DaveL59

what type of battery is the 100Ah one and how old is it? If its dropping to low voltage after such a short time it sounds like maybe one cell is failing and then the volts would drop to 11.2v or there abouts. It would be worth using a multimeter and checking the terminal voltage at the battery off load after charging and then while on load and see what is happening. Assuming its a regular SLA battery it should read around 13.6v after charging and settle time, if left a few hours (or next day having sat unused) check again and see how far that drops. If it then reads 11.xv with no load then it'll confirm a cell has failed.

could save yourself a few quid perhaps James and see if this is worth going and collecting... https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/garden-observatory/264362617626?hash=item3d8d3d6b1a:g:L7IAAOSw0Z9dA~qR

is there a decent tools/hardware place near you, not the likes of BnQ but a more specialist place? They may be able to check it against a size guide and determine the correct thread pitch and size you need. I do have a metric set of tap+dies and gauge but might not help if the US have used their UNC or whatever sizes, not to mention York is a long way from me.

surely you can buy a replacement plug and just fit that after cutting the old one off? Far better than splicing the two leads unless you use a proper in-line joining block. Only downside would be it won't be sealed so in moist conditions perhaps not ideal unless there are rubber housing types rather than the cheaper plastic housing that are probably easier to source.

if you have the funds, you could go for a LiFePo battery to replace the failed 17Ah lead acid. much lighter and the 10Ah LiFePo will perform about the same as the 17Ah Pb battery. Downside tho is cost, at around 4x the price of the Pb battery tho will likely have a much better service life and doesn't have the same sulfating issue the old lead tech suffers from. I understand they perform better on hi load discharge too where the lead tech tends to buckle the plates. Was considering this for the UPSs but at the time needed 6 pairs and that would've cost me a fortune when I was at no income but was lucky to land a batch of new 17Ah SLA for £9 each 🙂

I'd suggest you use dielectric grease on the LV connections, should help keep any moisture out and maintain a good connection over time. I use Servisol silicone grease on the CCTV LAN+power connections whether inside or out and applied to the connections inside the dome unit that is now skycam-2 before it was finally assembled and sealed up. No harm a light smear on any threaded components that might corrode over time too...

thanks 🙂 Well I still consider it cheap, esp considering there's 2 out there and pretty low spend to achieve. Decided this dry morning to tweak the aim and move the smaller one out of view before I head off to family commitments, forecast is v wet this evening so won't be a better opportunity with returning to work Monday. I think results for a while might be tainted with the sky not being as dark as when I started the project so plan to run with the F1.8 2.1mm lens in the 5MP for a while before I test the 2.5mm F1.2 and if I figure how maybe try a few stacks to see how the current setup performs as a reference point.

Could be James, exposure time is set to auto but has to be else it can never reach the slowest shutter as manual mode the slowest is 1/30s or there abouts. Also it'd be totally bleached out in the day. I did try anti-flicker but that seems to turn the sky white and I've not found an adjustment to correct for that. At night anti-flicker doesn't affect it the same way, so could be an exposure related artifact. I was wondering if its a kind of heat haze rising from the module and into the dome above the lens but I don't think that's the case as I don't see the same effect on the other and its a smaller dome housing, or could that be why - less air to circulate? The IMX291 module is Hik protocol capable, so even less I can tweak on that one via the Hik interface, will have to switch it to onvif mode at some stage and see if that opens more options but as it stands, it makes a fair day-view camera with a nice fisheye view and easier to access remote via iVMS-4200 over vpn with my mobile 🙂 Can't open the IMX335 that way as its onvif only and I'd need the pro iVMS4500 for that, not found a retailer for the license so far but isn't a major priority.

so now its dark and reasonably clear out, looks like an improvement going from F2 1.7mm to F1.8 2.1mm in that more stars are showing, well a couple at least. I can make out the 3 on the handle of the plough and just about the others over time but probably still not enough aperture. Will let it run this way for a while then perhaps swap the F1.2 2.5mm in and see how that does. I think any lens slower than f1.4 and this cctv module is going to struggle given the slowest shutter speed is just too fast. Might get a better result if I stack a video from it which I may have a go at at some stage, will have to figure how to take H265 stream and feed that into the stacking app unless there's a better way, capturing the RTSP stream perhaps?

so first solar body comes into view beside the tree, la luna 🙂 Dunno what's going on with the image tho as its flickering between a nice flat sky and the odd ring noise pattern

there's a lot to be said for the older tech and non-SMD boards, at least there's a fair chance to diagnose and repair. I've a couple switch-mode bricks from SFF HP PC's that are dud now and looks like I'l have to chisel out the compound they glued everything down with just to get to diagnosing what failed. Most likely the big electrolytics but so far I've put this job off, was easier to just buy replacements lol

haha well true I guess, tho the 5MP board was only £22 or so and lenses around £7 each, the big dome was £15 as it was no longer working, so not too pricey. The other IMX291 camera well I had a couple kicking about spare so no-cost to me 🙂

and looks like I got it done just in time as the rain's started again 🙂

ok, another dry spell so was able to go adjust things, kinda. Had to swivel Cam1 around as it was obscuring and can still see the base, oh well I can move that later. Canted the 5MP camera on its gimbal so its tilted toward SE, so it should hopefully be able to pick up the moon etc as they transit and hopefully will still see Ursa Maj above. Now just need a clear dark night to see what can be seen. Doesn't have full sky view now compared to the 1.7mm lens before but am hoping the little bit extra aperture will improve what it sees, time will tell... Noticed too that Cam1 had some condensation under the dome. Looks like moisture seeped by the seal under the dome edge where it isn't smooth. Pasted some dielectric grease under the edge after drying it out and will see how that fairs. These CCTV domes really aren't designed to be used upside down but heck they seem to work reasonably well 😄 Left cam1 with the previous lens since the CS ones won't fit into that tiny housing unless I file the lens opening a long way wider. So the new dome (cam2 IMX335) is aimed toward SE and the mini dome (cam1 IMX291) toward EW in terms of widest part of the view which looking at it means it'll catch my IR lighting, such is life.

