Unihedron SQM-LE Operator'S Manual Download Page 1

Page: 1 / 97

SQM-LE

Operator’s Manual

Version: 20220822

Summary of Contents for SQM-LE

Page 1: ...SQM LE Operator s Manual Copyright 2005 2022 Version 20220822 Company information Mailing address Unihedron 4 Lawrence Avenue Grimsby Ontario L3M 2L9 Canada Telephone 905 945 1197 Website unihedron com ...

Page 2: ......

Page 3: ...o the PC 16 4 Specifications 17 5 Hardware connections 18 5 1 Hardware connections 18 5 1 1 Hub Switch connection 18 5 1 2 Wireless connection wireless client bridge 19 5 1 3 More than one SQM LE 20 5 1 4 Direct connection 20 5 1 5 Power over Ethernet PoE 21 5 1 6 Lock switch 22 6 Software development 23 6 1 Writing your own software interface 23 6 2 Pascal 24 6 3 Custom web page 24 7 Unihedron De...

Page 4: ...d line parameters 61 7 12 1 Internal startup options 62 7 12 2 Windows autostartup 62 7 12 3 Mac autostartup 62 8 Commands and responses 63 8 1 Commands 63 8 2 Response details 64 8 2 1 Reading request 64 8 2 2 Unaveraged reading request 64 8 2 3 Linear reading request 65 8 2 4 Inline linear reading request 66 8 2 5 Unit information 67 8 3 Calibration commands 68 8 3 1 Calibration information requ...

Page 5: ...86 9 2 Mechanical installation 86 9 2 1 Cover selection 86 9 2 2 Cover calibration 86 9 2 3 Cover maintenance 87 10 Default settings 88 10 1 XPort settings 88 10 2 ARP method 88 10 2 1 For Linux 89 11 Firmware upgrade 90 11 1 Details 90 12 Calibration 91 12 1 Recalibration 91 12 2 Light calibration 91 12 3 Dark calibration 91 12 4 Confirmation 91 13 Troubleshooting 92 14 Glossary 96 15 Bibliograph...

Page 6: ...details 43 7 24 RS232 connection details 43 7 25 Information tab 44 7 26 Log Continuously screen 44 7 27 Log Continuously Trigger tab 45 7 28 Log Continuously Look tab 45 7 29 Log Continuously Status tab 45 7 30 Log Continuously Threshold 46 7 31 Log Continuously alerts 46 7 32 Log Continuously Alarm for darkness 47 7 33 Log Continuously Transfer tab 47 7 34 Log Continuously Annotation tab 48 7 35...

Page 7: ...g of light calibration temperature 71 8 13 Response of manually setting dark calibration time period 71 8 14 Response for manually setting of dark calibration temperature 72 8 15 Lock setting command summary 73 8 16 Lock setting response summary 73 8 17 LED accessory command summary 74 8 18 LED accessory response summary 74 8 19 Humidity temperature command summary 75 8 20 Humidity temperature res...

Page 8: ... trying to reconfigure Ethernet module 93 13 7 Meter will not respond 93 13 8 Socket error 10051 94 13 9 Ping but no readings 94 13 10Ping but cannot be found by UDM 94 13 11Lantronix Device Installer update problems 94 13 12Reading errors reported 95 13 13Darkroom bag readings incorrect 95 14 1 Glossary of terms 96 List of Equations 2 1 MPSAS to cd m2 13 2 2 NELM to MPSAS 14 2 3 MPSAS to NELM 14 ...

Page 9: ...e turtle hatchlings are affected by artificial lights Researching bird song synchronization with dawn Researching twilight brightness changes with the addition of external Neutral Density filters Unihedron offers adapters to attach such filters onto the meter 1 1 QuickStart 1 1 1 Setting up the instrument 1 Either connect the SQM LE meter to your network router with the supplied blue straight thro...

Page 10: ...1 Introduction CCDAutoPilot FITS4Win2 uses the MPSAS keyword for sorting and filtering image files 10 Unihedron SQM LE Operator s Manual 20220822 ...

Page 11: ...ts have a higher magnitude value For example a star that is 6th magnitude is brighter than a star that is 11th magnitude The star Vega is used a the reference point of 0 magnitude Table 2 1 shows the apparent magnitude of some common known celestial objects Table 2 1 Apparent Magnitudes of Known Celestial Objects adapted from 2 App Mag Celestial Object 26 73 Sun 12 6 full Moon 4 7 Maximum brightne...

