The way I am configuring/controling my setup is to have an RPi or similar (Odroid XU4) to control the observatory (roof/dome, weather, watchdog, flip flat), and an Odroid on the telescope, to control the mount and instrumentation. Everything being controlled remotely from a laptop or PC. I am far from being ready but I am getting there slowly, indiserver scripts are working, everything connects, had some issues between roof and dome parking but scheduler and watchdog should sort all that up, etc... Will keep you posted.

Started work on the RG-11 implementation after my device arrived today - starting with the firmware before moving onto the drivers. It seems that for our purposes we don't really need a rain bucket - we simply need to know if it's raining and a monostable output once rain is detected to stop the switch bouncing which the RG-11 does nicely - the only catch is that it like to see 12V.

Now I am *NOT* a programmer and literally learned all I know about Arduino in the last 5 days so bear with me - I've implemented most of the changes in rg11.h which is now producing JSON output which is a start - BUT I am not having a lot fo luck reading gate pins on the HUZZAH Feather I am using.

The problem is that it's not detecting me pulling the pin to ground OR me pulling it high - the few times is has changed state I can't work out why. Wondering if anyone can shed some light.

---- rg11.h ----
// RG11 state (closed = raining, open = dry)
struct {
bool status;
bool isRain;
} RainData;

volatile int current = 0;
volatile int last = 0;

void reset(unsigned long time) {
current = 0;
}

void initRG11() {
pinMode(RG11_PIN, INPUT_PULLUP);
RainData.status = true;
reset(millis());
}

void readRain() {
// grab the current state of the button.
// we have to flip the logic because we are
// using INPUT_PULLUP.
RainData.status = true;

current=0;

if(digitalRead(RG11_PIN) != HIGH)
current = 0;
else
current = 1;

RainData.isRain = current;

reset(millis());
}

void serializeRain(JsonDocument &doc) {

JsonObject data = doc.createNestedObject("RG-11");
data["init"] = RainData.status;

if (RainData.status) {
data["Rain"] = RainData.isRain;
}
}
"

From what I have read on the RG-11, you likely need a pull-up resistor at the RG11_PIN input of the HUZZAH. A 4.7k or 10k resistor connected to the HUZZAH 3.3 volt supply may be all that's needed, even though you specified INPUT_PULLUP with pinMode (internal pull-up may be too weak). The other output pin of the RG-11 would go to ground so, either the signal would float high with the pull-up, or would be brought to ground.

The other thing I noticed is that 'RG11_PIN' does not seem to be defined in rg11.h. It may be defined elsewhere but it's not clear.

Thanks for the input - yes, the constants are defined in config.h per Wolgang's original. I'm not actually testing using the RG-11 just yet, thought I would get my logic and programming right on the desk before I move to the actual unit - the RG-11 works by closing a relay when rain is detected so it's a pretty simple "switch" - which I am planning on running in an NO configuration - closing on rain - but do you think I can get my code to work reliably? Not sure if it's an electrical thing or a programming thing or both!

I figured it out! I forgot that teh weatherradio firmware has a delay between changes in state and reporting it and of course I was looking for short term changes - silly me!

I've adjusted the code - I'll spend a little time tidying it up and documenting it and then send to Wolfgang for testing/regression before embarking on the driver itself.

Looking forward to knowing that the contents of my dome remains dry!

Hi Wolfgang,

can you please point me to a manual or information how to use you weatherradio driver?
How can I use my own weather station with this service? I can not find any description.

Thank you

Gunter

Gunter - it's a pretty straight forward driver in that it talks to Wolfgang's custom made Arduino firmware that presents uncallbratied sensors data that you can then fine tune within the driver control panel.

Simplistically that would mean your weather station would need to change how it format its output - probably easier to go through Weather Proxy

The documentation is here: github.com/sterne-jaeger/indi-3rdparty/b...adme-WeatherRadio.md

HTH
Wolfgang

Vielen Dank.

Hi Wolfgang,

what do you think about a rain sensor to incorporate? What would be the efford ?

I already have it on my list - a RG11 would be the sensor of choice. Since it comes from US, customs for a single sensor is quite high. But if we order two or three of them, that would be a fine idea.

The effort is not that high, we simply need to write a dedicated header file with reading the sensor and translating the data into JSON. But that's straight forward with an Arduino.

Wolfgang

Sounds good to me. Order of two is just 59 bugs. But for now mayby the cheep alternative from the raspi shop could work or not?