Unihedron SQM-LU Operator'S Manual Download Page 9 | Manualshive

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1.1 QuickStart

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FITS4Win2 uses the MPSAS keyword for sorting and filtering image files.

Unihedron SQM-LU Operator’s Manual -

20170728

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Summary of Contents for SQM-LU

Page 1: ...rator s Manual c Copyright 2005 2017 Version 20170728 Company information Mailing address Unihedron 4 Lawrence Avenue Grimsby Ontario L3M 2L9 Canada Telephone 905 945 1197 Fax 905 945 6770 Website uni...

Page 2: ......

Page 3: ...cation to the PC 14 4 Specifications 15 5 Hardware connections 16 6 Software development 17 6 1 Writing your own software interface 17 6 2 Pascal 18 7 Unihedron Device Manager 19 7 1 Getting UDM 19 7...

Page 4: ...8 3 6 Manually set light calibration temperature 45 8 3 7 Manually set dark calibration time period 45 8 3 8 Manually set dark calibration temperature 46 8 4 Accessories commands 47 8 4 1 Humidity Tem...

Page 5: ...7 7 12 Help menu 27 7 13 Help About 27 7 14 Found device single 28 7 15 Found device multiple 28 7 16 USB connection details 28 7 17 Ethernet connection details 28 7 18 RS232 connection details 29 7 1...

Page 6: ...for manually setting of light calibration temperature 45 8 11 Response of manually setting dark calibration time period 46 8 12 Response for manually setting of dark calibration temperature 46 8 13 H...

Page 7: ...ort 62 13 6 Recording stops 63 13 7 Meter cannot be found by PC 63 13 8 Meter cannot be found by Windows operating system 64 13 9 Cannot get a reading 65 14 1 Glossary of terms 66 List of Equations 2...

Page 8: ...nchronization 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 C...

Page 9: ...1 1 QuickStart CCDAutoPilot FITS4Win2 uses the MPSAS keyword for sorting and filtering image files Unihedron SQM LU Operator s Manual 20170728 9...

Page 10: ...ve a lower magnitude and darker objects 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 poin...

Page 11: ...ly high dark readings by ensuring that there is nothing blocking the view of the sensor Avoid taking readings near trees or buildings that may block the sensor Prevent artificially low bright readings...

Page 12: ...whether the meter is pointed to the poles or plane of the solar system It is likely to have less than 2 effect The primary reason for this small effect is that the brightest and widest part of the zod...

Page 13: ...to define Natural Sky Units In natural sky units radiance relative to an assumed natural radiance of 21 6 magSQM arcsec2 see methods the range was 0 22 2200 NSU Before the introduction of anthropogen...

Page 14: ...gs from the temperature sensor are used to compensate the light sensor readings through the range of operating temperatures 3 2 Communication to the PC Commands sent from a PC through the USB cable to...

Page 15: ...bsolute precision of each meter is believed to be 10 0 10 mag arcsec2 The difference in zero point between each calibrated meter is typically 10 0 10 mag arcsec2 Power requirement 18mA from the 5V USB...

Page 16: ...on to a USB hub or a PC for configuring the device and recovering the readings as shown in Figure 5 1 Figure 5 1 Wired connection The maximum length cable per the USB specification is 15ft 3m USB exte...

Page 17: ...tion must be made to the serial port assigned to the SQM LU 2 Data commands are sent to the SQM LU and it responds with a string of characters 3 Close the serial port so that other programs can access...

Page 18: ...0005915Hz 0000000000c 0000000 000s 027 0C 6 2 Pascal The UDM program contains many examples of finding the SQM devices and reading data from them It is open source and written in Lazarus FreePascal Th...

Page 19: ...s darksky cd 7 2 Installation 7 2 1 System requirements The UDM is a fairly simple but large program which should run sufficiently on any present day computer under the Windows Mac or Linux operating...

Page 20: ...irst 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 I...

Page 21: ...sts 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...

Page 22: ...trl E can also be used instead of the mouse File Quit The File Quit menu item is used to close the UDM program The program can also be closed from the window panel X View menu The view menu allows you...

Page 23: ...Continuously features Also log files from data logging meters will be stored here from the Retrieve All function The Logs Directory Path path can be changed from its default by pressing the folder but...

Page 24: ...res its configuration about the program and attached SQM devices This path is not changeable View DL Header shows the Data logger header editing page See the information at www darksky org measurement...

Page 25: ...alues 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 an...

Page 26: ...he csv is 180 or 180 Full Moon 0 New Moon Positive numbers Waxing growing Negative numbers Waning shrinking Figure 7 10 Tool dat to Moon csv Press the Select button shown in Figure 7 10 to select the...

Page 27: ...previously 7 3 6 Help menu Figure 7 12 Help menu Help Cmdline Info shows the commands that can be used when starting UDM from the command line Help Version Info shows the detailed version information...

Page 28: ...r Reading button will gather more information from the meter Figure 7 15 Found device multiple Device details shows the connection details of the selected SQM listed in the Found devices box The USB P...

Page 29: ...ader section on page 24 for more information This header information is used when storing logged data to the disk with the Log one record or Log continuous functions described below Log one record gat...