at least focus looks good 🙂

ugh bleedin british weather! so after lots of rain sky went nice and blue and clear. OK thinks I, ladder out and fit the new dome housing. So just as I'm putting in the camera module sky goes dark and spits of rain. managed to bolt the module base in and just got the dome on before it started heavier, phew! Still need to open it up again tho to adjust the aim and drop a silica gel pack in, plus a dab of silicone around the dome screws. Oh well, its up with the 2.1mm F1.8 CS lens so if it doesn't get drowned I can at least see if there's any improvement 🙂 Had to switch the IRcut trigger too as it was working the wrong way with the CS filter, thankfully the camera module has an option for that 🙂

just don't go with the cheap CCA cables, they ain't Cat anything even tho they claim to be. They do work but exposed to big temp changes they aren't reliable long-term and not so good if you want to use PoE

so true. I recall a few years back when I lived in Essex, the then other half and I drove right out into the country to find a very dark spot so we could watch the meteor shower as we'd not have seen much where we lived by the river, with lights all around to illuminate the walkways.

Welcome Simon 🙂 I'm Kent also, medway area and like you only recently started with telescopes. Am reasonably lucky that I'm pretty much atop a hill and a fair bit of woods around the area, the back garden is fairly dark and not too much light intrusion unless neighbours have their garden lights on. No doubt a darker site would improve the viewing so may look at doing that later down the road too.

hi Pete, yeah getting a lens to give the whole circle isn't easy, the 1.7mm I have clips top and bottom but isn't bad otherwise, except the f2.0 meant a drop in what stars show compared to the previous 2.8mm F1.4 which wasn't bad at all, hence looking for faster. Looks like to get below F2 at 1.7mm means a jump into the £90-200 price bracket tho which I might think about once I've an income again, but I think te ones I've found this far are aimed at larger sensors so may not be worth trying as that'd be a similar result, full screen and losing the full wide view. Just tested the new CS 2.5mm F1.2 and 2.1mm F1.8 indoors on a spare IMX291 camera module, will be a step backward to a more full-chip image rather than the fisheye circular view. When I get a chance I'll pull the 5MP IMX335 module from skycam-2 and rebuild that into a different enclosure with the CS lenses and see if that improves what can be seen. At least then I can have a better idea what's worth spending on regarding a better lens. Agreed they do run warm so with yours having the sensor on a ribbon cable it might be worth increasing the space between the ccd and the rest as the 3516C and similar chips get quite hot on their own. I glued a small heatsink onto the bare board one to shunt some of that away, just superglued direct onto the chip package 🙂 At least the warmth keeps condensation and dew at bay and hopefully will do so during colder months too, the module doubling as a dew heater, maybe. Haven't tried stacking anything from these as yet, with so little being picked up it didn't seem worth the time just yet. Like your image, ursa major is pretty much directly overhead but of late with clouds even on the clearer nights I'm barely seeing more than 2 of its stars where on good nights I might see them all. What I have done on the 5MP was to adjust the max/min shutter speed to the furthest value they'd go to and then set the camera to bias to slow shutter. Does make the sky more washed out (pale rather than deep blue) during the day but that's fine by me.

very nice Pete, is that a USB camera or IP and what speed is the lens, f2? The limitation I have with the IP ones is slowest shutter is around 80ms hence going after as fast a lens as I can reasonably get hold of. Am wondering too how much light pollution you have, looks nicely dark there 🙂

ha and just after I typed that, the next deluge starts, think there's no chance to fiddle out there today. Last year (?) we had torrential rain for several hours along with lightening, the lot. My desk phone died during one set of lightening but thankfully nothing else affected on the equipment front, only the nice 4ft box bush in the garden, which seems to have drowned as it went yellow in the days following and is now totally dead. Can't be certain why the phone was affected but there's a lot of overhead phone cables around here even tho mine's fed below ground. For info I've now got suppressors on the phone, vdsl, satellite and TV feeds and the LAN cable out to the shed, hopefully will limit future damage, worth considering for external cabling if you've not already.

thanks Gina, yeah has eased but it can wait till things dry a bit more or tomorrow I think. Hope you don't get flooding, for sure the weather put paid to plans to go visit a country house with my daughter in my last week or so of freedom, whenever we've both been free its rained lol

oh well, the new CS lenses and IRcut fittings arrived today, took longer than the last order but they're here and now awaiting install. Of course being the UK, weather is against doing anything today, lots of rain. OK is only 12v DC but no way am I going to be messing about up a ladder opening the current casing to extract the electronics from the temp housing and in case folk aren't aware, 12V DC can be dangerous esp if you're wet. So I guess it'll have to wait till the weekend if its dry. Am back to work again from Monday so was hoping to get that in place before but time will tell...

maybe just remove it and measure it off the board, should be close enough...