We have ordered and received all new stepper motor drive amplifiers to replace the current obsolete ones. The control chain is currently being tested in the lab. We have also ordered and received the fiber optic components necessary for the control system upgrade. Ed Stover and Dave Jaksha are in the process of defining and prototyping a new hand paddle controller for use in the Vacuum Telescope and elsewhere. One programmable hand paddle will be used for all the telescope and spectrograph functions, and thus some thought needs to go into defining the layout.
Preliminary results look very good.
The displays look very nice and seem to be rugged. Integration of the breadboard with the vxWorks control computer will start soon.