Tubecam Mk 2

I have put some pictures in the Pondcam photo's section is the new model I have been developing. It consists of a short (150mm) 35mm diameter acrylic tube with 2 5mm thick acryilic ends containing the camera, which is a Microsoft version which is a good fit without requiring stripping down. I made the end where the wire enters by cutting the disc in half and drilling the hole so that it fits tightly around the cable. I glued it in position with superglue and once set I injected some epoxy resin I had left over from another job to form a plug about 20mm thick. Once set I glued the disc onto the other end using the Tensol 70 acrylic cement to ensure a really good bond. No cracking this time! I drilled holes in the discs and made the discs over sized to allow fixing points for weights or as shown at the moment carabiners. Before gluing on the second disc and sealing the cam I stuffed loads of silicone gel pillows inside both to support the cam and keep it level and to absorb moisture. The only real downer is the short cable (only about 50cm long) I can add an extension cable but it won't be water proof, so the range will be limited. Fortunately the interesting stuff is in the shallows.

I'll test it tonight. and aim to install it at the weekend. It will be just in time, the current cam is playing up already, although I suspect that the problem is with the pc...

Pond activity is still high, tonight I saw 35 frogs and a new peak count of 9 newts (including a several young males) and three new batches of frog spawn. No sign of toads yet but in amongst the rushes there may be some lurking.