jiberjaber

October 30, 2021

On 23/10/2021 at 17:45, Chris said:

Well I happen to be a very lucky boy as I have my hands on a StellaMira 90 + 0.8 reducer/flattener! The reducer is for the imaging side if things and I'll be testing that with a crop sensor and maybe a full frame camera (if I can borrow my father in laws). BUT I'm very much looking forward to looking at this scope from a visual point of view also. I won't be able to use the 0.8 RF for this but I can check how it performs otherwise.

Looking forward to seeing how it goes for you, I've not seen any images using it yet.

I have my eye on one as a replacement for my SW80ED-Pro with a view to getting more out of the shorter imaging times we get due to weather. I've been trying to justify the additional outlay to myself for a while but I've got a new job now so the financial side might be less of a concern, it's just the old problem of will I have enough time to actually use it whilst having a new job now LOL

October 11, 2021

3 minutes ago, The Admiral said:

Yes there is, 3.3kg. But no weight of tube + rings/handle .

Ian

I did put the tube + rings weight in my post (4.5kg) so looks like all the info is there on the FLO page now

I wonder if this will help with my star halos on the ASI1600 on NB? It'll certainly increase my rate of data capture over the current SW80ED-Pro.

October 11, 2021

10 hours ago, PeterW said:

How’s much does the tube only and tube with rings and handle weigh?

peter

There is some info at the bottom of the page but no bare OTA weight.

Tube weight with rings / dovetail / handle: 4.5kg (9lb 15oz)

I was looking at a 6" F/4 Newt but this may have changed my thinking a bit now as closer to my current setup but with improved focal ratio.

September 28, 2021

I checked the all-sky and managed to capture it too! Quite low on the horizon on the camera saved images.

September 4, 2021

16 hours ago, Jonk said:

I've managed to get a script to switch the relays on and off via the cli, and also managed to get a stream of T, H and P from the BME280 which is a start!

Loads of stuff about installing libraries and compiling code, which is way above my pay grade.

But, progress is progress so I guess I need to ask someone who can write code in C to knock something up for me to do what I need it to do.

I'm not sure you need it in C, python might work - though I must admit most of my coding is in C on microcontrollers so I've been stumbling around in Python to get it to work. Sounds like you just need a simple on/off thermostat style if you are just using relays with a bit of hysteresis.

I used this as a starter to get the 18B20 reading in to the code, built upon that to get my MQTT values in too (they were already stored in files for use on the text overlay of the all-sky camera)

https://www.circuitbasics.com/raspberry-pi-ds18b20-temperature-sensor-tutorial/

Just need a bit of math then to determine when to turn on your relay to suit your requirements (you might need an offset to take in to account the temperature difference inside the dome vrs the external dew point?)

Here's a quick python code for a BME280 https://www.raspberrypi-spy.co.uk/2016/07/using-bme280-i2c-temperature-pressure-sensor-in-python/

Looks like https://www.waveshare.com/wiki/RPi_Relay_Board has some python code examples to control the board.

There's lots of thermostat examples but they seem part of a complicated heating control rather than a simple turn on relay if measured temp < demand

September 2, 2021

On 27/08/2021 at 19:59, Jonk said:

@davefi I have been looking for some code for the pi to operate a relay hat based on dew point, both inside and outside the camera dome.

I also use Thomas Jacquin’s allsky on a pi4 and was looking to see if you’re willing to share your code or point me to where I can find something to modify to suit.

The relay hat I have is a 3 channel waveshare hat https://www.waveshare.com/wiki/RPi_Relay_Board and not being a coder I’m not sure where to start.

I’m happy to read code and make subtle changes to suit but I can’t start blank, nor have I found anything suitable yet.

Basically, I’d like to achieve the following:

1. 2 sensors, 1 internal, 1 external.

2. Sensors to be dht or 280bme to calculate the dew point and also report temperature and humidty separately, possibly to a text file ‘live’, ie append not add.

3. If internal temperature higher than say 30degC, switch on relay 1 (for tec cooling for example with fan for forced air movement.)

4. If internal dew point approaching, switch off relay 1 and switch on relay 2 ( internal heater and fan for forced air movement) until a set point above the dew point, basically internal climate control to prevent overheating or fogging.

