Im building a dome

[Startrek (Martin)]

Fred,
I agree with Alex, clever fella !!
Enjoyed the journey with your new Obs
I didn’t buy the proprietory Voyager Dome Control system for my NexDome instead I made my own “Startrek” signature vintage Dome rotation control kit made up of electronic timers relays and switches.
Suits my needs
I’m not one to go to bed whilst imaging with a fully automated robotic system and find all my data ready for me to process in the morning. I suspect in the future there maybe fully automated post processing too , so you wake up the morning and find your final image on your iPhone. Who knows what the future has in store for us ?
I’m a bit of a Stargazer and tinkerer , I like to get outside under the stars , in the cold and amongst all the moths and mosquitoes, keeps you on your toes and keeps the brain busy

Cheers
Martin

[Bassnut (Fred)]

Martin,
Heavy duty electrical and neat , nice work .
I like the clear top box, ill do that too.
Well, you say you like to be always up during imaging, but that's a tough call. When several nights in a row of clear skies for imaging are available you will suffer methinks. All you need as a minimum is a rain sensor with an alarm and sleep becomes normal. I understand the joy in being up the whole time, done it, but megadata is the last mile,and thats hard with no sleep.

[Bassnut (Fred)]

update. ive been playing with the Lesvedome PCB/ASCOM board and too find it very usefull for synchronised dome rotation. Its a bit clunky, as im only using it as convenient USB/ASCOM interface to my own controller, but easy to do.
the pics show closed /nearly closed open/nearly open limit switches and the homemade rotation encoder. The limit switches are brilliant! ($35ea from Altronics), they are very robust and adjustable in every way possible, very easy to set up.
I went with closed /nearly closed, open/nearly open control because it allows very smooth operation with a speed controller and much better system monitoring. 10% of coding time was open-close operation, easy, and the other 90% for what if something goes wrong!. So many switches allows constant monitoring (and instant alarm/response) to switch sequencing errors, motor failure/overloads and automatic recovery proceedures.
Why bother. Well, given rain and still open is a bit catastrophic, being able to recover from that automatically, or alarm early before destruction is a bonus IMO
I can also just lean over in bed and push close at all costs on my radio remote control if needed on an alarm.