I control my telescope mount through INDI, but unfortunately I can't control my old DSLR that way. The only way I can do "automated" exposures is if I connect an intervallometer to the camera. The problem with intervallometers is however, that they only run on small batteries, and will stop working when it's cold.
Another problem is, that it's impossible to use dithering with an intervallometer and simultaneous guiding.
Here's a partial solution to these problems. I wrote a simple Python script that will run on the Raspberry Pi, The script sends exposure signals through the RPi's GPIO bus to the remote port of my camera.
To connect the Raspberry Pi to the camera, I made a small optocoupler circuit, that will isolate the camera electronics from the RPi.
Here's the code.
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#!/usr/bin/python
import RPi.GPIO as GPIO
import time
import sys
NrExposures = 1
ExposureTime = 30
TimeBetweenExposures = 6
print ' '
print 'Make sure that the camera remote port is connected to pins 18 (signal) and 20 (ground).'
print ' '
if len(sys.argv) == 1 :
print 'No arguments provided. Will use single 30 sec exposure.'
elif len(sys.argv) == 2 :
ExposureTime = int(sys.argv[1], 10)
print 'Single', ExposureTime, 'seconds exposure.'
elif len(sys.argv) == 3 :
ExposureTime = int(sys.argv[1], 10)
NrExposures = int(sys.argv[2], 10)
print NrExposures, 'x', ExposureTime, 'seconds exposures.'
else :
ExposureTime = int(sys.argv[1], 10)
NrExposures = int(sys.argv[2], 10)
TimeBetweenExposures = int(sys.argv[3], 10)
print NrExposures, 'x', ExposureTime, 'seconds exposures, with', TimeBetweenExposures, 'seconds delay.'
TriggerPin = 24 # Broadcom pin 24 (P1 pin 18)
GPIO.setmode(GPIO.BCM) # Broadcom pin-numbering scheme
GPIO.setup(TriggerPin, GPIO.OUT) # trigger pin as output
GPIO.output (TriggerPin, GPIO.LOW)
time.sleep(1)
counter = NrExposures
print ' '
print 'Start : %s' % time.ctime()
while (counter > 0):
print ' Exposure nr', counter, 'started'
GPIO.output(TriggerPin, GPIO.HIGH)
time.sleep(ExposureTime)
GPIO.output(TriggerPin, GPIO.LOW)
print ' Exposure nr', counter, 'ended'
counter = counter - 1
time.sleep(TimeBetweenExposures)
print ' '
print 'End : %s' % time.ctime()
GPIO.output(TriggerPin, GPIO.LOW)
GPIO.cleanup()
print ' '
print 'Goodbye.'
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The script is saved as Trigger.py and is made executable:
chmod +x Trigger.py
The script takes up to three command line arguments. The first argument is the single frame exposure time in seconds. The second argument is the number of exposures to take, and the third argument is the wait time between exposures, also in seconds.
For example
./Trigger.py 1 2 3
will take 2 exposures of 1 second each with a 3 seconds wait time after each exposure. The script will take 8 seconds to run.
If only two arguments are given, the wait time will be set to a default value of 6 seconds.
If only one argument is given, this is interpreted as exposure time. Only one exposure will be taken.
If no arguments are given, the script will do a single 30 seconds exposure.
Eventually, I may try to rewrite the INDI CCD driver to control my camera, as this will give me the possibility to dither between exposures. But for now this simple script will do the job.
