New(ish) Cheap all sky camera option!

[powerlord]

Just added a rain detector. So for info on anyone else who wants to do it - just get summit like:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/354993852102

I use voicemonkey.io to setup a trigger and link voicemonkey to my Alexa.

then in Alexa I can trigger that when my voiceMonkey trigger is called, Alexa shouts out to me that it has started raining.

I want it to only do this if my observatory is active. So basically logic is:

If my observatory (oiii is its name - fyi in code) is active, check for rain, and if raining, alert me. then don't alert me again.

when it stops raining, reset the alert so can be alerted again if starts raining again.

Limitations of Alexa mean I have to manually tell it if my observatory is on even though I turn it on/off with alexa - so I do this via an API call and I have two shortcuts on my phone to call that to effectively arm rain detector or disarm it.

that's it basically. its python v3.9 and just runs on yer Pi, and monitors the digital pin on the rain detector (which you have tuned via the board to detect rain).

Hope that make sense - but in a nutshell again - when I open the observatory roof and decide to image, I click the 'arm rain detector' button on my phone.

if it rains at any time, alexa will shout out and tell me throughout the house so I can run out and close it all up.. but IF.. its just a spot and I decide to leave it as it dries up - it will still alert me later if it rains again.

Whenever I shutdown, either during night or in morning, I press 'disarm rain detector' on my phone, and it won't monitor rain or send alerts anymore.

I've got some testing of the detector yet - it's capacitive so makes sense to protect it with plastic or paint, etc to stop corrosion, then tune it again. And I'll mount it at an angle, and polish with car wax (as I will be doing on allsky lens) to aid water beading off.

 

attached some code to get you started.

 

rainDetector.py

[powerlord]

Pic. And turns out it's resistive..so can't paint. So I've made so when corrodes and stops working can plug out and plug new one in.

Looks a bit like a rubbish satellite...

 

[Stuart1971]

I just sent the Module 3 back, as the FOV was pretty dire compared to my current HQ camera and lens, and all the faffing to get focus (auto focus no good on stars)  was just not worth it, as it does change over time with different temps, so am sticking with the HQ camera and re building version 2 of my AllSky camera..with a RPI4 instead of the Zero version 2…new housing, heater and dome…😀

[Paul M]

Very useful. I've currently got the full kit in a Pi Hut shopping basket, and a shopping basket with the enclosure for ASI cameras at Dew Control.

Trembling finger, but I had been wavering towards the Pi Hut enclosre and therefore the module 3 camera, simply for it's compactness and cuteness.

Now perhaps I'll go with my existing ASI178 in the Dew Control enclosure. The heater element is an attraction to me. 

But rather than buy another Pi4, I'm looking at going on the waiting list for a Pi 5 to replace the Pi 4 that is currently overstretched as a IP camera server. So The Pi 4 will be free to use in an ASC. That does delay things, maybe even until next year, though that's the case, wichever route I take.

I seem to remember this forum's late, dear friend, Gina, designed a servo driven focussing mechanism for her ASC lense. But that's complicating things beyond my attention span!

[powerlord]

1 hour ago, Stuart1971 said:

I just sent the Module 3 back, as the FOV was pretty dire compared to my current HQ camera and lens, and all the faffing to get focus (auto focus no good on stars)  was just not worth it, as it does change over time with different temps, so am sticking with the HQ camera and re building version 2 of my AllSky camera..with a RPI4 instead of the Zero version 2…new housing, heater and dome…😀

fair enough. to be fair though I can't see how once set focus would change any more or less than on the HQ and lens ? And I did talk about the 120 degree lens. Good move with the RPI4 though, give you a lot more oomf.

so far anyway mine is keeping focus. I do agree that the 120 degree lens is something you have to be happy with - or don't bother. For me - it's ideal. I suppose it depends what you want it for too - my main purpose is just cloud checking really - while I'm imaging, is it still clear, etc. The timelapses, keograms, etc are all just added bonuses.

for others - focus faffing wise - just install https://github.com/Gordon999/Pi_LIbCamera_GUI

it allows you to live view stars, distance, etc and adjust manually focus to work it out - then you have the value (whatever it is in libcamera divided by 100).

 

[powerlord]

14 minutes ago, Paul M said:

Very useful. I've currently got the full kit in a Pi Hut shopping basket, and a shopping basket with the enclosure for ASI cameras at Dew Control.

Trembling finger, but I had been wavering towards the Pi Hut enclosre and therefore the module 3 camera, simply for it's compactness and cuteness.

