Gina

I've ordered a sealed 12v lead acid battery for the purpose - 44AH - this one :- http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/200670566607?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

I checked the Halfords web site for comparison and the same battery costs twice as much from them. Coincidentally, it's the same battery as my car takes

I've also ordered battery connectors and an isolating switch. I figure I want to isolate the winch when I don't want the roof moving - I don't trust anything! Particularly electronics when I get it remotely controlled.

Out of interest, what is the difference between this mod and the normal mods where the filters are removed.

The filters are separate from the sensor - held in a plastic frame with glue and micro sticky tape. The Bayer mask is part of the sensor chip and it's removal involves removing the glass cover plate and then scraping away at the actual sensor. Extreme modding at it's very most extreme!

I guess if the microlenses are plastic and the CFA is also plastic but the sensor photodiodes and associated circuitry is silicon then the plastic layers being softer than the silicon can be eroded easily with little affect on the much harder silicon.

Whether the plastic could be disolved or softened with paint stripper I don't know but I'm pretty sure paint stripper wouldn't affect the silicon circuitry.

I think trials could be conducted with webcam sensors as these will probably be much the same as DSLR sensors but on a smaller scale. They certainly have Bayer masks but may not have microlenses.

It certainly wouldn't blow away again

This is my thought....

Blue outline obsy building, Black - RoR

Motor / pulley cab be at any height to clear building

Red cable/rope fixed to building at either end

Ropes should be self tightening in either direction.

Interesting but unfortunately the base building ia actually shorter that twice the RORO roof. ie. the roof overlaps the warm room by several inches when open.

EDIT... Oh!! That doesn't matter - I don't think. But there isn't a gap between RORO roof and warm room roof.

I have a Dremel - well actually the Draper equivalent, with the assorted tools, and I'll see if our local cheapo shop has the buffing paste you mention. If not I'll get it from Amazon

How difficult is it to know/see how far to grind down? It would be rather distressing to go too far!

Removing the CFA layer should give a significant increase in resolution and sensitivity.

Yes, certainly would seem so

This company can supply cameras suitably modified for B/W, IR, UV and Ha work. Looks interesting I don't think I would have the bottle to try it on my own bodies lol

Not cheap but still cheaper than a mono astro CCD of similar resolution.

Looking around the net it looks like the microlenses are on top of the bayer filter?. Haha well not anymore if they were!

Well, whatever, your result clearly shows the increase in sensitivity is not reduced too much by your mod if you have removed the microlenses. The proof of the pudding is in the eating. Maybe the later sensors have the CFA on the top - manufacturers do make changes to their products And they often don't tell us - their customers.

Gina - you seem well on the way with this. Can you not mount the winch in the roof section so it travels with the roof and have fixed lines (at each end) with the winch taking-up and playing out rope as it goes back-n-forth...?

Just a thought

I don't know really - it's a thought certainly, thanks Francis I'll see about that - of course, it would need long heavy duty cables (unless the battery is on the rolling part too).

Hi Gina.

My efforts are comming along thus.

I have mounted the Boat winch just inside of the obsevatory,just next to to door way.I found that because of the way the winch handle orientates,i could,nt mount it any other way.

Above the winch i have mounted 2 Pulley blocks that take the rope up the wall vertically,the second pulley allows the rope to pass over the wall to the outside.

On the far roof outrigger support beam,i am mounting a heavy duty Pulley block.

The idea is to run the rope to the Outside pulley block,around and back to a large "J" Bolt secured to the roof.The rope will just hook onto the "J" Bolt.

Hopefully when winding the winch,the roof should roll back.

I have mounted another "J" Bolt on the inside of the roof,so to close,i will just remove the rope from the outside pulley and hook to this inside "J"Bolt.

Hopefully it will close the roof.

I know this isnt a closed system,but if it works it will suit me.

I think in the future i will replace the winch with a motor,as the ratchet is as noisey as hell,and i,m worried it will wake the neighbours.

Mick.

Ah yes - I see. I've got a boat winch with a handle but wanted a reversible system not requiring manual moving of hooks or anything. That's why I bought the reversible motor winch. I can already move the roof on and off by hand.

Gina, is there a possibility of a ledge on the outside at roof height to allow this, before I done my warm room I had already put an overhang on the other end of the observatory to take any equipment I wanted to put there, the winch and solar panels were installed on it.

Jim

I don't think so but I'll be looking at other possibilities.

