Hill Observatory
Equipment Link
m1OASYS Automated roof control added to make the observatory completely accessible remotely.
Roof Automation
Automation
of my roof is accomplished with the help of a heavy duty garage door opener,
cables, and chain. My opener was designed using some of the ideas
that
Chris
Vedeler shares on his web page, THANKS CHRIS! With the
opener's original gearing, the roof opened much too quickly (<8 seconds).
So, I scrounged some old bicycle gears, pillow blocks and a 5/8" shaft,
and fabricated a 2.5 to 1 reduction transmission. Now the roof rolls
smoothly, opening and closing in ~20 seconds.
The opener
is equipped with contacts to stop the roof in the open/close
positions (red boxed area and insert in lower right corner).
Basically, there are two cams that activate contact switches when the desired
location of the roof is reached.