Page 12: ...ildings that may block the sensor A reading of greater than 22 0 is unlikely to be recorded however there are reasons for extra dark readings Cloud or ash covered sky in a remote area where little natural sky brightness can be recorded Uncorrected readings from covered meter like a weatherproof housing Obstructed view like inside a forest or where large buildings are located within the field of vi...

Page 13: ...can occur in very isolated areas like mountain tops the ocean or the desert You will have to be aware of this special situation when analyzing readings Volcanic eruptions Dust released into the atmosphere by volcanoes can reflect light from the surface of the earth back down In a dark location this dust will prevent the light from stars and Milky Way and produce a darker higher reading Zodiacal li...

Page 14: ...at conversion or the chart shown in Figure 2 2 and Equations 2 2 and 2 3 Figure 2 2 Mpsas vs NELM Convert NELM V mags to MPSAS B sky brightness 3 Bmpsas 21 58 5 log 10 1 586 NELM 5 1 2 2 Convert MPSAS B sky brightness to NELM V mags 4 NELM 7 93 5 log 10 4 316 Bmpsas 5 1 2 3 NSU Natural Sky Units 1 NSU is radiance relative to an assumed natural radiance of 21 6 magSQM arcsec2 NSU values indicate ho...

Page 15: ...vals to report a frequency measured in Hz Period mode The period mode is for dark readings where the frequency is low The sensor signal gates a high speed internal counter which reports the period measured in µs Both Frequency and Period results are available when connected directly to the meter and using the rx command The SQM LE computes mpsas by deciding if the period or frequency report should...

Page 16: ...e relayed to the micro controller The micro controller responds to commands by sending data strings to the Ethernet interface which are then relayed to the PC Readings are gathered asynchronously by the micro controller Requests from the PC are buffered and dealt with as time permits 16 Unihedron SQM LE Operator s Manual 20220822 ...

Page 17: ...ly 10 0 10 mag arcsec2 Field of View The Half Width Half Maximum HWHM of the angular sensitivity is 10 The Full Width Half Maximum FWHM is then 20 The sensitivity to a point source 19 off axis is a factor of 10 lower than on axis A point source 20 and 40 off axis would register 3 0 and 5 0 magnitudes fainter respectively Power requirement 5 6VDC 300mA 2 1mmI D 5 5mmO D connector Center positive ou...

Page 18: ...E can serve one TCP connection at a time Once a TCP connection is made with the PC software no other PCs can access that SQM LE The TCP connection must be released or closed before other PCs can access it More than one SQM LE may be placed on the network each will have its own IP address It is desirable for the SQM LE to have a fixed IP address so that accessing from the PC is consistent Assigning...

Page 19: ...In this situation the PC either acts like an access point if it has this capability or is connected to one by a regular Ethernet patch cable The Linksys WRT54GL may be flashed with free open source firmware from dd wrt com and configured either as the wireless access point or the wireless client bridge Figure 5 3 Wireless client bridge connection Unihedron SQM LE Operator s Manual 20220822 19 ...

Page 20: ...001 SQM 3 192 168 1 134 10001 SQM 4 192 168 1 135 10001 If the router is has a dynamic DNS address of sqmcity dyndns org then these same SQM LEs could be accessed from the Internet in the following way provided the port forwarding shown in the image was adopted SQM 1 sqmcity dyndns org 10001 SQM 2 sqmcity dyndns org 10002 SQM 3 sqmcity dyndns org 10003 SQM 4 sqmcity dyndns org 10004 Figure 5 4 Por...

Page 21: ...eft side 7 Select the radiobutton associated with Use the following IP configuration and enter the IP address that you would like the unit to occupy in your direct connection system For example IP Address 192 168 1 141 assuming that address is free Subnet Mask 255 255 255 0 The Default Gateway field may be left blank 8 Press OK at the bottom then Apply Settings on the menu of the left side of the ...

Page 22: ... version 42 45 prevent changes to the Report Interval settings with the lock set Firmware feature version 46 and above implement optional settings to allow the lock switch to optionall limit access to the Calibration settings Report interval settings Configuration settings and these same optional settings See the Configuration tab in UDM for these settings If you are sure that your network is comp...

Page 23: ...antronix XPort will send a response that starts with hex 00 00 00 F7 elements 1 4 and elements 25 30 contain the MAC address of the responding unit 3 Data commands are sent to the SQM LE and it responds with a string of characters 4 Close the socket so that other programs can access the SQM LE Note Only one connection can be made to the SQM LE at a time Therefore leaving a connection open constant...

