Making our Meadow Blog

Solutions?

My attempts to buy a 128Mb CF card yesterday morning all ended in failure, with none of the three camera shops i visited having such a diminutive memory card - understandable now that memory is so cheap.

I have continued to investigate the other options and have contacted Neil McNiven regarding using another beloved old camera, my D70 which has been semi retired since i got the D200 i currently use. He thinks that the IR remote it uses (it lacks a remote shutter cable socket, an ommission Nikon rectified with the subsequent D70s) can be used with the same type of setup as the current design. The only thing i am missing is an ac power cable, i am watching some on ebay but will need to see how these pan out.

I am also watching some Coolpix 4500's which are also supposed to take a larger capacity card. I have a generic remote shutter cable which will fit the 4500 . At some point i need to do a cost benefit analysis to determine which is better. Or just guess like i normally do.

In the meantime Steen has come up with a great idea - partitioning the 1Gb card i have going spare to see how large a partition it will accept. He reckons this will work and if i can get it to work it is a free way of solving the problem.

Also i have some design ideas for the battery and the camera locating bracket inside the camera. I will try to get these developed further tonight. I have also ordered some components from the excellent Bob's Bits website which i will hopefully be able to use to make a DIY pan & tilt base.

However, I have just realised that the D70 has a major flaw - unlike the D70S it does not have a socket for a remote shutter - the only way this can be done is with an IR remote control, which i assume is out of the question...

Tried the D70 in the cabinet last night and there is plenty of room.

Tried to get a 128Mb CF card from Amazon last night and it seems these are as rare as unicorn poo... I'll try Ebay but i'm starting to wonder if this is doomed!

Greenhouse Trial

The boxes arrived on Friday and i managed to get both the battery and the camera in the same box - it turned out pretty heavy (nearly 10kg) so might not work but it will reduce the work alot. However i will need those pressure gizmos after all. Hmph.

Trialled it anyway all weekend, putting it in the greenhouse in case the seal wasn't perfect. And it completely failed to record anything. Glad i didn't check earlier as it would have interfered with an already busy weekend. I have fixed the seal issues now.

More trials yesterday revealed that the 2Gb card is now mysteriously not recording. Tried formatting it in the camera, deleting everything off it and then adding a large amount of data to fill it up again (smacks of desperation?). However, i am right back where i started. I can't run this project using a 16Mb card. I may need to tear it up and start again. If this card doesn't work i will need to anyway. I think the problem may be the time it takes to write the data is longer than has been allowed for in the microprocessor.

I have tested the memory cards and only the 16Mb card works now. This means it may only accept a maximum of 128Mb cards after all. Very disappointing. I need to work out how many images i am planning to take. The settings I have available are:

Code & Interval	Average shots per day	Average Shots per wek	Estimated Shots per year	Length of film in mins @ 30fps
1 = 1 minute	960	6720	350400	195
2 = 2.5 minutes	384	2688	140160	78
3 = 5 minutes	192	1344	70080	39
4 = 10 minutes	96	672	35040	19
5 = 15 minutes	64	448	23360	13
6 = 30 minutes	32	224	11680	6
7 = 1 hour	16	112	5840	3
8 = 2 hours	8	56	2920	2

I think the most likely setting is 10 minutes, it will be long enough to have some detail and be interest. The ideal quality for the images is XGA Normal. The consequences in terms of memory requirements are as follows:

	Mb for 1 day shots	Estimated no days for 128Mb card to fill	Estimated no days for 256Mb card to fill
Code & Interval	1024 x 768 XGA Normal	1024 x 768 XGA Normal	1024 x 768 XGA Normal
4 = 10 minutes	22.08	5.8	11.6
5 = 15 minutes	14.72	8.7	17.4

So i am looking at a card lasting 5 days in the worst circumstances, possibly 17. This is possibly doable but with a baby, allotment, business and birding to take care of, it's not really going to work. I really need more memory! Or poorer quality images. I will trial a 128Mb and 256Mb card when i get one, and then experiment with the quality settings. I may be able to live with a poorer quality image in which case i may be able to last a bit longer. I could also get other people to swap over the cards... 

