Meade LX200 Telescope User Manual


 
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4. LX200 Demo Program
The RS-232 interface communicates with your computer at
9600 Baud Rate, Parity = None, 8 Data Bits, 1 Stop Bits. For
those who are familiar with programming, the LX200 Command
Set is written in ASKII character format and can be used to
write your own programs.
The LX200 Demo Program on the following pages, is written in
Quick Basic and is intended to demonstrate how commands
are sent to the telescope and information is received from the
telescope. It is not a “polished” program and does not
incorporate all of the RS-232 features available.
The program is set-up to operate on serial port 2 (COM2:). To
operate on serial port 1 (COM1:) line 4 should be changed from
“COM2:” to “COM1:.” The program is as follows:
Please note that Meade Instruments does not support these
programs, or programs that you may write in any way. For
questions relating to after-market software programs, refer
back to those manufacturers.
Meade does recommend and support our Epoch 2000sk
software package which is fully compatible with the LX200
telescope (Fig. 30). This program presents on the display of a
personal computer an incredibly detailed simulation of the
entire sky, including up to 281,000 celestial objects
Epoch 2000 allows the presentation of the most complex
starfields just as they actually appear through the telescope.
This software is available for Windows 3.1 or higher, including
Windows 95.
CLS
DEFINT A-X
counter = 0
OPEN "COM2:9600,N,8,1,CD0,CS0,DS0,OP0,RS,TB2048,RB2048" FOR RANDOM AS #1
KEY ON
KEY(1) ON
KEY 1, "GO TO":
ON KEY(1) GOSUB key1
KEY(2) ON
KEY 2, "SYNC"
ON KEY(2) GOSUB KEY2
KEY(3) ON
KEY 3, "SLEW"
ON KEY(3) GOSUB key3
KEY(4) ON
KEY 4, "FIND"
ON KEY(4) GOSUB KEY4
KEY(5) ON
KEY 5, "CNTR"
ON KEY(5) GOSUB KEY5
KEY(6) ON
KEY 6, "GUIDE"
ON KEY(6) GOSUB KEY6
KEY(11) ON
ON KEY(11) GOSUB key11
KEY(12) ON
ON KEY(12) GOSUB key12
KEY(13) ON
ON KEY(13) GOSUB key13
KEY(14) ON
ON KEY(14) GOSUB key14
GOSUB status
GOSUB key3
GOSUB help
20 GOSUB telpos
GOSUB OBDRAW
GOSUB TIME
50 key$ = INKEY$: IF key$ = "" THEN GO TO 20
Fig. 30: Epoch 2000sk software.