Home

Up

Kingsland Roof Controller

Software-y-Ddraig is very proud to have been selected by Space Exploration Limited to produce a controller and software drivers for their observatory in the Republic of Ireland. This technology is now available for sale to private individuals who wish to construct a roll-off roof and automate it. The roof controller is named after Kingsland Observatory, where it was first installed and commissioned.

The controller has been designed in such a way that it is quite flexible and would be suitable for a variety of different roof control applications.

ASCOM Compatible

The Kingsland roof controller comes with an ASCOM driver that models the roof as a dome shutter. While this may seem a bit strange at first, the ASCOM Dome standard was drafted with this exact scenario in mind, so it actually works really well in practice. The driver has been tested with ACP 4.1 and POTH. This allows the controller to be used either as part of an observatory automation suite or scripted from common scripting languages such as VBScript, JavaScript and any COM-compatible scripting host.

Relay Outputs

The controller has four relays, each of which can switch DC or AC up to 220V at 10A. Each relay has connections to the common, normally open and normally closed terminals. The four relays are utilised as follows:

1. Open
2. Close
3. Status. Activated when the roof is open - could be used for example as a safety interlock or to switch on power to the telescope - useful for preventing telescope movement when the roof is closed.
4. Spare (reserved for future enhancement).

Inputs

The controller has several inputs which allow various conditions to be monitored and detected. All of the inputs are optional and are easily configured in software:

1. Current Detect / Motor Operating (current detect circuitry not included)
2. Open limit switch
3. Close limit switch
4. Safety Interlock

Each input may be configured as Installed or Not Installed. In the simplest configuration, none of the inputs are installed and the controller activates the motor relays for a preset (configurable) time interval. This scenario is appropriate when a device such as a garage door opener is used, which has autonomy over the roof motor.

The second scenario requires a pair of limit switches, one to detect when the roof is open and another to detect when it is closed. The limit switches could be reed relays and magents or microswitches. In this configuration, the motor relays are activated until the limit switch is operated (or until the safety timeout is exceeded).

A third scenario is where limit switches are used that directly cut the power to the roof motor when the end of travel is reached. This is a more fail-safe arrangement but the controller's inputs are logic level and cannot directly detect mains voltages, so in this scenario the limit switches cannot be directly connected to the controller. A current detection circuit can be used to monitor the motor activity and allows the controller to detect when the motor has stopped.

The most complex scenario combines the limit switches and current detector together, so that the controller can detect if the roof motion has stopped prematurely for some reason.

Finally, an optional safety interlock input can be used to inhibit roof motion when a signal is present. This signal could (for example) be supplied by a telescope control system that inhibits roof motion until the telescope is safely parked.

In each case, the sense of the input signal is configurable.

System Requirements

The ASCOM Driver has the following system requirements:

• Windows 2000 or Windows XP
• Microsoft .net Framework 2.0 or later

Please note, older windows systems (e.g. 98, 98SE, ME) are NOT SUPPORTED and the driver will not install.