This is an old revision of the document!
Overview
Legacy TCS only allows remote telescope communication and control through a serial port on the main TCS computer. In order to allow network communication and control of the telescope we have built software called Telcom to convert tcp/ip sockets to serial communication. To make sure this software is up and running on the BOK telescope you can check the website http://bokpop.as.arizona.edu and look for the table marked telemetry. This webpage queries the telcom server about once a second.
Request syntax
Legacy TCS makes 14 pieces of information available. The syntax for for getting these values from telcom is
<TELESCOPE ID> TCS <REF NUM> REQUEST <KEYWORD> For Example: BOK TCS 123 REQUEST RA
The telcom server will return: <BOK> TCS <REF NUM> <RETURN VALUE> For Example: BOK TCS 123 214412.79
| Description | Key Word | return synax |
|---|---|---|
| Motion Status | MOT | 0=No motion 1=RA Motion 2=Dec Motion 3=RA and Dec Motion |
| Right Ascension | RA | [hhmmss.ss] |
| Declination | DEC | [+/-ddmmss.ss] |
| Hour Angle | HA | [+/-hh:mm:ss.ss] |
| Secant z (Air Mass) | SECZ | [s.ss] |
| Error state | ERROR | [E] ( a number or letter representing serial error state ) |
| Epoch | EQ | D[YYYY.YYY] |
| Julian Date | JD | [DDDDDDD.D] |
| Universal Time | UT | [hh:mm:ss.s] |
| IIS position | IIS | [DDD.D] angle in degrees |
| Local Sidereal Time | ST | [hh:mm:ss.ss] |
| Elevation Angle | EL | [DD.D] |
| Azimuth Angle | AZ | [DDD.D] |
| Dome positoin | DOME | [DDD.D] this position is relative to the telescope azimuth. To get absolute dome position add this angle to the telescope azimuth. |
| WOBBLE | WOBBLE | ??? |
"ALL" keyword
If you want to get multiple pieces of data from the telcom server rapidly you can use the ALL keyword. This will give a string containing all the telemetry data described above which will have to be parsed.
string is shown below.
| Return Values | MOT | RA | DEC | HA | ST | EL | AZ | SECZ | ERROR | Blank | EQ | JD | WOBBLE | DOME | UT | IIS | Carriage Return |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Positon in String after REF NUM | 0 | 4 to 12 | 14 to 22 | 25 to 33 | 35 to 42 | 44 to 48 | 50 to 55 | 57 to | 63 to 70 | 72 to 75 | 76 to 83 | 85 to 93 | 94 to 98 | 99 to 100 |
BOK TCS 123 0 221941.92 +314308.8 -00:00:00 22:20:19 90.0 +7.6 1.00 D2000.000 2456698.3 1 -78.6 20:27:19.1 0.0