Page 24: ...SQM devices and reading data from them It is open source and written in Lazarus FreePascal The source files for UDM are available here unihedron com projects darksky cd udm 6 3 Custom web page Details for installing your own web page and Java software can be found at the Lantronix website in their FAQ titled Web Enabling Your Serial Device 24 Unihedron SQM LE Operator s Manual 20220822 ...

Page 25: ...m which should run sufficiently on any present day computer under the Windows Mac or Linux operating systems The Windows version of UDM can also be run in a virtualization mode using VMware Fusion Access to the network is achieved by the menu Virtual Machine Network Adapter Bridged Autodetect being checked 7 2 2 Windows The Windows version of UDM is in a setup exe style file located in the Windows...

Page 26: ...first This step is fairly quick a few seconds 2 UDM then searches for attached Ethernet devices within the reach of the Ethernet network but not outside a firewall This step may take about 30 seconds If no devices are found then the main UDM program will be shown with the found devices box empty You can attach an SQM device to your computer and press the Find button to search for the newly connect...

Page 27: ...ists of the items File View Tools Help as defined below 7 3 4 File menu The file menu is used for opening files finding newly attached devices and quitting the program as shown in Figure 7 2 Figure 7 2 File menu File Open The File Open menu item is used to open up previously stored log files or calibration reports Unihedron SQM LE Operator s Manual 20220822 27 ...

Page 28: ...key Ctrl E can also be used instead of the mouse File Startup options The File Startup options function can be used to set the command line startup parameters internally so that these parameters are not needed on the command line See 7 12 for more details on the available options File Quit The File Quit menu item is used to close the UDM program The program can also be closed from the window panel...

Page 29: ...ent to and received from the SQM during this session of running UDM Some excessively repetitive commands are suppressed from this listing Figure 7 5 View Log View Directories shows the directory paths used by UDM to store and retrieve data Figure 7 6 View Directories Logs Directory Path shows the path where logged records are kept These logged records are created when using the Log one Record or L...

Page 30: ... SQM LE can be updated or reverted using UDM These firmware files are stored at the displayed firmware files path This path is not changeable Data Directory is the place where some data files are kept specifically the change log for UDM and firmware files This path is not changeable Configfile path is the place where UDM stores its configuration about the program and attached SQM devices This path...

Page 31: ...ct coordinates 3 The Elevation entry is optional as it is not used for anything yet 4 Press the Apply button when you are satisfied with the desired values Note The Apply button will only be enabled if there is a difference between the desired and actual values 5 Press Close when you are satisfied with the actual values The Local timezone region and Local timezone name are required by UDM to calcu...

Page 32: ...bare plot can be saved in vector graphics SVG or bitmap PNG modes using the Save buttons in the Settings tab View Plotter Time offset To assist in correcting timing problems when the datalogger real time clock was not properly set the Time offset feature can be used as follows if there are two datalogger files one with proper time set and a second with bad time setting Open the Plotter File mode M...

Page 33: ...path Edit the file with a text editor and place settings under the Plotter section for example MPSASColor clRed The following names can be used to define plot line colors MPSASColor MPSAS2Color MPSAS3Color MoonColor SunColor CivilColor NauticalColor AstronmicalColor SunTwilightColor VoltageColor TemperatureColor Color names or numbers are defined here https wiki freepascal org Colors Convert_TColo...

Page 34: ...lgorithm library from Andreas Ho rstemeier 7 This tool prepares the file for importation into a spreadsheet like Excel OpenOffice or LibreOffice For importing into a spreadsheet The value for Moon phase angle reported in the csv is 180 or 180 Full Moon 0 New Moon Positive numbers Waxing growing Negative numbers Waning shrinking Figure 7 11 Tool dat to Moon csv Press the Select button shown in Figu...

Page 35: ...retrieve The DL retrieve tool is used for datalogging and Vector model to pull in data files that were stored on disk previously Tools dat to kml Creates a kml file from a dat file This is used when the SQM LE and an external GPS are read by UDM in the Log Continuous datalogging mode Figure 7 13 Tool dat to kml The kml file can be imported into GoogleEarth to create an image similar to this Unihed...

Page 36: ...records Listing 7 1 dat minimum field example UTC Date Time MSAS Latitude Longitude 2018 02 07T04 27 57 642 19 0 33 2208 116 3387 2018 02 07T04 28 17 089 18 3 33 2208 116 3422 2018 02 07T04 28 37 105 18 0 33 2210 116 3457 The UTC Datestamp data is not used to make the kml file but UDM requires something there The format of the fields are YYYY MM DDTHH mm ss fff mag sqarcsec Degrees Degrees Tools d...

