The Merop components : what, where, how much price ?
The components necessary to mount Merop are:
- Printed Circuit
- PIC Microcontroller: the brain of Merops. Attention, his first programming requires a specific tool. This is done by Astrimage
- Memories on which are stored the various catalogs of stars and celestial objects
- Joystick to help you move through menus
- Professionnal quality box.
- Set of standard components
- Y Merop (optional) for switching PC - Merops requiring additional components
Our partner Gotronic offers you all the necessary components for interesting prices. Astrimage offers through grouped orders specific components or requesting a specific tool for programming : PIC micro-controllers, printed circuit quality pro, box drilled and joystick. Of course you are free tobuy your components where you want, but we recommend these two sources so that you can enjoy the best rates and quality pro. Price: the components ordered from Astrimage and Gotronic have a total price of approximately 150 euros for high quality components with grouped orders and Gotronic! Could not do less for a Go-To hand controller of so high quality!
Printed circuit
The key to the reliability of your Merop : 90% of the problems in mounting a Merops goes from the quality of printed circuit boards and soldering. Astrimage regularly orders printed circuit boards for industrial-grade circuit boards. This allows circuits to have high quality, reliable, durable and inexpensive: the system allows orders to obtain lower prices than that of a circuit manufactured by a vendor of electronic equipment with a much better quality. You can subscribe to orders or check the stock for these boards since the web page grouped orders
Pic microcontroller
The microcontroller is the brain of Merop. This component loads in a single chip the equivalent of a small miniaturized computer completely.
Like any computer microcontroller needs to be programmed, and for the first programmation it is necessary to have a special program. Astrimage regularly orders microcontrollers, embedded in some kits with printed circuits. You can subscribe to orders or to check the presence of stock from «grouped orders».
The memories
The memories will enable you to store the database. The Merop database is the main tool for configuring and programming Merop:
- Setting the type of EEPROM (Memory)
- Generation of Merops Graphic interface : Menus, Screens etc.
- Generation of catalogs in the format of your EEprom : Messier, NGC / IC, Mainstars, Personnal
- Transfert to Merop
Joystick
The joystick will be delivered with the box and the printed circuits.
The box
The box will be delivered as standard with the pic, the printed circuit board and joystick. It requires several drillings that may be made on request by Astrimage only for members and for money to pay the necessary tools.
Y Merop
The Y Merop will enable to switch between your PC and your MEROP. To achieve this, you will need the following components :
- 1 SUB-D 9 pins connector Male to solder
- 1 SUB-D 9 pins connector female to solder
- 1 sliding switch
- 2 hoods for SUB D- 9 pin
You can find more information on the following file:
Y_PC_MEROP.pdf
Kit of standard components
Our partner Gotronic offers a kit of components including all standard components of Merop at a very interestinf price. You can order this kit directly from the web site of gotronic :
- Go on the website of Gotronic : www.gotronic.fr
- Click on « Mon Panier » at the top left corner
- Type 700258 in « code Article » and click on « Ajouter » -> It's normal that the article appears not disponible
- Follow the instructions for ordering on the web site of gotronic to validate your order.
You can download the lits of components on :
KitGotronic_merop_1_3.xls
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