Unless you treated that 3d print, it will likely still let water in. Also I would highly recommend puting an i2c humidity sensor on the PI so you can check internal conditions without opening the device. Bonus feature, those sensors also usually have a thermometer.
I actually have a temp/hum sensor but I haven't learned how to hook it up yet. Would like one external and internal. The box was given 2 or 3 coats of spray paint.
@@bradleywhais7779 Yep, they're inaccurate and unreliable. Personally I use SHT30, It's not the best, but gets the job done usually. I've also heard people recommend the BME280.
@@AlaskanAstro if your i2c sensors are stuck with the same address, look into i2c multiplexers like a TCA9548A I2C Multiplexer. took me a long time to find these gems.
If using sealant on dome do it before sealing the rest of enclosure, you can get a residue on your dome from the curing process. And use a seal and paint coat on the 3d box, dry it all in the sun or low temp oven. Then the desicants can do its job instead of being saturated in a week. Awesome work!
What an awesome concept! Not sure if the dome is a standard diameter you might see with a hole saw. If so, cut a shallow channel in the top, so that you can apply your gasket caulk in the channel, instead of precariously to the dome then trying to set it without making a mess.
Totally sealing an outdoor enclosure is a losing battle in the long run. You need to have breather holes to allow the pressure to equalize as the atmospheric pressure changes. If you don't, you end up pulling air through weird places, like through the ethernet cable, and you'll eventually end up with moisture inside the box. You do have a pretty big desiccant pack, but eventually even that will get overwhelmed. The winning formula is allow it to breathe in a way that water / bugs can't get in (aka breather holes on the bottom, or with rain shields if they're on the sides, and with bug shields behind the holes - multiple layers of shop towels work well to keep bugs out but still allow air / moisture to pass)
I used to do video surveillance and we always mounted a big 5-watt resistor with cooling ribs inside the camera housing close to the lens Can`t remember the value of the resistor though...@12volts This in combination with some ventilation keeps your camera fog and specially snow free even in the humid Dutch climate
You can also buy IP-rated vents for enclosures. They "Keep moisture out, equalise air pressure and temperature, and keep dust out" .... according to their blurb.
Those two composed images are super fun (star trails and this bar looking one)! Would be cool if the software could stabilize the rotation of the stars and do a long exposure over this. So meaning you get a clear view of the stars over the whole night, composed together - seeing movements of planets and other near objects as trails
I’ve been wanting to do this for a while now. Thanks for making this video! Going to order what I need today and get the process started on planning everything.
Fullsky -> VR? I’m not sure if you’re on this yet or if it’s interesting, but it’s clear that the lens distortion of the camera could be easily “un-distorted” to recreate the full sky in VR. Either as a 360 video (easiest, can be posted to youtube though the yt compression on vr is rough) or can be fed through something like Unreal engine to make downloadable files that anyone could run.
Great video. If your desiccant has turned pink, it's saturated with H2O. Most desiccants can be reset with 10+ minutes in a 225F (105C) oven -hot enough to evaporate out the moisture.
Wow! Thank you for that super helpful comment!! I did not know you could "revive" desiccant. (Or as my my wife thought it was pronounced... Die-sea-can't)
Thanks for the great video. I have been thinking about building an all-sky-cam and this information helps a lot. I really like the Keogram view option 👍🏻 I hope you have better weather in Alaska than we have in Sweden.
hope you have a 3-5mm hole in the bottom of the box to let potential condensation moisture out.. im an electrician by trade and basically everything we install outside have holes at the lowest part to allow water to not get trapped inside.. other than that, cool stuff man
I just tried printing your box and it works amazing, kind of lol. I only wish the box was a little longer so cables don't bind quite so much. The side that is 5 and half inch make it like 6 inch, this way there is a little breathing room for straight cables that don't have the 90 degree built in ends.
Really thinking about doing something similar. I live in Puerto Rico, and the weather can be very interesting. Love to see any update on this project sounds cool.
