Yawning Angel

Thank Kev!

18 minutes ago, Astrokev said:

is this in the warm or scope room

This is in the warm room. I'm thinking of maybe putting in a storage bench / seat in the scope side if I need more - but as it's mainly for imaging, I don't think I'll need it

The carpet tiles have gone it, which is a substantial milestone, as the whole space now has a floor covering! As with many of the tasks in building thus far, I've never needed to lay carpet tiles before. Following advice, it all seemed too simple, but double sided tape, a steel ruler and a sharp knife where all that was really needed.  That an an hour or so, of course. It's changed the acoustics, so it sounds less like a hollow wooden box.

There are thresholds to fit and some cable holes to punch, but that's finessing ?

I've a garage full of shelving bits being variously painted, sanded or waxed ready for install and the desk (600mm deep furniture board which I'll sand and clear wax) is due on Saturday. This will lead on to the install of the surface mounted electrics, who's plans are already running round in my head

The nice chaps at DarkFrame have my mount for servicing, before it's permanent install, so I've no distractions or excuse not to 'get on'!

Test fit of the shelving:

Ooh, I just remembered a thought I had - have you considered not making an obvious path, but instead use the hex grid ground reinforcing stuff in the grass? 

Just a day ahead of a thunderstorm, guttering! Ignore the random fence post, it’ll come out when the patio gets extended to the observatory front

I can’t take any credit, as my Dad kindly installed it whilst I was at work. Just in time ?

Glad you’re feeling better Kev!

I’ve used slate chips, so there’ll never be slipping in winter.

I think I  just need some light enough to see the key holes to open up, and that should spill enough to see the path and steps

Yep, it’s a sun trap and then some! Cooled to 30 a bit later, with the lid on. 

Roof open, sunny day:

I suspect, if I can’t discourage them, I might have built a big bee hive...

I’ve been quietly using the odd evening here and there to paint all this inside woodwork, which is now done except the rolling roof - honestly, I’ve not been able to face it, but I will!

Planning for the electrics has meant starting to outfit the warm room, or at least plan for the desk etc. I want to put the main span of trunking under the desk, which means I need the desk (or at least it’s dimensions)

My current thought is to run 50cm deep shelving rack on the left, then extend a shelf across to for the desk, and maybe echo that with a smaller high level shelf above. There exists a number of commercial solutions like this, so it’ll most likely be a bought in kit

my floor tiles arrived, so I loose laid them to get the feel :

The purple colour cast is from the leds doing ‘white’ from the scope side - the walls are actually ‘silver birch’, so a nice pale grey

15 minutes ago, JamesF said:

Now I just need to find a nice way to cut the mitred joins at the corners

I used a small aluminium mitre box, and a razor saw. The box had ridges which meant the profile was easily held by hand.

It sounds like we’ve used the clips the same way to joint the ends. Be careful fitting the plastic covers, they slide as you press them in, so you can end up with surprise gaps. They come out without damage though, so you can do ‘take 2’

I started the diffusers from the cut end of the profile, so the joints where staggered. The idea was to reinforce the profile join, in case of any movement 

SketchUp trick 1) The keyboard cursor keys can select axis, saving all the vague waving of mouse pointer in the hope it gets it right

The Celestron Firmware guru on the TeamCelestron forum (Celestron beta test) has this to say:

Everything dies eventually. 

The exact date and time is not yet clear for the reasons that Michael explained.

I just heard back from the manufacturer, the modules we sell today (and have sold since at least as far back as 2012) will not fail next month. I am still pressing to find out what their expected fail date is. I believe it will be at least 2023, and probably 2032 before we start to see failures.

Moreover, one source I read said that only the time would be affected. That the module would still be able to calculate a proper position. If that is correct, then Celestron can correct the rollover error on the fly. 

Why doesn't the thing just get the CORRECT data from the Satellites?

Because the GPS constellation satellites don't give you the correct data. Or, rather, they don't give you complete data. Instead they tell you, very very accurately, how much time has elapsed since the dawn of the last GPS epoch. They do not report what epoch it is, just the time since the beginning of that epoch. Imagine that, for whatever reason, the satellite only provided the last digit of the current year. In that case, a satellite message might contain something like this: 16:54:01.037 March 25, 9. The 9 could stand for 2019. Or possibly 2009. Or even 2299 for all your receiver knows. So the maker of the module says something like this: "we will assume times from the satellite are from January 1st, 2010 to December 31st 2019. This creates a 10 year epoch from for that particular module.

