User Manual - lvi cameras
Contents
1. User Manual version ENG 1 1 WWW com 328 info com Mi LVI CAMERAS 1 Item Checklist Thank you for purchasing the LVI SmartGuider autoguiding camera Upon receipt please check that your package is complete and contains the following items Control hand paddle Control Paddle SmartGuider camera head with T 2 nosepiece One power supply cable One 8 pin RJ cable Control paddle to camera head One 6 pin RJ cable Control paddle to mount s ST 4 port User s manual DO RNUNN 2 Quick Start Guide Thanks to its ease of use you can hook up your SmartGuider and be ready within minutes Once your imaging rig has been set up polar aligned and carefully balanced here are the main steps to follow 1 Make all the necessary connections a Attach the camera to the guide scope carefully locking the setscrews b Connect the Control Paddle to both the camera head and the mount s ST 4 port using the appropriate RJ cables c Connect the Control Paddle to a 12V DC power supply Turn the LVI SmartGuider on Search for a suitable guide star Focus with the SmartEye parfocal eyepiece Calibrate the mount Set the camera s advanced options Start autoguiding N OA KR WN The steps marked with a star such as focusing and calibration could not always be necessary Please consult Section 4 Tips and Tricks for details 2 www ivi cameras com 328 1260813 info lvi cameras com2. If the camera does not manage to find a sufficiently bright star a micrometric guide scope support will help In case an off axis guider is being used the pick off prism and tube can be moved and or rotated to find a brighter star 4 5 Mount calibration Once calibration is over the parameters are permanently stored into the SmartGuider s internal memory EEPROM for later use provided that the following precautions are taken into account 1 Always guide on stars lying in the same side of the sky with respect to the local meridian as that where the calibration was last performed 2 NEVER take the camera off the guide scope 3 NEVER rotate the camera in the guide scope focuser In all other cases the camera must always be recalibrated lt might take a relatively long time for the calibration process to complete especially with guide scopes of short focal length under 500 mm It is also advisable not to use too dim a star for calibration otherwise just a few thin clouds or a little dew on the lenses could cause the star to be lost and jeopardize the final result of this important process 4 6 Autoguiding and aggressiveness In practice the aggressiveness parameter defines the reaction threshold in terms of sensor pixels i e the value of the offset between two consecutive exposure cycles above which the camera will make a correction The lower the aggressiveness the higher the tracking error allowed and vice v
3. Mi LVI CAMERAS 3 Using the SmartGuider The SmartGuider s control paddle features a wide pixel matrix screen whose colors amber on a black background and brightness do not compromise the eye s delicate adaptation to darkness In this section we describe the content and functionality of all of the available user screens for a quick and effective overview of their usage please check out the flowchart available in the download section of LVI s web site Most screens can have up to three different options on their bottom line which can be activated by pressing the corresponding button on the control paddle from left to right After connecting the power supply turn the camera on by pressing and holding the central button until the LVI logo shows up shortly thereafter the message YOUR SMARTGUIDER IS READY informs you that the startup phase is complete and the camera has come online Press OK to go to the first user screen In the above screen you can turn off the camera by pressing and holding the left button OFF while selecting BASIC with the central button will take you to the basic settings screen MENU BASIC 3 www ivi cameras com 328 1260813 info lvi cameras com i LVI CAMERAS With EXIT you can go back to the previous menu while FOCUS takes you to the next step guide star focusing OPTION enables to adjust the display and keyboard backlight level and the buzzer volume The two basic settings men
4. gt MOTOR NOT MOVING This message may occur when the SmartGuider camera cannot move mount s motors during calibration You might want to check the autoguiding cable or the mount s autoguiding port pin assignment gt COMMUNICATION ERROR The following message is displayed if the cable connecting the CPU and the camera head gets accidentally disconnected or in case of problems with the electrical connections or the power supply 4 2 Choosing a suitable guide scope Thanks to its sub pixel guiding capability the SmartGuider does not call for telescopes with very long focal length or particularly wide aperture As a rule of thumb when imaging with digital SLRs or CCDs pixel size between 5 and 8 microns the guide scope should have no less than the half of the focal length as that of the main instrument In any case it is advisable to use refractors instead 8 www ivi cameras com 328 1260813 info lvi cameras com Mi LVI CAMERAS of slow catadioptric reflectors e g Maksutovs with f ratio of 10 and upwards since focusing by movable primary mirror can easily lead to exposure trailing even if the tracking performance looks apparently good Moreover there are cases where high magnification is not always an advantage due to lower brightness and increased sensitivity to atmospheric turbulence seeing 4 3 Guiding Speed adjustment The SmartGuider automatically adjusts the exposure time according to the guide star s brightne
