9 replies to this topic

[techmgr]

Let me start by saying I'm almost an illiterate when it comes to electronics. That said, here's my situation.

 

I'd like to be able to control the opening and closing of my ROR roof from inside my house.  I have mount control, imaging control, and other needs already able to be done from the house, but I'd like to be able to close the roof at the end of my imaging sessions.  That's the only thing I cannot do from the house.  I know - this makes me pretty lazy, but so be it. At 71 years old, cut me some slack!!  Here is a pic of my roof motor setup - it's just a motor with a toggle switch controller to move the roof forward and backward, and there are limit switches at full open and full close. I have power and network connection to the ROR, and I have a security camera that can see the roof as it closes.

 

Does anyone have some suggestions on what the simplest way to accomplish being able to close the roof from the house might be?? TIA for any help you can provide.

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[bobzeq25]

Eagerly awaiting answers.  Storebought roof controllers are $$$.

[wenzl4007]

That looks like the motor from Backyard Observatories and they do have a remote solution for you.  I don't know but I think you will have to have the motor modified to work with their soultions.

Bob

[techmgr]

That looks like the motor from Backyard Observatories and they do have a remote solution for you.  I don't know but I think you will have to have the motor modified to work with their soultions.

Bob

I'm familiar with their m1OASYS system, but that is major overkill for what I'm looking for.  All I want to be able to do is close the roof - not tied in to the mount, the all-sky cam, or anything else.

[techmgr]

Curious if something like this would work.

 

https://www.controlbyweb.com/webrelay/

[iwannabswiss]

If your setup used sensors to detect the open and close position to stop the motor, I'd may have a solution for you.

[Phil Sherman]

You can do this remotely but will need to buy some gear and manufacture a remote control box to run the roof. You'll need a "Web Power Switch" which will give you remote control over relays. The box you'll need to build will contain two 12V (coil voltage) relays that can handle the current that flows through the existing motor control switch. One relay is used as a parallel connection to each side of the switch so that when the relay is closed, it appears as if the switch was pressed.

 

It's possible that your motor control system already uses relays to control the motor. If this is the case, you'll just need to figure out how to activate the appropriate relay to move the roof in the desired direction.

 

The web power switch uses a web browser interface to control the relays in the switch. You can access it using any web browser.

[DMRandall]

For my observatory, I use a Raspberry Pi (RPi 3B) and a relay to control the roof Open/Close button.  The relay (listed below) is triggered from two wires connected to the Raspberry Pi.  There is a small shell script that I run which activates the relay.  You can run the shell script by connecting directly to the RPi and running the script, or by opening a remote SSH shell from Windows to the RPi and running the script.  Total cost is about $70, a little less if you don't want the case and have a Micro USB power supply already that you can re-use for the RPi.  Diagram and script here: https://thundercreek...ay-diagram.jpg 

 

Dave

 

https://www.amazon.c...01298739&sr=8-6

 

https://www.amazon.c...01298839&sr=8-4

Edited by DMRandall, 28 September 2020 - 08:57 AM.

[njrusty]

Really Cheap!!  I use an x10 power plug that I can control from my remote PC (it connects to PC through and X10 Home Controller (USB)).  My roof is based on a garage door opener which its rails are mounted to my observatory (upside down).  When I want to open the roof, I use a remote or open via the PC (X10).  Been running for 10 years with no issues.

[Raginar]

I used a AstroMC.  It's a pain, but once you have it running super effective.  There are some other ones out there.  Usually you need relays too.  You could use a web relay setup too as long as your sensors are wired into the setup.

 

The big thing is to make sure your scope can't be hit.  Make sure you have sensors like that.