Poetry in motion ;-)

[Bassnut]

Heres my new home made Automatic Observatory in all its fluid glory ;-).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xs8boe4xruM (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xs8boe4xruM)

Its triggered remotely by serial PC command, and has tricky extras like close on strong wind, rain and PC failure/power loss.

The hard lockdown as show, is with car doorlock actuators.

It can go a lot faster, and with both sides operating together, but for safteys sake, slow sequential operation seemed the sensible way ;-).

[jase]

Nice work Fred. :thumbsup: Sounds like you are well on your way to completing the automation sequence. From remote startup to shutdown operation. Will be able to image all night long and on successive nights unattended.

[h0ughy]

awesome, thats absolutely fantastic. Are you going to have a remote camera to view the observatory?

[Bassnut]

Thanks Jase and hOughy.

Jase, yep, thats the plan hehe, But for the best laid plans and the consequences etc (and the weather).

hOughy, yep, ill stick a webby in front of it, so I can watch and scream in pain as the stuff inside gets drowned in rain as the Obs fails ;-). The video cams from Jaycar et al are good and cheap, but they use IR LEDs for illumination which aint cool during long exposures on the scope ;-). So thats a bit of a problem, it seems ill have to use a low lux security cam or something, endless problems.

[jase]

Is the interface/driver ASCOM compliant or do you need to run an external script for the operations?

[Bassnut]

Jase, control is via an internal PLC (programable logic controller), all it needs is open/close commands (serial interface) and provides open/close/fault feedback. Brads doing the tricky ACP scripting to open close it when required. ASCOM doesnt get a look in, its a one off, sheesh, its a challenge enough already ;-).

[jase]

:lol:
No need to re-invent the wheel Fred;

Get one of these - http://www.oceancontrols.com.au/data_acquisition/usb_8055.htm
Then download this - http://users.skynet.be/dppobservatory/Dome%20automation/Dome%20Driver.htm

Then you'll interface with ASCOM and ACP. You'd only use the shutter open/close feature and bad weather trigger. Would save Brad a lot of time scripting everything. ACP is rather powerful. Been using it for a while, but really not pushing it hard enough. I like the web interface, shame CCDAP doesn't have one.