Celestial Laser Identification and Visualization Experiment: Astronomy software to point out stars, planets, etc. using a stepper based turret.

This code used to run on a GameBoy Advance with an XPort FPGA card, but is currently being rewritten to run under Linux. It is not yet functional.

The new design uses an app running on a Linux box (or Raspberry Pi) to do the main orbital and 3D calculations, and to provide the main interface. It controls the turret over USB using an Arduino Mega with a RAMPS shield, with slightly custom firmware. The physical turret is 3D printable in ABS. Rough Alt/Az calibration is performed using compass and accelerometers on the turret. A GPS provides position and time info for orbital calculations.

This design requires the following hardware:

• Arduino Mega 1280 or 2560
• RAMPS board (Reprap Arduino Mega Pololu Shield)
• 2x Pololu sub-boards.
• FTDI USB to Serial Adaptor.
• Almost any Serial GPS sensor.
• MPU6050 I2C Accelerometer/Gyro sensor.
• HMC5883 I2C Compass sensor.
• 2x NEMA17 Stepper Motors.
• 3x four-pin header plugs for stepper and I2C sensor connections.
• Printed Turret Parts. (Designs in TurretModels Dir.)
• USB fullsized A-B cable.
• USB Mini cable.
• Linux computer or Raspberry Pi board with Raspian Linux.

Directories:

TurretModels

3D Models for a printable turret.

TurretFirmware

Custom firmware for a RAMPS turret stepper controller.

MainApp

Sources for the main astronomy linux app.