A USB 2.0 computer interface for the UCO/Lick CCD cameras

Mingzhi Wei; Richard J. Stover

doi:10.1117/12.550654

29 September 2004 A USB 2.0 computer interface for the UCO/Lick CCD cameras

Mingzhi Wei, Richard J. Stover

Proceedings Volume 5499, Optical and Infrared Detectors for Astronomy; (2004) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.550654
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2004, Glasgow, United Kingdom

Abstract

The new UCO/Lick Observatory CCD camera uses a 200 MHz fiber optic cable to transmit image data and an RS232 serial line for low speed bidirectional command and control. Increasingly RS232 is a legacy interface supported on fewer computers. The fiber optic cable requires either a custom interface board that is plugged into the mainboard of the image acquisition computer to accept the fiber directly or an interface converter that translates the fiber data onto a widely used standard interface. We present here a simple USB 2.0 interface for the UCO/Lick camera. A single USB cable connects to the image acquisition computer and the camera's RS232 serial and fiber optic cables plug into the USB interface. Since most computers now support USB 2.0 the Lick interface makes it possible to use the camera on essentially any modern computer that has the supporting software. No hardware modifications or additions to the computer are needed. The necessary device driver software has been written for the Linux operating system which is now widely used at Lick Observatory. The complete data acquisition software for the Lick CCD camera is running on a variety of PC style computers as well as an HP laptop.

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Mingzhi Wei and Richard J. Stover "A USB 2.0 computer interface for the UCO/Lick CCD cameras", Proc. SPIE 5499, Optical and Infrared Detectors for Astronomy, (29 September 2004); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.550654

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KEYWORDS

Human-machine interfaces

Cameras

Interfaces

CCD cameras

Observatories

Data acquisition

Optical fibers

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