I have a Canon 350D, an old Meade LX90, and a guide scope with an old web cam for guide everything with, an Observatory with a PC. The Web cam is hooked up directly to the PC through a USB port. The LX90 is also hooked up to the PC through it's 9(?) pin serial port. The 350D is hooked up to the PC through a home built parallel port interface. Then from here I use PHD guiding for web cam and telescope control and DSLRshutter for the 350D for long exposure imaging.
Before loosing my job last year I picked up a "mini" laptop, which I'm using for this forum post. Soon I will be moving away and naturally loosing my observatory and moving into an appartment. So, I'll be out in the fields to do my imaging which eliminates my PC. I'd like to run everything off of my mini laptop but this thing only has USB ports. I believe I can buy a converter for the LX90 to go from serial port to USB. What I don't know is converting the DSLR.
First, does anybody have experiance running a complete system such as the above with a mini laptop? Second, I remember there being a do-it-yourself schematic to building a USB shutter control system for the Canon Rebel XT 350D but danged if I can even think of where to start looking.
Before loosing my job last year I picked up a "mini" laptop, which I'm using for this forum post. Soon I will be moving away and naturally loosing my observatory and moving into an appartment. So, I'll be out in the fields to do my imaging which eliminates my PC. I'd like to run everything off of my mini laptop but this thing only has USB ports. I believe I can buy a converter for the LX90 to go from serial port to USB. What I don't know is converting the DSLR.
First, does anybody have experiance running a complete system such as the above with a mini laptop? Second, I remember there being a do-it-yourself schematic to building a USB shutter control system for the Canon Rebel XT 350D but danged if I can even think of where to start looking.
