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Remote Computer Automation
One of the major design decisions we made early on was that observatory be capable of complete remote control via any computer that is on the home network. This included all of the lighting, select power sockets, the observatory computer, the dome, the telescopes, the imaging devices, the telescope focusers, and the air conditioning unit.
Computer Network (LAN)
Currently we are running on a hardwired CAT5 100BaseT network, but we are considering ugrading this to a Gigabyte network. In order to create network connectivity in the observatory we have laid down underground PVC pipes, conforming to North Carolina building code. These have been run between the observatory and the bonus room above the new garage, the observatory and the basement of the house, between the basement of the house and the bonus room above the new garage and finally between the bonus room above the new garage and the workshop. This should ensure that no network cable that is run is longer than 100 feet in length and will allow all buildings on our property, (house, external garage, observatory and workshop), have the capability to be hooked onto the computer network. In addition to this the network is set up for shared internet access via DSL, this automaitcally gives all computers that are on the network 24/7 high speed internet access.
Keeping An Eye On Things
One of our main concerns during the design stage with a remote controlled observatory was not being able to see the mount and telescope at the point that it slews to a new position. Initially we planned on installing a CCTV system but that would have involved a lot of additional cables being run between all of the buildings, in addition to that additional equipment would also be necessary to allow the video feed to be seen from multiple locations. We then looked at cameras that would run over the existing computer network and found the Panasonic KX-HCM10 which has a pan/tilt feature, it hooks direct into a port on the network hub/switch and generates a very good quality video image in real time at around 15 fps. We have two of these cameras that will be set up opposite each other to give us a full 360 degree coverage of the inside of the observatory where all of the telescopes will be located. The cameras do not have a zoom or low light capability, but given the size of the observatory the zoom feature is not that critical. As for the lack of low light capability, that has been solved by being able to control the lights inside of the observatory via the computer, see the section below on X10 Controllers.
Telescope & Imaging Systems
Control of the telescopes and the imaging systems is fairly simple to achieve once the observatory computer is hooked up to the network. The computer in the observatory is a Dell blah, dual 950MHz pentium III running Windows XP Professional. This allows any computer on the network to take control of it using the Windows XP Remote Desktop functionality. We personally find the performance using this feature is far superior to that of using PC Anywhere.
Both of the telescopes, (Takahashi FCT-150 and FSQ-106N) have RoboFocus units attached to them with built in automatic temperature compensation, this allows remote automatic focusing via FocusMax. Control of the CCD systems is done through either MaximDL CCD v3.08 or Software Bisque's CCDSoft v5. The telescopes GOTO feature is controlled by Software Bisque's The Sky Level IV which also makes use of Software Bisque's TPoint and Orchestrate, used to improve pointing accurracy and aid in telescope control/scripting respectively.
The Dome
When we initially researched domes for the observatory we went in knowing that which ever dome was choosen it would have to have a built in control system allowing it to be controlled by a computer with a manual override. Another consideration was a dome control system that worked seamlessly with the software that we already have, i.e The Sky. We also wanted complete automation, not just dome rotation but also power operated doors. We eventually settled on a 4 meter Observa-Dome for a number of key reasons. The main reasons being that their domes are constructed of aluminium, the base ring that the dome sits on is made of metal not wood, the doors split apart opening horizontally as opposed to an up and over design, and the local university has a couple already installed. In terms of the control system, Meridian Controls are now working in partnership with Observa-Dome which now allows Observa-Dome to install Meridian Control systems directly into the their domes whilst the dome is being fabricated at their factory. The dome, through the Meridian Control system can be controlled manually by a set of Paddles, (a box with push buttons), or via software, in this case The Sky, which uses Meridian's Dome Control software and Software Bisque's Automata Dome transparently in the background. As far as we are concerned, it appears that TheSky controls the telescope's GOTO system and the dome follows seamlessly with no extra interaction.
X10 Controllers
The final piece in the automation puzzle once the telescope, dome and imaging systems were under control was to find a way to control the observatory lights, power sockets and air conditioning unit. This has been done by using X10 controllers that allow signals to be sent over household electrical wiring to control devices like light switches, power sockets etc.. To do this we are using a device known as a 'Firecracker' unit which connects to the serial port of the computer in the observatory. This unit, through software control sends out a radio signal that is picked up up by a X10 wireless tranceiver module that is plugged into an electrical outlet. Once the transceiver picks up the signal it converts it into an X10 command signal which is passed onto the electrical wiring which is then picked up by other X10 devices on that circuit, hence allowing remote control of the devices. Each device, i.e light switch, has 2 control dials built into them, one allows you to select a 'house code' which is a letter from A to P, the other is for a device number number which is from 1-16. This allows you to set each device to a unique signal, in the case of our observatory lights we have set the red lights to 'O1', the white lights to 'O2' and the outside floodlights to 'O3'. With the lights each having an assign 'control code' we can use the software to send out a signal via the 'Firecracker' unit to turn all devices on the 'O' house code 'on', which would then turn on all of the lights, in this case 'O1, O2 and O3'. You can also control them individually, i.e turn on 'O1' only. The same is true of X10 power outlets which replace your conventional power outlets which can then be turned on and off by the computer or any X10 controlling device.
With the power outlets and lighting now fully under control all that remained was the air conditioning unit. We wanted a way to be able to control the air conditioner in the same way as we did with the lights and power outlets. Just introducing a X10 thermostat would not be sufficient as that would still require us to manually check and monitor the thermostats temperature, whilst the setting of the thermostat would be remotely controllable it would still not be completely automated. What we wanted was to be able to allow the thermostat to pickup the outside temperature every 15-30 minutes and automatically set the thermostat to match. One way to do this would have been to write a small piece of software to poll an internet weather source for our zip-code, but that is prone to inaccuracies. Instead we elected to install a remote wireless weather station which has a plug-in for our X10 software, in our case HomeSeer. HomeSeer reads the temperature from the weather station which is then broadcast to the thermostat to regulate the internal observatory temperature to the outside temperature.
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