COMPUTER TO TCS ASCII COMMUNICATIONS : Command Summary

Jim Harwood

Revised March 17, 1999

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Command Summary

Telescope position, epoch commands:

Requests current telescope position data from the monitor display variables.

Requests the last-entered slew position and epoch.

Requests a change of epoch.

Beamswitch commands:

Positions the telescope at one of the beam positions. These two commands generate a notification over the serial port to the external workstation that a beamswitch is happening, so tip-tilt operations can anticipate the beamswitch. The notification also occurs if a beamswitch button is pressed at the console. It consists of the requested beam letter (A or B) and the "-OK" prompt.

Returns the current beam state.

Reverses the assignment of beam A/B names without moving the telescope.

Returns the current beamswitch displacement.

Enters the displacements into the beamswitch thumbwheel locations.

Returns the thumbwheel beamswitch displacement parameters.

Offset commands:

Causes the telescope to offset to the previously entered displacement (DO.OFFST) or back to the base position (–DO.OFFST). The "entered" displacement is in the thumbwheels.

Returns the current displacement from the offset base position.

Enters the displacements into the offset thumbwheel locations.

Returns the previously entered offset displacements.

Causes offset to occur to the entered displacement position. Repeat the command with arguments of 0.0 to return to base. Do not use this command at the same time that scanning is done.

Scan commands:

General scan command. Allows for initializing the scan position, executing a given scan displacement, or going back to the scan base position.

Returns the current scan displacement from the base position.

Peak commands:

General peak motion command. Allows for initializing the peak position, executing a given peak displacement, or going back to the peak base position.

Returns the current peak displacement from the base position.

Autoguider commands:

General autoguider motion command. Allows for initializing the autoguider position, executing a given autoguider displacement, or going back to the autoguider base position.

Returns the current autoguider displacement from the base position.

Stores the given autoguider velocity.

Returns the current autoguider velocity data.

Tip-Tilt related commands:

Used only by the Tip-Tilt software. Stops or enables communications from an external data acquisition program to go to the TCS.

Returns 1 if there is no offset from base motion, 0 if OFB motion is occuring. Used by the Tip-Tilt software.

Other commands:

Sends the TCS the coordinates for a slew.

Returns HST in 50^th seconds formatted as ttttttt.

Returns sidereal time from the TCS.

Returns the total displacement from the telescope base position, taking into account all sources of offset-type displacements.

Resets the current telescope position as the base position for all functions except SCAN.

Returns the telescope position, sidereal time, and HST.