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ncjunk

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Posts posted by ncjunk

  1. 4 hours ago, Carbon Brush said:

    I used a garage up/over door automation package. Intended for after market fitting.

    The motor sits inside the end of the shed. The rail runs along the 'pergola' constructed to hold the roof when open.
    The hook to catch the door is fastened to the end of the roof.

    This package includes motor overload detection (person or car in way) and reverse.
    The radio remote is very handy when investigating travel stickiness caused by plants growing, wood warping, etc.

    I have made no attempt to trigger closure on rain, etc. or after scope parking.
    The controls include terminals for a push button closure.
    Though most packages are push to close, push again to open. not separate switches.

    They don't generally use limit switches as standard. Relying on simple encoders in the motor drive.
    I have a 'roof fully closed' limit switch which is tied in with the shed alarm. Signals if anyone succeeds in moving the roof an inch or two.

    Hope something in there is useful.

    David.

    The sliding gate motor I had has a metal bar which is attached to the end of the rail and as it moves past the motor it hits a switch stopping it.

    I used the remote controls that came with it to open and close it from the house and had a wifi camera I logged into to check the telescope had parked.

    I'm thinking of trying a garage door style one next.... I'm not sure though.

  2. 2 hours ago, AMcD said:

    Just to say that the Talon etc. does require a degree of DIY in that it required me to adapt Talon system, rack etc. to my particular ROR observatory, which in turn required some re-engineering of the observatory rood before I installed it.  It also requires building and wiring up the server cabinet / to all of the individual components of the system, mount, camera etc. in the observatory.  I think in total it took me about two weeks of working every day to get it installed and up and running😃  This post records the process: 

     

    Well said, it's still work but you don't have to write your own software as it comes with ascome drivers, software etc, if i remember correctly.

    ...and you have a post explaining it! what could go wrong😁

     

    • Like 1
  3. I used a gate motor for my roof which came with, obviously, the rails for moving the load (in this case roof) and a control board which had some useful interlocks on it 

    On mine I left it open all night (so only clear nights) but you could disable it by using a safety input based on the position of the telescope. The safety would be "ok" when the scope is parked - this should be a hard wired couple of switches which are active when the scope is parked.

    Your case isn't ideal as the telescope must be in parked position for the roof to close. there will be the possibility of the roof closing on an unparked telescope if you don't disable the motor when the telescope is unparked. The only surefire way of safely doing this is physical limit switches detecting when in safe position. If the park position is taken from software and not the physical position you will always have the possibility of damaging the scope as software is not reliable.

    Having said all of that the opening and closing is easy and just done on wired signals. If you have programing knowledge you can program an arduino with a couple of Inputs and outputs and then link it to an ascom driver (I'm sure someone will have done one somewhere)

    I'd start off with a gate motor hooked up to an arduino that has wifi and create a mini webserver with buttons to open and close the roof, just open, close and then an indication of current position.

    This way is cheap but needs a bit of programming knowledge and also some wiring knowledge for the connections and the signals to the park position.

    So, a control just to open and close manually is easy. The hard bit would be the ascom driver interface with the arduino and the wiring of the limit switches showing park......and then the intergartion and testing with your existing softare.

    Sorry for the brief explanation if a diy solution..hope it gives you an idea.

     

    This is a classic example of if you have the money and not the diy skill go for the Talon system mentioned by a previous poster but if you have the skills and fancy a challenge you can do the cheap diy method

  4. I have always preferred mono and getting ha and rgb. Can be a pain to get a few nights in a row to get enough pics...but I'm lazy so automated everything.

    Love the ha on the bubble or horses head nebula. 

    Are qhy drivers any better now? they used to be a little bit flaky 

    edit: the QHY268M is impressive, i like the look of that. I have an old atik 428ex which fits nicely to the filters etc but does have a smallish field of view.

  5. Not the easiest target so keep going! It's a great start you have.

    I tried imaging this once and was surprised at how awful I managed to make it look - needed a lot more data so I moved onto an easier target🤣

    • Haha 1
  6. I don't get a chance to read much if the forum these days but your threads are always fantastic. I love your designs and the way you think things through.

    Keep up the good work gina your an inspiration.

    How's your roof automated? I've forgotton what you did on that, I'm about to put a gate ooener on mine.

    Sent from my GT-N5110 using Tapatalk

  7. Totally agree. Must be software. Just have to find out where! Still have a gut feeling it could be 64 bit problem. Shame really because I installed the 64 bit thinking it would make for a better computer, and I don't think you can revert to the 32bit after installing the 64bit.

    Unless anyone knows any different.......... :shocked:

    Colin

    I agree, my gut feeling is 64bit driver problem.

    I have just installed eqmod 1.24g and loaded everything and it works fine on windows 7 32 bit, ftdi driver version 2.8.14.0 dated 3/18/2011.

    Would be worth checking the system event log under administrator tools and see what errors are logged there.

    Sent from my GT-P5110 using Tapatalk 2

  8. With all the problems you are having it might be easier to just buy an EQDIR from FLO :D

    It normally is really easy this mod as its just a straight connection through.

    So it would be worth finding out where the problem is just in case its the pc end.

    I'll hook mine up and check it in a couple of hours as thats when i get home from work, 40 minutes kid free for a quick test.

    Sent from my GT-I9003 using Tapatalk 2

  9. One thing though could you people who have modded the NEQ6 please tell me how long it took and how long your mount was out of action? Thank you :)

    post-13131-0-97072700-1365630614_thumb.j

    Gina, if you´re talking about how long to do Georges mod with the 2 pullies then it is about 2 days. I did one 4 hour stint to take it apart, whilst taking photos. Then a couple of hours to clean everything and check the alignments. Finally 4 hours to put it all back together and test it.

    You can easily do it quicker than that but be carefull to check the width of the 48 tooth gear as mine was slightly too wide and rubbed against the housing. It was for that reason that I took it all apart again and put the gears back in (This is the great thing about the mod, if you have problems you can just strip it and put it back how it was).

    Its a nice mod to play around with as there is minimal risk of destroying the mount and you can reset it all if you want.

    I would say that if your guiding is ok then don´t strip the mount just try adjusting the slack but if you want to play and have a bit of fun its a nice mod.

  10. Obviously there is a current limit if supplying from the USB cable but I seem to remember there is a current limit on the I/O. You can only supply a max of 20ma per pin up to a max of 200ma?? So as, for example, my 8 relays would have drawn considerably more current than the Arduino I/O can handle I had to hook the relays up to an External power.

    I can only drive up to 6 relays without external power connected to the relay board (I.e. using the Arduino power and I/O) this is the limit of what worked and not something that would work for very long.

    My doubt is, the more I add devices to the Arduino the more uncertain I get that I have enough current or that I am not going above any current limits on the Arduino. I assume the 1-wire, being comms, doesn´t consume much power unless it´s supplying the devices...er ...is it supplying the sensors as well?

    I am starting to put various things I have tried onto one Arduino hence I am starting to get confused as to whether I have enough current or if I have to add any transistors or other load switching device.

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