In early November of 2017 the secondary positioner at VATT was replaced with a new PI Hexapod.

We are currently in a period of transition and much of this document will change.

The new controller is located above the old controller in the vatttel room. It is pictured below.

The most important part of this box is the on/off switch located on the bottom right next to the e stop. In lightning shutdown, turn this switch off. When you come back up from lightning shutdown turn this switch on before you turn vatttel on.

In the previous version of the secondary hardware, the user controlled the orientation of the secondary with the top part of the guider application. Unfortunately, we cannot control the new hardware with this GUI. We have created a new GUI with a similar interface.

To start this new GUI from vattcontrol click on the “New Secondary” Icon located at the bottom of the desktop. An application should pop up that looks like this:

The first step to getting collimation is to turn on auto collimation.

This will send the secondary to nominal collimation and focus and will actively adjust these values based on temperature and elevation of the telescope.

If the secondary becomes unresponsive or other issues arise try these steps:

1. Click disconnect on the Secondary and then click connect.
2. Exit the GUI by killing the window and re open it.
3. Turn the Secondary control box off in the vatttel room weight five seconds and turn it back on.
4. Restart the GUI onvatt control and see if you can connect.
5. Restart the new vattcontrol computer.
6. Then start up the secondary software as normal

If none of these items fix your problem:

Call Scott at 520 499 4860