebooted since disabling Windows UAC (a pretty major system change), so I rebooted and tried the install again, and it went smoothly the second time.
# I powered up the CCD camera and plugged it in. Windows recognized it, installed the necessary drivers, and then reported that it was working.
# Same for the filter wheel - powered it up, plugged it in, and Windows found it without incident.

* Meade DSI camera: going to the Meade download site, [http://www.meade.com/support/downloads.html], I wasn't sure whether to install the full Autostar Suite or just Envisage. The latter was smaller, so I went with that to see if it would work. It installed smoothly (version 7.09), and then when I plugged in the DSI camera (our guide camera), Windows recognized it and reported that it was working.

* MaxImDL:
# Download latest version from [http://www.cyanogen.com/check_upgrade.php Diffraction Limited website]. Currently version 5.21.
# Installed just fine - I entered our license info, which is currently good through November 2012.
# Following instructions from Doug George in the Yahoo MaximDL group [http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/MaxImDL/message/50008 here], I copied over the Users\telescope\My Documents\MaxIm DL 5\Settings folder to the new installation to preserve our old settings.
# Testing this out, the connection to the telescope worked just fine. It didn't initially find the camera and filter wheel on the USB bus, so I went into the configuration and choose the Advanced option where it can search for a device. In this way, it easily found both the camera and filter wheel. I gave it the model of the filter wheel, AFW50-10S.
# For the filter wheel, after discovery it could talk to the filter wheel, but didn't have the correct filter names - it had some default set instead. To fix this, I quit MaximDL and then searched through the new and old settings files. It turns out that the filter names are in Settings/MaxImCCD/SetupFilterWheel.txt. That file had the old filter names in a set of entries with names like Camera0_ApogeeUSBFilterF1, Camera0_ApogeeUSBFilterF2, etc., but it also had a new, default set of filter names with entries like Camera0_ApogeeFilterF1, Camera0_ApogeeFilterF2, etc. (without the "USB" in the name). I copied the old set of filter names and used them to replace the new set, deleting the "USB" from all the names. Then when I restarted MaximDL, the correct set of filter names was there.
# Other than that, the MaximDL settings all seem to be there and to be working fine, though I haven't yet given it a full night-time test.
# ''Note added after an evening test:'' All seemed to go pretty smoothly, with only the following small glitch:
#* I needed to change/set the path to the Guide Star Catalog so that Pinpoint Astrometry could plate-solve images correctly.

* Digital Dome Works version 5.2, revision date 12/02/2008, downloaded from [http://www.homedome.com/downloads.htm here].
# When I tried to install it, I got an error that the file "VB6STKIT.dll" was not installed, and it couldn't proceed with the installation. Searching the web indicated that some other people have had this problem, too. I checked with Jerry Smith at TI, who offered to send me the file. In the end, I just copied the file from our old Windows XP installation onto the new machine - it goes in directory C:/Windows/System32/ . Putting this file in place then allowed the installation to run to completion.
# During the installation, the installer asked about overwriting certain already-installed system files; in each case, I chose to keep the (newer) installed file rather than overwrite it with the older version from the installer.
# To recover our old settings, I copied the file ddw.ini from our old installation into the folder Program Files/TIDigitalDomeWorks.
# Tested it out - seems to work fine.

* ACP (version 5)
# Installed the latest version from the CD-ROM, then ran the installer to download and install the latest hot-fix from their website.
# GSC installer didn't work - confirmed with Bob Denny that this is a bug in the latest installer. Instead, I copied the GSC files directly off the CD-ROM onto the disk. I put them in Libraries\Documents\ACP Web Data\ (since that was already an ACP folder) and then ran the installer to configure ACP to use that location.
# ''Note after an evening test:'' When MaximDL is connected to the telescope through ACP (which is itself talking to TheSky), it seemed that using the "Nudge" panel in MaximDL did not actually move the telescope. I need to test this out more thoroughly, though. Entering coordinates to slew from MaximDL "did" work, however.

