Instrument Neutral Distributed Interface: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 10:59, 6 December 2015

Revision as of 00:46, 1 January 2016

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| author = [[Elwood Downey]], [[Jasem Mutlaq]]

| developer = The INDI Development Team

| released = {{Start date and age|df=yes|2003|04|15|df=yes}}

| programming language = [[C (programming language)|C]], [[C++ (programming language)|C++]]

| operating system = [[Linux]], [[OS X]], [[FreeBSD]], [[OpenBSD]]

| platform =

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}}

'''INDIInstrument Neutral Distributed Interface''' (an abbreviation of "'''Instrument Neutral Distributed InterfaceINDI'''") is a [[Distributeddistributed Controlcontrol Systemsystem]] (DCS) protocol to enable control, data acquisition and exchange among hardware devices and software front ends, with particular focus onemphasizing astronomical instrumentation.

==Introduction==

[[Elwood Downey]] started the INDI Protocol initiative in 2003 to develop a platform and client independent control protocol. INDI is a simple XML-like protocol modeled on Extensible Markup Language ([[XML]]), described for interactive and automated remote control of diverse instrumentationinstruments. It is small, easy to parse, and stateless. In the INDI paradigm, each ''Device''

poses all command and status functions in terms of setting and getting ''Properties''. Each Property is a vector of one or more named members., Each Propertyand has a current value vector; a target value vector; provides information about how it should be sequenced with respect to other Properties to accomplish one coordinated unit of observation; and provides hints as to how it might be displayed for interactive manipulation in a [[graphical user interface]] (GUI). Clients learn the Properties of a particular Device at runtime using introspection.

This decouples Client and Device implementation histories. Devices have completefull authority over whether to accept commands from Clients. INDI accommodates intermediate servers, broadcasting, and connection topologies ranging from one-to-one on aone singletype of system, to many-to-many between systems of different genre. The INDI protocol can be nested within other XML elements such as [[RTMLRemote Telescope Markup Language]] (RTML) to add constraints for automatic scheduling and execution.

==Architecture==

The main key concept in INDI is that devices have the ability to describe themselves. This is accomplished by using [[XML]] to describe a generic hierarchy that can represent both canonical and non-canonical devices. In INDI, all devices may contain one or more properties. Any property may contain one or more elements. A property in the INDI paradigm describes a specific function of the device. There are five types of INDI properties:

*Text property.

*Number property.

*Switch property (Represented– represented in GUI by buttons or check boxes).

*Light property (Represented– represented in GUI by colored LEDs).

*Blob property (Binary– binary data).

INDI provides powerful scripting facilities that enablesenable completefull device automation.

==INDI Library==

INDI Library is an implementation of the INDI wire protocol for [[Unix-like]] systems. It supports a wide variety of astronomical instruments including telescopes, [[charge-coupled device]]s (CCDs), focusers, filters, and video capture devices. The INDI Library is licensed under the [[LGPLGNU Lesser General Public License]] (LGPL).

==INDI Driver==

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[[Image:indicontrolpanel.png|thumb|right|INDI Control Panel in KStars]]

* Generic GUI clients like [[KStars]] or, [[Xephem|XEphem]], AstroImager,<ref>[http://www.cloudmakers.eu/astroimager AstroImager]</ref> or AstroTelescope.<ref>[http://www.cloudmakers.eu/astrotelescope AstroTelescope].</ref> Such clients generate a dynamic GUI to offer users a control panel to control the device.

* Logger clients to record messages, alarms, and data exchanged between devices and clients.

* Watch dog clients to insureensure safe and proper operation of devices.

* Automated scripts to carry on complex and coordinated operations on devices.

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INDI server is the hub that sits between drivers and clients. It reroutes traffic for control and data across distributed networks. Each device or client in the network is a node and may communicate with other nodes whenever desired. The server supports broadcasting, chaining, and marshaling of data.

[[Image:indi_serverindi server.png|frame|center|INDI Server Network Topology]]

==IANA port==

[[Internet Assigned Numbers Authority|IANA]] (IANA) has assigned INDI to [[Transmission Control Protocol|TCP]]/ (TCP) and [[User Datagram Protocol|UDP]] (UDP), or TCP/UDP port 7624. See [[List_of_TCP_and_UDP_port_numbers|IANAList of TCP and UDP port numbers]].

== References ==

{{Reflist}}

== External links ==

{{Portal|Astronomy}}

*[http://{{Official website|indi.sourceforge.net/}} INDI Library project webpage]

*[http://www.clearskyinstitute.com/INDI/INDI.pdf INDI Protocol white paper]

*[http://www.cloudmakers.eu/xindi xINDI (INDI based tools for OSX) project page]