Quote:
Originally Posted by Stefan Buda
I have been testing the controller code for almost a week now. The software is meant to remain powered up permanently, in an observatory setting.
On initial power up it starts monitoring the ambient temperature and the two mirrors temperature as well. Once it detects a change of 0.25 degrees C, it starts to make decisions about turning on heaters and fans. If the the ambient is dropping and the primary is lagging behind more than a preset value, then the fans come on. The secondary heater comes on when needed, to stop the secondary from over cooling during the night. The primary is less likely to over cool but there is a preset temperature for the primary heater to come on if needed. Every time there is a further drop in ambient, the software resets the minimum temperature reached and that becomes useful in the morning when the ambient starts to rise rapidly and the optics tend to fog up. Once the software detects the rise it switches on both heaters and the fans and keeps them going until the ambient gets to a preset value above the minimum reached. The hope is that by that time air humidity has dropped enough so that the heaters and the fans can be powered down to await the next cycle of dropping temperature.
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Hi Stefan, good to see you again up and about.
You have a heating pad for the secondary and fans only for the primary, correct?