Gina

? I'm also using small layers of 0.2mm. Still printing ATM. I'll report back when I have some new test results. At least the ASC enclosure looks good.

Trying a different 3D print layer arrangement to avoid grooves along the tube connections.

The results are in... Problem is the T piece only. Lots of bubbles there but nowhere else. Tried soap solution everywhere (except pressure switch) and no bubbles. Also, took complete ASC enclosure and immersed it deep in a bucket of water for several seconds and no wet appeared inside. The dome was damp free once I had dried the outside with a kitchen towel. I guess I need to seal the T piece with silicone or get the surfaces smoother.

I have a sort of test rig set up. Printed a T piece (3 way) tube connector. Took a 1L plastic bottle which compresses easily to increase pressure (waiting for bicycle valves to arrive today for that method) and drilled a hole in the cap for a grommet to take a silicone tube. Connected bottle tube and ASC tube to T piece and T piece with another tube to the pressure switch. Squeezed the bottle until the switch operated and held it at that. It had detected a leak or leaks - the switch operated after less than a minute. Just got some soapy water to find the leak.

Had a thought - may be better to have two connections to the reservoir and blow air into that so that the desiccant in there can dry the air before it goes into the ASC enclosure. eg. one tube going down into the bottom of the reservoir and the other at the top.

The clear RTV sealant peeled off the PETG easily.

You may get remote roof opening and closing before I do then!! Working flat out on imaging rigs ATM...

Pipe junction for the pressurisation system. Now printing. Connects four pipes as follows :- ASC Air Reservoir Pressure Switch Air Input with Valve for applying pressure

I have now attached the base to the top of the casing with 8 M4 bolts and nuts with silicone sealant between the casing parts. I'll leave it to set until tomorrow and then I can test for leaks. I can see that the sealant has squeezed out all round the inside by looking in through the dome. I have not put anything inside except the waterblock and a tissue to protect the dome from damage from it. Cable and air pipe are sealed with grommets and the water pipes are a tight fit in tubular extensions to the base.

Decided to try the new silicone sealant on the dome. Put a good layer in and screwed down the dome with the ring and M3 screws, then left it to set. Later I tried submerging it in a bucket of water with plenty of air left inside. It bubbled profusely round the edge of the dome! The internal pressure was about 6" of water. I have since taken it apart again and reassembled using the bathroom silicone sealant. I don't think that's quite as quick setting as the new sort so I'll leave it overnight before testing.

I think I shall use the NO contacts and connect the switches to the main supply. At the RPi I can either use optocouplers and series resistors to the LED and the TR to pull the GPIO line to data Gnd or simple resistive dividers connected to the GPIO lines and data Gnd. I would prefer the first option though slightly more complicated.

I've confirmed that the higher pressure switch (which I've called turns ON at about 6" and OFF at about 2". I have labelled the photo of the switch as shown below. SW A turns ON at 5" and OFF at 4". SW B turns ON at 6" and OFF at 2". Terminals are :- NC Common NO

Pressure switch which I plan to use to check the internal pressure in my all sky camera casing. I'm using a slightly positive pressure of a few inches of water to stop ingress of moisture in the event of a leak. The internal air being desiccated to prevent condensation when the astro camera is cooled to -20°C.

I don't intend to touch the adjustments. I need to rig up the manometer better as the other switch has a large hysteresis and the switch contains quite a large volume of air compared with the 6mm ID silicone tube I'm using. Initial results show switching ON at something like 6" and off at less than the other switch - maybe 2-3". Only the OFF values are significant in this application.

Testing - lower pressure switch - ON at 5" and OFF at 4" approx. Need a longed tube for the higher pressure switch.

The pressure switch has arrived and clicks nicely with a bit of air pressure. Next to connect to a water manometer and DMM to check pressure levels and which connections are which.

New casing printed in PETG - much stronger. I used not only better filament type but also increased the extrusion and used solid fill. The new casing is thicker, heavier and much stronger. I tried a strength test. I was able to destroy the previous casing by hand but not the new one. Hopefully the new one will not leak when I test it.

Three quarters of the way through printing new casing. New silicone sealant came in the post this morning.

Silicone sealant for my all sky camera.

With most of the ASC parts printed I thought I'd do a bit of testing before the pressure switch arrives tomorrow. Attached the dome to the main body using the ring and 4 M3 screws. Then I almost filled it with water. Small beads of water started appearing over the printed body - so it leaks - badly. I used ASA as that thermoplastic is supposed to stand up to UV better than others. The previous casing was printed in PETG which at least kept the damp out for a few days. Clearly, there is no point in better UV resistance over the years if it leaks. PETG is renowned for interlayer bonding so it seems PETG is the filament to use. Now to print a new casing in PETG then...

I should have some EL817 optocouplers but they're not in the components box where I thought they were. I would like to err on the side of safety.

Think I'll combine the power and pressure switch wires into one cable that can go through a grommet in the base for sealing. It could be Power(+13.8v), Gnd, SW1, SW2 with the switches connecting the lines to Gnd. This would then be a 4 core cable, which I have. Might use opto-isolators on the switch lines though not sure it's needed. I used them where I was controlling the power for Peltier TEC and dew heater to isolate the RPi logic side from the power. Core colour assignments could be :- Red = +ve Green = Gnd Brown = SW1 White = SW2

The ASC enclosure will have desiccant (several 10g silica gel sachets) to dry the air and previous results show this works and there was no condensation at -20°C. This tells me that nett inflow of dried air is not actually needed. I'd be surprised if there was no nett outflow of air to the environment though.

Been Googling about washing machine pressure switches and found they may have 2 or 3 separate sets of contacts operating at different pressures. See THIS VIDEO. The one I've ordered would appear to have two sets of change over contacts so two pressure switches in one. The higher pressure one could flag a warning and the lower one danger, assuming the higher pressure isn't too high but I think that unlikely as water levels in the machine may be 6" to 8" I reckon. Whilst just a small positive pressure would be sufficient I don't think a higher pressure would hurt. If there is a leak the pressure would just drop faster but the whole ides is not to have a leak. If I feed the switch wires to the RPi, the client app could show green light for good, orange for a warning and red for danger.

Yes, I was thinking I might use a bicycle pump to pressurise. I hadn't thought of a separate air reservoir with desiccant, so thank you for that. But why so big? Even quarter filled with desiccant is quite a lot of desiccant. I have some clear plastic 1L bottles. I've ordered the pressure switch. I wondered why there are so many connections - testing with DMM ohmmeter will be interesting!