Hi everyone, it's ExtraBloke. I hope you all keep in well. So I've got a new toy. I've got a button. I love this button. In fact, I could sit here all day pressing this button. But what I will do is show you how I automated my roof and what it cost me. Before I show you the details of the install, I thought I'd show you quickly online the product I actually bought. So I actually bought the gate opening motor from Amazon. There was quite a few different makes and they all varied in price. This wasn't the cheapest, but it was by no means the dearest. The reason I chose this one was because it came as a complete kit. So it had all the rails with it and the fobs and everything that you'll need to actually have the whole thing working. So some of the kits only come with the motor and some come with everything like this one did. They had two powers here, 200 watts and 28 watts. I went for the 200 watts, 600 kilos. I mean, I've got an extremely light roof so I didn't really need anything even that powerful. But they do actually go up to some quite heavy weights with the security gates. So even if you've got a really heavy roof, I'm sure you can get one that will match what you need. So this is what I bought and I'm going to show you now how I've installed it. Where there isn't great and I hope that the sound comes out okay because it's very windy. But this is the installation I've put in for my automated roof. I went for an external installation of this and I have seen these inside observatories and I'll put a link actually in my description to another YouTuber that shows that installation where it's inside. I couldn't do it because unfortunately the clearance inside and the fact that I've got plastic walls, it's not really going to support a motor unit like this. It just wouldn't work and these uprights are in the way as well for me. If it was a wider shade I'm more than likely could have done it inside. But it is built to be outdoors, it's fully weather sealed. These aren't going to rust or anything. So everything's built for an external installation anyway. So but I think it would look neat if it was indoors because you wouldn't see it. But the other part I might would have had is this would have stuck out on the entrance. I'm all worried about the bash me head on it every time I went in. So it's a very simple design. It's very effective. It works really well. It's not too fast. I don't think. It's not too slow either. So once you've got your stops in place, it's brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. Really like it. I'm addicted to pushing the buttons so I'm going to wear the battery out soon. This is literally just screwed up to the top of the roof on a piece of angled aluminium. And then these are bulky through. These are half meter lengths. Comes with these little spades that sit on the top. There's one at either end and this is what triggers this little sensor to tell the roof when to stop so it doesn't overrun either end. And it literally is a very simple rotating cog there. It just moves everything along. Now this will actually move a weight of up to 600 kilograms which is way over the top for this roof. And they do go even higher. So there's many many makes of these. And so there should definitely be one that would be suitable for most roofs. If you do have any problems with the roof or you need to move it manually, there's a key here and that opens this. Once that's open, you can then just push the roof by hand. But if this is locked and the roof is locked into position, the really nice thing is the roof is actually locked. It's not going to move anywhere. So it secures the roof as well which is really nice. Just going to know. And you can stop it wherever you want. So you can actually get the roof halfway off if you want it. Sometimes I actually only have it about sort of two thirds of the way and then I can sit under a little bit of it when I'm on the computer. The weather is awful. And the forecast is not a lot better unfortunately. There's no astrophotography going on. So it's given me time at least to get this mod done which I've wanted to do for a while. Do you want to see it one more time? I can't stop pushing the back. So just for the demonstration, I've got my iPhone on the camera in the observatory and I'm on team viewer and signed into the computer in the observatory on Nina. And I've got the remote control for the observatory. So that's about 110 foot away up the other end of the garden. So hopefully this will reach which it does. And that's the roof open. We can obviously start a sequence with Nina but what I'll just do here is unpack the scope. So that's really nice. So I can remote in from anywhere and get this working. But at the moment, the roof is relying on me being at home because I have to use the remote control to open and close it. So what I need to do now is work out how I can get the computer to control the roof. Then I can truly remote in whenever and record. So if I'm away from home or whatever, I don't have to miss an opportunity. And having the camera means I can keep an eye on the scope. Make sure it's fully parked. And then shut the roof. I can see it all day pushing these buttons. So I've quickly jumped back inside the observatory because unfortunately the weather is just awful. So it's actually slightly raining again now. It's absolutely brilliant to have the roof automated. I'm so chuffed with it. And it wasn't that difficult or expensive. So very, very pleased. My only restriction at the moment is I can only open it with this remote control or manually, obviously. But I need to be at home to do that. What I want to be able to do is remote in, open the roof, get everything started and then if I need to shut everything down and close the roof, that's what I really want to do. So I need to do that via my PC. Hopefully using NINA because that's my preferred software at the moment. So I'm going to need to work out how to get NINA to tell that unit to open and close the roof. So I'm sure it's something that can be done. And I just need to do a bit of reading and look onto it. Although if any of you actually know and you can let me know, I'd be extremely grateful. So in the comments section, give me some details. Thank you for watching the video today. All of your support is really appreciated. I hope it's been of some help, especially if you're looking to automate a roof yourself or thinking about it. If I can help in any way or you have any questions, please put them in the comments section and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. I'm going to push this button again because I'm kind of addicted to it to be honest. Absolutely love that. And when I get that automated with the PC, that's going to be brilliant. So I think I'll close it up now because the weather is just definitely not going to play ball today. And until next time, take care and close guys.