Building an observatory. Construction #74

Progress is still slow whilst I wait for more bits and pieces to arrive.

I’ve ordered an HP EliteDesk Mini to try out as a “pier-top” machine and weatherproof boxes for each pier which will contain most of the electrical stuff on each.

Weatherproof ABS boxes are relatively easy to find as long as you want solid doors, but because it’s sometimes reassuring to be able to see inside I was looking for ones with clear doors. The only source I found for boxes a convenient size for my pier was on Ebay. They’ve not arrived yet however.

I’ve also been running cabling from each pier to the warm room. I have three runs of 2.5mm “twin and earth” to each pier, the thinking being that I can either use two runs for the 12V supply and the other for a 240V spur, or the other way around with a 240V ring. The cable should be ok for up to 25A and I really can’t imagine I’ll be needing that for either.

Some data cables are also in place, too. From the two mounts furthest from the warm room I’ve pulled through a 5m HDMI cable, followed by a 5m USB2 cable, and then two lengths of cat5e (somewhat longer, to allow me to decide where the hub is going to go later). I’ve not done the last pier yet because I’ve been waiting for a shorter HDMI cable to arrive and I’m pulling them through in order of size of the plugs in the hope that will be the easiest way to do it. That last cable has in fact now arrived, but the weather has been so unpleasant here over the last twenty-four hours that I’ve not felt like going out and finishing off.

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