Other alternatives:

• I have a generic remote shutter on its way and am keeping my eye on some Coolpix 4500's on Ebay which would mean that i can keep the same circuit. If it works.
• I can see if the D90 i have fits...It would need a different voltage regulator, a new ac input, and another remote switch, all of which woudl be a pricey option.
• maybe a canon dslr, i have an old manual wide angle lens and the remote shutter and ac sockets accept generics more readily. If it fits. And if i can find one.

Other issues i need to sort out:

• The solar panel i purchased has a particularly leaky looking compartment housing the electronics at the bottom which needs waterproofing - this has now been sorted.
• The panel also needs to be fixed at around 75^o from horizontal to maximise the available light in winter (latitude x 0.9 plus 29 degrees apparently). I have solved this with a spare cheap tripod head some glue and a protractor.
• fixing the hefty box needs some pretty heavy duty brackets. I am sure that the sign brackets i am planning can take more than 10kg. I think the shelf option is still the best, this will allow the box to be rotated and tilted. When I have figured out how to pan and tilt it. A simple tripod head is out of the question with such a heavy box. I could use a TV wall bracket, but this will increase the moment of the weight away from the post and put a lot more strain on it. It will also be difficult to lock in position. I am thinking along the lines of a ball and some bolts but early days yet...

Cabinets on order from Eurobox should be delivered tomorrow.
I wanted to fit cable glands (nice term) to ensure a watertight seal for the cables. But the big lumpy plugs on the ends of the cables, the fact that the cables were not in a single sheath and the need for the steel shower hose mean i'll have to rely on them being just fixed in with a big blob of silicone sealant.

I also hoped to use the pressure balance equalising plugs (what another nice term...) which are very clever little gizmos which provide a waterproof seal while allowing air to escape to reduce condesation. However the lack of those glands means they won't work.

Capturing the image...not

Unfortunately haveing checked the Coolpix 995 at home it appears that Nikon Capture Camera Control 4.4 (the version i have) does not support Coolpix cameras. Shame.

However the usb cable does connect to the camera still and the images can be copied, so this may save a bit of time. Or is it just going to be more farting about than taking out a memory card and putting in another one? Hmmm probably not.

In terms of camera positioning a web cam mounted on the top of the lens be just as effective. Or...(very big duh!) i could use the monitor which i had earlier set up so that it would be facing towards the direction of the lens. That was one of the excellent things about those early Coolpix models, a really good design feature which strangely disappeared.

Great so that's one problem which i have solved, forgotten about, remembered, wasted half an evening and then remembered i had solved. Good to be on such top form...

Time for dinner i reckon.

Meadowcam(s) 2

Which leads me back to the other meadow, my mini meadow, currently looking rather lost and desolate, in a small sort of way. But meadow cam 2 is still on the cards, although it has been slightly sidelined by its big, long lasting brother.

This one will be a small camera mounted on a rail moving across the meadow taking shots at fixed intervals. The idea is to make a sort of 4 dimensional film. I want to capture the growth of the meadow and the changes that occur both temporally and spatially.

I think a simple arduino processor programmed to start the camera, move a set distance, take a picture turn the camer off and so on during sunlight hours only woudl do the trick. I am hoping to have the long term meadow cam  running by the new year. I don't really need to have mini meadow cam running until the spring. Probably spring 2011 at the rate my projects work.

First of all i need to make a small cheap trial version. Not sure if that is possible though.I can see some thinking is needed.

