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  • Author Author: mcb1
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Camera Location and Mounting

mcb1

This is part of my project to fit a solar powered RaspberryPi webcam at Mt Lyford that starts here

 

An excuse for a field trip (to a skifield) on a nice day, is not to be missed, however this trip was all business, with a couple of other things to look at/repair as well.

The exact location and mounting method was one of the things on my list.

 

Snow, ice and the odd heavy machine (groomer) means that unless its well anchored, its very likely to move.

Snow is a strange thing, and this year they received the largest dump in 30 years, over 2m (78 inches)

Many barns and sheds around the area, caved in with the weight of the fairly wet snow dump.

 

The snow was also delivered with high winds, which meant some drifts were 6m deep, and the only access to the field was by helicopter.

 

Obviously any mounting (and what its fitted to) needs to withstand some abuse, add in some brittleness from extreme and prolonged cold, and you need to plan carefully.

 

 

imageimage

 

This pole is driven well into the ground and is solid.

It also is far enough away from the groomers when they shape the return track, as the corner is widest at that point.

 

The base of the pole has a nice area for a wooden battery box, that will withstand the elements (and the odd hit from a shovel ... if they need to dig it out).

 

The view from the location is right, and while this isn't from the RPi, gives the option of two tow lines to aim at.

(There has been very little additional snow and warm weather since that first dump, and as a conseqence a lot off trail has been lost.)

 

image

 

While I was there, I considered where the sun would be, and looked at what options there were for the solar panel.

This photo was taken at 12:46 pm and gives me a pretty good idea of the panel angle and orientation.

It can be combined with the other mount and will fit on the pole easily.

 

imageimage

 

Because I couldn't ski that day, I had to borrow one of the new Snow mobiles, which I have to say are a bit addictive.

However it wasn't a joyride as I helped deliver some fuel to the rope tow ...

 

 

Mark


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  • in reply to Problemchild

    John

    Power is the consideration here.

    Having a couple of large resistors to warm it isn't in the power budget, and going to larger solar panels brings all sorts of other issues.

    Ensuring that the housing doesn't become a really big cold sink is one of the considerations, hence metal is out.

     

    Summer doesn't count ... there's no skiing, and the place is shut down.

    I think we will remove the installation during the shutdown period, mainly to stop it getting sandblasted.

     

    The skifield uses satellite to get its broadband connection.

    This serves the Ticketing office on line transactions, and the occasional web access.

    My intention is to WiFi it back to the office, where it gets processed and sent out every 15 mins along with the other two cameras to the website.

     

    cheers

    Mark

  • in reply to mcb1

    Wonder if you insulate it with Glass wool or something the heat from the Pi would be kept in ?

     

    Any way have you also considered the 433Mhz Narrow Band RF modules that Farnell sell they are

    used by David ?? who does the high Altitude Balloon launches with the RPI

  • in reply to Problemchild

    John

    Thanks for the ideas.

     

    I was intending to use a foam insultator around the Pi just like the high alt balloon.

    'Glass Batts' (insulation) is another, but they have other problems (scratchy and irritate some people, easy to blow away)

    Surprisingly they don't work as well when compressed...

     

    I stuck with WiFi, because it was easy, and allowed remoting into the device, etc.

    My first thought was a USB and external antenna, but I was convinced that a seperate unit was a better option, that has been reliable on other skifields.

    It also will allow future expansion.

     

    I was shown a 433Mhz telemetry link last night, and need to order one.

     

    Mark

  • in reply to mcb1

    The 433 Mhz modules can go for miles especialy if you can get the antenna arangement right and if you have the narrow band ones the  distance is something like 10 times that of the wide band units.

     

    Have you considered using a small sheet of insulating foam board like Kingspan or similar one side is aluminised and keeps the heat in cold out etc and does not itch or nasty stuff like glass wool

  • in reply to mcb1

    Mark how have you got on with comunicating to the PI up that mountain ....any further yet ?