Page 30: ...he Logfile name area A new logfile is automatically created at the beginning of each day at local time 0 00 3 Press the Stop button when you want to stop the recording process 4 Log files can be acces...

Page 31: ...inition of hotkeys and their associated annotation text that will appear at the end of an annotated record Figure 7 23 Log Continuously Annotation tab Persistent annotation The Persistent mode makes t...

Page 32: ...passes the indicators fade to black The signal strength group shows the signal to noise ratio SNR for all visible satellites The satellite number is displayed below each signal strength meter The loc...

Page 33: ...Figure 7 26 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...

Page 34: ...RAM for experimentation The new value will be used instantly The RAM value is set to the EEPROM value on power up Use the E R button to set the value in to EEPROM and RAM The new value will be used i...

Page 35: ...pletion when the firmware has been completely loaded 7 9 Configuration tab The Configuration tab shows the factory set calibration values Calibration is performed at the Unihedron factory A new calibr...

Page 36: ...arrangement 7 10 Simulation tab The Simulation tab is enabled from the View menu The Simulation tab allows the simulation of raw light sensor values for experimentation purposes The Start button init...

Page 37: ...counts 2 30 Frequency in Hz 3 20 3 Temperature in C Listing 7 1 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 the log...

Page 38: ...SQM LU 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 o...

Page 39: ...rding right away LCTH x Threshold setting Readings equal to or greater than x in mpsas get recorded If x 0 then all readings are get recorded LCMIN Minimize Application after Log continuous window sta...

Page 40: ...cal6 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...

Page 41: ...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 48 54 039 4C Temperature...

Page 42: ...position 54 Characters 0 to 54 may be considered stable 8 2 3 Unit information Unit information command ix provides details about the software in the micro controller The format of the response is Ta...

Page 43: ...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 123456...

Page 44: ...L Locked Wait for unlock before calibrating after Arm command firmware upgrades are disabled U Unlocked Calibrate immediately after Arm command Enable firmware upgrade 4 5 Carriage return 0x0d Line fe...

Page 45: ...bration temperature is the temperature of the meter when the meter was calibrated for its Light calibration offset Executing the command zcal6 x manually sets the light calibration temperature to the...

Page 46: ...thing else this command allows a new calibration value to be placed into the meter The Dark calibration temperature is the temperature of the meter when the meter was calibrated for its Dark calibrati...

Page 47: ...essory 0 HIH8120 1 HYT939 Sold by ControlEverything and others A1x Report on the humidity temperature status Table 8 14 Humidity temperature response summary Position Example value Description 0 A 1 C...

Page 48: ...ightness 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 t...

Page 49: ...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...

Page 50: ...x 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 per...

Page 51: ...extra text Report un averaged Sends the above reading out from the un averaged accumulator Normally the averaged reading is sent Table 8 22 Continuous reporting command summary Command Description Yx...

Page 52: ...Column Example value Description 4 u U Continuous reporting un averaged readings enabled u Continuous reporting un averaged readings disabled 5 6 Carriage return 0x0d Line feed 0x0a An example respon...

Page 53: ...C 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...

Page 54: ...0 I Interval settings from EEPROM and RAM are being returned 2 12 0000000360s Interval period that was set into EEPROM 14 24 0000300360s Interval period that was set into RAM 26 37 00000017 60m Thres...

Page 55: ...ter 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 123456...

Page 56: ...ion 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...

Page 57: ...t reflect light back to the inside of the dome and then back into the meter Source of scrylic domes www globalplastics ca domes htm 9 1 2 Cover calibration Since the meter is not weather proof it mus...

Page 58: ...9 Installation Figure 9 2 Example cover calibration 9 1 3 Cover maintenance Keep the covering clean of dust water ice and bird droppings 58 Unihedron SQM LU Operator s Manual 20170728...

Page 59: ...n FTDI USB interface module The FTDI interface has not been altered from its default There should be no reason to alter the FTDI chip settings The baud rate is defined by the VCP driver side when a te...

Page 60: ...ains 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...

Page 61: ...to adjust the light reading to 13 5 fc at the place of the SQM LU The light calibration routine inside the SQM LU expects to see this value The light that the SQM LU and light meter see must be comin...

Page 62: ...oduce strange readings Table 13 3 Cannot Find UDM software Problem Microsoft Edge cannot find UDM software on the CD Error Can t reach this page Cause Microsoft Edge has protections in place to hide f...

Page 63: ...especially laptops have the USB suspend mode activated which puts the USB port to sleep when there is not enough activity on the computer Solution The USB sleep issue can be corrected by ensuring tha...

Page 64: ...are no Records missed Table 13 8 Meter cannot be found by Windows operating system Problem The windows computer cannot identify the SQM LU and re installing the FTDI device drivers does not help Caus...

Page 65: ...Name For Windows 98 and Windows ME look here for your device HKEY LOCAL MACHINE SYSTEM Enum FTDIBUS VID 0403 PID 6001 Serial Number 0000 PortName The Serial Number is printed on the bottom of the unit...

Page 66: ...manufacturer of the USB module inside the SQM LU FTDI also supplies the VCP software driver for the computer operating system so that the SQM LU can communicate with the computer GPS Global Positionin...

Page 67: ...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...

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