Been looking at the DSS manual - this page :- http://deepskystacke...al.htm#rawdecod

No mention of not debayering but there are different ways of using the pixels. I've been using the "Super-pixel" mode with NB filters and I imagine this would be alright with the Bayer mask removed - giving a vast increase in sensitivity at the expense of resolution. The "Bayer drizzle" mode looks interesting though I don't quite understand what they're saying. This may give the required result with full resolution - not sure. Something to try though. Think I'll post in the Software forum - someone may know the answer.

I don't know about DSS, but I think in many raw conversion processes there's an "ignore bayer" or similar option. I think PixInsight's raw conversion uses dcraw as a base, and that has an option to just convert without debayering. But I'm not sure where to find the options to do that in PI or other software.

Ah yes - maybe there is in DSS. I'll see if I can find anything.

After that, just need to figure out how to configure software not to de-bayer a non-bayer...

Ah yes - that's a point Hadn't thought of that! That is done in DSS, isn't it? I wonder if it needs a change by the software author or whether there's a way round it. Please let me know what you can find out

First of all, Gina if you look at the orignal thread on moving the roof you will see I posted a couple of photos showing the winch in a plastic toolbox, this has allowed me to put the winch on the warm room roof and the power cable came down the outside ensuring the weather proofing of the roof was not compromised. The winch is meant for a vehicle so the weather would not be detrimental to it but it went in a box anyway.

Yes, I remember that. There isn't enough clearance on the warm room roof in my case. I've tried pushing and pulling at various points on my roof and the bottom of the heavy (high) side seems best - it's where I manually push/pull it.

Secondly, it is noisy as hell and I will be placing rubber underneath and polystyrene all over to dampen the noise. The thing is it will only be moving for a few seconds at a time so the noise although there will be minimised.

Thanks for that I'll add sound insulation too, then. It might need a rethink of where to mount it - have to see.

Check your ratings on the jump starter.. Looking at the specs this winch could draw 90Amps.

Rating is 400A

WOW! Now that is extremely interesting I have a couple of spare imaging assemblies from cameras I've already succeded in destroying with my extreme modding so this will be definitely a possibility for me. Now there's a surprise I've seen a couple of tries at debayering that didn't succeed.

Yes, I shall definitely have a go at this I love extreme mods I'll see if I can find that paste you quoted. Did you use it dry or with water or other lubricant?

I'm currently using a colour 1100D for NB and losing a lot of resolution which is a little bit crazy Actually, two sided by side - with Ha and OIII clip filters for widefield DSO imaging. I'm also in the process of making a filter wheel for my scope camera (another 1100D) and have NB filters on order.

It's good to see that the Bayer mask is on top of the microlenses And it looks like the mask is softer than the microlenses.

I don't know yet - I tried it from my jump starter box but it's battery is flat. I'll probably buy a battery to dedicate to the purpose together with it's own charger later.

Good luck Gina - looks like a major project

Thank you

Initially I thought of putting the pulley outside the scope room but that presented two related problems - the pulley and rope would be outside in the weather and the gap required for the rope's access would spoil the weatherproofing. Protecting from the weather with a cover did not seem practical. Instead I plan to put a bracket on the outside of the ROR with the rope going through the brush draught excluder. This means the pulley will be inside the scope room. This idea is not carved in stone and might change.

This is the winch :- http://www.ebay.co.u...984.m1439.l2649

I have removed the wire cable ready to use rope which is far easier to use and safer. I plan to make up a divider and have the rope wrapping and unwrapping at the same time from the two sections as others have done.

I'll post some photos of the obsy of the areas in question shortly

I have started looking at motorising my roll-off-roof. Have bought a reversible winch from ebay and ordered some 6mm nylon rope. I shall use manual control at first but later plan to provide remote control. I already have some high power MOSFETs that will easily handle the current (maybe 50A).

Yesterday's fine weather enabled me to open the roof and check out where and how I might run the rope and position the pulley and winch. Here's a couple of diagrams of the roof open and closed. The main support woodwork is shown in light green and the roll off section in dark green with the rope in blue.

Nice Great start

Great first shot - very nice

Nice first attempt And you've caught most of the Running Man in the bottom left-hand corner

Great start

TTL logic levels of the past used 0-0.3v as logic 0 and 1.8-3.3v as logic 1. The mounts use the modern CMOS logic which uses basically 0v and 5v with the threshold around 2.5v (2v - 3v). So 3.3v is getting a bit close to the threshold and even with a short cable is iffy. You might get away with using a pull up resistor bu it's far better to use the correct standard and that's 5v for a logic 1. Running close to the limit is likely to cause all sorts of problems and could put extra strain on the mount. As I've said before, it's not worth saving a few pence and risking hundreds of pounds worth of mount.