Page 37: ...to reconstruct Select the proper region and time zone Press the Reconstruct dat local times button The reconstructed file will be written to disk at the location specified in the bottom Filename section Tools dat time correction If the real time clock inside the datalogger was not set properly or the battery was not plugged into the datalogger quickly enough to keep the super capacitor charged bef...

Page 38: ... Moon and 180 degrees New Moon waxing Moon from 180 to 0 degrees waning Moon from 0 to 180 degrees values flip from 180 to 180 at Full Moon MoonElev Elevation angle in degrees of the moon above or below negative the local flat horizon MoonIllum Percentage of moon illuminated SunElev Elevation angle of the sun above or below negative the local flat horizon MinSince3pm Number of minutes since 3pm of...

Page 39: ...3ce21 5614 48fc a5d4 292b92640d50 filesusr com ugd 445aec_7522a23976bc472f8dbdcfb907d5d5b7 pdf by Bill Kowalik and Michael McKeag Oregon Chapter of International Dark Sky Association ResidStdErr is a measure of the jaggedness or roughness of the SQM data over time Large values indicate cloudy conditions Small values represent clear conditions You can later filter out cloudy data by only accepting ...

Page 40: ...provides more than 300 samples per day will fail The Range parameter is the number of samples usually 5 minutes apart to include before and after the current point at which the Residual Standard Error of regression calculation is performed the full width of the interval in terms of number of points to consider in the calculation is 2 Range 1 so that a Range of 6 incorporates a time span of 60 minu...

Page 41: ...rst Range number of points in a day and the final Range number of points in a day are assigned dummy RSE values of 999000 0 5 During daylight hours when the entire Range of values has SQM readings of 0 0 the RSE values is reported as 0 0 Unihedron SQM LE Operator s Manual 20220822 41 ...

Page 42: ...le that UDM can find from this computer If only one device is found then UDM auto selects it and gathers the version information for that selected device Figure 7 20 Found device single If more than one device is found then UDM does not select any of the devices You may select the desired device by clicking in the found devices box on the SQM that you want to know more about Once you select the de...

Page 43: ...in the found box The default port number for the SQM LE is 10001 See Figure 7 23 Figure 7 23 Ethernet connection details The RS232 fields are editable so you may enter your own port and baud rate The baud rate for the SQM LR is 115200 See Figure 7 24 Figure 7 24 RS232 connection details 7 4 Information tab The information tab is used to show information about the version and the reading of the sel...

Page 44: ...ed below Log one record gathers one data record from the connected SQM and stores that information to a data log file on the disk in the Logs directory path The location of the file can be identified and changed by View Directories The log file can be accessed later from the File Open menu 7 5 Log Continuous The Log continuous function allows data from the connected SQM device to be logged repetit...

Page 45: ...if Moon data is to be computed and logged 3 Select Freshness to identify Fresh Stale results This is useful when recording brightness from a moving platform specifically 4 Select Single dat file to prevent separate daily files being created each 24 hours 5 Select GoTo accessory when the meter is mounted on a GoTo tripod and direction commands come from the GoTo tab 6 Select Raw frequency when the ...

Page 46: ... while not recording An override from the command line options LCTH x can be made The override will only take effect for the current session and will not alter the saved configuration Audio alerts In cases where you want to be alerted that a reading will be taken for example when manually pointing the meter the Pre reading audio alert named prereading wav can be enabled as shown in Fig 7 31 to pla...

Page 47: ...h contains recorded readings csv sends the date named cav file which contains recorded readings in comma separated variable format Plot sends the daily plot and an html file that can be used to display on a webserver details below When the Plot option is selected UDM fills in the sqm template html file in the data directory with reading and date variables then sends the resulting filled in informa...

Page 48: ...eys The Annotation tab allows the definition of hotkeys and their associated annotation text that will appear at the end of an annotated record Figure 7 34 Log Continuously Annotation tab Persistent annotation The Persistent mode makes the annotated text persistently appear at the end of each logged record after the first time the hotkey is pressed Without Persistent checked annotation text is onl...

Page 49: ...ure that no other programs are accessing the GPS 4 Start up UDM make sure you meter is selected 5 Select Log Continuous GPS tab 6 Enter the Comm Port into the Port field in my case I just typed in COM6 7 Enter the baud rate for the GPS into the Baud field in my case I just typed in 115200 GPS on Mac To get the Communications Port for a USB connected GPS to a Mac computer 1 Follow the instructions ...

