Proceedings Article | 27 June 2006
Luis Costillo, J. Luis Ramos, J. Miguel Ibáñez, Beatriz Aparicio, Miguel Herránz, Antonio García
KEYWORDS: Telescopes, Control systems, Mirrors, Human-machine interfaces, Computer programming, Observatories, Curium, Telecommunications, Control systems design, Optical instrument design
The Sierra Nevada Observatory (Granada, Spain) has a number of telescopes. Our study will focus on two Nasmyth telescopes with apertures of 1.5m and 0.9m and an equatorial mount. The system currently installed to control these telescopes is a 1995 centralized VME module. However, given the problems which have arisen due to the number of wires and other complications, we have decided to change this control module. We will control each telescope with a distributed control philosophy, using a serial linear communication bus between independent nodes, although all system capabilities are accessible from a central unit anywhere and at any time via internet. We have divided the tasks and have one node for alpha control, another for delta control, one for the dome, one for the focus and the central unit to interface with a pc. The nodes for alpha, delta and the dome will be used by means of FPGA's in order to efficiently sample the encoders and the control algorithms, and to generate the output for the motors and the servo. The focus will have a microcontroller, and the system is easy to expand in the event of the inclusion of more nodes. After having studied several fieldbus systems, we have opted for the CAN bus, because of its reliability and broadcasting possibilities. In this way, all the important information will be on the bus, and every node will be able to access the information at any time. This document explains the new design made in the IAA for the new consoles of control whose basic characteristics are, the distributed control, the hardware simplify, the cable remove, the safety and maintenance improve and facilitating the observation improving the interface with the user, and finally to prepare the system for the remote observation.
