Instrument Neutral Distributed Interface INDI
2.0.2
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INDI is a simple XML-like communications protocol described for interactive and automated remote control of diverse instrumentation. INDI is small, easy to parse, and stateless.
A full description of the INDI protocol is detailed in the INDI white paper
Under INDI, any number of clients can connect to any number of drivers running one or more devices. It is a true N-to-N server/client architecture topology allowing for reliable deployments of several INDI server, client, and driver instances distrubted across different systems in different physical and logical locations.
The basic premise of INDI is this: Drivers are responsible for defining their functionality in terms of Properties. Clients are not aware of such properties until they establish connection with the driver and start receiving streams of defined properties. Each property encompases some functionality or information about the device. These include number, text, switch, light, and BLOB properties.
For example, all devices define the CONNECTION vector switch property, which is compromised of two switches:
Therefore, a client, whether it is a GUI client that represents such property as buttons, or a Python script that parses the properties, can change the state of the switch to cause the desired action.
Not all properties are equal. A few properties are reserved to ensure interoperality among different clients that want to target a specific functionality. These Standard Properties ensure that different clients agree of a common set of properties with specific meaning since INDI does not impose any specific meaning on the properties themselves.
INDI server acts as a convenient hub to route communications between clients and drivers. While it is not strictly required for controlling driver, it offers many queue and routing capabilities.
INDI is intended for developers seeking to add support for their devices in INDI. Any INDI driver can be operated from numerous cross-platform cross-architecture clients.
Please refere to the INDI Developers Manual for a complete guide on INDI's driver developemnt framework.
The INDI Library API is divided into the following main sections:
INDI Library includes a number of tutorials to illustrate development of INDI drivers. Check out the examples provided with INDI library.
Simulators provide a great framework to test drivers and equipment alike. INDI Library provides the following simulators:
You can find information on INDI development in the INDI Library site. Furthermore, you can discuss INDI related issues on the INDI development mailing list.
For a full list of contributors, please check Contributors page on Github.