Wonderful video and idea.. I wish I had enough clear nights per year to even think about doing something like this. I've got a rather good telescope for the last 3 years, not managed to use it once yet!
Wow, this is amazing! I live in an apartment in downtown area and I’ve started thinking about which of my friends’ backyards I can ‘borrow’ to set something similar up :D
I've just bolted my dome to the top of my enclosure and I've had no water intrusion in the three years it has been mounted to my roof. The dome I am using is a 3" diameter flanged acrylic dome with a six screw flange. Its held up fine in Texas summers and the pretty aggressive thunderstorms we get in the spring and fall.
That glue is used to seal baths and showers so should hold off the rain.Most of those all sky cameras I have seen are fixed on the side of buildings.I think that wind would blow over the tripod.I have never been to Alaska but I am guessing that it has high winds.
I'd be more worried about the sun getting focused into the camera at some angles burning out the sensor. Might be worth considering a photo reactive sun shade for it. Maybe an lcd with the reflector removed, though I bet there are solutions already out there.
I've printed ninjaflex gaskets for 3d printed timelapse cameras, and I've never had water ingress issues. My prints have warped a bit, through a combination of solar heating and materials creep due to being loaded in compression by the bolting system. I've had them out for months and months in a temperate climate. One suggestion is to print a air guide that directs the fan air into the dome and then recirculates it down again.
Maybe move the gland underneath, and have it pass through a small panel that unscrews, along with a gasket. This saves having to replace the ethernet end each time. At the same time, have a flange on the underside of the case on all sides, to prevent water wicking round the sides.
1:30 To ensure a better seal could there be a small channel for the gasket to ‘slip in’ and not slip out? Maybe use a thin dremel to channel it out around the the top of the box? =========================== I was stationed in Kodiak for 6 years and spent another 6 years as military brat at Ft Greely. I loved every minute I lived there. Thanks for the box idea as well! Montana may not be as far North but it’s close enough. I do time lapse videos here so that box idea is fantastic!!
That is a great kit. I particularly love the star trail + aurora it gets. I have been trying to build a Pi Zero W camera to get the south celestial pole star trail - using a phone power bank to drive the Pi. While that limits the run time, there is no wiring beyond the link from the pack. I have been using VNC to remote control my Pi. The hard part for mine was trying to focus when using the new HD camera with an old SLR lens... so the project has stalled. With the network wire running over the ground, for protection I would have been putting it through a PVC conduit before you terminated it in the box. You might even be able to bury the conduit for maximum protection? Does the ground freeze where you are?
Yeah I'm not set on this being a permanent install location yet so the cable will just have to do its best. I have my power and data lines buried out to the pier box. Honestly what's going to probably happen is I'll let the snowfall bury the POE line and it'll be protected until May under a few feet of snow and ice, haha.
How do you stop the sun from baking the camera during the day? i made like almost exactly the same as this but in the end after a month the camera sensor was FRIED by having a sun path burned onto it that was just blind due to the fisheye. Also don't underestimate dew from collecting inside the dome and leaking on your electronics, that's how mine died eventually. Next time I'm rebuilding it I'm adding a gutter that can leak out, with the dome and the pie compartment being a separate enclosure...
Nice allsky cam did you print it with PLA or ABS ? For inside Temp and Hum highly recommand BME280 and a set of warming resistors that you could manage with the RPI with simple python script.
Great video. Your video has given me the bug to do the same thing… though I was thinking of putting it permanently on the roof of my 2 story house… or at least some semi-permanent mounting point easy to get to from my gable window in the walk in attic. 2 Peter 3:8 We are close to the 7th day. Seven is the number of completion. 2 Timothy 3: According to the Bible these will be perilous times. Get right with Jesus now before the rapture. You don’t want to be left here during the tribulation. God be with you all.
Greetings from down on the KP! Great setup you've got there. Been thinking about doing something similar although we don't get the aurora like you do. Wondering, can AllSky be used to feed location info to a camera on movable mount with zoom features, say to get shots of eagles or other birds flying over? Looking forward to putting that software on a pi and trying it out and keeping track of your progress. Fun stuff!