5. If external dew point approaching, switch on relay 2 for heating to avoid dew on the outside of the dome.

Of course this is all basically a truth table of events but I don’t see any real reason why this cannot work?

Any help from you, or from anyone else would be greatly appreciated.

I use something similar, it's a MOSFET which is controlled PWM from the PI and switches a ni-chrome wire based heater I have in the camera mount on the dome. I then have a 18B20 temp sensor touching the heater element so I can control the temperature it is working at. This is then used in conjunction with the dew point of my weather station to workout what the dome target temperature should be (it's a simple offset at the moment). A python script then uses a PID control look to manage the PWM to the MOSFET to track the desired target temperature on the heater.

I'm using this shield which I have a couple of for another project (another dew heater as it happens!)

https://www.tindie.com/products/mostlyrobots/4-channel-mosfet-shield-for-wemos-d1-mini-esp8266/#:~:text=the cha...-,The Four Channel MOSFET Shield for Wemos D1 Mini contains,up to a potential 20A.

The python code is a bit rough and ready, it's not something I have programmed in but managed to hack together something based on examples else where. My weather station uses MQTT to communicate stuff, and I already had some data being captured by the PI for the overlay on the all-sky so it was trivial to add to that the dew point data and then bring that in to the python script.

The ni-chrome wire is out of an old toaster, looped round within a 3d printed part.

Messy proof of concept...

Slightly less messy final install...

Current position awaiting focus check before I put it on top of a scaffold pole where the weather station is...

August 24, 2021

On 21/07/2021 at 14:45, Mognet said:

That's brilliant.

The space clearance/empty directory problem should be fixed in this version along with a little problem in creating new periods that one of mine was having issues with. It looked like it was just a timing thing between the capture and new movie scripts. Space clearance now happens three times a day; twice for the new periods, and a third at noon when the timings are regenerated. And that third one also reports to update.log in ~/Mognet-All-Sky-Camera/back-end/ This latest version should be stable. I've had it running for about three weeks and haven't managed to break it yet

~~I'll update~~ I've updated the instructions so that removal of the downloaded files and installer directory are included, and added version messages to the autodeploy and update scripts too along with a version history in the README.md too

And thanks. Job hunting is tedious. Twenty years experience in IT; 3 as a dev and 17 as an automated software tester, and I've only managed to get one interview out of 80+ applications so far.

Yeah - I had similar issues, mostly computer says no - it's quite different to when I was last looking for a job! 21 years with the same company in consultancy, redundancy and then the pandemic put my job hunting on hold and I did a 90 degrees shift to teach people how to cycle, most rewarding job I've had, but it doesn't pay the bills so I suspect I'll have to get a "proper" job at some point.

Anyway, back to the all-sky... I noticed the version history is't up to date after install of the latest - I checked the git hub and the version text isn't aligned with the current version (it only goes up to 1.2.4) - no big problem but thought I'd let you know

I've made some progress of late whilst I've been sitting around recovering from an operation. I've not got a sky temperature on my weather station with a view to cloud detection and thought it would be good to get it on to the all-sky so I could compare temperatures with the view. Works well so far, data arrives by MQTT to the all-sky and then I add it on to the banner text so I can then review the movie to see the temp vrs view. I have contemplated putting some sort of grid overlay on so I can try and calibrate the view to temperature and then use the numbers to map to cloud cover. Not progressed that much as I keep jumping from project to project LOL - dew heater for the all-sky is the next on the list!

Shame it was a full moon last night, such clear skies!

August 20, 2021

Worth looking at PLA+ (it's like a mix of PLA and PTEG) but prints as easy as PLA material colour certainly has an effect as does the loading on the final print (all the deformations in this thread appear to be due to the pulling load of the belt tension). I've had PLA lose tolerance overtime by shrinking (car phone holder so was always in teh sun and heat) - I guess it's just another consideration we need to put into our 3d printing designs

I find PTEG tricky to be consistent on printing however I don't have the same issue with ABS which is supposed to be more tricky to get consistent!

