Boltwood

Modern, type-safe, zero-dependency python library for controlling the Boltwood III observing conditions sensor.

Installation

uv add boltwood

or

using your preferred environment / package manager of choice, e.g., poetry, conda or pip:

pip install boltwood

poetry add boltwood

conda install boltwood

Usage

To use the conditions monitor, you need to create an instance of the BoltwoodIIIConditionsMonitorDeviceInterface class with the appropriate parameters.

Below is a simple example of how to set up and use the Boltwood III Conditions Monitor:

from boltwood import (
    BoltwoodIIIConditionsMonitorDeviceInterface,
    BoltwoodIIIConditionsMonitorDeviceParameters,
)

# Define the parameters for the BoltwoodIII monitor device:
params: BoltwoodIIIConditionsMonitorDeviceParameters = BoltwoodIIIConditionsMonitorDeviceParameters(
    name="Boltwood III Conditions Monitor",
    description="Boltwood III Conditions Monitor",
    port="/dev/ttyUSB0",  # Replace with your actual port
    baudrate=9600,
    latitude=33.87047,
    longitude=-118.24708,
    elevation=0.0,
    did="0", # Device ID
    vid="067b",  # Vendor ID
    pid="23a3",  # Product ID
)

# Create a new Boltwood III Conditions Monitor device interface:
monitor = BoltwoodIIIConditionsMonitorDeviceInterface(
    id=0,
    params=params,
)

# Initialise the monitor:
monitor.initialise()

# Get the current status of the monitor:
status = monitor.get_status()

...

To use the safety monitor, you can create an instance of the BoltwoodIIISafetyMonitorDeviceInterface class in a similar way:

from boltwood import (
    BoltwoodIIISafetyMonitorDeviceInterface,
    BoltwoodIIISafetyMonitorDeviceParameters,
)

# Define the parameters for the BoltwoodIII safety monitor device:
params: BoltwoodIIISafetyMonitorDeviceParameters = BoltwoodIIISafetyMonitorDeviceParameters(
    name="Boltwood III Safety Monitor",
    description="Boltwood III Safety Monitor",
    port="/dev/ttyUSB0",  # Replace with your actual port
    baudrate=9600,
    did="0", # Device ID
    vid="067b",  # Vendor ID
    pid="23a3",  # Product ID
)

# Create a new Boltwood III Safety Monitor device interface:
safety_monitor = BoltwoodIIISafetyMonitorDeviceInterface(
    id=0,
    params=params,
)

# Initialise the safety monitor:
safety_monitor.initialise()

# Get the current status of the safety monitor:
status = safety_monitor.get_status()

...

As the boltwood instance is fully typed, you can use your IDE's autocompletion to see all the available methods and properties.

We have also provided further usage examples in the examples directory.

Milestones

• Type-safe modern 3.6+ Python
• Fully unit tested
• Simpler API (modelled around the ASCOM Alpaca API)
• Integration testing with HIL testing (hardware-in-the-loop)
• Zero-external dependencies (no numpy, astropy etc for portability)
• Example API usage
• Fully supported Observing Conditions Sensor operations
• Fully supported Safety Monitor operations
• Fully supported Alert Threshold operations
• ASCOM Alpaca APIs w/Fast API

Disclaimer

This project is not affiliated with Diffraction Limited in any way. It is a community-driven project. All trademarks and logos are the property of their respective owners.

License

This project is licensed under the terms of the MIT license.