Hi Jim,

Thanks :)  I've not put any details up yet, though currently just using a 
regular Pi Camera 1.3.  Its easy to take photos using the "raspistill" 
command, though I wrote something in Python.  In the end should probably 
just have kept it as a shell script for simplicity.

Lots of fisheye style camera options around too.  I'd like something of a 
slightly wider angle lense, but with the sharpness and colour of the Pi 
Camera 1.3.  The Pi Camera 2 is wider, but the results don't look so nice 
to my eye.

Good luck!

Alex


On Sunday, 26 January 2020 01:52:49 UTC+13, Jim Nagle wrote:
>
> I like this project!  I'm attempting to do a similar video concept to 
> support WX observation conditions at an observatory using a upward looking 
> camera with a fisheye lens to shown visibility conditions.  Are the details 
> of your RPi camera setup available?  I'm also trying to create a telescope 
> eyepiece that would stream the video so that the observation viewed on the 
> large 10" refractor telescope could be displayed on a monitor in the 
> observatory or the internet.
>
> On Thursday, January 2, 2020 at 7:31:10 PM UTC-5, Alex Edwards wrote:
>>
>> Happy 2020 everyone. Just another weather / webcam project, but hopefully 
>> a bit different 
>>
>> Its a solar powered Raspberry Pi Zero WH, together with FineOffset WS2080 
>> weather station, Pi Camera 1.3, 3G MiFi, EPever LS1024B solar controller, 
>> 26Ah battery (2nd hand) and 40W solar panel. Components placed in a 
>> UV-resistant plastic box to survive nasty NZ sun. Its all on a slighyl 
>> remote hill paddock overlooking the Bay of Islands in New Zealand.
>>
>> You can see the output here: 
>> https://horsetrekn.co.nz/paihia-weather-cam-bay-of-islands 
>> <https://horsetrekn.co.nz/paihia-weather-cam-bay-of-islands?fbclid=IwAR09ezC04UHcHfqlSi_OOJkqnfi2BQV2yllYH9zQHTNV2ZykoalOfmIGy-A>
>>  
>> - WeeWX links at the bottom of the page.
>>
>> The idea is to take photos of the weather, but also of the nice view and 
>> any horses roaming around the hill paddock. The Pi currently uploads a 
>> new photo every 5 minutes to our webserver, and some basic JSON weather 
>> data as a very minimal WeeWX report. 
>>
>> Once a day it uploads weather and solar power charts, generated using 2 
>> WeeWX daemons. After weeks creating some EPever / EPsolar drivers, I 
>> spotted Mattew Wall had done something similar exactly the same time. I've 
>> modified that driver for my needs and created a straight forward skin. I'll 
>> upload my stuff to Github when its tidied a bit more. I also spent way 
>> too long creating other MODBUS 'map' style drivers I may upload too, or 
>> modify the driver to use - they were working well :) 
>>
>> The idea of the 40W panel and quite large battery is the Pi should be 
>> able to keep running for around 5 days during winter/stormy weather, and 
>> overnight too for weather data. The setup could survive for 24hrs or so 
>> using a 7Ah battery and smaller panel. I've got the Pi's box stacked on 
>> another to get a better view, and using a 2nd hand barrel as a platform 
>> which I'll part fill with water for stability.
>>
>> I wonder about creating a more generic 'solar' project for WeeWX that 
>> could handle different solar controller 'drivers'? I also wonder about 
>> including a dummy 'solar driver' as an example in WeeWX?
>>
>> Next steps - 
>> * Raise camera a bit using a 2m camera cable on a pole.
>> * Consider uploading WeeWX data more frequenty, possibly to another WeeWX 
>> process on the webserver which can then create the charts etc.
>> * Provide an album and timelapse video of recent images. I already do 
>> this on the Pi, but not on the website.
>>
>> Some tips learned along the way :-
>>
>> * Mozjpeg does a great job at compressing JPEGs more, especially with 
>> ms-ssim tuning, key to saving mobile data etc. Other compression techniques 
>> took too long for debatable improvement.
>> * The Pi seemed unreliable reading USB serial data, until I read about 
>> using a powered hub. Even though the USB load is quite low, this seems to 
>> help stability a lot. The hub is powered from a dual 12V-5V USB loom from 
>> the controller, the other USB powering the Pi.
>> * The Pi Camera 1.3 seems A LOT nicer to use than the v2 - at least the 
>> versions I got. Less resolution, but much nicer colours, better exposure 
>> and sharper too.
>> * sshReach.me is a handy way to login to the Pi over 3G.
>>
>

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