Wireless connection to Velleman K8055/VM110

[hughgilhespie]

Hi Steve,

Thanks for the kind words!

I know what you mean about chest infections. I am an ex-asthmatic and now have severe COPD. A self-inflicted wound really as I was a smoker for far too many years and I actually count myself lucky to be still going. Each cold I get has the potential to turn very nasty so it's fingers crossed for the winter!

You are getting a quick reply as I am playing around on the computer, being exiled from the living room whilst Strictly is on. 

Regards, Hugh

[sloz1664]

COPD must be awful, pray that the cold & flu viruses don't visit. I get very wary around people now, regarding passing their viruses onto me.

I'm afraid Strictly rules our Household as well, Hugh. But I get my own back with Match of the day.

Steve

[hughgilhespie]

Hi Steve,

A quick update. The PCBs I designed have now arrived and need assembling and testing. I am in the middle of some other stuff at present so it will be a few days before  I can get around to this.

Anyway, this is what the boards look like.

Regards, Hugh

[sloz1664]

Nice piece of work there Hugh. I'm about to start the project from my end, later than expected as unfortunately I live in the East Midlands and the excessive rain has flooded my Obsy. it's only by about 2" but it needed sorting out. 

Just a little worried that the deluge we have had today may flood the Obsy again. 

Steve

Edited November 14, 2019 by sloz1664

[hughgilhespie]

Hi Steve,

Sorry to hear about the flooding. This weather is something else! 

My Pulsar dome does let water in, particularly when its very windy - it comes in around the shutter then runs down to one specific area where it drips onto my computer keyboard. So I now have a fully automated observatory except that I need to take a keyboard to the obsy every time I want to use it. It also gets very wet under the rubber floor tiles so I have a routine of taking up the tiles every so often to allow the dehumidifier to dry out the floor.

Just some of the extra pleasure of astrophotography in the UK.

Regards, Hugh

[sloz1664]

My humidifier is on overtime at the moment 😱

Although I have never had an issue with leakage around the shutter.

Steve

[sloz1664]

Hi Hugh,

Will be finishing off the boards tomorrow. I'm sorry it's taken a while, through one thing or another, so hopefully be testing this week. I have acquired a completed spare velleman k8055 board from fleabay, so if you want to test your system I can send it to you for testing. I'm sure Pierre would send you the Levesdome software for test purposes.

Steve

[sloz1664]

Hi Hugh,

Completed the breakout boards and the Static Module using your detailed instructions. However, building the Moving Module I have come to a standstill. The Parts List, of which I have sourced all the required components does not list the six diodes required on the circuit board. The Parts List does however list various capacitors, which, do not appear to be used. You may think I'm being pedantic, but I'm not. I am merely proving the Instructions "to the letter" to ensure they are correct.

I'm also to blame for not picking this up earlier. BTW, what are the specifications of the diodes.

Kind regards

Steve 

[hughgilhespie]

Hi Steve,

I don’t have access to my computer at present so a detailed reply will have to come later. Glad to hear you are making progress and you are definitely not being pedantic. You are doing exactly the right thing in finding all the snags that I have missed.

One point though, AFAIK there is only one diode on the Moving module. That is the reverse polarity protection diode in the 12 volt input. I assume you are referring to the diodes on the trial relay board that I built and sent you the schematic and strip board layout for?

I wasn’t intending to make that board part of the magic wire project as I thought that people would probably be using one of the published designs on Pierre’s site. For info, when I built my relay board I used some 1N4007 diodes I had in laying around. I think any rectifier diode would be suitable with the proviso that it has a high reverse voltage tolerance so it isn’t destroyed by the transient voltages when the relay coils change state.

HTH. Keep up the good work and let me know all the problems you encounter.

Regards, Hugh

[hughgilhespie]

Hi Steve,

Finally have my computer back! I have -foolishly? - upgraded from Windows 7 Pro to 10 Pro. I saw this http://forum.mainsequencesoftware.com/t/sgpro-will-no-longer-support-windows-7-upgrade-for-free/10979 and recklessly decided to go for the free upgrade. It seems to have worked but only time will tell!