I don't believe there is enough energy from the tiny lens to concentrate enough onto the tiny sensor to harm it. Worth doing a little research though, I might be shortening my cams life. Nothing burnt in yet though.
I have a pi4 laying around doing nothing just pihole, maybe I could use it for this and give it a better use. This is pretty neat, sadly I wouldn't get such images as you do to my location but would be a great project to do. Now what I need is a 3D printer, but need to think what else I can use it for. good DYI project
Interesting...I have only heard of motioneyos for camera usage. I believe you can set it up for automatically generated still images or video, and stitch them together for a time lapse. I would guess it doesn't do the star trails nor the kesograms.
Well done and good job. My concern is contaminents getting on the under side of the dome which would require extensive cleaning (especially when you say the caulk smells like old garden hose). Tom KC3QAC
Great video! Makes me wanna do one for myself as well. Would you mind sharing the total cost of those components like Pi and Camera you used for the whole project? That could be really helpful. Thanks.
You could apply anti rain chemicals on to your dome. Stuff made for car windshields... you might end up with a lot less raindrops and perhaps dirt.
I thought about trying this actually! Need to order some and wait for it to arrive in the village.
Use RainX original, not the glass cleaner+repellant. The original works much better.@@AlaskanAstro
As a motorcylist don't use the stuff designed for glass is gives plastic a milky sheen
@@DestideSomone has a milky windscreen
@@AlaskanAstro Plexus - We use it on acrylic airplane and helicopter windscreens. I also use it on my helmet.
Unless you treated that 3d print, it will likely still let water in. Also I would highly recommend puting an i2c humidity sensor on the PI so you can check internal conditions without opening the device. Bonus feature, those sensors also usually have a thermometer.
I actually have a temp/hum sensor but I haven't learned how to hook it up yet. Would like one external and internal. The box was given 2 or 3 coats of spray paint.
DHT series is another good option for humidity sensing.
@@4DRC_in my experience if you breath on those they break.
@@bradleywhais7779 Yep, they're inaccurate and unreliable. Personally I use SHT30, It's not the best, but gets the job done usually. I've also heard people recommend the BME280.
@@AlaskanAstro if your i2c sensors are stuck with the same address, look into i2c multiplexers like a TCA9548A I2C Multiplexer. took me a long time to find these gems.
Great video. Thanks for taking the time to shoot/edit/share it with the community.
If using sealant on dome do it before sealing the rest of enclosure, you can get a residue on your dome from the curing process. And use a seal and paint coat on the 3d box, dry it all in the sun or low temp oven. Then the desicants can do its job instead of being saturated in a week. Awesome work!
Good tips
What an awesome concept!
Not sure if the dome is a standard diameter you might see with a hole saw. If so, cut a shallow channel in the top, so that you can apply your gasket caulk in the channel, instead of precariously to the dome then trying to set it without making a mess.
Totally sealing an outdoor enclosure is a losing battle in the long run. You need to have breather holes to allow the pressure to equalize as the atmospheric pressure changes. If you don't, you end up pulling air through weird places, like through the ethernet cable, and you'll eventually end up with moisture inside the box. You do have a pretty big desiccant pack, but eventually even that will get overwhelmed. The winning formula is allow it to breathe in a way that water / bugs can't get in (aka breather holes on the bottom, or with rain shields if they're on the sides, and with bug shields behind the holes - multiple layers of shop towels work well to keep bugs out but still allow air / moisture to pass)
Great thoughts! An open design was another choice I thought of. Even if I have to replace desiccant every month or two this isn't so bad though.
I used to do video surveillance and we always mounted a big 5-watt resistor with cooling ribs inside the camera housing close to the lens
Can`t remember the value of the resistor though...@12volts
This in combination with some ventilation keeps your camera fog and specially snow free even in the humid Dutch climate
You can also buy IP-rated vents for enclosures. They "Keep moisture out, equalise air pressure and temperature, and keep dust out" .... according to their blurb.
