A telescope definition is a text file that contains all of the things Radio Eyes needs to know about your telescope in order to interact with it. The definition has many important parameters such as setting travel limits, and telling Radio Eyes which “Driver” to use. It also allows you to define the telescope location for remote operation.
Note if your Telescope Creator window does not look like this, you should update to version 1.3.9 or higher.
This tool is used to create or edit a telescope definition file (extension "tdf"). Usage is straight forward.
The Telescope Name - This should be a recognizable string which will make it easy to chose your instrument from a list. Spaces in the name will be replaced by the underscore character. File names associated with the telescope such as the telescope definition file will have this string as the root part of the file name, so do not make the name too long as it will not display well in your directory listings.
AZ / EL Minimum - The minimum azimuth/elevation value in degrees that your telescope can move to.
AZ / EL Range - The total number of degrees that the telescope can move in azimuth/elevation.
AZ / EL Timeout - The number of seconds allowed before a azimuth/elevation stall is declared.
AZ / EL Error - This is the tolerance permitted in move and track tasks. If the position read is outside of the requested position by more than the allowed error, then an attempt is made to correct the position to within this range.
Park AZ / EL - Parking coordinates to which the telescope is moved when a Park task is implemented.
Command Delay - Inserts a delay between commands sent to a rotator controller. Required by some systems.
Allow Az Flip - Applies to controllers that have greater than 90 degrees of elevation movement.
Move Sequence - Determines which axis of an AZEL move occurs first.
EW and NS Beamwidth - These are the approximate 3 dB beamwidths of the telescopes beam. These are used to create an approximate pattern of the beam on the Radio Eyes sky map.
Driver - The root name of the Driver that will be loaded by the Telescope Control Point Program to interface with the telescope hardware.
Use DDE Driver - Accommodates rotator software that captures position requests via the DDE mechanism (experimental as of 4/2012).
Device INI - Any special command string that will be sent to the Driver upon initialization. Filling in this portion may requires some knowledge of the drivers requirements. When the ASCOM telescope driver is used this parameter will point to the name of the specific ASCOM telescope driver ( in effect a driver pointing to another driver).
Shut Down Control Point on Disconnect - Closes the TCPP (telescope control point program) when Radio Eyes disconnects from it.
Telescope is Remote - Use when the telescope control point program is located on another PC.
Remote IP Address / Port - Used by Radio Eyes to communicate with the TCPP. These parameters must match those at the TCPPs location.
Password - The TCPP may be password protected to prevent unauthorized usage. The default password is ADMIN .
Latitude/Longitude - The geographical coordinates in decimal degrees of the telescope. This is important for remote telescopes that are at significant distances from the Radio Eyes operator.
Save and Load buttons take you to the telescope driver directory where telescope drivers and definition files are all stored. Remember that if your Telescope Control Point is on a different computer you will have to transfer any driver files to that computer so that they will be accessible to the Telescope Control Point Program.
Exit - simply closes this tool. The Exit button does NOT save your changes. Use the Save button for that.