Connecting to the Seeing Monitor.
If the system is up and running, which will be the default state. Currently the best way to view the data is to use the Saturn VNC client to connect to the seeing monitor Windows Machine. On the Saturn MacMini, click the desktop so the Finder Menu bar appears on the top bar.
Using the Go menu to find the connect to server or Command-K short cut.
This will provide you with a window and a list of servers. Make sure that the Server address has vnc://seeing.lowell.edu:5901 in the entry and select the Connect button.
After hitting Connect the next popup is the password for the Seeing Monitor. This is the standard obs72 password written on the board.
This will bring up the Seeing Monitor VNC connection and should display the Seeing Monitor program as seen below.
If the system is working correctly, you should see
- Waiting for start time... At the bottom of the seeing monitor program
- You should see the Start button disabled
- If you are past the start time then there should be seeing data graphed in the graphing space.
What to do if Seeing Monitor is not working.
If the Seeing Monitor program show a dialog that the camera is not found. This is likely due to the USB communications. The simplest fix is to reboot both the monitor camera and computer. To do this using a browser, follow the link to the webpdu that controls the system. http://webpdu.lowell.edu. This will provide with a log in page.
Using the User Name admin and the normal obs72 password. Log into the page.
Click both the Switch OFF for both the Seeing Monitor and Seeing Monitor Computer. Wait about 30 seconds then turn them both back on. After a few minutes the Seeing Monitor computer will have booted and you can use the information below to connect to the system via VNC. You will see a Windows XP login screen with two logins. Use the obs72 login, login to the system. Once the computer has loaded the Desktop you will see a "target" icon to the left of the screen that says Seeing Monitor, double click the icon to load the program.
Once the program is loaded. Check the values for the Auto start time and Auto stop time. These should be reasonable numbers for the time of year that you are observing in. Click on Auto start time entry and hit the enter key. This will either start the Monitor immediately or it go into the wait state for the start time to occur.