How about sealing it and then adding a small syringe for equalisation? The pressure would just move the plunger in and out....
@@HeliBoyVR that’s clever
I would love to do something like this at my house in Texas. The storm coverage would be phenomenal.
Those two composed images are super fun (star trails and this bar looking one)!
Would be cool if the software could stabilize the rotation of the stars and do a long exposure over this. So meaning you get a clear view of the stars over the whole night, composed together - seeing movements of planets and other near objects as trails
I watched the whole video expecting a pie recipe and was not disappointed at the end! All my hard work waiting has really pied off.
I’ve been wanting to do this for a while now. Thanks for making this video! Going to order what I need today and get the process started on planning everything.
Fullsky -> VR?
I’m not sure if you’re on this yet or if it’s interesting, but it’s clear that the lens distortion of the camera could be easily “un-distorted” to recreate the full sky in VR. Either as a 360 video (easiest, can be posted to youtube though the yt compression on vr is rough) or can be fed through something like Unreal engine to make downloadable files that anyone could run.
You can use really large o-rings for square objects too if you get the dimensions right
It is also quite easy to cut and glue back o-rings to make them smaller if needed. I saw a video on UA-cam, tried it and it worked surprisingly well!
Great video. If your desiccant has turned pink, it's saturated with H2O. Most desiccants can be reset with 10+ minutes in a 225F (105C) oven -hot enough to evaporate out the moisture.
Wow! Thank you for that super helpful comment!! I did not know you could "revive" desiccant. (Or as my my wife thought it was pronounced... Die-sea-can't)
That dessicant is orange, not pink. Its fine.
Thanks for the great video. I have been thinking about building an all-sky-cam and this information helps a lot. I really like the Keogram view option 👍🏻 I hope you have better weather in Alaska than we have in Sweden.
"...and this is my dog's nose! It's wet and wiggly!" cute pup
That was really interesting. Thanks for sharing. It beats looking at clouds on a weather app :)
Yep! No better weather forecast than looking at the sky. And this means I don't even have to go outside to do it.
hope you have a 3-5mm hole in the bottom of the box to let potential condensation moisture out.. im an electrician by trade and basically everything we install outside have holes at the lowest part to allow water to not get trapped inside.. other than that, cool stuff man
If you don't want silicone to stick to other things, for example if you make gaskets, just cover them with a film of dish soap. 🙂
👍
I would try to get a glass dome as I have noticed that the clear spheres from Amazon have yellowed after a year in the sun😊
I've wanted to make an all-sky camera for decades.
Super awesome! Double like especially with the end reference!
Wow what a happy find! I am very interested in this! Thanks for the cool video :)
Thank you for sharing your project, definitely is amazing your place with auroras, will look to use your enclosure.
Very nice video aat! I'll actually look into doing this for myself! -Stealth
I just tried printing your box and it works amazing, kind of lol. I only wish the box was a little longer so cables don't bind quite so much. The side that is 5 and half inch make it like 6 inch, this way there is a little breathing room for straight cables that don't have the 90 degree built in ends.
Really thinking about doing something similar. I live in Puerto Rico, and the weather can be very interesting. Love to see any update on this project sounds cool.
Brilliant work all the best. Thanks for posting
Wonderful video and idea.. I wish I had enough clear nights per year to even think about doing something like this.
I've got a rather good telescope for the last 3 years, not managed to use it once yet!
Wow, this is amazing! I live in an apartment in downtown area and I’ve started thinking about which of my friends’ backyards I can ‘borrow’ to set something similar up :D
I've just bolted my dome to the top of my enclosure and I've had no water intrusion in the three years it has been mounted to my roof. The dome I am using is a 3" diameter flanged acrylic dome with a six screw flange. Its held up fine in Texas summers and the pretty aggressive thunderstorms we get in the spring and fall.