Meadowcam(s) update

Ok so still no progress on this one. The pc is finally working, but the camera i was hoping to use had to be returned to Colin (who is working on a mysterious new fog detector...apparently). But the main reason is that running a business, bringing up a baby and working an allotment have just got on top of me. That and the fact that the mini meadow has a big brother which is taking a lot of attention. My allotment neighbour, Ali, is restoring a proper, genuine meadow she has acquired. I have been taking some pictures there and using my latest toy (Trailcam, good fun!) and have been setting up a project to take a whole years worth of pictures and condense it into a timelapse film of the site. The main issue of course is power, it is in the middle of nowhere in the Fens. I have adapted an old Nikon Coolpix 995 (my first digital camera, bought many years ago and costing more then than a lot of much more impressive DSLR's nowadays) with the excellent and very reasonable assistance of Neil McNiven at REUK. It now has a light detector, a timer and a voltage regulator to run off a 12v battery. I have also got a 12v deep cycle battery and a 5 watt solar panel to top it up. I am just sorting out the enclosures for the camera and the battery (the battery weighs an impressive 8kg so i don't want it too high up the post) and i will then be ready to fix them on the 3m aluminum post i have borrowed from work. Then it will be a case of setting it up and letting it go.

Some of the problems i have encountered and thought of have included:

• rodents - they love cables, there is nothing they loke more than a bit of electrical cabel to ensure their early demise. My good friend Colin gave me 4m of steel shower hose (god knows what he does with all these things) and i'm going to protect the cables with this - take this you dastardly voles!
• theft - it hasn't cost that much, certainly incomparison with the Harbortronics version (https://www.harbortronics.com/Products/TimeLapsePackage/ $2500!) but i'd be pretty gutted if it got nicked. I'm working on some cunning camouflage...
• memory - the big problem i encountered soon after getting the modified camera back from Neil was the memory card limitation built into the camera -  Nikon state that the Coolpix max memory card size is 128Mb (it is pretty old). I checked and several people stated that 1Gb cards woudl be ok, and i had one spare. But when i tried it only the 16Mb card it came with worked. Had the modifications affected it in some way? Who knows. I even spent £30 on an IBM microdrive, which one wag said would definately work. It didn't and i can see why they never caught on! In a moment of desperation i tried a 2Gb Extreme III card - surely this wouldn't work? But it did, i have tested it successfully for several days.
• Enclosures - i have made plastic and dibond enclosures in the past and where the camera is used in my garden and they have been pretty successful. However, i can't keep an eye on this and i am concerned that it will just leak/short/self destruct in the month at a time that i can't check on it. So i am taking a leaf out of the guys at Harbortronics's book and using a grp enclosure with a lockable window - i have found a supplier and i am just finalising the details - to get sufficient depth i have had to get a fairly large container. Hopefully this will allow a future SLR model to be used.
• Settings - sadly when the camera was hacked to allows the timer to be fitted the manual settings were wiped out. This is a real shame and means i need to rely on autofocus auto exposure auto everything, a bit of a disaster in terms of a time lapse camera... With hindsight i really should have spent the money and got that MC-EU1 remote cord (http://cgi.ebay.ph/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300349386032), although there is no guarantee it would have worked. Better yet i should have bought a canon rather than a nikon all those years ago. Why do nikon have to be such bastards when it comes to cables - every one needs to be slightly different.Grrrr.
• Mounting - i am using a 75mm x 75mm x 3m post. I thought i could save myself a lot of hassle by using a spyra-base a cunning corkscrew-groundanchor which you screw into the ground and then fit your post into a socket. But the flanges of the socket are not welded together, they rely on the post being bolted in position. This is not a very strong solution and when i tested the post in it the flange sinply bent. So i will use a Metpost, which I know from experience will be strong enough - but  i will have to take a sledge hammer to get it in the ground! One the post is installed i will use standard sign makers channel to fit brackets to the post and make a shelf to keep the battery off the ground (and the voles). The camera box will be mounted higher up to get a better view of the meadow (although it is looking up a slope so height is not that important) although i may not want it right at the top to allow the cards to be easily changed etc.I want to mount the box on a tripod head (such as this: http://www.warehouseexpress.com/buy-Manfrotto-356-Wall-Mount-Camera-Support/p11043&cm_mmc=Pricegrabber-_-Tripods%20%26%20Monopods-_-Tripod%20Accessories-_-11043_Manfrotto%20356%20Wall%20Mount%20Camera%20Support) to allow it to be positioned well, but i'm not really sure how well this will work yet, it will depend on the final weight of the box plus camera. The one supplied by Harbortronics is a hefty 19lbs (that's 8.6kg to us in the modern world - says the man who can barely fit a plug ahem...) which is a lot more than your average tripod head can handle. And a tripod head will move over time, so i might not do this... Finally the solar panel will be mounted near the top on another bracket.  
• Accessibilty - one reason that the Harbortronics model is so heavy is that is uses a heavy steel pivot arm to allow access to the camera. I am thinking that i will be able to access the cf card slot easily enough (there's plenty of room!) but i am also hoping that i can use the voltage switch Neil has helpfully included to override the timer and then view the monitor directly on a netbook... it might work. But it probably won't.

