Contains:  Gear
Moving closer to a proper AP rig housing..., John Renaud

Moving closer to a proper AP rig housing...

Description

After threatening to do so for over a year, I finally installed a wooden deck around the mount in the backyard a few weeks ago. The next likely step is to build a structure w/removable roof on the deck... although it may take another year for that to actually happen, lol!

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Description: OTA enclosure right side - attachment points for USB and 2x12V (one for dew heater and one for powered USB hub)

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Description: OTA enclosure left side - attachment point for focus stepper motor

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Description: OTA enclosure inside - rats nes-, err, collection of wires for USB hub, focus controller, power connections and dew heater controller

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Description: Pier enclosure left side - attachment points for 2x12V (from batteries) and 2xUSB (from PC)

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Description: Pier enclosure inside

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Description: Sky/mount camera, mounted on PVC frame (which will probably be reworked at some point with a wood version or something)

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Description: The mount's roommate on the pier, Charlotte. She pretty much keeps to herself and does a decent job of keeping the small riff raff under control.

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Description: Sherbet-enabled desiccant cap - it turns out that a half gallon sherbet container fits almost exactly in the space between the objective and the cap, making a convenient and hopefully effective 'inside the cap dehumidifier' following image sessions.

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Description: View of the 'sherbet solution' inside the OTA - fits flat with the cap on.

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Description: Replaced sagging pvc "tray/platform thing" that was strapped onto the pier with slightly more robust version attached to the deck.

Added a solar shade material to the deck that I hope will serve two purposes: (1) make it more difficult for would-be vegetation under the deck to get sunlight (growing season is coming, ugh); and (2) help avoid the scenario in which I clumsily drop a small part on the deck and never see it again. Also cleaned up some cable runs.

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Description: A peek inside "the cart", which is a custom carrier for the other half of my imaging rig. On the top shelf are the imaging pc, usb monitor (only used for things like polar alignment, flats, updates, etc) and a hawking wifi adapter that facilitates a nice strong signal to the house network. On the bottom shelf are two 70 amp hour deep cycle batteries, two chargers and a pwrcheck module that allows me to monitor battery state remotely.

The cart is partially framed with iron pipe, which makes it easy to create grips/rails for pushing and pulling the cart. A pvc frame on the top creates a ventilation space for the pc. A sail material is used to cover the entire cart , mainly to keep dew off everything in the cart during an imaging session. The cover uses magnetic strips on either end to attach to the iron pipe frame at the bottom, making detachment and reattachment trivial.

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Description: Closer look at the imaging pc, which was a $400 aliexpress gamble that paid off nicely. Decent spec, tons of USB ports (more on the back), industrial form factor, no problems whatsoever for the year or so that I've been using it so far.

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Q

Description: Closer look at the battery/charger shelf. Both batteries are housed in modified battery holders that each have on/off switch, voltage display, fuse and powerpole connection block. The battery with the blue switch is primarily used for the dew heaters while the red switch battery is used for everything else.

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Description: Closer look at the magnetic strip that's used for attaching the cover to the cart. The magnetic strip used is a common item sold at Lowes/Home Depot to hang metal tools (like screwdrivers, for example) on.

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Description: Now that the pvc "tray/platform thing" has sides and sits up an inch or two higher than the old version, I'm able to pull the drawstring on the cover a little more tightly, which helps keep the cover in place at the bottom (which isn't really/hasn't been a problem but, hey, every bit helps!).

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Moving closer to a proper AP rig housing..., John Renaud