5. position of the guide star relative to the detector center and the small cross in the rectangular box see above indicates the stars approximate location in a graphical form Bounds X OFFSET 82 Y OFFSET 46 you can try to center it by CAREFULLY nudging the mount along the four directions with the drive keypad at guiding speed If the star is thrown off the active area it will be lost STAR LOST message pops up and you will have to start over with focusing Two focusing aids are available the FOCUS STAR index and the circle on the right hand side of the screen they both show the diameter of the star in pixels on the detector in numerical and graphical form respectively Therefore the lower the number the better the focus a properly focused star should be 3 to 8 pixels wide according to the brightness and air turbulence 5 www ivi cameras com 328 1260813 info lvi cameras com 3 LVI CAMERAS Once the guide star has been correctly centered and focused we can select CALIBR to get to the calibration screen press OK to start calibrating the mount STATUS CALIBRATING FS MOVING je MOTORS 3 6 Moving DEC The calibration process can last up to a few minutes Upon completion the new calibration parameters are automatically stored into the camera s non volatile memory the SAVE icon showed here on the bottom left In case you want to reuse the parameters from last calibration just choose LOAD from the focus
6. until the graph profile goes back to hovering around the zero position If no improvement is seen even with the guiding speed at its highest value the aggressiveness must be increased On nights of bad seeing and especially with long focal length guide scopes it could be worthwhile to slightly defocus the guide star so that the effect of high frequency twinkling is mitigated somewhat and the camera won t try to guide the seeing out Should the graphs still be showing a small jerky oscillation in spite of the above precautions please make sure your equipment is properly balanced in both axes www ivi cameras com 328 1260813 info lvi cameras com Mi LVI CAMERAS 5 Technical Specifications CAMERA SENSON eere nnn eee EEE eee RT ee Mono 1 3 Aptina MT9V032 Sensor FOSOIULION ccccccenssssseeeseseeeeceecessnssnaaaaanssnssess 752x480 6 um square pixels Exposure time FANGE 1 cccccccssssseeeennscesseseeeennnssseseeeessaanssees Auto 0 001 2 seconds FIO SITE a mn RR Pn ne Cerne eee ee Aluminium with polycarbonate lid NOSEDIECB u MMperrsesssssnasiecsnedccsnenss Standard 1 25 inch 31 8mm with filter thread ogc ise 2 Sn err eee er rrr rere AE 8 pin RJ45 Size and weighll A D 65mm H 50mm Weight 110g CONTROL PADDLE GAS 6s TORE VE E ARREREERIEREE ABER ABS black color KoyDall Meier Three membrane keys with amber back illumination Displaya Au 2 5 inch amber graphical LCD 128x64 pixel res
7. X axis upper left and in the Y axis upper right The aggressiveness in both axes can range from 1 to 6 1 2 LOW 3 4 MILD 5 6 HIGH and expresses the degree of reactivity of corrections a high value will urge the camera to immediately correct for the slightest displacement whereas a low value will yield a much smoother behavior See more details at page 10 www ivi cameras com 328 1260813 info lvi cameras com Mi LVI CAMERAS 4 Tips and Tricks The SmartGuider is very simple and intuitive to use However there are some phases namely selection of a suitable guide star focusing and calibration which are critical in maximizing the performance of your SmartGuider and therefore deserve special attention For further details please contact LVI 4 1 Error messages gt STAR LOST This message may occur in such cases 1 Clouds rolling in during AUTOGUIDING READY and GUIDING 2 Lenses getting wet during AUTOGUIDING READY and GUIDING 3 Too high guiding speed during MOVING MOTORS Case 1 and 2 the SmartGuider warns the user both with a visual message and an audible signal one beep per second until the star becomes visible again for up to 30 seconds Case 3 and 4 adjust the guiding speed to a lower level through the mount controls or check the Control Paddle to ST 4 mount cable gt STAR NOT FOUND This message may occur when the SmartGuider camera cannot find a suitable star after STAR SEARCH command
8. ersa HIGH values are suitable when using small refractors featuring a focal length 1 5 2 times smaller than the main instrument MILD values are for guide scopes 10 www ivi cameras com 328 1260813 info lvi cameras com MI LVI CAMERAS of about the same focal length and LOW ones are best in case of very long guide scopes or off axis guiding typically SCTs During autoguiding the trend of the X and Y graphs should always be staying as smooth as possible It is advisable to start off with default values for aggressiveness and guiding speed then both parameters can be fine tuned to achieve the best possible sync between your SmartGuider and your telescope If you notice any significant oscillations about the zero position of one or both graphs overcorrection the guiding speed should be decreased with the mount drive keypad until the oscillation becomes less important ideally almost negligible Anyway it must be noted that a little oscillation across the zero line is acceptable since both graphs depict the offset between two consecutive exposures with a 2X scale So two pixels on the tracking graph are actually equivalent to one single pixel on the detector If the oscillation continues even with the guiding speed at its lowest possible value the aggressiveness has to be decreased In case the profile of one or both graphs keeps steadily above or below the zero value undercorrection the guiding speed has to be slowly increased
