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For a “best I can do off the top of my head” Glenhuon, that was rather darn close. The wheel is an azimuth sensor to tell the ascom driver where the dome is pointing. The sensor is from the guys that make the homedome.
Phil… you’re embarking on some interesting territory of which I’ve partly been down. To answer your question. The sensor needs to wire back into the Vellemen K8055 USB board in order for ASCOM read the sensor. It connects to digital input no.1 and no.5 (see diagrams attached). The difficult part is mounting the sensor on the Sirius observatory. Usually around the lip of the wheel guard works ok, but you may need to paint the surface as you don't want the wheel to slip (or you'll lose the measurement). At the time I used a grip paint that is used on steps for non slip purposes.
I found this design a little frustrating and subsequently went down the MaxDome path – at considerable cost I might add. If you intend to also automate the dome shutter, MaxDome is really the only sensible way of achieving the task as it uses wireless to communicate between the controller and shutter - cables and rotation domes don't go well together. I also didn’t like the grey coder on the Vellemen board as doesn’t allow the use of a cloud/weather sensor – you need to buy another board to achieve this. These are minor hindrances, but it’s the little things that count.
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