Interfacing with filter wheels

Hi all,

I'm making a filter wheel for my ccd camera and have failed finding
information about how actual filters (homeyer or true technology)
interface with the computer.

My idea is making mine compatible with one of those, in order to drive
it using standard, camera - integrated software.

Anyone could help?

Thanks in advance,

jaime.

Hi Jamie,
You don't say what camera you are using. I made my own CFW for my ST7 camera
which uses the Sbig pulse width signal to select the filters so I could use
the standard control software that's already out there. Some info is on my
web page under Projects Filterwheel.
Eddie Trimarchi wrote a application that outputs the Sbig pulses from the
parallel port. This allows Sbig CFW or compatible to be used with non-sbig
cameras, but I can't find the link.
There is also the Optec IFW that has a .pdf manual download which may have
their serial control protocol which you could emulate. The link is in the
top right of this page. http://www.optecinc.com/astronomy/products/ifw.html
HTH
Cheers
Dave Rose
http://www.astroccd.freeserve.co.uk



"Jaime Alemany" wrote in message
om...
Hi all,

I'm making a filter wheel for my ccd camera and have failed finding
information about how actual filters (homeyer or true technology)
interface with the computer.

My idea is making mine compatible with one of those, in order to drive
it using standard, camera - integrated software.

Anyone could help?

Thanks in advance,

jaime.

Hi Dave,

sorry for the delay answering. I currently own an starlight-xpress
MX516, but an ST-7ME is coming, and plan to change to other CCD in a
year or two; given this, and the involvement of building the filter
wheel, I planned it to be standard enough to be driven by standard
software along with any camera.

Astroart, for example, and sadly, does not support using an sbig
filter wheel with an starlight-xpress camera (!)

I tried to contact eddie a few months ago, but no luck either.

Thanks for your help. And *very* nice web site (and observatory!)

Cheers,

jaime


"Dave Rose" dave@I Dont Like Spam astroccd.freeserve.co.uk wrote in message ...
Hi Jamie,
You don't say what camera you are using. I made my own CFW for my ST7 camera
which uses the Sbig pulse width signal to select the filters so I could use
the standard control software that's already out there. Some info is on my
web page under Projects Filterwheel.
Eddie Trimarchi wrote a application that outputs the Sbig pulses from the
parallel port. This allows Sbig CFW or compatible to be used with non-sbig
cameras, but I can't find the link.
There is also the Optec IFW that has a .pdf manual download which may have
their serial control protocol which you could emulate. The link is in the
top right of this page. http://www.optecinc.com/astronomy/products/ifw.html
HTH
Cheers
Dave Rose
http://www.astroccd.freeserve.co.uk