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Big strong mouse !!


Skipper Billy

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Note to self - next time I lay data and power cables in an underground conduit from the house to the observatory I must do two things.

1. Pull two extra mousing lines through.

2. Use something about twice as strong as I could possibly break by pulling.

Why ?

It would have saved me digging up a 20m trench in very stoney soil (that's only been down 18 months and the grass had just recovered) to recover a broken mousing line that snapped when I was pulling through an extra cable for a rain sensor alarm !!

Pictures to follow when my heart rate drops below about 300 bpm - I would make a rubbish navvie !! :happy7:

 

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Skipper Billy, that is bad luck, If you ever see any of the GPO lads working in the street, have a bit of cheek and ask if they could possibly furnish you with ( at a price ) a length of their draw cord. Other than that, I have used platted nylon cord, available from good hardware suppliers, bit on the expensive side though, but very strong. I used 40mm household waste water pipe, with slow bends, to use as a conduit, when I put my supplies underground, with no bother.

If you have started digging I am probably too late to suggest this. You can buy quite cheaply, online or from hardware stores, a pack of 1m x10 lengths of screw together cabling rods, two packs would cover your 20m, if the pipe is in a straight line you could thread a new draw line through with them, hope you get it sorted :)

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1 hour ago, glowjet said:

If you have started digging I am probably too late to suggest this. You can buy quite cheaply, online or from hardware stores, a pack of 1m x10 lengths of screw together cabling rods, two packs would cover your 20m, if the pipe is in a straight line you could thread a new draw line through with them, hope you get it sorted :)

Already dug - hence the high heart rate !!

1 hour ago, glowjet said:

If you ever see any of the GPO lads working in the street, have a bit of cheek and ask if they could possibly furnish you with ( at a price ) a length of their draw cord

The daft thing is - we own a chandlery - I should have used a length of Dyneema which is virtually indestructible but expensive !! That's me trying to save a few quid and ending up doing it twice !

1 hour ago, happy-kat said:

 

Dare you not use one of your real existing cables to pull through new mousing lines.

 

Tried that and snapped the data cable - its seriously jammed up somewhere.

The whole 38mm conduit is out now and being replaced with a 67mm conduit (rainwater downpipe) - room for loads of cables !!

Live and learn eh ?

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28 minutes ago, Skipper Billy said:

The whole 38mm conduit is out now and being replaced with a 67mm conduit (rainwater downpipe) - room for loads of cables !!

I've just buried the 67mm downpipe, but I'm already regretting it a little because, even though the outside of the corner is nice and gentle, the inside of the corners is not :( I don't even want to try pulling the cord through yet!

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On 06/04/2017 at 14:29, Skipper Billy said:

 .....snapped when I was pulling through an extra cable for a rain sensor alarm !!

 

 

Thinking outside the box- would it matter where the rain sensor was placed? In my experience if it's raining at the bottom of the garden it will be raining at the top too.

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16 minutes ago, laser_jock99 said:

Thinking outside the box- would it matter where the rain sensor was placed? In my experience if it's raining at the bottom of the garden it will be raining at the top too.

From someone in Wales?...... I was under the impression that if there is a thunderstorm in one place, then 400yds away it is glorious sunshine with no wind.

 

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20 minutes ago, laser_jock99 said:
On 4/6/2017 at 14:29, Skipper Billy said:

 

Thinking outside the box- would it matter where the rain sensor was placed? In my experience if it's raining at the bottom of the garden it will be raining at the top too.

Yes - but - it wont be raining in my study so the wire still has to come in from outside :happy7:

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15 hours ago, Skipper Billy said:

Yes - but - it wont be raining in my study so the wire still has to come in from outside :happy7:

In a parallel universe we weather watchers have wireless sensors.

Work a treat too, as long as you don't need to take the mast down just to fit another wodge of AAs.

This can cause localized precipitation. Don't ask me how I know. :cry:

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On 4/6/2017 at 15:12, glowjet said:

Skipper Billy, that is bad luck, If you ever see any of the GPO lads working in the street, have a bit of cheek and ask if they could possibly furnish you with ( at a price ) a length of their draw cord.  :)

Or some of the swept bends you cannot get anywhere else for your cables.

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11 hours ago, Rusted said:

In a parallel universe we weather watchers have wireless sensors.

Work a treat too, as long as you don't need to take the mast down just to fit another wodge of AAs.

This can cause localized precipitation. Don't ask me how I know. :cry:

I seem to remember owning one of those wireless 'weather stations' (Oregon Scientific I think). I had it data loging for about a year before the Welsh mountain weather destroyed the anemometer........

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 09/04/2017 at 11:45, Skipper Billy said:

Ready for 68mm conduit!

IMG_0319.JPG

I am about to build something very similar to your mini obsy design (1.6x1.6x2.0m clam shell roof), I was wondering if, with use, there is anything you would change about your design? Apart for the conduit that is :p

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12 hours ago, Adam J said:

I am about to build something very similar to your mini obsy design (1.6x1.6x2.0m clam shell roof), I was wondering if, with use, there is anything you would change about your design? Apart for the conduit that is :p

Nope - wouldn't change a thing.

Funnily enough we are talking about a potential house move in the next few years and I have been thinking about what I would change on MkII - nothing comes to mind ! (Apart from a bigger ducting!!)

I wouldnt go any smaller - even though I rarely have to get in to it there isnt much room to move around when the mount and scope are loaded up.

There are more photos here if that helps??

https://www.flickr.com/photos/113316085@N05/albums/72157663274320360

 

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