Month: July 2019

My astronomy buddy Peter and I have similar roll-off roof observatories.  While we can control the mount and camera from inside our homes, we have to be in the observatory to open or close the roof.  We decided it was time to automate roof control.  "IoT", here we come.

Instead of buying a commercial controller we took the challenge of designing and building our own!  The heart of the controller is an Adafruit ESP32-based Feather module.  It will interface to relays and sensors, and connect to the internet to allow us to control it via our cell phone, tablet or computer wherever we are.  The basic version of it is up and running!  Here's what it looks like so far.

For several years now Dottie has been creating artistic and functional mosaic objects.  That includes things like wall hangings, decorative balls and trivets.  Several people have asked where they can see some of her creations and she's decided it's time to create a web page as a showcase vehicle.  Jump over to Designs by Dottie and take a look!