SBIG STV camera control
Version : 0.4
Author(s) : (gshashikiran@linuxmail.org)
License : GPL
Website : http://www.prl.res.in/~shashi/instruments/stv_linux.html
Installs from Open Source Astronomy for Linux cd 1
Disk space required for installation is 13.12 Kb
I have written a Linux GTK app to control the SBIG STV autoguider for use with our Optical Polarimeter on PRL's 1.2m Telescope at Gurushikhar. Present version (screenshot below) is designed to emulate the hardware control panel keys of the STV completely. It includes a real-time display of the STV's 2x24 status display. Downloading / display of images are not yet supported (no requirements as yet since we make use of the real-time video output from the STV box)
Execute the program by calling 'stv' from the command line. It can take one command line option -p /path/to_serial_port_device. But this can be set via settings menu option also once the gui is running.
To test the binary without the hardware connected you can try this:
stv -p /dev/null
Before going further, make sure that the STV hardware is set at communication speed of 115K baud rate. This is presently hardcoded in the program but if there is sufficient need (or if someone can contribute code!) options to change the baud rate could be added.
Now if you have the "led fixed" fonts installed properly (this should be the case if you took the rpm file) then you should be able to get a screen quite similar to the screenshot above. Else you'll get the status display in red coloured default font.
The program can be run as non-root user. Just make sure that the serial port device file has read write permission enabled.