Ad Astra Observatory

When we last left the dome automation project, the azimuth encoders were fried. I had a working circuit on the breadboard. I wired the cable rolled from the original, and soldered it together. A quick test showed it worked with the new encoders in place on the assembly, so I glued them in place.I need to coat the wiring with something more permanent, but I wanted to see the thing work. I reinstalled the encoder, hooked up the trusty test circuit, and the Jr. Astronomer was the first one to give it a test. Blinky, Blinky, right on cue. Nice!

I next wanted a cable, hopefully all the way back to the Dome Controller (the K8055, but that’s another show). I wanted to pick up the Home Switch on the way back, which leads me to want a box sitting at the Home switch, then I can convert the encoder’s 4-pin RJ11 to a full 6-pin RJ12 (and use one of the unused, outer pins for the Home Switch).

I had picked up a handful of RJ Keystone jacks, so I worked out the various wiring, and ended up with encoder-jack-terminal strip-jack-test circuit. With a quick test, the dome now has an azimuth encoder! I tried to hook up the home switch, too, but that is, apparently, another show as well.

I also measured and test-fit the shutter limit switch cables. They both work fine, although I had to move the magnet for the upper limit switch a bit. I need to install the cable more permanently, but the test-fit was nice. I will label and uninstall these, until I can find a way to attach them. Sugru comes to mind, but mine was apparently expired. 🙁

Even if they were installed, I still need to figure out how to relay the switch states to the dome controller, because the whole shutter goes dark when the shutter is not at home (and there is no data interface, even at home, only power). I am leaning toward XBee and/or Arduino. But that is for v2.0.

Next step is to get the home switch working. Then I hook up the controller.