Gina's DIY All Sky Cam - Complete Redesign

[JamesF]

I'm bowing out of the all sky market for a while, I think my qhy5 is bust, pc doesn't recognise it any more. That's what I get for removing the usb socket and hard wiring to the board...

Huw

Oh dear.  That's not good.  Do you think it's recoverable?

James

[Horwig]

I'm going to put it on one side a while whilst I have a  cry

H

[JamesF]

It doesn't look as though it ought to be possible to damage it just by removing the socket and hard-wiring a cable.  It's a little tight for space, but not exceptionally so.  I take it you've done the obvious stuff like checking the cables are all connected to the correct places, that the cable is good and that there aren't any badly-made connections or bridged tracks?

James

[Horwig]

The cable has been on and off a few times, now I get a usb device malfunctioned error.

H

[Gina]

Oh dear   Sorry to read that Huw.  Hope you can repair it

[JamesF]

That's not a good sign

Does it show up at all as a device in the device manager?  The way these cameras work is to connect as one sort of USB device which triggers the driver to download firmware to it, after which the camera resets itself and appears as a different USB device.  If it appears in the device manager and it's possible to view the USB properties that might mean there's a sniff of a chance of sorting it.

James

[Horwig]

It shows up in device manager as unknown device. Trouble is, I've forgotten how the two data lines connect up, so tried it both ways, and get two different errors, one an error 28 (I think) and the other way an error 42, or 43.

I'm composing an eulogy for it at the moment, but in truth, it was probably at the bottom of the food chain for an all sky camera, I'd already tried my Lodestar on the same lens and was blown away by the increase in signal to noise.

Back to studying ABS I guess.

Huw

[Gina]

Ah, LodeStar, that's an idea   I have the original LodeStar that I'm not currently using - I could try that I guess   Wouldn't fit in my current box though   Was the one you tried the original or the X2, Huw?

[Gina]

Here are photos of the outer casing - box with dome tube glued into the top and dome placed on top.  The dome will be glued to the tube eventually.

[Horwig]

It was the original Lodestar Gina, SOOOOO much cleaner than the qhy5, but the 5 was spare since I'd bought the Lodestar. Hohum, there we go, one more dead piece of kit I think. The pleasure of tinkering.

Housing looks good btw Gina, keeping an eye on you all the same.

Huw

[Horwig]

Looking at the housing Gina, are you sure you have no room for one of these, I make it 132mm tall, I'm sue you could squeeze one in!

Huw

[Gina]

The box is about 50mm deep but I have another the same (or maybe two - got for a project that changed and these are now surplus) and could use that with a higher dome tube.  OTOH I could use an earlier design of outer casing.

Did you have the LodeStar ASC out in sunlight?

[Horwig]

No only had one test on it in moonlight. Do I risk it in full sun, uuummm, not sure yet

H

[Gina]

Good point!

[Gina]

Resolution is less on the LodeStar and the sensor size a bit smaller but looks like the lens should cover it.  I'll have a play when it isn't raining

[Horwig]

Here's what the lodestar looks like with the fujinon, 10 second exposure, plow and polaris visible on the left, moon to the south and venus setting on the right. That and the electricity cable that runs right over my obsy

But can you believe that I took this two years ago

Huw

[Gina]

Thanks for that Huw   Do you think the focus was slightly out though?  Not that mines any better

QHY5 with Fujinon lens.

[Horwig]

Yes, decidedly soft. From memory, I didn't have the computer screen close enough to the camera to really see what I was doing. It wasn't in the housing, just sticking out of the obsy on a camera tripod.

Huw

[JamesF]

Is that a crop of the QHY5 image, Gina?  It seems to fit the frame very nicely.

I guess the choice between the two cameras is whether you'd prefer the greater sensitivity and lower resolution of the Lodestar or the lower sensitivity and greater resolution of the QHY5.

James

[Gina]

Ah that explains it Huw

That is the full frame from the QHY5 James.  I ajusted the zoom to fit the image into the frame.  The QHY5 has a half inch sensor and I believe the lens is designed to cover a third inch sensor at minimum focal length so a slightly longer FL fits the QHY5

As I recall, the exposure for that QHY5 image was 15s - the maximum PHD2 provides.  It could do with darks subtracted to remove the background artefacts.  Hmmm...  that's a point   Could do with some way of capturing darks - maybe a shutter after all (with remote control)   Here we go again

[Gina]

OK...  I've put the shutter back on   I shall be wanting more than two wires in the auxilliary cable.  I guess I'll have a "mode" selector switch mounted somewhere in the warm room (depending where I end up putting the ASC).  When I've built it, I could add ASC shutter control into my Arduino observatory roof controller .

1. Night imaging only - LDR control of shutter
2. Daylight imaging - Shutter open
3. Darks - Shutter closed.

[Gina]

Here is my latest design for the frame that supports the camera inside the case.  Also included is a tube to take the axle of a manual control for focussing consisting of spur gears with shaft down through the bottom of the case with a knob.  The gap on ther right-hand side is to accomodate the meter movement for shutter control.

[Gina]

Bit more progress today

Manual focussing mechanism produced together with frame to mount camera in box.  Here are a couple of photos.  Firstly the focussing mechanism (except for the knob) and the frame etc. placed in the box showing how it fits.

[Horwig]

love it, how did you ever manage without your printer Gina.

H

[Gina]

Thanks Huw   Goodness knows   Had to use hand tools to fashion pieces of aluminium or wood etc.  I think some projects just wouldn't have been done at all.  I was thinking just that when I was working on the ASC this afternoon