PyDome
======

Copyright 2008-2022 John Kielkopf, Jeff Hay, Karen Collins, Rhodes Hart
Email: kielkopf@louisville.edu
Last update: July 14, 201March 5, 2022


PyDome is an astronomical dome control interface. Although  intended for use 
with XmTel and XmCCD, it stands by itself and is the software needed to 
operate domes remotely if they are

  * Controlled by Digital Loggers web switch devices
  * Have RFID tag encoding

Pydome is written in Python, and has a dependency on the Phidgets library for
RFID tag reading that is included here.  The version here is for Linux, 
but Phidgets has a version for Windows so that it would be possible to build
a system for a Windows OS based on this code if you feel adventurous.

Installation is in three steps:

1. Run the installation scripts in the libphidget directory to install the
requisite library and the rules for the RFID tag reader USB device.

2. Run the Python setup script in PhidgetsPython to install
the supporting Phidgets Python files.

3. Copy the Python scripts in rfid to /usr/local/bin/ to enable the RFID
interface.

4. Copy the files in bin to /usr/local/bin/ to enable the switch control and
install the routines that find and set the dome azimuth. Examples for different
working installations are in installed_examples. 

5. Edit the executable Python for the installation directory of your version of
Python 3, the IP address of the Digiloggers device, and the USER and PASSWORD for this device, if any.


The system depends on files in /usr/local/observatory/status and
/usr/local/observatory/prefs.  The status files provide communication between
telescope and dome processes and are updated by XmTel and by PyDome.  Check
that the entire directory structure is readable and writable by the user who
is running the observatory.   

The file /usr/local/observatory/prefs/dome.prefs contains the map of dome tags
to azimuth angle.  This map is made by rotating the dome 360 degrees and writing
the tag numbers to a temporary file as they are sensed. Edit that file and
incorporate the numbers into a new file similar to a prototype provided here.