Merop Goto/Joystick Pad - Association Astrimage

What is Merop ?

Merop is a wireless autonomous Goto joystick. The whole conception of this project is the work of the Astrimage team, and is one of the main projects of Astrimage in order to provide a whole set of tools dedicated to digital astrophotography in the "Do it yourself" spririt. As other projects in the association, Merop is developped in an industrial way of project management, but offers the possibility to the amateur to build it, and in a close future to buy it in a "out of the box" version at a very competitive price for those of us who don't feel the power to build it by themselves :-D. Main features are:

Sensitive joystick sensor for guiding, motofocusers etc : 1024 positions per axis for speed adjustments (allowed by Pic-Astro)
LX 200 protocol native implementation, multi-protocol evolutivity : Ascom etc.
LCD 4x16 screen with blue, red or green backlight
Messier, NGC, IC, Well-Known stars onboard databases for Goto purposes
Total modularity on devices used : different screens, radio transceivers etc
Multi-language support: English and French fully supported, other languages can be implemented

Merop is fully compatible with any LX200 protocol enabled mount, and implements special features for the Pic-Astro Goto/MicroStep equatorial driving box .

No translation in english available yet for this section

Roadmap

Today the Merop project is still under development, but the following features are supported:

Sensitive joystick sensor for guiding trough LX200 protocol: Full support
Database-based Menu navigation: Full support
LX200 Link trough wired Rs232 Link : Full support
Firmware update trough wired Rs232 Link : Full support
Database to EEprom download protocol: Full support
Messier and Mainstars (250 stars) catalogues: Full support
Hardware setup trough software for LCD brightness, Serial link speed etc : Full support

A bit more

You can download our powerpoint presentations on the website "Association"/"Présentations" and on the forum Astrocoolpix chapter Astrimage/Merop

Procedure

Pour un traitement rapide et efficace des demandes d'adhésion e

For a fast and effective membership applications and orders, it is necessary to observe the following procedure:

Precisely fill the membership form and / or orders and send it in an imperative Excel* file by email to commandesnospam@astrimage.org (replace nospam by -pic-astro) or commandesnospam@astrimage.org (replace nospam by -Merop) according to your request.
Membership and / or order will then be validated (usually within 24/48h). You will then receive an email confirmation with instructions for payment.
Then send a hard copy of the order valid, together with payment by mail to the address you will be notified at the time of validation.
Upon receipt of payment, Astrimage prepare and ship the package as soon as possible. (usually within 24/48h).

* Membership applications and orders made by the Excel file "adhesion_commande.xlt. The latest version of this file is available for download from the website Astrimage. For better processing of your application, thank you to use the latest version of this file.

It is therefore necessary to use Microsoft Excel or OpenOffice.

For users of Microsoft Excel, the file uses macros, it is imperative to accept the activation of macros to open the file. If you have problems, close the file and start again from the downloaded file.
For users of Open Office, Microsoft Excel is preferred if you have the opportunity and access. Otherwise, fill in the form provided within the various comments. Thank you to record and send your file in an Excel compatible format (extension. Xls) (avoid format. Ods)

If you experience difficulties using Excel / Open Office, thank you to contact Astrimage.

Along with the above procedure and only after validation of your order, you must order your own way (s) kit (s) of small components from our partner Gotronic.

For Picastro: The kit costs 46 € (excluding postage) and is available under the reference No. 700118. In addition to the kit above, you will also need to buy some parts / components customizable, including the particular case. The list of customizable components is available on the site Astrimage, then capter furnitures of Picastro
For Merop: The kit costs 58.60 € (excluding postage) and is available under the reference No. 700258.

IMPORTANT NOTES :

We will inform you in case of unavailability of components, but a delay of several weeks of waiting has to be considered when stock exhausted.
The parts are reserved for the purchaser for a period of one week from sending the email validation.
If payment has not been received after that time, the components will be considered again free and buyers more quickly to resolve will be honored first.
The purchase of smaller components is essential for mounting Pic Astro and / or Merop, but buying them from Gotronic is OPTIONAL.
You are free to choose another supplier, you still have a 25% discount applied by Gotronic on all components.
The list of required components is available on the site Astrimage, Pic-Astro section and / or Merop.
The support on the installation, configuration, usage, etc ... from Pic astro is on Astrocoolpix.
The support on the installation, configuration, usage, etc ... of Merops is on the mailing list named Yahoo Merop-astrimage. Registration for the forum or mailing list is necessary.
The documentation is available for download from the site Astrimage chapter Pic-astro or Merop.

Several shipping options are available:

Letter Max available for Pic-astro components and Merop components WITHOUT the box. Valid only for metropolitan France.
Collissimo: compulsory purchase if the box Merop. Valid only for metropolitan France.
International collisimo: required for any shipment of Picastro components and Merop to overseas and overseas.

Shipping to a different address as possible. In this case, also give the shipping address in the context concerned.