Page 50: ... meter to various parts of the sky and automatically gathering a reading at each position The following GoTo devices are currently supported SynScan V4 iOptron 8408 The connection of the GoTo device is made to the serial port Note some USB to RS232 serial adapters do not act properly with UDM Usually an FTDI addapter should work well Select the machine type port and baud rate Ensure that the conne...

Page 51: ...pposed to the default fixed width 6 Import starting at line 33 7 Next 8 Unselect Tab 9 Select Semicolon you should see bars separating the data fields now 10 Next 11 Define each field European users will have to select Advanced then change the Decimal point to and Thousands separator to 12 field 1 2 date YMD Note You can also use the dat to Moon csv tool shown in Fig 7 11 to create a comma separat...

Page 52: ...below Figure 7 37 Calibration tab populated Use the following steps to change the calibration values 1 Enter the new calibration data on the left side entry box Desired values column 2 Press the associated Set button 3 The value is sent to the SQM and then confirmed in the right side box Actual values column Note that temperatures set in to the SQM use their own resolution and may not be reflected...

Page 53: ...value will be used instantly and also after power up Report interval is measured in seconds i e 300 5 minutes Report threshold is measured in Magnitudes per square arcsecond mpsas a larger positive value is darker 7 7 1 Continuous reports The Continuous reports section enables special features related to reporting through an optionally installed I2C interface except for the Ideal crossover functio...

Page 54: ...QM as shown in Figure 7 40 Figure 7 40 Firmware selection 2 Select the desired firmware file then press Open 3 The Load firmware button will be enabled and you can press it now to start loading the firmware in to the SQM LE The status bar will indicate successful completion when the firmware has been completely loaded When using a Mac or Linux the firmware can be loaded restored using the USB comm...

Page 55: ...s button on the Firmware tab page to reload the SQM LE special settings 7 9 Configuration tab The Configuration tab shows the factory set calibration values Calibration is performed at the Unihedron factory A new calibration using a calibrated light source and darkroom can be performed by following the instructions on the right side of the screen The calibration report can be logged to a data file...

Page 56: ...are feature 46 and above has optional control of how the lock switch operates The Lock switch always protects firmware upgrading but it can optionally protect Calibration settings Report Interval settings and Configuration settings Figure 7 45 Lock switch settings When the These options setting is checked then none of the above settings can be changed while the unit is locked 7 9 3 Vector datalogg...

Page 57: ...e Data Logging tab then the Retrieve All button Select the Plot tab Click the Show data button and select the previously retrieved log file The contour plot will appear after all the points have been read in and processed which could take a long time depending on the number of recorded points An example of the contour plot is shown in Figure 7 47 Unihedron SQM LE Operator s Manual 20220822 57 ...

Page 58: ...self The minimum requirements for the dat file to be read by the contour plotting function are One comment line describing the field of UTC Date Time Altitude Azimuth One line defining the ending of the header Following lines of data Here is an example UTC Date Time MSAS Altitude Azimuth END OF HEADER 2018 05 15T06 05 24 057 21 85 0 0 2018 05 15T06 05 34 040 21 86 20 0 7 10 Simulation tab The Simu...

Page 59: ...y to the SQM LE in simulation mode and puts the output into simout csv The format of the csv is shown in Table 7 3 Table 7 3 simin csv field description Position Example value Description 1 3000 Period in counts 2 30 Frequency in Hz 3 20 3 Temperature in C Listing 7 2 simin csv example 0 568380 24 8 72970 6 13 2 The resultant output records will be shown on the screen and saved in simout csv in th...

Page 60: ...e SQM LE Currently only the Sparkfun COM 11441 has ben tested This display shows the brightness reading in mpsas The brightness of the display can be fixed at a level between 0 7 dimmest to brightest or can be automatically dimmed in bright conditions depending on the mpsas reading The display can be either updated periodically 1Hz or whenever a reading request is made 7 11 3 LED accessory The LED...

Page 61: ...eadings equal to or greater than x in mpsas get recorded If x 0 then all readings are get recorded LCGRS Run GoTo script then shut down when done Table 7 5 Select device command line parameters Parameter Description SEI x Select Ethernet device where x IP address SEM x Select Ethernet device where x MAC address SUC x Select USB device where x communication portname i e tty USB0 SUI x Select USB de...

Page 62: ...logging to disk C Users User AppData Local Unihedron udm exe SUI 12345678 LCR You can leave out the above optional parameters from the command line if you include those in the internal startup options in the UDM File Startup options menu 7 12 3 Mac autostartup You can have UDM start up when you login to your Mac Enter your UDM startup parameters in the UDM File Startup options menu Then add UDM to...