That glue is used to seal baths and showers so should hold off the rain.Most of those all sky cameras I have seen are fixed on the side of buildings.I think that wind would blow over the tripod.I have never been to Alaska but I am guessing that it has high winds.
I'm thinking about building something like this with mine 678. Thanks for motivation!
these things are awesome, I want to run them all day/everyday looking for stuff, run models (to look for moving stuff)
cool video
Awesome, I been wanting to make something like this for a long time. thanks
I'd be more worried about the sun getting focused into the camera at some angles burning out the sensor.
Might be worth considering a photo reactive sun shade for it. Maybe an lcd with the reflector removed, though I bet there are solutions already out there.
I've printed ninjaflex gaskets for 3d printed timelapse cameras, and I've never had water ingress issues. My prints have warped a bit, through a combination of solar heating and materials creep due to being loaded in compression by the bolting system. I've had them out for months and months in a temperate climate.
One suggestion is to print a air guide that directs the fan air into the dome and then recirculates it down again.
Really cool! Good job! You are quite the inventor.
Maybe move the gland underneath, and have it pass through a small panel that unscrews, along with a gasket. This saves having to replace the ethernet end each time. At the same time, have a flange on the underside of the case on all sides, to prevent water wicking round the sides.
Always wanted to make one of those. And I now live in a very dark area, just far enough from Palmer AK, to be clear of it's light dome.
Video opens with a dog, I'm all in
Thank you for sharing this, you have inspired me.
What camera are you using?
How much does it cost to build?
Great video...👍
That's just an amazing project.
1:30 To ensure a better seal could there be a small channel for the gasket to ‘slip in’ and not slip out? Maybe use a thin dremel to channel it out around the the top of the box?
===========================
I was stationed in Kodiak for 6 years and spent another 6 years as military brat at Ft Greely. I loved every minute I lived there.
Thanks for the box idea as well! Montana may not be as far North but it’s close enough.
I do time lapse videos here so that box idea is fantastic!!
You have built Clesthyra's Eye. If anyone gets this reference, I will be jumping up and down in joy.
Great video, didn't even know this sort of thing existed.
If you could realize a fast turning glas, you could keep it free from rain if it is raining because the raindrobs would fly away instantly
That is a great kit. I particularly love the star trail + aurora it gets. I have been trying to build a Pi Zero W camera to get the south celestial pole star trail - using a phone power bank to drive the Pi. While that limits the run time, there is no wiring beyond the link from the pack. I have been using VNC to remote control my Pi. The hard part for mine was trying to focus when using the new HD camera with an old SLR lens... so the project has stalled.
With the network wire running over the ground, for protection I would have been putting it through a PVC conduit before you terminated it in the box. You might even be able to bury the conduit for maximum protection? Does the ground freeze where you are?
Yeah I'm not set on this being a permanent install location yet so the cable will just have to do its best. I have my power and data lines buried out to the pier box. Honestly what's going to probably happen is I'll let the snowfall bury the POE line and it'll be protected until May under a few feet of snow and ice, haha.
Nice video.
You can get a dozen different types of RTV silicone in easier to use tubes from the auto parts department.
"our neighbor with the snow machine"... aka "our neighbor the banshee!" :D
Hello fellow Alaskan! I've been wanting to make something like this for a long time to catch the clouds as they enter the valley.
How do you stop the sun from baking the camera during the day? i made like almost exactly the same as this but in the end after a month the camera sensor was FRIED by having a sun path burned onto it that was just blind due to the fisheye. Also don't underestimate dew from collecting inside the dome and leaking on your electronics, that's how mine died eventually. Next time I'm rebuilding it I'm adding a gutter that can leak out, with the dome and the pie compartment being a separate enclosure...
Don't know how I ended up on your video but I'm happy to help design a "better" enclosure with TPU gaskets to seal everything.
I hope Nina landed on a bed of feathers. Thanks for the very interesting video.
We just all gonna ignore he threw the dog?
Very interesting and will likely have one soon. 👍
I have to build myself one of these. Nice vid
Yo new AA just dropped
Come back next year for another video
Brilliant! I need to do this for my zwo camera!
