View Single Post
  #1  
Old 24-10-2020, 07:16 PM
peter_4059's Avatar
peter_4059 (Peter)
Big Scopes are Cool

peter_4059 is offline
 
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: SE Tasmania
Posts: 4,532
new project - obs automation

Now that the Brisbane summer is kicking in, with rain and cloud for the foreseeable future, I'm thinking a new project might be just the thing. I'd like to do some more Arduino tinkering and also get back into some Visual Studio programming so I'm thinking a remote power switching unit might be a good challenge.

My current obs does not have roof automation and it is not remote so I don't really need anything super sophisticated but it would be nice to be able to power everything down from within the house when the camera warming cycle is complete. Likewise it would be nice to hold off powering up everything until just before twilight, with control from the Voyager script. My future obs is more likely to have additional automation so I'm factoring that into my build decisions.

I've discovered an Arduino relay shield that has four relays, each capable of switching 240VAC. This unit utilises four of the Arduino digital I/O pins (user selectable) leaving 10 including 6 PWM for other stuff.

https://core-electronics.com.au/rela...uino-v2-1.html

The Arduino Uno also has 6 analogue inputs that could be used for position switches or other sensors.

I've figured out that Voyager can execute an external script from within its DragScript language and this can pass parameters as well as receive return values and assign these to internal DragScript variables for further decision making.

I need to give some thought as to whether I want the device to be completely stand alone from the PC that Voyager is running on. It is much simpler if they are connected as I won't need to worry about WIFI/Ethernet capability for the Arduino and I think the Voyager script commands will be simpler to implement. The downside of this approach is the computer power will not be remotely controllable. This is not an issue for power down as Voyager can shut down the PC from within the DragScript directly.

Keen to hear if anyone has already been this path...any learnings?

Reply With Quote