August 14, 2021

OK - just checked with a Photometric color calibration and my redownloaded DR10 worked fine

August 14, 2021

Hmmm - I did months ago, just tried again now and no problems here? when you say fail what do you mean, size OK but doesn't work in PI ? (I haven't rechecked that yet)

August 13, 2021

This has some promise but I suspect to earn the 30 euros I'd have to see that it can be run as a daemon and some sort of web front end, I might give the free version a test ride..

I wonder if it can be combined into @Mognet excellent front end all-sky camera?

July 21, 2021

Yep - that's got it, found about 4 empty directories (I think I was using find but only reporting files initially rather than files & directories...)

index page back to normal now, will see how the file space goes when I get close to the 2GB mark again.

I found out why I wasn't updating, each time I wget the file I hadn't removed the old zip file so it was just downloading a main(1) ... main(2) etc and then when I unzipped I was just unzipping the oldest file called main.zip rather than the new download. Might be worth adding a step to the update instructions to make sure there isn't an already existing main.zip before wget'ing the next one.

Anyway I am now on v1.2.4

Good luck on the job hunting...

July 20, 2021

Think I might have spotted an issue or 2?

~~Looks like the new about.html doesn't get copied as part of the update?~~ Fixed with a reboot!

I also note "no crontab for root" which might be why the file clearup isn't happening?

Y/N is case sensitive so needs a lower case 'y' to work

My missing directory issue is still there though, so the actual about link is lost at the moment (see above post for image)

Quote

This is the update script for Mognet's All Sky Camera
=====================================================
This script updates the code for the all sky camera. It will preserve the current and historical images and videos captured, but will overwrite all the driving code
Note: Any customisations that have been made to the code since the install will be lost!
If you are certain that you want to proceed then answer Y to continue, otherwise N or Ctrl-C to exit
Y
Please enter only Y or N
y
Stopping the cron service
Copying the back end code
'/home/pi/Mognet-All-Sky-Camera-install-main/back-end/dailyupdate.sh' -> '/home/pi/Mognet-All-Sky-Camera/back-end/dailyupdate.sh'
'/home/pi/Mognet-All-Sky-Camera-install-main/back-end/gps' -> '/home/pi/Mognet-All-Sky-Camera/back-end/gps'
'/home/pi/Mognet-All-Sky-Camera-install-main/back-end/mgasc.sh' -> '/home/pi/Mognet-All-Sky-Camera/back-end/mgasc.sh'
'/home/pi/Mognet-All-Sky-Camera-install-main/back-end/pics/capture.sh' -> '/home/pi/Mognet-All-Sky-Camera/back-end/pics/capture.sh'
'/home/pi/Mognet-All-Sky-Camera-install-main/back-end/pics/newmovie.sh' -> '/home/pi/Mognet-All-Sky-Camera/back-end/pics/newmovie.sh'
'/home/pi/Mognet-All-Sky-Camera-install-main/back-end/pics/clearspace.sh' -> '/home/pi/Mognet-All-Sky-Camera/back-end/pics/clearspace.sh'
'/home/pi/Mognet-All-Sky-Camera-install-main/back-end/sunwait/LICENSE' -> '/home/pi/Mognet-All-Sky-Camera/back-end/sunwait/LICENSE'
'/home/pi/Mognet-All-Sky-Camera-install-main/back-end/sunwait/README.md' -> '/home/pi/Mognet-All-Sky-Camera/back-end/sunwait/README.md'
'/home/pi/Mognet-All-Sky-Camera-install-main/back-end/sunwait/USAGE.txt' -> '/home/pi/Mognet-All-Sky-Camera/back-end/sunwait/USAGE.txt'
'/home/pi/Mognet-All-Sky-Camera-install-main/back-end/sunwait/sunwait' -> '/home/pi/Mognet-All-Sky-Camera/back-end/sunwait/sunwait'
'/home/pi/Mognet-All-Sky-Camera-install-main/gpsupdate' -> '/home/pi/Mognet-All-Sky-Camera/gpsupdate'
'/home/pi/Mognet-All-Sky-Camera-install-main/LICENSE' -> '/home/pi/Mognet-All-Sky-Camera/LICENSE'
'/home/pi/Mognet-All-Sky-Camera-install-main/README.md' -> '/home/pi/Mognet-All-Sky-Camera/README.md'
Copying the front end code
'/home/pi/Mognet-All-Sky-Camera-install-main/front-end/about.html' -> '/var/www/html/about.html'
'/home/pi/Mognet-All-Sky-Camera-install-main/front-end/arrowLeftDisabled.gif' -> '/var/www/html/arrowLeftDisabled.gif'
'/home/pi/Mognet-All-Sky-Camera-install-main/front-end/arrowLeftEnabled.gif' -> '/var/www/html/arrowLeftEnabled.gif'
'/home/pi/Mognet-All-Sky-Camera-install-main/front-end/arrowRightDisabled.gif' -> '/var/www/html/arrowRightDisabled.gif'
'/home/pi/Mognet-All-Sky-Camera-install-main/front-end/arrowRightEnabled.gif' -> '/var/www/html/arrowRightEnabled.gif'
'/home/pi/Mognet-All-Sky-Camera-install-main/front-end/currentview.html' -> '/var/www/html/currentview.html'
'/home/pi/Mognet-All-Sky-Camera-install-main/front-end/fileread.php' -> '/var/www/html/fileread.php'
'/home/pi/Mognet-All-Sky-Camera-install-main/front-end/imagedisplay.php' -> '/var/www/html/imagedisplay.php'
'/home/pi/Mognet-All-Sky-Camera-install-main/front-end/index.php' -> '/var/www/html/index.php'
'/home/pi/Mognet-All-Sky-Camera-install-main/front-end/liveview.html' -> '/var/www/html/liveview.html'
'/home/pi/Mognet-All-Sky-Camera-install-main/front-end/mgasc.css' -> '/var/www/html/mgasc.css'
'/home/pi/Mognet-All-Sky-Camera-install-main/front-end/shotlist.php' -> '/var/www/html/shotlist.php'
'/home/pi/Mognet-All-Sky-Camera-install-main/front-end/suntimes.php' -> '/var/www/html/suntimes.php'
'/home/pi/Mognet-All-Sky-Camera-install-main/front-end/webcam.php' -> '/var/www/html/webcam.php'
Recalculating times and restarting the all sky camera

