The telescope, science CCD and filter wheel, and guider CCD are each controlled by a separate PC. The telescope is controlled by the TOCC computer, running DOS, the science CCD by the PI computer running Windows 3.11, and the guider CCD by the SPEC computer running DOS.
An original version of the alt-az control system running on the TOCC computer was written by the AutoScope corporation, but this had many problems and large portions of it have been rewritten (by Jon Holtzman) to form the current version. This software also controls the dome and dome shutter, as well as commandable fill system for the CCD dewar.
The science CCD is controlled by software provided by Princeton Instruments.
The guide CCD is controlled by software written by Jon Holtzman using library routines provided by SpectraSource.
All three programs look, in addition to input from the local keyboard(s), for input in specified files which are visible over the network. This allows for complete remote operation.
For remote operation, a suite of programs (tcomm) is run from a UNIX workstation. Basically, a program is run which talks with each of the three computers in the dome. In addition, there is a master command program which is the user interface and sends commands to the UNIX client programs. There is also a status program which monitors status files sent back from the telescope and the CCD programs and displays a status window with the current pointing of the telescope, exposure/filter information, etc. Finally there is a program which controls the power to various devices in the dome via a network power switching device.
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