Electronics and the cold: a discovery.

[ollypenrice]

The small robotic shed I host for a group of Italian imagers has been failing to close on very cold nights. It gets half way then gives up. We initially suspected some physical impediment but the roof always seemed to roll as sweetly as ever. Being an engineer by profession Antonio suggested that the relay box might be affected by sub zero temperatures. (It's a garage roof opening system we use.) Being an improvisor by profession  I dug up a metal 'Petnap' 8 Watt heated panel, bent it to fit over the relay box, glued some insulation over the outside of the heater and placed it over the box. Last night the thing worked perfectly for the first time since the cold came.

This might be useful to others finding electronics misbehaving in their observatories.

A dewheater tape would probably be easier but I didn't have a spare one and the Christmas post discourages ordering at this time!

Olly

 

 

[pete_l]

Heh, heh. Don't forget to remove the heater before the summer comes around!

But it's a good point. We do tend to assume that "domestic" rated gear will work in an observatory. But conditions there (extremes of temperature, humidity) can void those assumptions.

[Macavity]

A lot of things "give up the ghost" in low(er) temperatures. 
As one of the more "obvious" Batteries  of sundy ilk...
If my weather station stops "reporting", I know it's "cold"!

As someone who places some reliance of "secondary"
(rechargeable) batteries, perhaps worth anticipating?    

[MarkyD]

Have you tried one of these with a frost stat

Tubular Heater

[Macavity]

FANS seem to be the other things that "die" in the cold.
Ironic when they might be essential *cooling*  for stuff...

[PeterCPC]

My wireless mouse also gives up in the cold. It will usually last just long enough to get the initial set up done and Teamviewer up and running but not when it's really cold.

Peter

[mwayne]

The failure was due to solid state components not being able to deal with the cold, or something else? A picture of your improvisation would be great. Thanks!

[iwols]

On 24/12/2017 at 10:11, MarkyD said:

Have you tried one of these with a frost stat

Tubular Heater

+1 for these types of heaters

[Merlin66]

Doggie blanket to the rescue.....