* FocusMax.
# Got the latest FocusMax installer from [http://focusmax.org/downloads.html here]. Version 3.6.0.77.

* Dimension4. Downloaded and installed Dimension4 (for keeping the clock accurately set) from [http://www.thinkman.com/dimension4/download.htm here].

* AAG CloudWatcher: Downloaded from [http://www.aagware.eu/ here] (version 7.10) and installed with no problems. Plugged the cloud sensor into the (only) hardwired serial port on the PC itself, so it is using COM1.
** Currently it is logging its data to the PC, but we might want to set it up so that it copies its data and/or graphs to a directory available to the Linux machines so that it is web-accessible.
** The default parameters for cloud sensing seem to work pretty well - on the evening of 08-23-2012 is was reporting "Cloudy" but not "Overcast", and looking at the moon, I could see that there was definitely significant haze/cirrus, but that the moon and some stars were still visible. Daytime test indicate that the boundaries between Clear/Cloudy and Cloudy/Overcast seem to be about right. Haven't had a chance to test the rain sensor yet.

* PEMPro: Downloaded and installed from [http://www.ccdware.com/downloads/ here] and entered the old license key we have. Tested it out on the night of 08-23-2012. The PEC table we had uploaded seemed off, so I measured a new one. I fit it with just a few frequencies (I think just 0.5, 1, and 2 times the worm period); the amplitude was roughly +/- 1.5 arcsec, maybe a little less. I chose "Create Paramount PEC table", said "Yes" when asked to invert the curve, and pasted it into TheSky. With this table uploaded, I re-measured the PEC. After 10 worm gear cycles, it appeared to be only noise, with an RMS of about 0.5 arcsec. Success! And no evidence of that weird phase shift we saw when we tried to do this a few years ago. Need to update our page on PEC.

== Ports / connectivity ==

* The Icron Ranger 2104 (4-port USB hub over ethernet) just worked - no installation of drivers needed. Plugged in a flash drive in the USB hub to test.
* The Edgeport/4 (USB-serial converter), plugged into the Icron hub, did not work instantly. But without prompting, Windows found and installed the necessary drivers without incident, and then it started working. COM ports showed up in Device Manager. There is a standalone application that can configure the device to map its ports to particular COM port numbers if it's necessary to change these. For some reason, the order in which the ports became visible to the computer causes it to report that the serial ports 1,2,3,4 on the device are mapped to COM ports 4,5,7,6. (Note the swapped 7 and 6.) I used the tool to remap these to 4,5,6,7, but on reboot, they revert to 4,5,7,6. '''However''': when I was setting up devices later, it turns out that the third port from the left on the hub really ''is'' COM 6, not COM 7, although the OS reports port 3 as being mapped to COM 7. So despite the odd reporting by the OS, it appears that the serial ports on the device really are, left to right, COM 4,5,6,7.
* Current serial port usage:
# Port 1 / COM 4: TCC
# Port 2 / COM 5: Digital Dome Works
# Port 3 / COM 6: Telescope
# Port 4 / COM 7: empty

Notes on upgrading observatory computer to Windows 7

2012-08-24T18:58:09Z

Ejensen1: /* Ports / connectivity */

This page is to document our upgrade to a new observatory computer with Windows 7. The original machine used to control the telescope (from commissioning in 2009 through summer of 2012) ran Windows XP. So there may be some issues encountered in the upgrade. Thorough documentation here should (hopefully) help with next time we need to upgrade hardware or software.

