Gina

Been thinking about measuring the temperature and humidity in the scope room and initially thought of measuring it at the pier top - nearest imaging rig.  OTOH if the roof is open I doubt there would be much difference between the conditions at the pier head and outside in the Stevenson screen.  With the roof closed it may not matter where these conditions are measured - such as at mount height but near the north wall.  So I'm wondering if there is any point in measuring at the pier head with the extra messing about.

So a 5m cable should be no problem then.  Guess it should be screened.

Anyone know how long the connection between DHT22 and ESP32 can be?  I guess it depends on the type of cable.

I could improve the display now but I think it makes sense to leave it until I get the RTC and do the job properly.

Now have the BME 280 in the Stevenson screen and the latter mounted on the north wall of the obsy.  A 4 way ribbon cable goes into the scope room and into the ESP32 board which is mounted on the wall with a 3D printed bracket.  The twin cable has arrived but I haven't yet run it round the obsy so I have the ESP32 running off the bench PSU.  It's all working.  The display wants some tidying up but that's minor.

I have a 250mm ribbon cable connecting BME28 to ESP32 and it's working fine.  Nice to have it cooler today but still muggy.

Ordered the RTCs - due to arrive tomorrow.

3 x DS3231 RTC Real Time Clock I2C compatible with Arduino and Raspberry Pi

Lovely  👍

Yes, I2C.

Since the Stevenson screen is going on the side of the obsy I'm wondering if the ESP32 could go just inside.  It would only need a few inches or say between 100mm and 200mm.  Googling seems to talk of metres but I think there's confusion.  Might try 150-200mm of ribbon cable to connect tomorrow (too tired tonight) and see if it works.

That's an idea.  Hadn't thought of that...

Please tell me if I'm wrong but I think the circuit board wants mounting vertically in the Stevenson screen with the antenna at the top facing towards the house and WiFi AP.  Less likelihood of dew collecting on the surface.  Probably a good idea to coat the ESP32 with damp repellent though.  I have some somewhere.

Yes, I think I'll use RTCs - they aren't expensive.  Let the web server run continuously and use the RTC to interrupt as required.  The process involved can process the data and make an HTML file as you say.

AZDelivery 3 x DS3231 RTC Real Time Clock I2C compatible with Arduino and Raspberry Pi

Interesting.  I'm used to using an RTC - have them in all my home made clocks.  Easy enough to connect to an ESP32 and use.  It would certainly make it much easier to create useful data.

Been Googling to find what they call barometric pressure rising/falling Slowly, Quickly, Very Rapidly.  I guess I can interpolate this to work over a much shorter period.  Rather than a 2s period for the main loop I could do with a longer period but allow WiFi access to the data without having to wait too long.  So either interrupting on connect or running the on connect response rapidly and using a time interrupt.  The latter would need a Real Time Clock though I think.

Running a 2s loop and added code to check if pressure is rising or falling.  Next to categorise this further into Slowly or Quickly.  Also, the "No Change" needs a tolerance.  Currently the pressure reading is very precise so the pressure is always either rising or falling.  The readings are being displayed to more precision than the measurement so this wants correcting too.  All these are simple changes.

Now I have this much working I need to change the code to read the BME280 every so often and save the results to variables then on connect reads these variables instead of the BME280.

This will be going in the Stevenson screen.  Now I'm not sure what would be the best orientation.  Flat ie. horizontal with the plane of the stripboard parallel with the ground or "stood up" ie. plane of stripboard vertical with the front of the ESP32 facing the house (and WiFi AP).

Extra gear always makes me happier!

On 30/07/2020 at 14:18, Ibbo! said:

Q - how many telescopes do you need?

A - All of them  🤡

Wrong!!  - More!!  or All of them and more!! 😁

Working now.  Tried a different ESP32 module.  I thought it was hot - I was right!!

Wired up a stripboard for ESP32 and BME280.  ESP32 is working and connecting by WiFi but BME280 isn't.  The connections look right and I can't see any solder bridges.  I'll check again later - need a break now and cool off!!

Ordered more cable to wire up my weather station units.

12V 24V AUTOMOTIVE 2/3/4/5/7 CORE THINWALL RED/BLACK CAR CABLE WIRE ROUND/FLAT (Flat 2 Core 0.5mm² 11Amps, 10 Metres)

This is similar to but smaller than the 16.5A cable I used for the main 13.8v feed in my observatory.  It will be fed from a buck converter to drop the main supply to 5v.  I may rebuild my main power distribution box to provide this extra supply.  Currently I have 4 supplies at 13.8v

• Mount
• Imaging rig
• ASC
• Roof control

These are all provided with digital ammeter, fuse and switch.  I think the weather station supply deserves the same treatment.

My brain seems to have shut down due to heat!!

I have 13.8v fed to my pier with a 16.5A low voltage flexible cable plus thick domestic type earth cable, from the distribution box in the warm room - separate supplies for mount and imaging rig.  I have a network switch on the pier feeding the two RPi control boards and a cable from the mount to one RPi so minimal cables while still using wired Ethernet.  I could probably get away with WiFi but prefer high reliability for imaging.  Except for the ASC which uses WiFi as it's less important. Now if INDI supported the ESP32 I could cut down a lot on power requirements!