Thread: Voyager
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Old 17-04-2021, 06:48 PM
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peter_4059 (Peter)
Big Scopes are Cool

peter_4059 is offline
 
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: SE Tasmania
Posts: 4,532
Quote:
Originally Posted by DavidTrap View Post
Thanks Peter,

Sounds like most astro weather sensors. I’ve mucked around a bit with arduino, but haven’t done any programming for a proper computer.

I was looking at AAG today and noticed they now offer the hydreon optical rain sensor instead of the usual capacitance rain sensor. I’ve installed one of these in the school observatory as a back rain sensor. They’re about $100 and output via either a NO or NC relay - very sensitive to any rain.

I’ll look into automation a bit more and come back to you if I want to head down that path.

Ta
DT
That hydreon rain sensor looks better than the simple capacitance one I'm using and it would be easy to incorporate that as an input to the Arduino if you wanted to (and I might get one to try).

I had never built a windows application before embarking on that project (and had no idea what an arduino did either) but the reality is coding is logical and not rocket science so if you are prepared to learn something new and spend some time with google it is do-able and satisfying. Disclaimer - I'm a chemical engineer...not an IT professional/programmer so what I'm doing is self taught.

I could have purchased a commercial unit but for me the fun is in the creation of my own solution. I'm lucky I have time to spare playing with this stuff and understand others just want something off the shelf that works out of the box. That's the beauty of this hobby - there's something in it for everyone.
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