Abstract Details

Name: Sonam Jorphail
Affiliation: Indian Institute of Astrophysics
Conference ID: ASI2021_306
Title : Development of a complete telescope controller using an inexpensive PSoC based microcontroller
Authors and Co-Authors : Author: Sonam Jorphail(IAO-IIA Hanle),Tsewang Stanzin(IAO-IIA Hanle), Padmakar Singh Parihar(IIA, Bangalore) Co-Author: Dorje Angchuk(IAO-IIA Hanle),Tashi Thsering Mahey(IAO-IIA Hanle),Padma Dorjay(IAO-IIA Hanle)
Abstract Type : Poster
Abstract Category : Instrumentation and Techniques
Abstract : We report our effort to develop a complete telescope controller based on an efficient SoC device “PSoC® 5LP equipped with ARM® Cortex®-M3 processor”. A distributed control architecture using CAN bus allows to control many subsystems in very modular fashion. At present the controller handles two mount axes which require very precise pointing and tracking, focus and filter wheel as well as the sliding roof enclosures. The control algorithm comprise the close loop PID and the motion profile, which ensure very precise pointing and tracking performances. After optimum tuning of the PID gains, we could achieve the best performance which otherwise one can expect only in large telescopes. The controller is presently being used with 50cm equatorial telescope. However, it is developed in very generic way so that it can be used in any mid-size telescopes. Since the 50cm telescope is aimed to work in robotic mode, therefore in near future we have plan to incorporate many safety features and inter-locks.