I have a small observatory in my yard, and a CAT6 cable buried in the ground running from an ethernet switch in my home to the observatory. I was wondering if it is possible to have that cable send internet to the observatory, and also use that cable as a means for communicating with my observatory equipment from inside my house? There are motors to open the dome and also rotate it, and a telescope mount that is motor driven, all run by one piece of software. Sometimes I will use a laptop out there for control, and sometimes I will use my PC inside.
Would I be able to use my inside computer to control the automation of the observatory and communicate with the equipment, while also simultaneously sending an internet signal to the building when I’m out there supervising it/observing? Or do I need to lay another cable?
Thanks!
Hope the observatory is never struck by lightning.
As others said: if it speaks also Ethernet then you can mix. If it just uses Cat cable and RJ45 plugs you can‘t mix.
By the sounds of it, yeah, just pop a switch on the other end and a cable from that to the observatory then use any of the other ports on the new switch for any other devices you want on the network. If I understand what you’re saying it’s all IP based, so it should work transparently.
How does your observatory control work? Is it using proprietary analog signals on that Cat6 cable, is it using RS-232 serial, is it running IP, is it using a non-IP protocol but still ethernet?
I have a telescope that uses a CAT 5 crossover cable, but it is NOT ethernet. Two pins are 12 volt power, and other pins tell the motors which way to slew, and report back to the controller how far they’ve traveled.
Look at the pinout, but unless it’s talking ethernet, you’ll need two cables to do both.