Page 63: ...zcal6 Manually Set Light Calibration Temperature zcal7 Manually Set Dark Calibration Time Period zcal8 Manually Set Dark Calibration Temperature 0x19 Reset micro controller Hexadecimal value 19 See the Firmware Upgrade chapter on page 90 for more details Intel Hex firmware upgrade initiation See the Firmware Upgrade chapter on page 90 for more details P x Set period in seconds for interval reporti...

Page 64: ...21Hz Frequency of sensor in Hz 23 33 0000000020c Period of sensor in counts Counts occur at a rate of 460 8 kHz 14 7456MHz 32 35 46 0000000 000s Period of sensor in seconds with millisecond resolution Determined by dividing the above counts value by 460800 48 54 039 4C Temperature measured at light sensor in degrees C The value is averaged and presented every 4 3 seconds Leading space for positive...

Page 65: ...tive sign for negative value 55 56 Carriage return 0x0d Line feed 0x0a An example of the response is u 06 70m 0000022921Hz 0000000020c 0000000 000s 039 4C 0123456789 123456789 123456789 123456789 123456789 123456 Future versions of this reading string will only modify reported values beyond position 54 Characters 0 to 54 may be considered stable 8 2 3 Linear reading request The linear reading requ...

Page 66: ...the light sensor This value is compensated for only by the dark current frequency fout flight fdark To allow for long period measurements the output integer value is scaled up by a factor of 45 000 nout fout 45000 The format of the response is similar to the rx response and is shown in table 8 5 Table 8 5 Inline linear reading request response Column Example value Description 0 r Indicates that a ...

Page 67: ... 8 2 5 Unit information Unit information command ix provides details about the software in the micro controller The format of the response is Table 8 6 Unit information request response Column Example value Description 0 i Indicates that the unit information response is being returned 2 9 00000002 Protocol number 8 digits This will always be the first 8 char acters after the i response This value ...

Page 68: ...ration offset value 17 60 in this case so that the meter reads 8 71 also 49 55 039 4C Temperature in degrees C measured during dark calibration Leading space for positive value Leading negative sign for negative value 56 57 Carriage return 0x0d Line feed 0x0a An example of the response is c 00000017 60m 0000000 000s 039 4C 00000008 71m 039 4C 0123456789 123456789 123456789 123456789 123456789 1234...

Page 69: ...erformed in a completely dark environment Check a reading to ensure that the period is correct after entering the dark environment it could take a few minutes to collect an accurate dark period A dark period of only a few seconds is too small The format of the response is shown in table 8 9 Table 8 9 Dark calibration response Column Example value Description 0 z Calibration response is being retur...

Page 70: ...le 8 11 Response for manual setting of light calibration offset Column Example value Description 0 z Calibration response is being returned 2 5 Manual Set Light Calibration Offset 4 15 00000017 60m Value that was set into EEPROM 16 17 Carriage return 0x0d Line feed 0x0a An example of the response is z 5 00000017 60m 0123456789 1234567 8 3 6 Manually set light calibration temperature Calibration is...

Page 71: ...ormat of the response is shown in table 8 13 Table 8 13 Response of manually setting dark calibration time period Column Example value Description 0 z Calibration response is being returned 2 7 Manual Set Dark Calibration time period 4 15 0000300 000s Value that was set into EEPROM 16 17 Carriage return 0x0d Line feed 0x0a An example of the response is z 7 00000300 00s 0123456789 1234567 8 3 8 Man...

Page 72: ...lumn Example value Description 0 z Calibration response is being returned 2 8 Manual Set Dark Calibration temperature 4 9 019 0C Value that was set into EEPROM 10 11 Carriage return 0x0d Line feed 0x0a An example of the response is z 8 019 0C 0123456789 1 72 Unihedron SQM LE Operator s Manual 20220822 ...

Page 73: ... lock setting t These setting changes ignore the lock setting Table 8 16 Lock setting response summary Position Example value Description 0 K Confirmation of Lock setting command 1 m C Calibration changes respect the lock setting c Calibration changes ignore the lock setting 2 m R Report Interval changes respect the lock setting r Report Interval ignore the lock setting 3 m G Configuration changes...

Page 74: ...le on battery power A5x LED accessory status Table 8 18 LED accessory response summary Position Example value Description 0 2 A5 Confirmation Snow LED accessory command 3 n Where n 0 indicates the Snow LED is Off 1 indicates the Snow LED is On 4 m Where m 0 indicates the Snow LED is dsiabled 1 indicates the Snow LED is enabled Carriage return 0x0d Line feed 0x0a An example response to A5x is A5 0 ...