 

OK - Moving Module. In my write-up I missed out in saying that the diode used in the Moving Module is the Schottky diode that came with the EmbeddedCoolness parts kit. I used because it was there! Plus it is always nice to have reverse polarity protection.

The EmbeddedCoolness website has well and truly disappeared, so that route is now closed and I will redo the instructions based on using the PCBs I have designed. There is a Chinese company that will make 5 copies of both of the boards for $10.00. I don't know what the postage / courier costs are yet but it seems to be the way to go. I still haven't built and tested the boards I had made by Aisler but as soon as I do I will let you know. 

Thank you very much for your kind offer of the loan of a spare VM100 board. In return I would be happy to send you a spare pair of the Aisler PCBs. I have three of each, so it's no problem. There is are some minor changes to the components used on the PCBs, mainly due to my decision to source everything from DigiKey. If you would like them, send me a PM with your address and I'll get them in the post and also send you the revised schematics and the parts list. The main difference is that the Moving Module now will accept a two-way momentary action switch for manual opening and closing of the shutter. However, the software hasn't been updated for this function yet.

If you do choose to use my relay schematic, which works fine, then you will need to source relays with a contact rating suitable for the motor you intend to use. The relay coil must operate with a current less than 500 mA as this is the limit of the ULN2803 driver chip on the Moving Module.

Regards,

Hugh

[sloz1664]

Hi Hugh,

Funny you should mention upgrading to WIn 10 via the SGPro forum. I did exactly the same thing, with great trepidation and it also worked. Although I lost my Philips SP9000 camera I used to monitor the internals of the Obsy. 

Regards my previous post. The missing diodes are on this schematic:- RelayBoard3.pdf

Thanks for your kind offer, I will pm you with my details.

Steve

Edited November 22, 2019 by sloz1664

[hughgilhespie]

Hi Steve,

Windows 10 is still working..............

A shame that Microsoft are finally stopping support for Windows 7, it was IMHO their best ever. Still, if SGP recommend moving to Windows 10 and it's free, can't really argue.

Regards,

Hugh

[sloz1664]

Hi Hugh,

I was a staunch advocate of Win 7, but having Win 10 on my home computers and my image processing beast of a laptop I'm very impressed with how it has faired. Many Windows users are speaking highly of Win 10 and how it may surpass Win 7 in reliability and use. Time will tell though. Like yourself I have no issues with Win 10 on the Obsy pc, all my devices work, except the Philip's webcam. So no complaints... and I have tested rigorously.

Steve

[sloz1664]

Hi Hugh,

Boards now completed and ready for testing, hopefully tomorrow. I'll update after testing.

Steve

[hughgilhespie]

Hi Steve,

Well done!

But - I made a bad mistake! The DigiKey order I gave you was wrong. The 5 volt to 3.3 volt regulator I specified turned out to be a 1.2 volt output type, not the required 3.3 volts! I only spotted this this afternoon while I was soldering up my boards. I am very sorry about this, but you will have to remove the two regulators, part numbers MCP 1826S-1202E/AB-ND. I suggest just cutting through the legs and then unsoldering one leg at a time.

I have ordered the correct parts from RS (MCP 1826S-3302E/AB) and they should be with me on Monday - worst case Tuesday. I have ordered enough for both of us so as soon as I get them, I will put a couple in the post to you.

Once again my apologies for the cock up!

On a slightly more positive note, I have modified the code for the Moving module to work with the manual open/close switch. This is completely untested and is sure to need some debugging but at least it's done.

Regards, Hugh

[sloz1664]

Hi Hugh,

No problems, I'll desolder the regulators and thank you for your kind replacements. While I'm waiting I'll double check my Shutter circuit. Whilst I was building the two boards I decided to build the Velleman K8015 Relay Switch, this will be incorporated into the Obsy circuit as the deadman switch.