E V E N T HH:MM OFFSET
--------------------------------------------- ----- ------
Astronomical Rise (18 degrees below horizon): --:-- (Midnight sun) -00:10
Astronomical Rise (Real) : --:-- (Midnight sun)
Nautical Rise (12 degrees below horizon) : 03:07 -00:10
Nautical Rise (Real) : 03:17
Civil Rise (6 degrees below horizon) : 04:09 -00:10
Civil Rise (Real) : 04:19
CAMERA switches from Night to Day : 04:11 -00:08
VIDEO switches from Night to Day : 04:16 -00:03
Sunrise (0 degrees below horizon) : 05:01 00:00
Sunrise (Real) : 05:01
Sunset (0 degrees below horizon) : 21:07 00:00
Sunset (Real) : 21:07
Civil Set (6 degrees below horizon) : 21:49 -00:00
Civil Set (Real) : 21:49
CAMERA switches from Day to Night : 21:58 -00:09
VIDEO switches from Day to Night : 22:01 -00:12
Nautical Set (12 degrees below horizon) : 22:51 -00:00
Nautical Set (Real) : 22:51
Astronomical Set (18 degrees below horizon) : --:-- (Midnight sun) -00:00
Astronomical Set (Real) : --:-- (Midnight sun)

Wed 21 Jul 00:38:26 BST 2021
no crontab for root
pi@allsky:~/Mognet-All-Sky-Camera-install-main

July 20, 2021

Yep - I think mine hasn't actually updated based on that!

I've managed to break the main page, the SD ran out of space so I did a "sudo find /var/www/html/history/ -mindepth 1 -mtime +42 -delete" which now means it reports a missing directory and no about link is there anymore..

I'll give the update another go

July 11, 2021

On 25/06/2021 at 23:33, jiberjaber said:

It's raining Sunday so I'll give it a go then I think - thanks!

Finally got round to updating, very easy to do... the SD had ran out of space which prompted me to ssh on and do something!

Did you add a version number to the about page, seems to be missing on my updated version, just wondering if it got missed on the update?

