Hi All,
Now that my obs is nearing completion I thought it would be an idea to look at the electronics.
One of the major factor in this design is to consider power reduction. I find that most observatory's require fairly heavy power consumption so I started to look around for some alternatives.
The method I am considering is a set of libraries from a GNU GPL website called
gphoto. These are a set of libraries that can allow Linux systems to connect and operate a DSLR camera and many other cameras as well.
I have a Raspberry Pi (obviously Linux) from another project and started the process of setting this up. The first result are pleasing. I have been able to connect my 450D (very easily) and take a single "BULB" capture.
The initial testing has only provided Command Line Interface (CLI) to operate but it has at least given me the incentive to continue with the idea.
There are many commands available, not all of them I have tested but have found some small limitation as I believe many of the commands have not yet been coded.
I will not take on the project for development but I suspect I will modify some code to suit my application. I am also hoping to make it a web based interface so that all control can be carried out from anywhere (mostly my internal network).
I am also planning in this to create videos as I have turned to create video blog entries although they a bit limited due to the number and quality of the cameras I have in my possession.
If there is anyone will to participate in the refinement of this project feel free to drop a line. I expect to be using mostly open source stuff with just a few tweaks. The beauty of the gphoto libraries is the shear number of supported cameras including NIKON, CANON, SONY and more.
