What is DragonFly Automata?

One of the nice things the DragonFly can do by itself is act as a dedicated automata—that is, perform some simple actions as a result of external events—even with the PC shut down.

What Automata can do

In practice, this means we can use the DragonFly to:

Weather safety response

Check the AAG CloudWatcher relay for unsafe weather, closing the roof if unsafe.

PC watchdog

Monitor if the PC is «alive»—for instance resetting it if it's not. See DragonFly as a watchdog for the full procedure.

Unauthorised opening alert

Check if the roof opens without a session being active (for whatever reason) and power an alarm.

… and more

These are only examples. Please check our DragonFly Macros manual (PDF) to get a grasp of what can be accomplished with the macros.

Resources: the complete macros reference is in the DragonFly Macros Manual (PDF). Sample scripts are included in the Setup Scripts package (ZIP), and the Setting up the DragonFly guide (PDF) walks through a real observatory step by step.

Automata in action

Some macro screens from the DragonFly Configurator.

DragonFly software main window with the Macros dialog open, listing the stored macros
The Macros dialog, opened from the DragonFly main window
DragonFly Configurator editing macro 7, Crit fail: when Internal failure, if Sensor open roof is closed, then Pulse Roof and send a pushbullet message
Macro «Crit fail»—on internal failure, pulse the roof relay and send a push message
DragonFly Configurator editing macro 1, Wake me up: when the CloudWatcher sensor opens and the roof is closed, wake on LAN and send a push message
Macro «Wake me up»—weather turns safe, wake the PC on LAN and send a push message
DragonFly Configurator editing a macro that closes the heater relay when the analogue dome temperature sensor drops below a threshold
A macro driven by an analogue temperature sensor, switching a heater relay