Page 75: ...cessory 0 HIH8120 1 HYT939 Sold by ControlEverything and others A1x Report on the humidity temperature status Table 8 20 Humidity temperature response summary Position Example value Description 0 A 1 Confirmation of humidity temperature accessory command 1 1 Accessory 1 Humidity temperature sensor 2 e E for enabled D for disabled 3 m Model number where m 0 7 0 HIH8120 1 HYT939 Sold by ControlEvery...

Page 76: ...s 50 between 17 00 to 19 00mpsas Display at full brightness 100 when less than 17 00mpsas A2Mn x Set the model of display where n 0 3 A2Vn x Set the fixed mode brightness where n 0 7 A2Px Set the updating mode to periodically updating at 1Hz A2Rx Set the updating modeto updating when reading request is made A2x Report on the display status Table 8 22 Display accessory response summary Position Exa...

Page 77: ...g creation In bright sky conditions readings are created once per second in frequency mode In darker sky conditions the meter goes into perdiod mode starting at 679Hz and lower and LED will blink at a variable rate A31x Mode Blink at reading request A3x LED accessory status Table 8 24 LED accessory response summary Position Example value Description 0 A Confirmation of display accessory command 1 ...

Page 78: ...1x commands affect the relay activation A4Tnn x Set the darkness threshold for relay activation Where nn is the the darkness threshold The relay will be activated above this threshold Monitoring is perfomed once per second Table 8 26 Relay accessory response summary Position Example value Description 0 A Confirmation of display accessory command 1 4 Accessory 3 relay 2 s Status of device 0 for dea...

Page 79: ... out from the un averaged accumulator Normally the averaged reading is sent Table 8 28 Continuous reporting command summary Command Description Yx Get status of the continuous reporting features YRx Enable continuous reporting Yrx Disable continuous reporting YCx Enable new crossover firmware code Ycx Disable new crossover firmware code YPx Enable continuous reporting compression Ypx Disable conti...

Page 80: ...s and responses Table 8 29 continued from previous page Column Example value Description 5 6 Carriage return 0x0d Line feed 0x0a An example response is YrCpu 01234 80 Unihedron SQM LE Operator s Manual 20220822 ...

Page 81: ...by 460800 48 54 039 4C Temperature measured at light sensor in degrees C The value is averaged and presented every 4 3 seconds Leading space for positive value Leading negative sign for negative value 55 63 00000413 Serial number 8 digits Each unit has its own unique serial num ber 64 65 Carriage return 0x0d Line feed 0x0a An example is r 06 70m 0000022921Hz 0000000020c 0000000 000s 039 4C 0000041...

Page 82: ...wall blocking the incoming packets on the listener server then a port should be opened If you are running the iptables on a Linux machine here is an example when receiving from a machine at ip address 123 124 125 126 through port 10002 Add the following rule to iptables iptables A INPUT p tcp m tcp s 123 124 125 126 dport 10002 j ACCEPT and then run it to use the new rules 8 8 2 XPort settings for...

Page 83: ...ts the threshold of the timed interval reports to EEPROM and RAM for boot and immediate use Executing the command t x note lower case t sets the threshold of the timed interval reports to RAM for immediate use only The units are magnitudes arcsecond2 For example t00000016 00x limits reporting to values only over 16 00 magnitudes arcsecond2 8 8 5 Interval setting response Either making the request ...

Page 84: ...ency in Hz 25 Separation character 26 37 0000000244t Temperature ADC value as seen by the CPU See Equation 8 1 38 39 Carriage return 0x0d Line feed 0x0a An example response is s 0000000360c 0000000360f 0000000360t 0123456789 123456789 123456789 12345678 To convert raw temperature value to degrees C DegC raw 3 3 1024 0 5 0 01 8 1 To convert degrees C value to raw temperature raw DegC 0 01 0 5 1024 ...

Page 85: ...lated frequency in Hz 26 37 0000000245t Simulated temperature ADC value See Equation 8 1 38 39 r Beginning of calculated readings 40 47 18 04m Calculated mag arcsec2 48 60 0000000000Hz Frequency used for calculation 61 72 0000094000c Counts used for calculation 73 85 0000000 204s Calculated period from counts 86 92 029 0C Temperature used for calculation 93 94 Carriage return 0x0d Line feed 0x0a A...