Now perhaps I'll go with my existing ASI178 in the Dew Control enclosure. The heater element is an attraction to me. 

But rather than buy another Pi4, I'm looking at going on the waiting list for a Pi 5 to replace the Pi 4 that is currently overstretched as a IP camera server. So The Pi 4 will be free to use in an ASC. That does delay things, maybe even until next year, though that's the case, wichever route I take.

I seem to remember this forum's late, dear friend, Gina, designed a servo driven focussing mechanism for her ASC lense. But that's complicating things beyond my attention span!

I think with an asi camera, you need a dew heater - its a big block of ali, and will get cold. With the cam 3, its just the board, so the small amount of heat that generates goes directly into warming the air - so no need for dew heaters. that's what I think anyway. Plus, there's the heat of the pi4 - in my enclosure it sort of warms the enclosure, therefore the top and lens, etc.

It's probably possible to just stick a mobile wide angle lens on top of the camera 3 I reckon, with a bit of experimenting. it is after all, a mobile phone camera. then you get the wide angle too. you'd just need to get a sort of round mount on the cam 3 - maybe a big o-ring, 3d printed bit or something - wide angle popped on the top - and voila - you should get your 170 degrees or so if desired.

stu

[happy-kat]

What about the asi wide angle lens that come with most of those cameras that might already have

[powerlord]

7 minutes ago, happy-kat said:

What about the asi wide angle lens that come with most of those cameras that might already have

I think they are 2.1mm 150 FOVs ?

 

[Paul M]

48 minutes ago, happy-kat said:

What about the asi wide angle lens that come with most of those cameras that might already have

That's the one I'd be using:

Here is a timelapse I created with the ASI178MC and the included lense. Nice stars and the FOV is fine by me. From home I won't have a view anywhere near the horizon so 180 deg would be wasted.

I'm now wondering whether the Allsky software will be usable from my dark(ish) sky site, where I'd like to base an ASC. There are 2 routers that I'd have to port forward, neither of which I have access to the setting of!   Not sure if the Web Site that it generates will work from there for me.

The two general survelance cameras I monitor there use a paid for web service via AgentDVR. I could likley make an ASC look like an IP camera and plug it into my RasPi server up there, but I'd loose most of the features of the Allsky software, though AgentDVR would provide a timelapse function amongst other thing.

[Budgie1]

So, a wee update from Mr RPi Noob here. 🤓

The package arrived from PiHut containing what I ordered and it was easy to assemble the camera in the enclosure, all nice & neat. The POE HAT just pushes onto four pins on the RPI4 board and just runs, nothing else to be done with this, happy days.

Now, long story short, things didn't quite go to plan but I didn't give up and learned a few things along the way. So, for anyone else who feels like dabbling into this for the first time, here some tips:

1. Most important one that will save you wasting a lot of time - AllSky will only run on the Bullseye OS, it hasn't yet been updated to run on the latest Bookworm OS. I installed both of them twice to get mine working. Download Raspberry PI Imager to install the OS on your SD card and you can also pre-set the username & password + LAN/WiFi access details.
2. When you boot the RPi for the first time, download PuTTY onto your PC so you can access the RPi once it's booted. You'll need to find it's IP address on your network and use the username & password you setup on Raspberry PI Imager.
3. Once you're logged in, first download the updates & install (upgrade) them using these commands:

   sudo apt-get update
   sudo apt-get upgrade

4. Now reboot the RPi and take a test image with the camera. I'm using the Module 3 camera and I needed to take a test image to register the camera with the RPi, to do this use the following command:

   libcamera-still -o test.jpg

5. At this point you can go to the Allsky website and follow the installation instructions and follow the prompts, then reboot to complete the install.
6. It says to open the Allsky web page in a browser using allsky.local or allsky.localhost, these didn't work for me and I had to use the IP address of to get into the Allsky settings etc. So that is an option if you're having trouble.

Now mine is up & running, I just need to install it into an enclosure and put it up on the roof. Something for the weekend  me thinks.

[powerlord]

10 hours ago, Paul M said:

That's the one I'd be using:

Here is a timelapse I created with the ASI178MC and the included lense. Nice stars and the FOV is fine by me. From home I won't have a view anywhere near the horizon so 180 deg would be wasted.

I'm now wondering whether the Allsky software will be usable from my dark(ish) sky site, where I'd like to base an ASC. There are 2 routers that I'd have to port forward, neither of which I have access to the setting of!   Not sure if the Web Site that it generates will work from there for me.

The two general survelance cameras I monitor there use a paid for web service via AgentDVR. I could likley make an ASC look like an IP camera and plug it into my RasPi server up there, but I'd loose most of the features of the Allsky software, though AgentDVR would provide a timelapse function amongst other thing.

You can set it to ftp the pics to somewhere else. That way just needs outgoing, not incoming. Then host website elsewhere.

Stu

[powerlord]

7 hours ago, Budgie1 said:

So, a wee update from Mr RPi Noob here. 🤓

The package arrived from PiHut containing what I ordered and it was easy to assemble the camera in the enclosure, all nice & neat. The POE HAT just pushes onto four pins on the RPI4 board and just runs, nothing else to be done with this, happy days.

Now, long story short, things didn't quite go to plan but I didn't give up and learned a few things along the way. So, for anyone else who feels like dabbling into this for the first time, here some tips:

1. Most important one that will save you wasting a lot of time - AllSky will only run on the Bullseye OS, it hasn't yet been updated to run on the latest Bookworm OS. I installed both of them twice to get mine working. Download Raspberry PI Imager to install the OS on your SD card and you can also pre-set the username & password + LAN/WiFi access details.
2. When you boot the RPi for the first time, download PuTTY onto your PC so you can access the RPi once it's booted. You'll need to find it's IP address on your network and use the username & password you setup on Raspberry PI Imager.
3. Once you're logged in, first download the updates & install (upgrade) them using these commands:

   sudo apt-get update
   sudo apt-get upgrade

4. Now reboot the RPi and take a test image with the camera. I'm using the Module 3 camera and I needed to take a test image to register the camera with the RPi, to do this use the following command:

   libcamera-still -o test.jpg

5. At this point you can go to the Allsky website and follow the installation instructions and follow the prompts, then reboot to complete the install.
6. It says to open the Allsky web page in a browser using allsky.local or allsky.localhost, these didn't work for me and I had to use the IP address of to get into the Allsky settings etc. So that is an option if you're having trouble.

Now mine is up & running, I just need to install it into an enclosure and put it up on the roof. Something for the weekend  me thinks.

Good work.

And just in case you've not worked it out - I didn't originally. There are 2 websites - the admin, and the public:

Http://allsky.local/      admin/secret admin site

Http://allsky.local/allsky  fancy public website

[powerlord]

12 hours ago, Paul M said:

That's the one I'd be using:

Here is a timelapse I created with the ASI178MC and the included lense. Nice stars and the FOV is fine by me. From home I won't have a view anywhere near the horizon so 180 deg would be wasted.

I'm now wondering whether the Allsky software will be usable from my dark(ish) sky site, where I'd like to base an ASC. There are 2 routers that I'd have to port forward, neither of which I have access to the setting of!   Not sure if the Web Site that it generates will work from there for me.

The two general survelance cameras I monitor there use a paid for web service via AgentDVR. I could likley make an ASC look like an IP camera and plug it into my RasPi server up there, but I'd loose most of the features of the Allsky software, though AgentDVR would provide a timelapse function amongst other thing.

I do like that - can see orion, pleiades, etc. I suppose it also depends on sensor size. my lens on the asi120 doesn't get me a circle fish eye for example - it fills the whole sensor. I they supply the same 2.1mm for all the cameras, the fov is gonna change I suppose depending on sensor size.

[Paul M]

Well, I gone dunnit. 

Heading down the ASI178 route and DewControl enclosure.

Have still ordered a Pi 5 and other bits from Pi Hut to free up my existing Pi 4, That's me in a waiting list, so maybe a while before I'm Allskying it.

[Stuart1971]

Just designed a holder for the RPI HQ camera to fit to the outside lot of my new enclosure, will be screwed from the underside of the lid and sealed in, has an upstand so the dome can be fitted with just 4 screws and no sealant needed under dome lip, so dome can be removed easily to focus etc…the upstand inside the dome will stop any moisture getting to the camera board..holes to fix dome will be drilled when fitting.

also put a 2mm recess for the heater ring around the camera lens hole..

Just need all the bits to arrive now to build version 2 of my AllSky…

BTW thanks @Budgie1 for the heads up about the RPI installer, as that makes things much easier being able to set Wi-Fi and so on, up on the install, it can all be accessed wirelessly now for the allsky software install..

 

[happy-kat]

what software is that please?

[Stuart1971]

28 minutes ago, happy-kat said:

what software is that please?

If that question is for me, then Tinkercad…👍🏻

[Budgie1]

It's up and running!

