XEphem/GUI/xephem/tools/lx200xed

What is this:

lx200xed is a daemon to connect XEphem to a Meade LX200 on a serial port. It
connects between the serial port into which the telescope is plugged and
XEphem by using its two fifos xephem_in_fifo and xephem_loc_fifo. XEphem
expects to find these fifos in a directory named fifos within its ShareDir
resource directory. lx200xed is told where they are with its -m and -g command
line options, respectively. It is told which serial port to use with its -t
option. Neither program creates the fifos; they must be created ahead of time
using mkfifo(1). XEphem does not start the lx200xed daemon, you must do that
from a command line before opening the Sky View. Using ASCII art it works like
this (this assumes the ShareDir is /usr/local/xephem):

   -----------                                                   ----------
  |  XEphem   | ---> /usr/local/xephem/fifos/xephem_loc_fifo -> |          |
  | Sky View  |                                                 | lx200xed |
  |           | <--- /usr/local/xephem/fifos/xephem_in_fifo <-  |          |
   -----------                                                   ----------
                                                                     |
								     |
								     v
                                                                 /dev/ttyS0


Testing:

To test the connection with XEphem without connecting to real hardware, use
the -e option. This emulates a telescope without needing real hardware. The
telescope starts pointing at RA/Dec 0/0 and shows a symbol there in the
Sky View. Right-clicking somewhere then clicking "Telescope GOTO" will command
the emulated telescope to move to the new location. If this works, XEphem and
lx200xed are communicating both ways correctly.

History:

As of XEphem release 3.6 this is consideredd a legacy interface. 3.6 introduces
the INDI control protocol. Drivers for a variety of devices can be found at
http://sourceforge.net/projects/indi.

Terms:

The source code files in this directory, namely liblx200.c, liblx200.h and
lx200xed.c, are Copyright (c) 1999, 2000 Mike Stute and Elwood Charles
Downey and are governed by the terms of the GNU General Public License. See
the file GPL for the complete terms of this license but basically it allows
you to use, modify and redistribute these files freely.

However, the final executable, lx200xed, links with XEphem's libastro which
is governed by the terms of XEphem which is distinctly _not_ GPL. It only
allows you to use and modify its code for your personal and non-commercial
use; you may _not_ pass your changes on to anyone else (except back to me, ECD).

Disclaimer:

NO REPRESENTATION IS MADE ABOUT THE SUITABILITY OF THIS SOFTWARE FOR ANY
PURPOSE. IT IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTY.