Raspberry Pi AllSky Camera

[jiberjaber]

So the pi zero W was itself dry inside the bottle camera but the water seems to have got between the outer glass and inner glass of the lens and fogged up, unable to clear it with any tissue etc so I've put the whole lot in a small tub of rice and dessicant to see if it clears though I suspect a new lens is required... 

[Gina]

Mine has finally cleared after many days in a dry environment and having been warmed up a few times with a craft type hot air gun used at a distance.   I was rather afraid it wouldn't clear but it has.

[SamAndrew]

Had mine up and running the last two days - seems to be working well, maybe a few little bugs to look. Will add a pic later but I've used the same enclosure Gina has used on her camera. I've taken it inside as it's raining today and I want to test the waterproofing before i leave it outside.

Also have the issue of the Pi power LED and my 12v to 5v converter LED reflecting on the inside of the dome so I'll tape over those.

[SamAndrew]

Question - the CPU tempt got up to 60+ degrees yesterday on my pi4, and it wasn't a particularly warm day, has temperature been a concern for anyone else? at what point would you start to worry?

[Gina]

I gather RPi4s get hotter than 3s.  OTOH I wondered about overheating on my RPi3B+.  With the latest design I'm putting it in the obsy rather than inside the ASC casing.

[jiberjaber]

Dome camera arrived today, guts removed and adaptor printed based on the coke bottle camera, probably needs revisiting to give the Pi a bit more room under plus it's in white at the moment, so suspect daylight reflections will be an issue!  Lens has dried out now, so all in and fitted. Rough focus on the ceiling of the study seems OK o far.  Metal enclosure seems to have a small effect on wifi range.

There were some slight scratches on the dome cover, might be an issue with direct sunlight. Camera angle cut off is a couple of cm above the lens. 

 

 

[SamAndrew]

Here it is, first pic was the initial setup, not very neat with the sealant around the dome, but it gets the job done  

Camera is mounted on a printed standoff that has been superglued into position. Everything else just sits in the enclosure, it shouldn't go anywhere! Temp sensor is recording the internal temp, not the external temp.

In the second pic I've changed the step down board to one that can be soldered directly to the power cable.

[jiberjaber]

How you finding reflections in the image? I have modified mine now with a revised camera mount, in black, to reduce internal reflections in the dome and also to lift the camera up further in to the dome top. Happy side effect is the Pizero is also lifted up out of the metal base of the enclosure so wifi is back to normal levels for now   I didn't want to sit around all day waiting for it to print so bumped the print speed up and lowered the layer resolution so it looks a bit rough - perhaps that might avoid further internal reflection lol

The remaining white silicon on the lens edge is still reflecting off inside the some unfortunately, but overall it's better now than with the white mount. Hard to tell at night with the rain on the dome - will have to check tomorrow should we get any sunshine!

 

 

Looking forward to seeing how the new camera turns out, I see they are back in stock now!

[Gina]

I don't like to criticise but the lens is too high in the dome.  Should be at the centre of the hemisphere.  Being too high will give distortion to the view.

Edited June 12, 2020 by Gina

[jiberjaber]

2 hours ago, Gina said:

I don't like to criticise but the lens is too high in the dome.  Should be at the centre of the hemisphere.  Being too high will give distortion to the view.

The L value apparently, https://www.axis.com/files/whitepaper/wp_sharpdome_en_1503_lo.pdf (pg 3 & 4)

I hadn't put any thought in to this when I knocked up the part, currently,  it's about where the original camera was that was removed (perhaps a little lower). Given the wide angle of the (cheap) lens, it's hard to see how distorted the image is as a result of positioning at the moment.. I might experiment if I can see any distortion... but at the moment it seems OK (if out of focus slightly) but lack of stars isn't helping checking focus at the moment

 

[SamAndrew]

Think today is the first time it has actually seen the Sun as my garden in NW facing so it's been in the shade or under clouds the whole time. Sun just peaked around the corner, reflection doesn't look too bad. Will see how warm the CPU gets by mid afternoon.

Also saw some stars last night, think I need to turn the exposure up a bit for the stars and accept over exposed clouds - the problem with Bortle 8 skies!

[SamAndrew]

Very heavy rain yesterday - noticed the dome fogged up today which was surprising - i would have thought with all the heat inside it would clear itself easily. Maybe it needs some ventiliation holes in the bottom for the moisture to escape.

[jiberjaber]

I had something on mine this morning, I think it was dew on outside and cleared off once the sun came up.

[SamAndrew]

This is definitely on the inside, seems the water is getting in somehow but there isn't enough airflow for it to clear, on top of the overheating I've decided to add a 40x40mm fan. I'll cut a hole in the bottom and add a vent on the side with a small shield to deflect the rain.

[jiberjaber]

I'm going to add some internal holes in mine, there is something happening with condensation (I'm sure it's external) and there is no air movement possible between the dome screen and the base of the enclosure due to my printed part, so I will pop a few holes in that with the drill and see if that helps with both the morning misting and the CPU temperature.

[Gina]

Worth a try.

[wormix]

Evening al - I thought I would give this a try as I have a spare Pi Zero that’s been sitting around unused for the last couple years. 
 

I got to the Sunwait section and have stalled - the Make File bit is new to me. Is anyone able to explain that?

thanks

Gareth

[jiberjaber]

1 hour ago, wormix said:

Evening al - I thought I would give this a try as I have a spare Pi Zero that’s been sitting around unused for the last couple years. 
 

I got to the Sunwait section and have stalled - the Make File bit is new to me. Is anyone able to explain that?

thanks

Gareth

Hi Gareth,  I don't remember having to compile Sunwait, it just worked for me iirc (it was a long time since I made the camera OS!)

 

ETA: Actually I must have done looking at it!  

Have you managed to clone the sunwait github? If so, you should have a dir called sunwait

from memory, if you change dir to the sunwait and then run 'make all' it should build  

 

 

 

Edited June 15, 2020 by jiberjaber

[discardedastro]

I've got a few Pi2/3s lying around and decided to buy a box and a couple of domes to try off eBay plus some compression glands. I reckon Ethernet in plus 12V on two glands should work fine. Need to rustle up a 12V PSU, of course.

I'd avoid putting airflow holes in without filter material - you don't want ants etc crawling in. But I think a small fan plus some filtered positions for vents would be good (smaller outlet path than fan area, so as to achieve positive pressure).

My initial attempt will be with my ASI120MC since I have that spare with the rig out of imaging mode. I'm not sure how I'll secure it in the right position just yet, my 3D printer has been out of commission for a while (very old Reprappro delta). Watching the thread with interest, in any case! Looking forward to playing with software on all-sky data - I'm hoping to build some ML classifiers for clouds etc.

I've also been thinking about doing a seeing monitor, but I'd like to do an all-sky camera first. The results from the HQ camera board look promising!

[JamesF]

In case it's useful... I have 12V and ethernet to my Stevenson screen which contains an RPi.  To power that I bought a cigarette lighter socket which is connected to the 12V supply, and then a USB charger plug that goes in the lighter socket.  The RPi then plugs into that.

I 3d-printed the mount for the socket.

I know I could have bought a buck converter etc., but this way was just too easy :)

James

[jiberjaber]

You might consider a POE hat and injector then you don't need the additional power lead and power supply.  I had a go with it for my RPi4 on the scope mount but I prefer the 1gbps link and I think it was only 100mbps with the POE running. 

POE Hat:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07JPXR9ZN/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Injector:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07D12D1QD/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

No good for the PiZero of course as it's wifi only

 

[Mognet]

I've just ordered a Pi Zero WH and a fisheye lens so I can try this out as well. I can make up a case on the 3D printer and source a dome once I'm happy with it

[wormix]

9 hours ago, jiberjaber said:

Hi Gareth,  I don't remember having to compile Sunwait, it just worked for me iirc (it was a long time since I made the camera OS!)

 

ETA: Actually I must have done looking at it!  

Have you managed to clone the sunwait github? If so, you should have a dir called sunwait

from memory, if you change dir to the sunwait and then run 'make all' it should build  

 

 

 

Thanks - that worked and everything seems to be running ok 

Next silly question - I can actually view any output from the webcam, how do I actually view the front end!

 

sorry - very new to this!

[wormix]

3 hours ago, wormix said:

Thanks - that worked and everything seems to be running ok 

Next silly question - I can actually view any output from the webcam, how do I actually view the front end!

 

sorry - very new to this!

Scratch that - figured it out

It’s alive!!!!!

[wormix]

Been playing around with the html and seem to have broken it - now not displaying an image, suspect I have to clear a cache somewhere. 

Edited June 16, 2020 by wormix