ROR automation - How to connect to SGP?

[Imme]

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?

[Paul Haese]

AAG is a good system. I have had two but I do run mine all the time. Boltwood is the best but I can't justify the cost in my head.

I don't know how you connect to SGP but CCDAP controls all items in a remote imaging setup. I have used it for years and it works really well and very reliable.

[Imme]

Cheers Paul, I’ll have a look at that program.

[diegocolonnello]

Hi John, Sgp can control observatories but in order for this to work, the observatory interface needs to be ASCOM compatible

For example. the Lunatico Dragonfly has an ascom driver that can be customized to control the observatory by using relays and inputs, in my case, i have assigned a relay for the CLOSE ROOF contact and another relay for the OPEN ROOF contact, aditional to that i have reed switch sensors on 2 inputs that confirms the status of the roof got Open and Closed position, the Ascom driver receives the command to open and triggers the relay and also waits for confirmation of the OPEN sensor to confirm the action has been performed, if this confirmation times out, it shows an error and returns an error message to the imaging software.

The device that you have can't be controlled this way by SGP..... if you want you can have a look at a software called VOYAGER, they have a sub package called Viking that connects to the Denkovi and controls the functions, that way you can freely script the observatory operation.

let me know if you want to know more...

Diego...

[diegocolonnello]

243631


This is an example of my observatory, i am adding more to this at the moment...

[diegocolonnello]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGlV_sXo3i4&t=80s