Hi guys,
I've almost hit my target of automating my obs. My plan has been to equip the obs so I can -
- Control obs operations from the house (100m away). Completed via hard wired network cable (yes, I know what the say about max run of CAT 6 but it works fine with basically no lag or communication dropouts). I use Remote Desktop for this.
- Ability to power up all systems from house - Completed via the use of a Wake-On-Lan command to a computer in Ob's. Connected to this computer is a Dekovni 8 channel USB relay which in turn powers up equipment in the obs.
- Open/close roof from the house - Completed by jumping 2 of the Dekovni relays into the roof controller open/close relay switches.
- Monitor operations from offsite for times I am away from home. This isn't completed however wont pose an issue as I know I can log on remotely.
- Automate imaging. SGP (paid version) handling this one for me.
- Install some form of safety monitoring. About to pull the trigger on an AAG cloudwatcher. Plan is to 'jump' the relay output of this to the close relay of the existing roof control relay. This way when an 'unsafe' condition (rain/cloud) is identified the roof will close. I have no telescope clearance issues so the roof closing unannounced wont matter....I just lose subs.
...............however I have one last stumbling block........how to connect my roof controller to my image capture software. I'd like to have the roof close once an imaging run controlled by SGP has finished. Obviously it would also be nice to have the roof open just before a sequence if it is a late rising target!
I believe SGP has the ability to do what I want however I don't know what the interface is. Obviously SGP can issue a command to open/close the roof but to what hardware is that command issued to that actually undertakes the task?
Is it a script that controls the Dekovni relay? Problem is I ahev absolutely no idea about scripting and/or how to make SGP 'talk' to the Dekovni unit.
Anyone have any ideas that may help me?