This is a complete weather monitoring system that comprises
Lunatico AAG Cloudwatcher Sensor and Solo Standalone computer at a special price
Cloudwatcher
The AAG CloudWatcher is a complete weather detection system and comprises:
A box with a special exterior finish that includes 4 sensors that are shown in the accompanying AAG Cloudwatcher Software through their corresponding graphs. They allow a thorough and easily understandable measurement of atmospheric conditions:PLEASE NOTE! The photos of the Cloudwatcher give the impression of poor finish around the sensors. This is misleading. These sensors are heavily protected with sealants to ensure long life and consistant operation is all weather conditions
Cloud sensor
Rain sensor
Light sensor
Temperature sensor
and the optional Anemometer for wind speed.
Supplied with the Cloudwatcher is a weatherproof cable with IP68 connector. This is used to connect the AAG Cloudwatcher to your PC (or standalone 'Solo' Cloudwatcher computer), 12V/1A Power source and a relay.
The Cloudwatcher software allows you to setup your own parameters for what constitutes an unsafe condition. When this condition is met the Cloudwatcher software will notify relevant imaging applications with safety monitors. These in turn will perform required safety actions. The standalone Solo Cloudwatcher computer allows monitoring of the Cloudwatcher without requiring the main PC to be turned on. However when it is, the PC can monitor the Cloudwatcher as if the software were running on it natively. A further notification of unsafe conditions comes with the Cloudwatchers relay output which is closed when the unsafe condition is met. If this is connected to devices such as a Lunatico Dragonfly or Talon Observatory system, various fucntions can be carried out. The Dragonfly can activate other relays based on the signal (it could for instance loop through to the Talon) and also run scripts to perform functions within applications such as warming up a CCD camera before shutting it down.
For any kind of unattended imaging whether it is an observatory at the end of your garden or a remote system at a place like E-Eye, the cloudwatcher is an essential piece of equipment.
Solo
Solo is a tiny computer customized to control your Cloudwatcher system 7 days a week 24 hours a day.
It features the following;
It has very low power requirements of less than 2W. It is ideal for remote observatories having an integrated web server, so you can check your observatory's weather from any part of the world. The information read from the AAG Cloudwatcher is made available to any computer on the same network, so you can use the Cloudwatcher application that is on your imaging PC 'Remote' mode, to listen to the Cloudwatcher status that is fed to the Solo. This then allows programs with safety monitors to react as required to unsafe events. When the PC is shutdown, Solo keeps the Cloudwatcher active and allows you to continue to monitor the weather. Needless to say if your PC suffers a crash or other failure, unsafe signals from the Cloudwatcher can still be monitored as the Solo keeps the Cloudwatcher operationg independently. The relay signal if connected to a Dragonfly or Talon will close the roof / dome and put the mount into park.
The Solo is a very useful add-on to the Cloudwatcher weather monitoring system, and while not necessary to make it work, allows for very useful redundancy. We recommend its use in all remote installations.
