This would of cource depend on the orientation of the scope when unparking.
I park my scope at alt +1, so a counterweight would not work when unparking the cap at that position.

However... You could add a spring to the equation. Fasten it so the spring is slightly tensioned when the lid is at it heaviest. This might cause the lid to not stay completely closed when the servo is not powered, so possibly not a god idea? Ebay id for some springs 281291676039

That sping is a good idea, nevertheless I had to exchange my payback coupons so I decided for a new servo.
Today I recieved the ds6020mg, normal sized an MONSTER power of 95Ncm@4.8V.

Another point for a new servo was the concern that the cap might not close completely
(in the meaning of an scope thats always outside in my telescope box, dust/pollen/wind).
I maybe want to put the first small servo on the opposite side of the cap to tighten the
cap somehow when the cap is in parked position because I doubt the sealing strength by
just one servo.

I make some progress. The cap itself is finished so that the EL-Foil is now attached to it. It opens now fully thanks to the new stronger servo.

I found out the new servo motor sucks about 0.1A maximum additional power from my system when its opened but I get
a little headache on how to get the cap really good (light/dust) sealed when its closed. I will try to use some very soft black
ring cutted foam.


While trying to get the INDI WiringPi GPIO working for the EL-Foil relay I encountered a problem with the
INDI ServoBlaster Cap driver:

@Magnus_e
In the ServoBlaster Cap --> Calibrate Tab --> set flat light device Number I can only set a number from 0 to 9, but I would need WiringPi PIN 11 because I occupied allmost all other pins on my RPi2.
Can I simply change the line 124 in servoblaster_cap.cpp
from:to?

Hi.
Nice to see you are making sutch good progress

The fix you suggest to access pin 11 should work if I remember correctly. The limit 0-9 was set so I did not nedd any special handeling if USBRelay2 Roof driver was used for lightswitch (it only supports 10 relays)

One more fix you can do while re compiling is to comment out these linesfrom the function
I was not expecting someone to make such a nice cap with buildt in light, so I disabeled turning on the light when cap is parked. I will push a update in a few days, so you don't have to keep a custom version.

When it comes to keeping closed 'm going to try adding a neodyne magnet to the back of the lid, and mount one on the scope side that I can adjust how close it is. Mount it so that it has the strongest force that the servo opens. You can get these magnets cheap as simple fridge magnets.

The code change worked, I can now switch the flatfield in the ServoCap Tab on and off .

Nice idea with that magnets and by sheer coincidence I left some on my fridge, I will try that.

Getting closer... There was no way for me to get the cap really good closed without that magnet trick. Because of my sloppy drilling for the caps main hinge there is a lot of slackness. I had to make some kind of "guide clip" for the magnet so that they really meet together at their middle. Those tiny magnets have a lot of force but only if they are really close and centered.

Now the cap closes quite good and the motor has enough force to devide the two magnets



After proper rewiring everything I hopefully can do some real tests outside when the scope is back on the mount.
I fear a little bit the flatfield cables might interfere other cables because of its 1kHz@100V power. No idea how this might influence the servo pwm. I also consider a complete rewiring because with the servo and the flatfield I have 5 new cables, one more step down converter and a low/high converter for the flatfields relay (because its active-low). Its getting really messy in my box

I consider to etch a new pcb and put everything possible on it but only if outside test were successful.

Hi,

when i try to connect the ServoBlaster Cap in the INDI Control Panel I get the following error-message:

[ERROR] ServoBlaster Cap is offline, did not initialize. Service servod not running

Anyone have a idea what can I do?

Best regards
Markus

Sorry for my bad english

Is the servod service or the servod binary running on your machine that is connected to the servo?
Isexistent?
Can you talk to the servo for example via?

Post 1

Well,now that I received my first 3d printer from far east I can give a short update of my (never-ending) dustcover project.
I decided to print some of the stability related parts in PLA with my new printer because some parts started to fall of from
that wooden-glued construction under that "harsh" outside conditions...

So I dived a little bit into freecad and things seemed to come out perfectly fitting.






But once everything was connected I noticed that there is something wrong.

Post 2


If I unpark the cap it opens only as much as it does not cover the field of view.
The servo already runs from min to max (90ms/210ms) and of cause I set both open/close to 100% in the calibration tab.



Even with that "on the edge" settings it is not able to fully close. Unfortunately I am not a mechanics genius and I
currently don't really know where to start to optimize...
Maybe I should make that angle longer that holds the flatfield.



There are currently more questions that answers swirling through my mind

The second issue is that either wrong storage or glueing the angle to the flatfield bent
the whole flatfield acrylic plate a bit outside so that it cannot really close anymore, that's not acceptable
for stationary outside conditions. I think I will either glue a new acrylic plate only on some points or I will
exchange the whole thing by aluminium (0,5 or 1 mm).




If someone has and instant idea what I should change to make that dustcap easily open/close feel free to divulge

EDIT: I will give freecad's animation simulation a try, maybe I can figure out how to get it work proper.

Hi Pauledd,
the servod isn't running. How can I do this? There nothing stand in the tutorial.

Markus

Hi. In the tutorial point 5.2 explanes how to install servoblaster
@Pauledd.

In the youtube video, it looks like you are not using all of the servos travel? perhaps around 80 or 70%?
It looks like you stop the servo travel early at the closed position, so the servo horn does not hit the hinge?

Try using the outer hole for the servo to cap link that you have made. Then reposition the anodized servo horn so it can close the lid with some force, and without extencive binding. It's ok if it slightly binds.

On the picture with the mounting point for the lid, with the circle and question mark.
If you want the lid to have more range. (Now it opens and closes 90 degrees). Then you can make the mount point closer to the pivit point.

If you visualize the circumference of the circle made by the center / pivit point, and the linkage mount point. Then a large circle has the most tourqe, and a smaller circle will have more speed, and in ths case a greater range. (The circumference will be shorter, and the servo will still move the linkage the same length, so the lid will be rotated further around the pivit point).

Hope this makes sense. It's a cool project, and I'm envious of the built in flatlight.
I think next summers upgrades for me will be finnaly mounting the wall mounted flat light