Wirelessly control and view the output of your MallinCam using an iPad or Android tablet

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

 

As many of you are aware, at the Chico Community Observatory we have been using the MallinCam for public observing, four nights a week on a HyperStar equipped Celestron C-14. CCO is a free, non-profit, volunteer run facility located adjacent to Horseshoe Lake in Upper Bidwell Park, Chico, CA.


Recently we replaced the small LCD video monitor which was used to display live astronomical images from the MallinCam with an iPad. Not only does the iPad give us the flexibility to run additional educational software, and wirelessly control the telescope, but when combined with an app which allows it to be used as a wireless secondary monitor to the main computer in the control room, it can be used to view live video images as well as easily control the MallinCam using our MallinCam Control software.


The trick to this capability is an app called AirDisplay from Avatron Software Inc.  AirDisplay allows you to use your iPad, iPhone, or Android device as a second (or third) monitor on your Mac or Windows PC. Because it connects to your main computer wirelessly, there is no need for cables or wires, and the touch screen interface allows using the MallinCam Control software to make adjustments to your camera and digitizing device connected to your computer right from the remote device. I have used other “wireless display” apps on my iPad, but have found AirDisplay to be the best designed, and the most stable and compatible with all my Macintosh and Windows computers.


This is a short tutorial on how I have set up our computer and iPad to view the live images from the MallinCam and be able to adjust it’s settings, all wirelessly. Similar results can be obtained with a less permanent setup (i.e. a laptop, tablet, and an ad-hoc wireless network).


Note: All screenshots below are from the Mac OS X version of AirDisplay. This is simply because I update the website using a Mac and it was easier to just take screenshots on the same computer as I wrote this tutorial, but the Windows configuration will be very similar.

Our configuration:


  1. •1.8GHz Core Duo Mac Mini desktop permanently set up in the CCO control room

  2. •Serial connection to MallinCam through Keyspan USA-49W 4-port USB to RS-232 adapter

  3. •Composite video from MallinCam is digitized using a Sony DVMC-DA2 video digitizer connected via firewire port to the Mac

  4. •Local wireless network

  5. •First generation iPad 32GB WiFi + 3G mounted to telescope pier


Step 1: Install and configure AirDisplay

I will start with the assumption that you have already purchased the AirDisplay app and have downloaded and installed the AirDisplay driver (which is required to allow your tablet to act as a secondary monitor) onto your desktop (or laptop) computer. The details of this are beyond the scope of this tutorial and you can find plenty of help and good information about how to do this on the Avatron website. In the AirDisplay control panel, make sure that the “Enable touch input” option is checked.


Configure the monitors to your preference. I like keeping the tablet “virtual” monitor to the left side of my main monitor, but your setup may be different. Checking “Mirror Displays” will force the same image to appear (scaled) on both the main monitor and the tablet display. This will simplify the setup, but I actually prefer to keep it off so that I can run a separate program Equinox Pro or Sky Safari Pro on the main monitor in the control room.



Step 2: Run MallinCam Control

Launch MallinCam Control on your desktop (or laptop) computer make sure that it is communicating with your MallinCam and that it has a video signal.


Step 3: Drag the MallinCam Control Window onto the “AirDisplay” monitor

If you mirror the tablet display on the main computer monitor you can ignore this step.


 


 


 


Step 4: Make the MallinCam Control window “Fullscreen”

Use your finger to Click on the “Fullscreen” button in the lower right hand corner of the MallinCam Control window (now located on the tablet’s “virtual screen”).




This will cause the MallinCam video preview to completely fill the screen of your tablet “monitor” and will display the “MiniController” window which will allow adjustments to your MallinCam and the video digitizer and built in software filters.




Tap with your finger on the screen to click on the various buttons and controls in the MiniController window. Tap, hold and drag to adjust the sliders.


Step 5: Tap outside the MinDisplay window to make it disappear

The latest version of the MallinCam Control software was modified so that, in full screen mode, the MiniController window will automatically hide when it looses “focus”. Clicking (tapping) anywhere outside the MiniController window will cause it to loose focus and disappear, leaving the entire screen free of distractions.




Clicking anywhere on the image again will cause the MiniController window to re-appear.


Additional Hints and Information

Here are some additional hints that you can use to make your iPad observing more productive.


  1. •As of the date that this posted, AirDisplay is not supported for Windows 7 Starter edition, nor in Windows 8. Avatron has reported that Windows 8 drivers will be available soon.

  2. •On the iPad, if you have enabled “Multitasking Gestures”, you can use 4 fingers to quickly swipe between other programs (e.g. Sky Safari Pro) to control your telescope and AirDisplay to control your MallinCam.

  3. •It is suggested that you turn off “Use Retina resolutions when available”. Leaving this option on will make full use of the higher resolution retina display built into the third generation iPad, but it will be very difficult to click on the tiny controls on the MiniController window.


If you have any additional questions or comments, please feel free to email me.


Cheers.


-bill k

 
 
 

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