Why you through your dog like that 😢
Nice allsky cam did you print it with PLA or ABS ?
For inside Temp and Hum highly recommand BME280 and a set of warming resistors that you could manage with the RPI with simple python script.
Great video. Your video has given me the bug to do the same thing… though I was thinking of putting it permanently on the roof of my 2 story house… or at least some semi-permanent mounting point easy to get to from my gable window in the walk in attic. 2 Peter 3:8 We are close to the 7th day. Seven is the number of completion. 2 Timothy 3: According to the Bible these will be perilous times. Get right with Jesus now before the rapture. You don’t want to be left here during the tribulation. God be with you all.
Cool! Now… 3 months Alaskan winter, did the excess heat from Raspberry keep the dome clear and fogless?
It has so far!
This is really cool
Thanks for sharing your. I may be able to get some nice views myself in a public owned space that is relatively unlit. Reminded me of an old friend.
Greetings from down on the KP! Great setup you've got there. Been thinking about doing something similar although we don't get the aurora like you do. Wondering, can AllSky be used to feed location info to a camera on movable mount with zoom features, say to get shots of eagles or other birds flying over? Looking forward to putting that software on a pi and trying it out and keeping track of your progress. Fun stuff!
2 Peter 3:8 , i subbed just to say thank u
Have you thought about recording audio along with the view. It would be cool to hear the aurora.
Question: Can direct sunlight destroy the camera sensor if it's not covered and always pointing up?
I don't believe there is enough energy from the tiny lens to concentrate enough onto the tiny sensor to harm it. Worth doing a little research though, I might be shortening my cams life. Nothing burnt in yet though.
Truly nice!
I am doing a similar thing with a nest outdoor camera
Cool.
& thx 4 sharing!
Really cool. What is the camera and lens being used?
I have a pi4 laying around doing nothing just pihole, maybe I could use it for this and give it a better use. This is pretty neat, sadly I wouldn't get such images as you do to my location but would be a great project to do. Now what I need is a 3D printer, but need to think what else I can use it for. good DYI project
May i recommend black silicone mat as a gasket? Just cut out the center?
Interesting...I have only heard of motioneyos for camera usage. I believe you can set it up for automatically generated still images or video, and stitch them together for a time lapse. I would guess it doesn't do the star trails nor the kesograms.
Cool, an idea would be to put it in a tube the same size as the glass, that way the snow will slide off, just a thought?
I like that idea. I've seen cylindrical plans from others as well.
Curious how this will do in hot environments? Like pacific northwest summers.
Nice, thanks for sharing.
That looks like the twighlight zone box. Would you press the button? I’d press it.
Is anyone asking what hppened to the doggie? LOL "This is my dog Nina. *YEET*"
Cool project. Might be able to fit the ethernet connector through the cable gland hole.
See that you 3D-printed the box and lid. You can print fine gaskets in TPU or TPE!
Another dome that could rotate over the top for rain and sun damage would be pretty useful...
That’s cool. Would love to see what’ll happen if you stack up all the images from the Milky Way.
What camera did you use? Maybe I missed it, wanna make one!
Will this setup also capture red sprites and blue jet activity?
Well done and good job. My concern is contaminents getting on the under side of the dome which would require extensive cleaning (especially when you say the caulk smells like old garden hose). Tom KC3QAC
What's the chances of vapor from that 'ooze' condensing on the inside of the dome?
Great video! Makes me wanna do one for myself as well. Would you mind sharing the total cost of those components like Pi and Camera you used for the whole project? That could be really helpful. Thanks.
So cool!)
When will you be prepared to offer the camera as a commercial product.
Awesome.
Would this also work as a fireball camera?
Can you please supply a link to the dome?
Could you use Wi-Fi instead of Poe if you had a power supply?
Yes, no reason you couldn't. It runs all on it's own so even if your connection is spotty it only needs to connect to view it.
Anywhere to see a full parts list?
Nice!!