Initial testing was done with the same computer, but with a fresh Windows 7 install on a separate disk; so not everything in the first section may be completely the same with the new computer. (Eric Jensen, July 12-13 2012)

== Software installation ==
(New notes with new computer, August 16- 2012.) To determine best plan for software installation, I contacted Bob Denny at DC3-Dreams (publisher of ACP) for advice on order of installation. He said ''"Install the ASCOM Platform 6 first. Then install the TheSky Controlled Telescope driver. Then the TCC Software. Then TheSky. Check TheSky out with your scope. Then check it via the ASCOM driver using the POTH tool that comes with the ASCOM Platform. Then MaxIm as ACP will be looking for it during installation. Then ACP and Hot Fix 4. Make sure at the end of the Hot Fix to use the "Register TCC for ASCOM" option, their software fails to do this and is no longer maintained by them. Next install the Digital Domeworks ASCOM Driver (DDWCP is not needed though can be useful for troubleshooting)."''

* Installed RealVNC free version
* Installed Norton Ghost and backed up the computer in initial state.
* Installed ASCOM platform 6 SP1 from [http://www.ascom-standards.org/ here].
* Installed TheSky Controlled Telescope Driver version 5.2.10 from [http://ascom-standards.org/Downloads/ScopeDrivers.htm here]. During installation, chose the option to also have it install the source files.
* Installed RCOS TCC:
# Get files from the [http://customer.rcopticalsystems.com/eve/forums/a/frm/f/355604 RCOS support forum].
# The last full installer there is 1.5.17, so download and install that first.
# Then download and copy over just the 1.5.26 RCOS-ae.exe file into the Program Files -> RCOS TCC folder.
# These programs run into problems with Windows User Account Control, so either need to turn that off completely, or do the workaround below:
#* Make shortcuts for both RCOS TCC and RCOS-ae on the desktop.
#* Right-click and then choose "Properties", and in that dialog, select "Run as administrator."
#* Before the TCC starts up, you will then always be asked if it's OK to run a program from an unknown publisher - just click "Yes".
# In order for the TCC to run under Windows 7, the executable RCOS-ae has to be run first (just once per reboot). When you run this, nothing appears to happen, but if you don't the TCC won't work - you'll just get "unable to connect to RCOS COM object" or something like that. To make this simple:
#* Move the shortcut for RCOS-ae (created in the step above) into the "Startup" folder in the Start menu (under the "All Programs" listing).
#* RCOS-ae will then run at startup without any user intervention, and so starting the TCC is just as simple as before under Win XP - just double-click the file.
# Finally, to get the presets from the old install, copy over the file RCOS.dat from the Program Files -> RCOS TCC folder. This has those values saved.

* TheSky 6:
# Use the DVD we have to install TheSky 6. (This installs 6.0.0.32; need to enter serial number from packaging.)
# Apply the updater to update to 6.0.0.65 (downloaded from [http://www.bisque.com/sc/media/p/28096.aspx here].)
# Apply a "daily build" update; download from [http://www.bisque.com/sc/media/p/47002.aspx here], then replace only the executable file "TheSky6". This updates to 6.0.0.68.
# To copy over previous settings:
#* Copy old Normal.sky file to new installation; it lives in Documents/Software Bisque/TheSky6/Documents. It should contain the Tpoint model as well.
#* Also copy over the folder "Field of View Indicators" in Documents/Software Bisque/TheSky6/.
# After telling it that the telescope is a Paramount ME, then also had to configure the server that lets it talk to ASCOM, via the "TheSky-controlled-telescope" plugin. To do this, go to Telescope -> Server Settings and check all the boxes there, as described in more detail [http://www.cyanogen.com/help/maximdl/TheSky_Controlled_Telescope.htm here].
# To test the ASCOM connection to the telescope, I used the POTH tool that came with the ASCOM distribution. I found that I could not connect to the telescope unless I disabled Windows 7's UAC, so I did that (which makes some other things simpler, anyway).
# I also had to choose Telescope -> Options -> PEC -> Enable to get it to apply the periodic error correction (stored in the telescope's flash memory); it wasn't enabled by default.
# ''Note added after an evening test:'' All seemed to go pretty smoothly, with only the following small glitch:
#* When I first pointed the telescope, the pointing seemed to be off - I couldn't match the starfield I was seeing with what I expected. I wondered about the pointing model, so I double-clicked on the Tpoint model window in TheSky, and at first it said that it couldn't connect to the object. I tested to make sure I could (separately) start Tpoint, then I quit Tpoint and tried again to open the Tpoint model from within TheSky. This time it opened up fine, and showed me the data for the latest pointing model. After I closed that and tried again to point the telescope, the pointing was just fine. So it seems like somewhat TheSky wasn't connected properly to the pointing model? Not sure, but it seems to be working fine now.
* Tpoint: Download the installer from [http://www.bisque.com/sc/media/p/27940.aspx here]. Version 1.00.512; need to enter serial number from inside the manual.

