#21  
Old 17-04-2021, 02:54 PM
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Originally Posted by AdamJL View Post
That's interesting. I'm on their discord a lot, and rarely does a question go unanswered. It's usually in a very small window when all the devs are away/asleep (Discord tells you if they're online).
Usually an @ or a bump will get the question answered, but that's so infrequent.
It's not that they don't answer - it is the way Discord doesn't appear to group the responses with the questions but just seems to post a timeline based feed of stuff so you have to go searching back through time to find any responses. I might not understand how to set it up correctly but that's how it installed for me.
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  #22  
Old 17-04-2021, 04:15 PM
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that's true. Usually the @ will notify you of a response if the poster tagged you directly.

You can also very quickly search for your username, and go to your last post in the relevant channel. Should take 5 seconds and then you can scroll from there.
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  #23  
Old 17-04-2021, 04:29 PM
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Originally Posted by peter_4059 View Post
About 40 mins south of Hobart on the D'Entrecasteaux Channel
That’s going to be cold. Any idea of the percentage of clear skies - Hobart’s rainfall is pretty low.

Love Tassie,

DT
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  #24  
Old 17-04-2021, 04:35 PM
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Originally Posted by peter_4059 View Post
Hi David,

Here is a text copy of my script. I can send you the actual Voyager .vos file if you want to play with it in the dragscript editor.

Also if you want to have a go at building an Arduino cloud/rain sensor I'm happy to share what I've done.
Thanks Peter,

I’ll have a read of the script and see if I can work it out!

I’ve flicked through your thread about a cloud/rain sensor. How do you interface the arduino into voyager? If your cloud/rain sensor goes off, how does it notify you to close the roof?

Cheers,

DT
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  #25  
Old 17-04-2021, 04:57 PM
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Originally Posted by DavidTrap View Post
Thanks Peter,

I’ll have a read of the script and see if I can work it out!

I’ve flicked through your thread about a cloud/rain sensor. How do you interface the arduino into voyager? If your cloud/rain sensor goes off, how does it notify you to close the roof?

Cheers,

DT
The cloud rain sensor is just an Arduino controller with the sensors connected to it. For cloud I use ambient temp, sky temp and relative humidity in my model. For rain I have a simple rain sensor. I also have a bunch of other sensors connected just because I could

The Arduino code simply sends the raw sensor readings every 5 seconds via USB to the PC that is controlling everything (including running Voyager). I've written a VB.net form app that runs on that pc and takes the feed from the Arduino. That app does all the calcs and formatting to output the data on a window I've built, and also write a .txt file the same way the Boltwood devices do. There is a generic ASCOM driver that looks for that .txt file and makes the info available via an ASCOM standard approach to Voyager or any other Astro orchestration app that can input weather data (eg SGP etc).

https://ascom-standards.org/Download...onsDrivers.htm

https://ascom-standards.org/Download...torDrivers.htm

Depending on the level of automation you have, Voyager can act on that info to close the roof or in my case where the roof is manual I've set up an alarm in my app that sounds on the PC in the house (Teamviewer connection) that will hopefully wake me up.

Voyager also has a function that can send notifications to your phone via Telegram and I could also do this direct from my app however I haven't got around to configuring that bit yet.
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  #26  
Old 17-04-2021, 06:00 PM
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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
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  #27  
Old 17-04-2021, 06:33 PM
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Originally Posted by DavidTrap View Post
That’s going to be cold. Any idea of the percentage of clear skies - Hobart’s rainfall is pretty low.

Love Tassie,

DT
Humid = "over it"
Cold = "can always put on another layer"

I think the notion of bad weather and cold in Hobart is a bit of a myth. It is not that dissimilar to Melbourne. Even Brisbanites must admit summer here is unpleasant, cloudy and very wet.
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  #28  
Old 17-04-2021, 06:48 PM
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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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  #29  
Old 17-04-2021, 08:14 PM
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Originally Posted by peter_4059 View Post
Disclaimer - I'm a chemical engineer...not an IT professional/programmer so what I'm doing is self taught.
I coded an arduino script to monitor the roof sensors at the school observatory - there was a fair bit of code by google in my script and a lot of assistance from a chemical engineer you know.

I enjoy the tinkering side of things too - have built my dew heaters and focuser controllers, plus brackets to mount focus motors. A 3D printer is invaluable in this hobby for one who likes to tinker.

DT
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  #30  
Old 17-04-2021, 08:35 PM
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Originally Posted by DavidTrap View Post
I coded an arduino script to monitor the roof sensors at the school observatory - there was a fair bit of code by google in my script and a lot of assistance from a chemical engineer you know.

I enjoy the tinkering side of things too - have built my dew heaters and focuser controllers, plus brackets to mount focus motors. A 3D printer is invaluable in this hobby for one who likes to tinker.

DT
I often think of Greg when I'm stuck. He would be able to get this sorted out pretty quickly. Wonder what his hourly rate is like these days?
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  #31  
Old 26-04-2021, 04:39 PM
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Originally Posted by peter_4059 View Post
Hi David,

Here is a text copy of my script. I can send you the actual Voyager .vos file if you want to play with it in the dragscript editor.

Also if you want to have a go at building an Arduino cloud/rain sensor I'm happy to share what I've done.
Thanks for that Peter - finally got a chance to look through . I'm no programmer, but after what I learnt recently programming an Arduino, I think I can follow the logic of most of the code.

I'd like to see what options you have enabled in your sequences to fit in with the autofocus & guiding initialisations in this script. I'm still working out the significance of each of the options in the tabs at the bottom of the sequence window.

Is this script integrated with your arduino weather sensor? Specifically, if the sensor detects "cloud" does it put the rig into a holding pattern?

Thanks,
DT
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  #32  
Old 26-04-2021, 05:40 PM
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Hi David,

My cloud sensor is linked into Voyager as a Weather device directly and as an Observing conditions device using the generic driver I linked in an earlier post. You can also link as a Safety Monitor however I've not done that.

The Weather device outputs 4 states (each) for Cloud, Wind, Rain and Light in a standard format in a .txt file. Voyager periodically reads that file and you can configure how it acts under each state.

If you set it to suspend, Voyager stops what it is doing at any stage in the script and executes the steps in the suspend event. You can configure how long it sits in suspend before attempting a restart from where it left off however if the condition that caused it to enter suspend still exists it remains in suspend. You can also configure it to completely give up using the Exit state.

The observing conditions bit just displays the info from the weather device on the Voyager window and I guess gives you access to this info if you want to use it for decision making in the script.
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  #33  
Old 26-04-2021, 06:14 PM
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Ta,

Lots of options there.

I like how he has various options in the software to deal with special quirks ("bugs") of other software/hardware.

DT
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  #34  
Old 26-04-2021, 06:21 PM
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Leo has a different approach to some competing options in that he entertains a certain amount of customization (in a good way). I also really like the dragscript facility - it allows a huge amount of user configuration.
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