Recent Posts

71

Connected meters (SQM-LE/LU/LR/DL) / Raspberry Pi installation with PySQM

« Last post by admin on February 23, 2016, 02:12:19 am »

Rubén Díez Lázaro has come up with detailed instructions for installing PySQM onto a Raspberry Pi Single-Board_Computer:
http://rdlazaro.info/compu-Raspberry_Pi-unattended_SQM.html

PySQM can be found here:
http://guaix.fis.ucm.es/PySQM

72

Connected meters (SQM-LE/LU/LR/DL) / Re: Firmware updates

« Last post by admin on December 12, 2015, 01:37:46 am »

The "Retrieve-All" function sometimes contained spurious values during the retrieve process.

The following firmware update will fix (feature 36) that:
  For the SQM-LU-DL:
  http://unihedron.com/projects/darksky/cd/SQM-LU-DL/firmware/SQM-LU-DL-4-6-36.hex

  For the SQM-LU-DL-V:
  http://unihedron.com/projects/darksky/cd/SQM-LU-DL-V/firmware/SQM-LU-DL-V-4-11-36.hex

The firmware update does not affect the database records.

Please ensure that you are using the latest version of UDM to access any new features that have been added to the firmware:
  http://unihedron.com/projects/darksky/cd/

73

SQM-LU / Re: Extending the USB cable

« Last post by admin on November 23, 2015, 09:37:45 pm »

Recently a customer had problems with the IOGEAR GUCE51 device, but the GUCE62 device worked properly. There could have been issues of USB level (2.0 vs 1.0) or FTDI driver issues. We are now recommending the GUCE62 device for extending the SQM-LU meters.

74

Connected meters (SQM-LE/LU/LR/DL) / Re: UDM updates

« Last post by admin on September 27, 2015, 02:56:26 pm »

Updated UDM, currently at version 1.0.0.326

See UDM -> Help -> Version information for changelog

75

Connected meters (SQM-LE/LU/LR/DL) / Re: FTDI driver installation problems

« Last post by admin on September 10, 2015, 07:55:45 pm »

Clearing Windows COM list

After installing different FTDI devices in Windows, the system fills up with COM port numbers.

You should prevent auto update as identified in the previous post, then ...

If you are very careful, it is possible to clear off all the "used" COM ports by following the instructions at this link:
http://blog.cognitioninfotech.com/2009/01/how-to-clear-or-reset-com-port.html

76

Connected meters (SQM-LE/LU/LR/DL) / Re: FTDI driver installation problems

« Last post by admin on September 10, 2015, 07:41:57 pm »

Installing Windows FTDI driver manually (preventing auto-update)

Just recently, Microsoft seems to have stopped providing FTDI drivers automatically for Windows 7 (and possibly other versions).

This can be a problem because connecting an FTDI device to the USB port usually initiates an automatic check for updated drivers and failure to find such a driver at Microsoft results in a failed driver installation.

You can turn off automatic updates to prevent this as follows:

• Open the: Control Panel -> System Security -> Windows Update
• Select Change settings
• Deselect Recommended updates
• Press OK

You can now manually install the FTDI driver from http://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/VCP.htm

Then plug in the SQM-LU device.

77

General Discussion / Paper: Initial Irish light pollution measurements and a new Sky Quality Meter-ba

« Last post by admin on April 22, 2015, 12:05:02 am »

Congratulations to B Espey, PhDa,b and J McCauley, MSca for the publication of their paper:

Initial Irish light pollution measurements and a new Sky Quality Meter-based data logger

in Lighting Research and Technology, on February 2014 vol. 46 no. 1 67-77

From the Abstract:
In the Celtic Tiger years, Ireland underwent an explosive growth in housing and an increase in light pollution, nationally. We outline work undertaken towards the first ever ground-based survey of light pollution in the island of Ireland and illustrate this with some representative data taken between 2009 and the present. The aim of our work is to establish a database to serve as a reference to monitor future changes, to compare with in-orbit measurements, to study the potential impact on the environment and to permit the calculation of the effects of future changes in lighting usage and patterns. We also report the development of a microcontroller-based data-logging instrument based on a Unihedron Sky Quality Meter-LR detector, which can be used by amateurs or can serve as a stand-alone instrument for night-sky brightness surveys.

Read the full paper here:
http://lrt.sagepub.com/content/46/1/67.short

This paper explains a method of using the SQM-LR and a GPS to gather night-sky brightness readings over a large area.

78

SQM-LU-DL (Datalogging light meter) / Re: 3 new DLs installed...

« Last post by admin on March 20, 2015, 07:15:54 pm »

Thanks for the update Brian,

You may already be aware that the standardized header file format allows for a "Location name:" field that might help your define the various units. This information is stored in the "Configfile path:" which is viewable in UDM from "View-Directories". The udm.cfg file is a simple text file, and sections can be copied to that same file on your other computers so that they are all synchronized.

Cheers,
Anthony

79

SQM-LU-DL (Datalogging light meter) / Re: 3 new DLs installed...

« Last post by darkwightskies on March 20, 2015, 06:51:32 pm »

Sorry to have taken so long to reply.


The fault was with us, a self inflicted wound!
We had a couple of laptops with old software on them and they threw the records into chaos. We share a "cloud" upload folder for each SQM location and nobody recorded which machine had uploaded data on each occasion.


As we have quite a few SQMs around the Island we need several data collectors but we had failed to update the Unihedron software on every machine.


I am sorry to have presented a problem of our own making to a public forum and can assure all readers of this that all SQM are working correctly and since we updated everything, all readings have been collected properly.


Cheers
Brian

80

General Discussion / Reports from Spain

« Last post by admin on March 19, 2015, 11:29:10 pm »

You may be interested in these reports from Spain. Thanks to Jaime Zamorano for these:

Zamorano, Jaime y Muñoz Marín, Víctor Manuel (2010)
Calibration of SQM-L photometers for the NixNox project. [ LICA report; nº #01]
  http://eprints.ucm.es/12262/

Zamorano, Jaime & Ruiz Carmona, Roque (2013)
Sky Quality Meter cross-calibration for the NixNox project. [ LICA report; nº #03]
  http://eprints.ucm.es/18015/

Nievas Rosillo, Miguel & Zamorano, Jaime (2014)
*PySQM the UCM open source software to read, plot and store data from SQM photometers*
  http://eprints.ucm.es/25900/

Zamorano, Jaime, Sánchez de Miguel, Alejandro, Martínez Delgado, David & Alfaro Navarro, Emilio (2011) Proyecto NixNox disfrutando de los cielos estrellados de España. Astronomía (142). pp. 36-42. ISSN 1699-7751
  http://eprints.ucm.es/24185/

Zamorano, Jaime, Sánchez de Miguel, Alejandro, Nievas Rosillo, Miguel & Tapia Ayuga, Carlos (2014) NixNox procedure to build Night Sky Brightness maps from SQM photometers observations.
  http://eprints.ucm.es/26982/

A night sky brightness network with data obtained with fixed SQM photometers of the Spanish Light Pollution Research Network.
  http://guaix.fis.ucm.es/splpr/SQM-REECL