Making our Meadow Blog

Meadowcam plus hood

This is the meadowcam plus the cobbled together hood –
it seems to be working fine.  

Camera status 27/1/10

Quick check this morning showed the meadowcam to be fine
regarding condensation and frost. It was starting to rain so I put the
improvised hood back on. Note to self – must devise a more permanent
fixing method. I think the easiest would be to drill a couple of small holes in
the back and fix wire onto the post and use some bolts to act as spacers.

Camera setup and trial underway

Camera all setup now and trial started on saturday. Images of camera uploaded here http://meadowmaker.typepad.co.uk/photos/meadowcam/. So far no problems and internal condensation not too much of a problem. Need to check on how well the timer is working but not easy since I am at work all the time it is light and we are off to the Netherlands on Friday.  

Camera working at last!

After asking Neil for some advice I have sorted out the problem got the camera and timer/light detector working. Neil had intelligently included a cut off so that if the interval is less than the time the camera is on during each interval period the camera will not operate. I was inadverantly setting the camera at the shortest interval setting (1) while i had worke out that the mininum time for the camera to be on for it to power up, the script to start and the shutter to run 3 times is 35 seconds.

While I have been testing it this evening I have  been testing on setting 3 (1.5 mins) and it has worked a treat.

So I will be in a position to test it at the weekend, at last.

New circuit not working yet

The new circuit which arrived last Friday is still not up
and running I am having problems with the programming of the microprocessor.
Unfortunately a mountain of work has landed on my desk so I don’t have
time to tinker at the moment.

Problem solved...hopefully

Neil has got back to me and solved the problem:

“Camera and bits and pieces arrived safely this morning. It did
not take long for me to find out that the problem is that you either have to
feed 6V into the battery bay or at least 7.0V into the DC plug! Very strange,
but that's what we have to work with. Since I know that you did not want me to
modify the camera at all, I have instead modified your controller so that now
it outputs 7.30V - fortunately there was just enough space to fit the extra
components required. Everything is set up next to me now and working perfectly
turning the camera on and off no problems at all, and should therefore work
perfectly for you once you have re-programmed it to automatically shoot an
image on power-up. For future reference, the camera and circuit board together
draw a total of around 300mA @ 12VDC when the camera is on, and less than 10mA
the rest of the time.”

With luck I should be in a position to start the full scale
trial this weekend…

 

Camera returned

I have sent the camera and the circuit back to Neil.
My carrier is doing rather well out of this project! ;o)

Camera still not working

I checked with Neil last week and he recommended checking the output voltage of the terminals. I have done this (6volts) and tried cutting off the ac adapter cable. The camera powered up enough to shut down, but only after repeated attempts. I'm starting to wonder if the a higher voltage is needed. The ac adapter is for 7.4V.

Hoodie tests

2 pictures showing the cobbled together hood and the effect
it has had: It only really seems to have worked at all against the ice relatively
close to the top of the window. It did work well against the snow however. I
wonder if a smaller version close to the camera lens position would work
better.

Trial off...for the moment

Tried the circuit with the S2IS camera when I got home and…nothing!
Retried with the ac adapter and this still worked fine. I suspect the problem
is with the plug which connects to the camera, everything else seems to be
working fine. I guess I will need to cannibalise the ac adapter (another one
bites the dust) but I will check with Neil in the morning.