Allsky Camera, cutting the ribbon.

[Paul M]

The trial and tribulations of all-sky cameras...

The Paulsky Camera has been off for 10 days. The Ras Pi. shut down or otherwise stopped responding. Then the mini PC I use as a both a server for the Pi imagery and some genera purpose PoE cameras I have watching the world go by, decided to do similar. Couldn't VNC into either of them. Can't remote reboot if it's like that. 

So now we're back up on site and I've installed a smart multi plug that I can talk to remotely (ie from home). I set the Bios in the Mini PC to reboot on restoration of power so hopefully I can force that to reboot now, tests have been promising. The RasPi, as we know, just boots on power-up. Very civilised.

I haven't tested the mini PC to see if it reboots if, for example I accidentally shut it down over VNC, then power it off then on via the smart plug. I'll test that tomorrow.

Other exciting news; I've changed the lens on the Paulsky Camera. It's image circle now fits entirely on the ASI178 camera's sensor. I've cropped the surplus width in the frame, so saving on file size. Not that storage is an issue, but file write time is, or can be!

Just for fun, here is a single frame from last night. 

North is at the top, and it just shows a lovely string of solar powered light that have very recently been strung along the length of a neighbours luxury villa. Bang on my north horizon! They come on even in the long periods when the occupants aren't even here. Luckily they don't seen to be bothering exposure of causing dome flares. And in winter they won't get enough sunlight to work.

 

Edited May 28 by Paul M

[Norris Adams]

On 26/04/2024 at 00:18, Paul M said:

In a land far, far away, Cumbria to be exact, there is a pristine clear sky.

I'm not there to witness it, but the Paulsky Camera is!

While flicking through the images, I spotted a nice meteor. So here is that frame. It'll be lost as a sub-second flash in the overnight time-lapse.

Cloud and moonlight have been blighting the Allsky Camera recently but it's improving again, maybe a window of opportunity before the all-night-twilight sets in.

The Great Glowing Cheesball is just starting  to affect the camera now. So, it's downhill for the rest of the night...

 

In other news, emboldened by @Skipper Billy's Allsky camera linked to above, I've ordered a lens that will fit the whole image circle on the ASI 178 sensor. So a full 180deg view. That and I've ordered a much bigger dome. Again, Skipper Billy suggested that on his website as it allows ventilation holes to be drilled around the camera, allowing the very warm air from the RasPi to circulate in the dome, hopefully keeping it condensation free.

There is a newly released firmware (EEPROM) for the Raspi, which allows even greater overclocking. I can't dream of taking the enclosed Pi to the max but I still had the original firmware on my Pi 4B which limited the CPU to 1.5 MHz, I've now set it to 2.0 Mhz. It might, and probably will cook in the summer. So I'll likely stop recording daytime images and just let it idle in the heat of the day. I'm looking to swap the Pi4 for my Pi5 to limit some of the issues with image handling. I tried at the weekend but it balked at boot-up, complaining of voltage drop. Thinking about it, the PoE splitter is only rated at 2A, so I've got a higher rated one on order. The PoE injector is a big 8 channel PoE switch rated at 85w total load. It is also running 2 x PoE surveillance cameras, but I'm confident that total load will be compliant.

That'll be an ongoing project into the summer, due to my limited opportunities to get up there once the parts arrive.

Beautiful image!