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Finally - I've broken ground on the obsy

dmahon

By dmahon
in DIY Observatories

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dmahon

dmahon

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Good news - a package arrived special delivery today from Pulsar, and it contained a whole new dome tracker. I braved the wind, rain and dark and together with my daughter (who was unimpressed, but I needed someone inside the dome while I undid some bolts outside) swapped the unit over. I gave it a very quick whirl and it appears to work as intended!

Electrics go in on Monday and then I can start to try it with some kit.

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Gina

Gina

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Weather is still absolutely awful here - torrential rain and gales.  And I've just woken up from a nightmare that our foundations had been undermined by the wet and the house had moved several yards down the hill :(  I did get to sleep eventually in spite of the noise!

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JamesF

JamesF

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It's no better here - but I'm only a few miles up the road from you.

It is rather depressing.  I was out letting the chickens out this morning and the sky was beautifully clear.  I was planning on doing some solar imaging for the first time in months.  Then within ten minutes it was absolutely throwing it down.  It has stopped now, but the sky still looks unpleasantly dark.  It seems to have been this way for ages :(

James

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Scott

Scott

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It is rather depressing.  I was out letting the chickens out this morning and the sky was beautifully clear.  I was planning on doing some solar imaging for the first time in months.  Then within ten minutes it was absolutely throwing it down.  It has stopped now, but the sky still looks unpleasantly dark.  It seems to have been this way for ages :(

James

and ages, and ages

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dmahon

dmahon

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Electric connected. Now I have the power!

I only got the electrician to connect up two sockets and a light - but to get that far he had to wire up two sheds as well, both with consumer units and socket/lighting circuits. The obsy is only about 5m from one of the sheds and it seemed a bit much to buy, and have him wire up, yet another consumer unit. Instead, I put a 6 way unit in the nearest shed, with one way for the obsy, one for power to some decking (next year's project) the usual two for sockets/lights and two spare ways - hence the FCU for the light in the obsy. I have to glue some more wood inside the dome to attach a few more sockets on the other side of it, which I'll be able to connect up thanks to the conduit I set in the concrete. For now I'll just use a 4 way adapter.

The powerline network adapter works great. It's on the end of 90m of 10mm2 cable from the consumer unit (and the other one is probably 25m of ring main away from it as well). The speed is 117 Mbps down and 62 Mbps up, which is plenty - I won't have to use my spare conduit for Cat5e after all.

44.JPG

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dmahon

dmahon

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Still have a bit more silicone sealant to put down I think. There are a few bolt holes that need sealing with silicone (I did a couple earlier, but I think there may be one or two more) and then when it's dry I'm going to go around the outside where the dome meets the floor with a load of sealant and use one of those scraper tools to give it a nice edge. And I'll be getting a dehumidifier too - either one like yours or the other one that was recommended. You'll have to let me know how you get on with it.

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dmahon

dmahon

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Well, I've put sealant everywhere and think I have a fairly watertight dome. I moved my mount/scope inside, put the measurements in the right place in the driver then turned everything on.

Bad news: I got the problem with the tracking again (the HOME position sensor saying ACTIVATED when it wasn't) - but it went away after a few minutes. Seemed different this time as it didn't say ACTIVATED when I disconnected the cable and I'm pretty sure it did last time around. I'll have to keep my eye on it.

Good news: Once it all started working, the dome seems to track the scope just right. There was a little wheel slippage, so I put some self adhesive gripper tape (and added some glue) around the circumference to help the wheels keep purchase. I found it all very impressive anyway. Now I just need a cloud free period to align the scope properly and then align the dome home position as well. And, of course, keep an eye on the ACTIVATED issue when the temperature drops - as that was meant to be the cause last time around. The floor needs to go down and the cable "situation" needs dealing with (tidying up) too.

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dmahon

dmahon

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After yesterday's "first light" I was up for another go this evening with beautiful clear skies and a cold crispness to the air (which wouldn't affect me as the whole idea is for remote control). Bad news again unfortunately though - with the drop in temperature the problem with the ACTIVATED home sensor has reared it's ugly head - even when the cable is disconnected. So no imaging for me this evening and an email has gone off to Pulsar/Shelyak to try and sort it out.

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dmahon

dmahon

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I did test it like that before - and it did work (which confirmed the problem).

Unfortunately I don't know what will happen during the night - if the dome passes the sensor, it resets its position to the known location (290 degrees in my case). This allows for it to find itself at the start of the night and also to update its position during the evening in case there has been any slippage. If the dome thinks it has passed the sensor (ie. ACTIVATED) then it may reset itself to 290 degrees no matter where it is at. Indeed, if it is ACTIVATED all the time it might think it is always at 290 degrees even if it is rotating continuously.

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dmahon

dmahon

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Went outside to give it another test this morning (frost on the ground) and it didn't work. I gave it a quick blast with the hairdryer and all started up again - and it doesn't seem to home itself unless you actually tell it to, so that might be an interim fix until I hear from the manufacturer. Heater pad might actually be a solution - though I'll also need a way to turn it on/off remotely.

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