Gina

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.

That's a very nice first attempt Well done

Agreed - especially when you're dealing with hundreds of pounds worth of equipment. That's why I decided to buy a pukka EQDIR box

Goodness me Malcolm, that's really deluxe Our house isn't that good I thought my warm room was pretty cosy but it's only bare floorboards except for the door mat. Your's looks really posh with carpet, skirting boards and kitchen cupboards Very nice indeed

Got dew heaters on my scopes and 200mm lens now Hopefully another problem solved.

Very good

Current considerations were why I decided to switch the LEDs on and off. So the sequence is :- LEDs on - measure PT output - LEDs off. The Leds only need to be on for a millisecond or less while the DS2450 reads the PTs. That meant I could use parasitic power to supply the LEDs in conjunction with a capacitor to supply the brief relatively high current (about 5mA) - just 50 microamps from the 1-wire bus. In fact using CAT5 cable with only one pair used for the 1-wire bus, there's no real reason why power should not be privided by other wires in the cable. Can't remember now why I didn't do that in the first place.

Well done

I think it's negligible - a 4.7K resistor supplies the current from the 5v supply.

Nice little blue ring