9. ing menu screen on the lower right Please see note on calibration on page 9 READY STATUS GUIDING pet eg EE agg ee START The SmartGuider is standing by Status READY screen on the upper left before starting the actual autoguiding phase Status GUIDING screen on the upper right by selecting START The two graphs allow real time monitoring of guiding corrections issued to the mount You can interrupt the autoguiding process by pressing STOP at any time while EXIT will take you back to the basic settings screen uJ rm ki 6 www lvi cameras com 328 1260813 info lvi cameras com S LVI CAMERAS It might happen the guide star get lost 1 beep per second and STAR LOST this can be due to a number of different reasons e g because the sky has clouded over the optics have dewed up or the star has been thrown off the field of view by a wind gust or even because the telescope has been touched If the star remains invisible for up to 30 seconds the camera will still be able to resume autoguiding otherwise the current session is aborted and the execution flow goes back to the MENU BASIC screen to search for a new guide star From the autoguiding screen pressing the ADVAN menu item brings up the advanced settings screen EXIT will take us back to the previous menu while by pressing AGGRESS X we come to the following screens With the two triangular arrows UP and DOWN you can adjust the aggressiveness in the
10. olution Connedors A ann han 8 pin RJ45 12V DC jack 6 pin RJ12 pin Size and weighll u Messner LxHxD 55x96x28mm Weight 220g Power keguirements N kann nn aan 6 14V DC 90 200mA FEATURES Automatic guide star search Real time monitoring of guide star position and focus Automatic axis calibration with permanent storage of parameters Adjustable display backlight and buzzer volume Adjustable dual axis aggressiveness High precision 2X sub pixel autoguiding GUIDE STAR BRIGHTNESS 60 mm guide SCODG ccceccencccsssnnsssssssesecnnsnnssssssssssesssessenssasssssssssssesQOQIOHOX 7 5 80 MmmM guide SEOBE ann nennen na 8 0 100 mmM guide SCODG Si un sates vasanticientsnidadedersmantnacenpeniiansiobanriceseePDlOk 8 5 FIELD WIDTH AND IMAGE SCALE Scope with F 300mm FOV 51 7x33 0 arcmin scale 4 13 arcsec px Scope with F 500mm FOV 31 0x19 8 arcmin scale 2 48 arcsec px Scope with F 800mm FOV 19 4x12 4 arcmin scale 1 55 arcsec px 12 www ivi cameras com 328 1260813 info lvi cameras com
11. ss shorter for bright stars longer for dim ones This also affects the frequency of corrections to the mount bright stars allow for continuous position control which also ensures that all sorts of tracking errors including the component resulting from periodic error and atmospheric turbulence will be easily guided out Bright stars are best to compensate for the most erratic periodic errors or with guide scopes having a shorter focal length than that of the main optics In this case we advise using a moderate guiding speed 0 15 0 5X with HIGH aggressiveness On the other hand fainter stars imply a less frequent correction of tracking errors this makes them not as suitable for mounts with an irregular periodic error However long exposure times required by faint stars could come in handy to minimize the influence of bad seeing Here we suggest a very low guiding speed best if no higher than 0 25X with MILD aggressiveness Medium brightness stars visual magnitude between 3 and 6 generally yield best performance 4 4 Search for a suitable guide star The telescope must not be touched during calibration otherwise the relevant parameters could not be calculated correctly This also applies to the Control Paddle unit which must not stay in your hand If the search for the guide star fails you can manually move the guide scope looking for a brighter star 9 www lvi cameras com 328 1260813 info lvi cameras com MI LVI CAMERAS
12. us are shown below brightness left and buzzer volume right You can adjust both the brightness and the buzzer volume with the two triangular keys on the control paddle four levels are available from 1 minimum to 4 maximum EXIT takes you back to the basic settings screen Now let s have a closer look at the focusing procedure Before mounting the camera onto the guide scope s drawtube you have first to center the brightest star in the field of view which is closest to your imaging target with a wide field low power eyepiece use then the special SmartEye eyepiece to focus the guide scope and fine tune the position of the star chosen This eyepiece will deliver a perfectly focused and centered star in the camera s FOV When you press on FOCUS the SmartGuider scans the whole frame to look for the previously selected guide star A www lvi cameras com 328 1260813 info lvi cameras com i LVI CAMERAS After a while the actual duration of the search phase is not always the same the SmartGuider will inform you of the outcome with a simple message STAR FOUND or STAR NOT FOUND If the guide star was not found upper right the SmartGuider goes automatically back to the MENU BASIC screen in this case a brighter star has to be chosen If the star has been found upper left we can proceed to the important focusing menu In this screen the X and Y offsets 1 offset unit 4 sensor pixels denote the
Download Pdf Manuals
Related Search