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Presentation

What's Merop

• Allows to command the telescopes (Focus, move) as a classic hand-controller
• Compatible LX200 (Meade Protocol)
• Analog Joystick : 64 positions per axis for controlling the direction of movement and speed in a single gesture
• Databases of important objects and customizable

                                                                                       

History

• Summer 2005: First thoughts on the project
• September / October 2005: Development
• November 2005: 1st prototype
• December 2005: Management of Messier objects, functional user interface
• January 2006: Management of the various modes of communication, 110 Messier objects and 250 stars benchmarks
• September 2006: Stabilization of the software and the electronic database NGC functional
• January 2007: First order placed
  

Development of the project

• Software Development entirely based on a database
  
• Mechanical design depth
  

Features Move the telescope by the joystick action, configuration of the telescope Customizing speeds on the joystick Supports focus motor Support for protocol LX200 (Meade) Graphical Interface Database        - 110 Messier objects        - 250 remarkable Stars        - 7840 NGC objects wired communication mode (RS232) Multilingual: English / French, possibility of adding language

Future features

• Date / Time
• End of course sensors (Hub Merop)
• Calculations of corrections: atmospheric refraction, precession, nutation
• IC Catalog
• Catalog of standards Star  for Astrophotography
• Catalog of custom objects (500 objects)

A very simple architecture!

• PIC 18F2525 microcontroller to 20MHz
• 4 storage EEPROM 64KB databases: graphical interface, objects

 

                                                                                       
Simple use of Merop
                                                                                       


                                                                                       

Cost of implementation

• Approximately 150 euros with a high quality box
• Allow approximately 5 euros for the realization of a Y to select the PC or controller Merops Telescope
• These costs have been reduced through grouped orders Astrimage