But that is not the only 10 year epoch that the manufacture can choose. He can modify his firmware such that the modules he sells in the year 2015 to use an epoch that starts in January of 2015, and extends to December 2024. Again, it is a 10 year epoch but now we are talking about a 10 year epoch that begins shortly before the sale of the device.

The GPS epoch is 19.7 years. Why 19.7 years instead of 197 years or 19000 years? It was probably a limitation of the technology when the products were designed rather than an extreme lack of foresight. Why 19.7 years instead of 19.6 or 19.8? that is a computer numbers thing, I won't bore you with the details.

What epoch does your module use? It depends on the make and model of your module of course. And, if the manufacture changes his firmware frequently, it might very well depend on exactly when your module was manufactured.

I will reiterate that the modules we are currently selling, and have sold since 2012, will not fail in April 2019.

How should Celestron handle cases where a user has a module for 10 years or so, and then it becomes "broken" by the passage of time? Should we point out that your unit is out of warranty? Should we send you a new Accessory? That won't work if your module is installed on a larger circuit board in a mount we manufacture anymore. Fortunately, I don't have to make these decisions. But I will keep you informed as the decisions are brought to my attention.
--
derik
Firmware Engineer

The dehumidifier is waiting to be plumbed in ?

The carpeted space is the warm room only, which is (will be) heated and closed off from the open side. I've been treating is as a summer house / garden office, when spec'ing materials, as suppliers understand that concept better than 'observatory'.

Of course, it could end up an unmitigated disaster (let's hope not) where in it gts ripped up and replaced ?

6 hours ago, Astrokev said:

Are those conduits sticking out of the floor?

They are, yes. They need cutting flush. They’re just about in the lee of the pier head, so I’ve been alright far ??

Much as it looks done, I do need to lift it to tape it down, and I’ll cut the conduit then

Office reclamation places seem to get pallets full. I’ve  seen them from £1 a tile. At that price you could double them up ?

Seems they come mainly in packs of 16 or 20 at 50x50cm, so 4 or 5m2

Plenty of places do free samples. I found DCTUK.com especially helpful

We’ve followed a similar hair route, James. Had it to my belt, then hit the office job and lopped it off

The carpet tiles have some sort of anti-static rating so it shouldn’t become hair raising⚡️I suspect the foam tiles may be a different story

Synthetic carpet tiles. Bleach cleanable etc. In a deep red, and only needed 1 x 20 tile pack ??

Scope room painted, lit and floored. Right, warm room next

5 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

screaming banshee when parking

If that's likely to be a factor, then clearance to allow the roof to close without parking would help - I wasn't able to get my roof in under permitted development height guidelines, maintain my horizons and not bang my head, so the scope has to be horizontal before I can roll it closed. As with most things, it's a compromise.

I've 2 V rollers each side, from F H Brundle (sliding gate hardware) and it's very quiet when rolling

Not having experience in building on this scale, I’ve found getting things done in the right order to be one of the biggest challenges. At least you aren’t undoing work due a planning ‘hiccup’ ??

Thank you! Hoping it’ll more easily show up anything I drop in the dark

Another night in the obs, working under LED light ?

Tonight I started putting together the jigsaw of flooring tiles. Firstly I assembled a 3 by 3 square around the pier, leaving out the centre tile (600 x 600 each)

With that roughly central, I marked out for the pier and cut the hole with a very sharp craft knife

Rather than take the pier top off, I chose to slot the tile and slip it around. I then managed to mark out for the cable access, cut those holes and fit it. Although it’s not completely tonight, it still looks quite smart

Once it’s all cut, I’ll lift it, label than and stick the tiles with tape, after painting the roof

Good luck!

12 minutes ago, JamesF said:

A few people (Alex?) have used a fibreglass finish in recent builds too.

As others have done, I reckon putting breathable membrane behind the cladding is a good plan.  It made life much easier for me having the place dry inside before I'd even had a chance to start getting the cladding on.  Put on with a staple gun it goes up very quickly, too.

Fibreglass reinforced liquid, in my case

Stainless staples for the membrane. Actually, stainless for every fastener ?