* Apogee camera and filter wheel. Before installing MaximDL, I wanted to make sure that the camera and filter wheel were talking to the USB bus for the computer.
# I downloaded the driver package from the Apogee website, [http://www.ccd.com/downloads.html], and unzipped and installed the drivers. On installing, I initially got the error "setupEventLogging has stopped working" and couldn't continue. I realized that I hadn't rebooted since disabling Windows UAC (a pretty major system change), so I rebooted and tried the install again, and it went smoothly the second time.
# I powered up the CCD camera and plugged it in. Windows recognized it, installed the necessary drivers, and then reported that it was working.
# Same for the filter wheel - powered it up, plugged it in, and Windows found it without incident.

* Meade DSI camera: going to the Meade download site, [http://www.meade.com/support/downloads.html], I wasn't sure whether to install the full Autostar Suite or just Envisage. The latter was smaller, so I went with that to see if it would work. It installed smoothly (version 7.09), and then when I plugged in the DSI camera (our guide camera), Windows recognized it and reported that it was working.

* MaxImDL:
# Download latest version from [http://www.cyanogen.com/check_upgrade.php Diffraction Limited website]. Currently version 5.21.
# Installed just fine - I entered our license info, which is currently good through November 2012.
# Following instructions from Doug George in the Yahoo MaximDL group [http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/MaxImDL/message/50008 here], I copied over the Users\telescope\My Documents\MaxIm DL 5\Settings folder to the new installation to preserve our old settings.
# Testing this out, the connection to the telescope worked just fine. It didn't initially find the camera and filter wheel on the USB bus, so I went into the configuration and choose the Advanced option where it can search for a device. In this way, it easily found both the camera and filter wheel. I gave it the model of the filter wheel, AFW50-10S.
# For the filter wheel, after discovery it could talk to the filter wheel, but didn't have the correct filter names - it had some default set instead. To fix this, I quit MaximDL and then searched through the new and old settings files. It turns out that the filter names are in Settings/MaxImCCD/SetupFilterWheel.txt. That file had the old filter names in a set of entries with names like Camera0_ApogeeUSBFilterF1, Camera0_ApogeeUSBFilterF2, etc., but it also had a new, default set of filter names with entries like Camera0_ApogeeFilterF1, Camera0_ApogeeFilterF2, etc. (without the "USB" in the name). I copied the old set of filter names and used them to replace the new set, deleting the "USB" from all the names. Then when I restarted MaximDL, the correct set of filter names was there.
# Other than that, the MaximDL settings all seem to be there and to be working fine, though I haven't yet given it a full night-time test.
# ''Note added after an evening test:'' All seemed to go pretty smoothly, with only the following small glitch:
#* I needed to change/set the path to the Guide Star Catalog so that Pinpoint Astrometry could plate-solve images correctly.

