Remote control operation


The infrared Pixcel has a network interface to allow configurations to be changed and data to be taken under remote control. Communication is by a tcp/ip socket in the pixcel software receiving text commands ending with a carriage return. The connection can be from either a normal telent client or a custom program. The port for telnet connections is set by the PORT entry in the pixcel.ini file.

Over the network link commands can be sent, data taken and configurations changed.

Commands

Commands to the camera are sent as text strings ending with a carriage return. The camera understands the following commands, which can be abbreviated to th first letter.

Status

To help synchronise the operation of pixcel with other programs the camera reports the current operation back over the remote link. The values sent are the same as those returned by the status command.

Parameters

Most of the parameters in the camera configuration can be set remotely. To return the current value of a parameter send the name of the parameter, to set a new value send the name and the value separated by a space. Pixcel will echo back the new value. If the value is of the wrong type or out of permitted range then no change is made and the old value is sent back.

The name of the parameter is the same as the key in the pixcel.ini file. Most of the parameters added by the infrared version at the end of pixcel.ini can be changed eg. [INFRARED] [FITS] [LOG] [FILTER] . The values of the [REMOTE] options cannot be changed remotely for obvious reasons.

In addition there are a number of other parameters which can be changed remotely.