June 25, 2021

On 18/06/2021 at 18:41, Mognet said:

Hi Jason,

Yes there is. There's a bit about updating here https://github.com/MarkGrimwood/Mognet-All-Sky-Camera-install/wiki#updating First bit is just the plain update, second bit is just to update GPS coordinates

And by coincidence, I made some bug fixes today too. Just minor stuff this time

It's raining Sunday so I'll give it a go then I think - thanks!

June 18, 2021

Is there an easy guide to upgrading from the GIT without having to reenter long/lat etc?

May 23, 2021

Will do.

In between the rain here we had a bit of clear sky so managed to see some stars! Focus not as bad as I was expecting, so I think I will leave that alone! I seem to recall it being a bit of a pain with such a fine threaded small lens! I think there must be more heat kicked off the 3B+ as there is no sign of condensation like there was before, but perhaps the more exposed location is allowing more air over the dome too which helps.

May 22, 2021

I forgot to mention, you might want to add a link to your git and perhaps a version number or similar somewhere (on about perhaps? )

Other than that, it seems more stable and responsive that previous incarnations - a great evolution of Pete's all-sky camera! Well done.

I've not delved in to the scripts yet to see where to add my MQTT data so might take a look at that if I get some time this week.

May 22, 2021

Well the hardware watchdog works great, so much so I've moved location to sort of where I always intended it to be, at the bottom of the garden - though at the moment it's sat on a wood perch I've laid onto the shed roof - hopefully it wont get blown over! Mine runs off a static DHCP address so always gets the same IP no mater which access point it's on. I need to ssh on to it and see what the signal strength is for it as when I was up the ladder the AP it is associated with was quite weak on my phone but the main AP was better - of course how that plays out inside the ally case of the camera enclosure is what I need to check - though so far it seems fine when streaming the video from it.

Location seems better (which I expected) with more sky visible now - though I might need to refocus at some point when it is drier though it now requires a ladder rather than just some steps to get to it!

May 22, 2021

Seems to be going well so far, though I have noticed that whilst I have an entry for last night and yesterday, the night archive is just one image, but the latest night is the actual full set of files/video. Perhaps the creation of the archive needs to move to when the start of the next night collection starts?

Also, I had a router issue today which resulted in the house network being effected and I had to power cycle the all-sky to get it back on - not associated with your code of course, but a common issue we all might encounter especially if the camera is up high or bottom of the garden etc...

Anyway, I've just come across a hardware watchdog on the Pi which I haven't tried, but looks promising - I wasn't really wanting to restart the whole device though, just a wifi connection watchdog, but the hardware one might be worthy of consideration - I'll look in to it further. Details here: https://diode.io/raspberry pi/running-forever-with-the-raspberry-pi-hardware-watchdog-20202/

May 21, 2021

Success, painless install too! Just need to integrate my MQTT weather station data and we are back to all-sky land (might need to refocus the camera I think!)

I ended up sticking a spare 3b+ in there, tight fit with some knife skills on the USB lead, not sure if I can fit a POE hat and Ethernet cable in to the current dome, may need to print a custom enclosure, which wasn't really in the plan...

Same camera, different ribbon cable, but there was no visible indication of why the camera had stopped being recognised by the zero. Same SD card too, so I suspect either the zero or the cable to be the issue...

May 20, 2021

pi@allsky:~ $ vcgencmd get_camera
supported=1 detected=0

Thanks for that - it's been so long since I played with it I forgot most of the diagnostics stuff... Looks like I will have to get the ladder out after all ! LOL

May 20, 2021

Hmmm I'm getting

[quote]Welcome to the setup stage of Mognet's All Sky Camera
=====================================================
Please connect the camera before installing
Install cancelled
pi@allsky:~/Mognet-All-Sky-Camera-install-main $[/quote]

This could coincide with my read-error I am getting on the original all-sky or could be I haven't disabled the original all sky yet!

** EDIT **

Right, the /usr/bin/raspistill -q 100 -ISO auto -awb greyworld -n -ex auto -w 800 -h 600 -o /run/shm/webcam.jpg command is also returning "mmal: Camera is not detected. Please check carefully the camera module is installed correctly"

So looks like I'll need to get the ladders out and remove the unit to inside to look at whats going on! Hmmmmm

May 19, 2021

Right - thanks for this, I think I know what I'll be tinkering with when the rain stops this week!

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