Steve

[hughgilhespie]

Hi Steve,

I have modified the Arduino code for the Magic Wire project so that it works with the PCB based project and in particular, allows the manual opening and closing of the shutter using a switch attached to the Moving Module. The code for both Static and Moving modules is attached.

The code is semi-tested but I would welcome all reports of bugs, problems, suggestions, etc.

Finally  - another boo-boo I made. The toggle switch I specified in the DigiKey parts list was meant to be a single pole, 3-position switch that had a momentary action. In fact the switch I ordered is a latching switch so you will have to manually operate and then return to the centre-off position. If the switch is left in either the open or close positions, it will stop the Lesvedome software from operating the shutter.

Regards, Hugh

MagicWireMOVING_1217b.ino MagicWireSTATIC_1216a.ino

[sloz1664]

Hi Hugh

, Thanks for the heads up on the arduino code update. The velleman layout I have has the manual switches incorporated. I'll try to test by the weekend, but with it being the Christmas period, anything can happen. If I need switches I'll order the correct switches. In fact, thinking about it, I'm sure I have some of the switches. I'm a kleptomaniac regarding electrical components

Steve

Edited December 17, 2019 by sloz1664

[sloz1664]

Hi Hugh,

Hardware all sorted now, but having problems with Arduino RF24.h. I've tried to verify the code and It cannot find the file or folder, although I have ensured all the required files are in the Arduino Library. Is there any preference for which RF24 driver software I should load?

Steve

[hughgilhespie]

Hi Steve,

Try these - I think they are the ones I am using. Let me know if they don't work and I will dig a bit deeper.

Regards, Hugh

Also 
**See http://tmrh20.github.io/RF24 for all documentation**

RF24.cpp RF24.h

Edited December 20, 2019 by hughgilhespie
Added more info

[hughgilhespie]

Hi Steve,

I have been out of action for a few days with some hospital stuff but I'm back at home and looking forward to making some progress.

My final tasks are to construct the PCB version of the static module then put everything together in it's final configuration for testing. This will include the K8055 board (many thanks), then the static module -----radio ---radio---moving module, my little relay/limit switch board and my mini-shutter hardware. All this will then be tested using the Lesvedome software running on my actual OTA computer with and without SGP. If that all works I will be delighted and I will then think about producing the final documentation for the project. 

Let me know how your system works out. It is interesting because you will be using without the Magic Wire manual switch - should be OK but it will be nice to be sure!!

Regards, Hugh

[sloz1664]

Hope you are better now Hugh. I will address the software loading tomorrow and hopefully test this weekend as well, but with Christmas fastly approaching visitor numbers seem to increase.....

Steve

[sloz1664]

Hi Hugh, still having issues with Arduino. I downloaded your files and added them into the Arduino Library folder, firstly within the src directory & when that didn't work I created a new dir RF24 and added the RF24 files, but still getting the "RF24.h file or directory not found"

Steve

[hughgilhespie]

Hi Steve,

Sorry the RF24 library is misbehaving. I am very far from an expert on how to include Arduino libraries and in fact I think it is all a right mess with appallingly bad documentation but what does work for me is as follows. 

If you follow the link I put in my first post yesterday then you get to a web page 'Optimized High Speed NRF24L01+ Driver Class Documentation. Under the heading 'Useful References' is one called Download. Click on this and you will download RF24-master.zip. Download this somewhere then do 'Show in Folder'. Select then 'Extract All'. This will give you a folder called RF24-master.

I then renamed the folder to RF24 and put it in my Arduino directory 'C:\Users\User\Documents\Arduino\libraries\RF24'

Then I opened the Arduino IDE and under Sketch / Include Libraries I can see RF24. I click on this to include it and it adds the following to my sketch

#include <nRF24L01.h>
#include <RF24.h>
#include <RF24_config.h>

Hopefully everything will now work!

Regards,

Hugh

[sloz1664]

That's sorted it. I cannot understand why the Arduino software doesn't want to look in the C:\arduino\library folder, but will look in your document file.

Steve