I got an enclosure for the RPI this morning and put it all together, replacing my old IP Skycam with the AllSkyCam. I'm still tweaking things and I have issues getting AllSky to FTP the images to my website, but that was a certificate issue and is all sorted. 

Tonights Top Tip: If you're having issues getting the RPI to work with Windows 10 Remote Desktop, create another username & password, then log in with those details and the Remote Desktop works. It has something to do with Bullseye OS not liking the Root Username, or something like that. 

I still can't access http://allsky.local on browser, I have to use the IP address instead. It's not really an issue as I've not found anything I can't do yet.

@powerlord could you share your nighttime settings for the Module 3 camera? As it's either really dark here or there's something wrong with my settings as I have the auto-exposure set to a max of 80s & auto-gain to a max of 16. Both are currently maxing out to produce the image below at night. So a comparison would be handy, even if our LP levels are different, mine's Bortle 2 for here, well, when it's not cloudy!

[Budgie1]

14 minutes ago, Budgie1 said:

@powerlord could you share your nighttime settings for the Module 3 camera? As it's either really dark here or there's something wrong with my settings as I have the auto-exposure set to a max of 80s & auto-gain to a max of 16. Both are currently maxing out to produce the image below at night.

I helps quite a lot to turn on the auto-stretch in the config.sh file!

[Paul M]

I've been soaking up the Allsky how-to info, and there is quite a lot of it!

No rush. My new Pi 5 is in the queue and I'm not expecting it until January at the earliest.

It seems that I will be able to integrate the Allsky imagery with the AgentDVR system that will be getting transfered to the Pi 5 eventually. 

I can create a new "camera" in Agent that can be pointed to a file as either image or video source. There seems to be an Allsky setting, relating to external websites, that can save out the latest image/timelapse under a fixed filename I.E. "current_timelapse.mpeg", or some such. Hopefully I'd be able to do that locally on the Allsky Pi and point Agent DVR to that file.

Right now, using AgentDVR to get Allsky imagery through the firewall(s) seems easier than setting up a domain/website and having full remote functionality. It's going to be based 70 odd miles from home on a peculiar Internet connection that has limitations and that I have no admin rights to. It would need to auto reboot after power loss etc. 

And if all else fails I'll just have to FTP that stuff out of there. 

Maybe in future I'd go the remote website route. Gotta get the thing running first!

My brain is already groaning.

[Budgie1]

The remote website isn't that hard to setup. If you do get issues then it's normally down to the settings, in my case I had to remove the FTP server port number from the ftp-settings.sh file on RPi for it to work. There is an error file created by the RPi, which I accessed via Remote Desktop, which points you in the right direction.

I've converted the Webcam page on my weather website for the AllSky, it's currently only got the latest image on it, but is setup to take the timelapse, keogram & star trail files when they get created tomorrow morning.

[Stuart1971]

Ok, so a couple of questions, on my RPI HQ camera there is a UV/IR cut filter that has been badly pitted from the sun over the last two years, so I removed it and but a new UV/IR cut filter in it’s place, but I noticed that the one I removed was a blueish glass where the one I put in was almost clear like Astro UV/IR cut filter are..and now the daytime images are very red, (see below)  just like when you remove the filter on a DSLR camera during the normal Astro mod…so I guess the filter I removed must have some Ha blocking too, and this enables a normal daytime white balance…would this be correct….??

In which case people who,use ASI colour cameras in there AllSky, what are there daytime images like..? Are they also reddish, or do those cameras also have daytime white Balance filtration (Ha blocking) built into the cover glass on those cameras, if so then they are not really optimised for night time Astro use…are they…🤔🤔

So I could go with this and have a better, more sensitive camera for nightime and loose the daytime AllSky side of it, as that’s what it’s really for anyway..🤔
 

Thoughts…

 

Edited November 7, 2023 by Stuart1971

[Stuart1971]

Ok well with altering the white balance settings in the allsky software just for daytime, I can get a perfect looking daytime image, and can leave on auto for nightime and get the extra Ha in the nightime images, so all good…well worth changing the filter I think…

Edited November 7, 2023 by Stuart1971

[Stuart1971]

Ok, new version 2 AllSky camera built and up and running, 125mm square x 75mm deep box, 3.5” dome, raspberry PI HQ camera and 150 degree view lens, raspberry PI4 4gb and 12v dew heater ring…

 

 

Edited November 8, 2023 by Stuart1971

[happy-kat]

Did you make your own hole in the box and used an o ring for the dome?