Page 86: ...nd the Unihedron plastic weatherproof housing with glass window plate or an acrylic dome Acrylic domes will last 2 3 years but eventually weather on the surface It is not clear that this will affect the reading much The best test would be to swap a weathered and new one back and forth when changing one out Presumably the main consideration would be to keep the domes clean every so often and to mak...

Page 87: ...e UDM software if your offset is 0 15 and your factory calibrated light calibration offset is 19 92 then you should change the light calibration offset on the calibration tab to 19 77 European users will see and use a comma instead of a decimal point eg 19 77 Figure 9 2 Example cover calibration 9 2 3 Cover maintenance Keep the covering clean of dust water ice and bird droppings Unihedron SQM LE O...

Page 88: ... their IP addresses assigned away from DHCP Some extra arp method details from the XPort manufacturer are defined in the document Xport arp method pdf on USB drive in the directory SQM LE reference You must first assign a temporary IP address on your system shown as yyy below pick an free intended address that is in you network subdomain and example for yyy might be 192 168 1 109 For Windows 1 Ope...

Page 89: ...in the host s ARP table using the intended IP address and the hardware address of the unit on the product label on the bottom of the unit as follows arp s yyy 00 20 4a xx xx xx 4 Open a Telnet connection to port 1 The connection fails quickly but the unit temporarily changes its IP address to the one designated in this step telnet yyy 1 5 Open a Telnet connection to port 9999 and press Enter withi...

Page 90: ...tains a thorough description of the Intel Hex format http en wikipedia org wiki hex The basic requirements for firmware uploading are 1 Reset micro controller by sending the hex character 0x19 2 Within a few seconds send the first Intel hex record The colon character indicates the beginning of an Intel Hex record 3 Wait for a response of Ok followed by CR LF which indicates that the record was pro...

Page 91: ...sed to adjust the light reading to 13 5 fc at the place of the SQM LE The light calibration routine inside the SQM LE expects to see this value The light that the SQM LE and light meter see must be coming from an evenly lit surface The light calibration command can be sent to the unlocked SQM LE to set the calibration value 12 3 Dark calibration The optical sensor in the SQM LE produces a reading ...

Page 92: ... 6mpsas even indoors the meter saturates and will produce a reading of 0mpsas Solution Test the meter in a darker setting or place a cover over the meter while doing indoor testing Note in complete darkness like a photo darkroom the meter may timeout and also produce strange readings Table 13 3 Cannot Find UDM software Problem Microsoft Edge cannot find UDM software on the CD Error Can t reach thi...

Page 93: ...lections inside the weatherproof housing We have not been able to prove this with testing ourselves Solution Make sure that the PoE LEDs are facing towards the bottom of the weatherproof housing You can also try to use black tape to cover the LEDs Table 13 6 Error 404 when trying to reconfigure Ethernet module Problem Error 404 when trying to reconfigure Ethernet port using the web interface Cause...

Page 94: ... that the device likely works properly but for some reason like domain restrictions the router or network settings do not allow communication to that device Solution Use the arp technique described in Table 13 7 to set the IP address to a free address in your network Table 13 9 Ping but no readings Problem Unit can be pinged but readings are not returned Cause The default communication settings be...

Page 95: ...orts reading errors while UDM correctly reports text strings Cause Regional settings in Windows may be set for the European standard for decimal separators as commas instead of periods Solution Upgrade to a newer version of SQM Reader by Knightware or modify your regional settings to use periods as the decimal point separators Table 13 13 Darkroom bag readings incorrect Problem Meter readings from...

Page 96: ...ion and processing of scientific and other images GPS Global Positioning System A GPS receiver may be connected to a computer to allow UDM to integrate the location information into the logged data See UDM for mode details mpsas Magnitudes per square arcsecond The unit of measurement reported by the SQM NMEA National Marine Electronics Association data format that the GPS receiver produces SQM LE ...

Page 97: ...ting Magnitudes Web page discussion of brightness in Schaefer 1990 and Clark 1994 http w1 411 telia com u41105032 visual Schaefer htm accessed7 2003 5 NELM Converter K Fisher fisherka csolutions net Rev 8 2006 http unihedron com projects doug darksky NELM2BCalc html 6 Michael Lyon at Lantronix Technical Support 7 Moon Phase Pascal code in UDM is from the public domain library Moon pas Copyright 19...

Search results

Summary of Contents for SQM-LE

Reviews:

Related manuals for SQM-LE

Brands by name

Popular brands

Unihedron SQM-LE, Operator'S Manual

Search results

Summary of Contents for SQM-LE

Reviews:

Related manuals for SQM-LE

Brands by name

Popular brands