* Digital Dome Works version 5.2, revision date 12/02/2008, downloaded from [http://www.homedome.com/downloads.htm here].
# When I tried to install it, I got an error that the file "VB6STKIT.dll" was not installed, and it couldn't proceed with the installation. Searching the web indicated that some other people have had this problem, too. I checked with Jerry Smith at TI, who offered to send me the file. In the end, I just copied the file from our old Windows XP installation onto the new machine - it goes in directory C:/Windows/System32/ . Putting this file in place then allowed the installation to run to completion.
# During the installation, the installer asked about overwriting certain already-installed system files; in each case, I chose to keep the (newer) installed file rather than overwrite it with the older version from the installer.
# To recover our old settings, I copied the file ddw.ini from our old installation into the folder Program Files/TIDigitalDomeWorks.
# Tested it out - seems to work fine.

* ACP (version 5)
# Installed the latest version from the CD-ROM, then ran the installer to download and install the latest hot-fix from their website.
# GSC installer didn't work - confirmed with Bob Denny that this is a bug in the latest installer. Instead, I copied the GSC files directly off the CD-ROM onto the disk. I put them in Libraries\Documents\ACP Web Data\ (since that was already an ACP folder) and then ran the installer to configure ACP to use that location.

* FocusMax.
# Got the latest FocusMax installer from [http://focusmax.org/downloads.html here]. Version 3.6.0.77.

* Dimension4. Downloaded and installed Dimension4 (for keeping the clock accurately set) from [http://www.thinkman.com/dimension4/download.htm here].

* AAG CloudWatcher: Downloaded from [http://www.aagware.eu/ here] (version 7.10) and installed with no problems. Plugged the cloud sensor into the (only) hardwired serial port on the PC itself, so it is using COM1.
** Currently it is logging its data to the PC, but we might want to set it up so that it copies its data and/or graphs to a directory available to the Linux machines so that it is web-accessible.
** The default parameters for cloud sensing seem to work pretty well - on the evening of 08-23-2012 is was reporting "Cloudy" but not "Overcast", and looking at the moon, I could see that there was definitely significant haze/cirrus, but that the moon and some stars were still visible. Daytime test indicate that the boundaries between Clear/Cloudy and Cloudy/Overcast seem to be about right. Haven't had a chance to test the rain sensor yet.

* PEMPro: Downloaded and installed from [http://www.ccdware.com/downloads/ here] and entered the old license key we have. Tested it out on the night of 08-23-2012. The PEC table we had uploaded seemed off, so I measured a new one. I fit it with just a few frequencies (I think just 0.5, 1, and 2 times the worm period); the amplitude was roughly +/- 1.5 arcsec, maybe a little less. I chose "Create Paramount PEC table", said "Yes" when asked to invert the curve, and pasted it into TheSky. With this table uploaded, I re-measured the PEC. After 10 worm gear cycles, it appeared to be only noise, with an RMS of about 0.5 arcsec. Success! And no evidence of that weird phase shift we saw when we tried to do this a few years ago. Need to update our page on PEC.

== Ports / connectivity ==

* The Icron Ranger 2104 (4-port USB hub over ethernet) just worked - no installation of drivers needed. Plugged in a flash drive in the USB hub to test.
* The Edgeport/4 (USB-serial converter), plugged into the Icron hub, did not work instantly. But without prompting, Windows found and installed the necessary drivers without incident, and then it started working. COM ports showed up in Device Manager. There is a standalone application that can configure the device to map its ports to particular COM port numbers if it's necessary to change these. For some reason, the order in which the ports became visible to the computer causes it to report that the serial ports 1,2,3,4 on the device are mapped to COM ports 4,5,7,6. (Note the swapped 7 and 6.) I used the tool to remap these to 4,5,6,7, but on reboot, they revert to 4,5,7,6. '''However''': when I was setting up devices later, it turns out that the third port from the left on the hub really ''is'' COM 6, not COM 7, although the OS reports port 3 as being mapped to COM 7. So despite the odd reporting by the OS, it appears that the serial ports on the device really are, left to right, COM 4,5,6,7.
* Current serial port usage:
# Port 1 / COM 4: TCC
# Port 2 / COM 5: Digital Dome Works
# Port 3 / COM 6: Telescope
# Port 4 / COM 7: empty