Help! Bus coupler for telescope safety control

Hi Guys,

I have a telescope with a Normally Open and Normally Closed outputs. These are set / unset when the telescope is in a parked position allowing the roof of the observatory to be safely closed by my automation system.

I have a bus coupler (new version with bistable) that I would like to detect the NO / NC state.

I have been playing with on/off and bell push etc but cannot get the coupler to reliably give me what I want. That is the CBUS group always lets you know the state of the telescope.

Group ON = parked
Group OFF = unparked

or vice versa is fine also.

Any help much appreciated. I would also like it to work after a power failure if possible!

Thanks
Chris

 

What you are after should be straightforward with the bus coupler.

Select 'bistable' mode for the switch input you are using under the key functions tab in the advanced view of Toolkit.

Next, select the function you want for the 'key' your switch contacts are connected to as either 'ON/OFF', or 'OFF/ON', depending on your requirements. Select also a group to control for that 'key'. This should get you going.

If you also have a C-Bus output device on the network responding to the same group, the output device usually defines the state when recovering from any loss of power. In the event that you don't have any output device to establish the state on power recovery, the bus coupler includes a feature to broadcast the group state corresponding to the switch contact state at the time power was recovered. To enable this feature, go to the Power Fail tab and ensure that the group you are controlling has a tick for 'Broadcast Values on Power-up', and that the 'Restore to Previous Levels' is also selected.

This should result in reliable recovery of the group state corresponding to the switch state after power interruptions. The broadcast will take about 20-60 seconds to complete, so if you are testing, please be patient or you might conclude that things are not set up right.

Why the long delay before broadcasting group states? The reason is that you might have a large installation with a lot of bus couplers configured this way, and the resulting burst of communication after power-up has to be regulated to prevent lost messages. Units with low numerical value unit addresses get the chance to broadcast first, so you can control the delay to some degree if you want.

 

Thanks for the excellent reply! I will give it a go today. I am sure i have a couple of spare relay channels i can use to keep state.

Will let you know how it goes.

Cheers
Chris

 

Logic groups - not sure I have come across those (or ever used them) - something inside the wiser - or something introduced recently ?

I have maybe 50 odd units now - imagine I have some somewhere!

Ta
Chris

 

Thanks Nick, you just fixed my Wind and Rain detector issue with your Broadcast suggestion...

Ingo