Meadowcam update

The meadowcam idea has hit a fairly vital snag at the first hurdle. The camera and the box set up seems to work reasonably well but the pc to which they connect (which currently runs the pondcam) seems incapable of running both and keeps crashing. Until i can get the pc sorted out i will need to try a new method. I think that relying on rechargeable batteries, CHDK firmware and a lot of legwork will be the most straight forward approach.

Mission creep

Over the past year or so the remit of this blog has widened first to include the whole garden, and then to include the allotment. This has mainly been because the meadow is not really large enough to  warrant a journal of it's own now that it is fairly well established. I suppose I should really do a thorough survey of the plant species present and their relative abundance. But then again, what would the point be? This is a small patch of introduced grassland with 'native' species in the midst of a sea of sterile lawns. Surveying it would document how well the seeds and plants introduced had established but this is not exactly ground breaking research. In fact it would be much more useful to survey the invertebrates. This vital nugget of information comes from a book I recently read by Ken Thompson called "No Nettles Required" which gleefully overturns many of the cherished tenets of wildlife gardening. It does so with real authority as well since it is based on the only comprehensive survey of garden wildlife so far carried out, Sheffield University's BUGS project. It makes plain that the level of biodiversity on which the garden operates is that of invertebrates; while birds and to a much lesser extent mammals and reptiles use gardens, few actually spend their whole lives there. Moreover, among the huge range of species they uncovered in the urban gardens of Sheffield were a number which were quite rare and some which were completely new to science! The most important point they discovered was that the presence of native species made no difference to levels of biodiversity in gardens. So to study the impact our meadow i would need to place a range of moth, beetle and other insect traps and study the results. The problem is that unlike the BUGS project and Jennifer Owen (author of the seminal Ecology of a Garden) I don't have access to a large number of experts in invertebrate identification and while I can identify many insects to the family and in some cases the genus level, there is a limit to my skills. And my time.

This does however justify including the whole garden within the remit of the 'meadow project' since it is the biodiversity of the garden I am interested in. It makes no sense to apply one set of values to one part (the meadow) and an entirely other set of values to the another part (the ornamental and vegetable gardens) when all areas are potentially equally valuable to wildlife, as long as certain rules are adhered to. Specifically no pesticides. I have only used 'organic wildlife friendly' slug pellets but I think that these are out too now. However on the allotment the principal aim is feeding the family so I won't be so 'sentimental', and unless it is relevant to the garden I won't dwell on it further.

If I can't identify every invertebrate in the garden in a rigourous and scientific manner I can at least document at least some of them in an entirely partial and unscientific way. To this end I will:

• try to document photographically all species observed in the garden when I get time...
• continue to develop the pondcam, once I have fixed it...
• create new MeadowCam to replace the fixed point pictures. This will be a time lapse of the changes occuring across the meadow using a Canon compact and GB TimeLapse software. When I have figured out how to do it. Which  I should have got done by spring...

So here's to the future.