Since the interface uses the Java comm api, you will need to download a copy for your computer platform. Follow the instructions included with the download for installation on your platform. The following list are possible sources for the comm api. The only one tested by us so far is the one from Sun Microsystems.
MS Windows and Sun Solaris: http://java.sun.com/products/javacomm
Linux, MS Windows, Mac OS/X: http://www.rxtx.org
Commercial versions for various platforms: http://www.serialio.com
Documentation for the javax api is available from http://java.sun.com/products/javacomm/javadocs/index.html.
Documentation of the "official" Celestron RS232 command sets are available from http://www.celestron.com/telescopes.htm. Product manual can be found by selecting the particlular telescope product.
The "unofficial" auxillary command set is documented at http://www.paquettefamily.ca/nexstar/.
Information regarding the computer interface to the Nexstar is available at http://www.nexstarsite.com/PCControl.htm. There is lots of other useful information about using Nexstar telescopes on this site as well.
Online documentation of the Telescope API is available from http://www.raben.com/articles/TelescopeInterface/apidocs/.
Source code for the example application and interface classes may be viewed in html form in this source xref listing.
Mars Aug 27, 2003 06:50 UTC
This project has joined the java.net open source community and is now available at telescope.dev.java.net which is hosted by Sun Microsystems and Oreilly Associates, Inc. From that site you may checkout the source code using CVS, join the development team, and contribute to the future development of the project! The telescope.dev.java.net CVS will be the most recent version of the source code. Instructions on how to use CVS are available at that site. Note -- The site does not appear to support anonymous or guest CVS access. You need to register with java.net first and use your registered name to retrieve the code.
The source code may be also be downloaded from http://www.raben.com/downloads/telescope-1.4.1-src.zip
Unzip the zip file in a convenient directory. After unzipping the file you will find a directory called "Telescope-1.4".
Under that directory you will find the following:
- "License.txt" Text file containing the "BSD" style license. By downloading the zip file you are agreeing to its terms.
- "src" directory containing the source code
- "classes" directory to contain the Java class files produced by compilation
- "dist" directory containing the telescope.jar file
- "build.xml" file to be used by the "Ant" tool
The Java SDK or Java runtime and the java.comm api must already be installed on your system.
If Apache Jakarta Ant has been installed on your computer system, you may re-compile the source code by simply changing to the "Telescope-1.4.1" directory and executing the command:
ant telescope
The system variable "ANT_HOME" must point to the ant directory. The system variable "JAVA_HOME" must point to the J2SDK directory. Both "java" and "ant" must be in the command line path.
The example applications may be executed by changing to the "dist"
directory and executing the following on a MS Windows command line:
The ConfigureDialog may be run as a stand-alone application as (on one
line):
java -cp telescope.jar;%COMM_HOME%\comm.jar com.raben.telescope.comm.ConfigureDialog
java -cp telescope.jar;%COMM_HOME%\comm.jar
com.raben.telescope.comm.SimplisticTest
java -cp telescope.jar;%COMM_HOME%\comm.jar com.raben.telescope.comm.PositionDialog
On MS Windows XP the variable %COMM_HOME% needs to set to location of the javax.comm distribution. (For reasons not understood -- by me at least, the comm.jar doesn't load automatically as it should from the jre/lib/ext directory -- maybe because its is compiled from the old jdk1.6. Even more bizarre, %COMM_HOME% cannot point to the jre/lib/ext/comm.jar either -- it must be point elsewhere!! -- then it runs fine).
On LINUX and other UNIX platforms, the command is the same except for the classpath (-cp switch) for example:
java -cp telescope.jar:$COMM_HOME/comm.jar com.raben.telescope.comm.PositionDialog
Please send any questions, comments, or suggestions for enhancements to support@raben.com
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