FS2 is an universal high performance active aiming system produced in Germany by Astro Electronic. It is compatible with the majority of commercial equatorial mounts (both fork and german type) which use stepper motor control for both axes. The FS2 is compatible with the little commercial mounts (EQ5, GP, Losmandy, ...) up to the big and heavy professional telescopes in fixed position.
This program allow you to take control and to configure a FS2 unit under Mac OS X.
First of all we need to choose the serial driver from the Config Tab (The driver must be installed before you can select it). The software was tested with the Keyspan Usb/RS-232 adaptator but it should work with any other product.
If all is now correct, we can now control the FS2 and play with the Control tab. Of course, this is not the most important thing. The FS2 uses the LX200 standard protocol so it can work with most of the astronomical software currently available. Now, we will take a look at the FS2 configuration. In the Config tab, we push the "FS2 parameters" button...
The parameters panel comprises 2 tabs. In the first tab, we can see the general parameters and in the second we have all the motor parameters.
We can read the FS2 configuration directly from the NVRAM (the FS2 must be put in "Service Mode") or from a file on the hard disk of the computer.
We can write the FS2 configuration directly on the NVRAM (the FS2 must be put in "Service mode") or in a file on the hard disk of the computer.
Please note: The data file format uses an xml shape so it will not be compatible with the PC format used by "service.exe" or other PC software.
After reading the data, changes are as easy as a simple click...
Of course, in order to save new changes to the FS2, you must launch the NVRAM write process.
And this is the "Motor parameters" tab...
Have fun!!!
The software presented here is donation-ware, meaning that I offer the software to the world without any form of restriction whatsoever. If you find any application(s) useful, and would like to support my development efforts for Mac OS X, I would welcome whatever donation you feel is appropriate.
Click here to make a donation.
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