Notes on LMG firmware ver. 01.20 release / 2010.04.27.
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The manual for version 01.20 is under reconstruction. We
appreciate Your patience!

The main new function is a filesystem implemented in the autoguider and
so is able now to save autoguiding data into Flash memory. Download of
these files is done with the 'LMG_SAAG_app.1.20.exe' supplied.


Currently there is a limited user interface for this:

1. After the application is started, a new screen is showed to set the
current date and time. This is used for file handling and timestamping the
events stored in the files. It is the users responsibility if some file
contains weird or invalid date or time.

2. After pressing 'ok' (ESC button), the filesystem is initialized and
there are some options to choose:

  - "don't open": selecting this will not open any file. The autoguider
                  will work as in the earlier versions.
  - "last modified": this option will re-open the file that were opened
                  the last time. It's useful to store data for the same
                  night.
  - "last created": this option will re-open the file that has the latest
                  ID. The ID's are unique and will increase one step each
                  time a new file is created. (If this file is equal to the
                  "last modified", this option is now showed.

  - "create new": this will create a brand new file with the new and so
                  latest ID. Used to store data that must be separated from
                  the previous ones.

  If You opened a file and everything is ok, the main menu is started. On
  file opening error there is a notification.

  Now a file may be open.

3. When the autoguiding is active and a file is open, the drifts to the
   center position is saved into the file. The calculated output signals
   (to ST-4 port) is also saved.
   Currently only this data is available, soon it will be extended with
   almost all the events in the autoguider and a complex output can be
   generated for many type of analyses.

4. The LMG must be powered off before downloading the file(s). This is
   essential, it finalizes the file (stores the last data page) and therefore
   can be re-opened for appending more data.
   NOTE: if a file is broken for some reason (ie. instant power loss), some
   data is lost at the end and can't be re-opened but all the data before the
   last write (ie. after each 512 bytes of data) will be available.

5. To download a file content start LMG_SAAG_app.exe with the option '-f'
   (or start the supplied 'lmg_filemenu.bat'). A menu will appear if there are
   at least one files in the device. By selecting it with the number of the
   file entered the download will start and can take some seconds or for huge
   data, some minutes. In the sub-menu You can save this file content and then
   also erase the file. The raw file that holds all the file's data is named
   'MG<id>.dat', where <id> stands for the 6-digit hexadecimal, unique ID of
   the file. (This raw file can be opened later to generate more complex
   outputs with the forthcoming 'LMG_SAAG_app's.)

   When saving a file's content to this raw file, a new 'autoguiding.csv' is
   also generated. This can be opened with Excell and create diagrams by the
   data. The 'drift' columns' unit is pixel, the 'AG signal's unit is seconds.
   The 'timestamp' (seconds) column say how many seconds elapsed since the
   last midnight (00:00), in 0.1s resolution.
   
In the future the file content is going to be extended with (for example):
 - AutoExposure events
 - guiding star's accumulated image (during the exposures)
 - all guiding parameter changes
 - RD events and data
 - ..and everything that makes sense. New ideas from users are welcome.

The LMG application is going to be extended with:
 - Complex, HTML output of the file data with images, diagrams and links
   between them.

The autoguider's firmware will be extended with:
 - User friendly File's Menu (open, close, delete, create)
 - Parameters for selective storage of the data. (Usually there is enough
   space for a full night or possibly many days.)