I'm contemplating using the cheaper ZWO ASI120MC-S USB3.0 Colour cam ($279 right now from Bintel)
Bintel has increased the price for 120MC-S to an eye-popping $299. The mono version was priced the same. I thought it probably had to do with the fact that (i) it is the most popular camera in spite the sensitivity being half of the another popular camera 224MC; and (ii) the availabilty decreased due to coronavirus in China.
A couple of days ago, the price for 120MC-S dropped back to $279, and the price of 120MM-S increased to $319. Come to think of it, in December last year, on 10% off sale, one could buy a 224MC for $370 !
I've just purchased a ZWO ASI120MC-S second hand for use in an all-sky camera.
Of course, because I finally pulled the trigger on this, I just found that the Raspberry Pi has just released a new high quality camera module, but this is quite a bit more exciting than it first seems.
Sensor is: Sony IMX477R stacked, back-illuminated sensor, 12.3 megapixels, 7.9 mm sensor diagonal, 1.55 μm × 1.55 μm pixel size
with a C/CS Mount for lenses.
I was about to order a ASI178 but will give this a go first.
I already have the 1.55mm lens which should fit the Pi Camera. For some reason the lens is recommended for cameras up to 5MP - not sure why. I have also ordered a POE hat (with CPU cooling fan included) - Hopefully the POE hat will make power cabling a lot easier.
I've set this up with an ASI120MC-S in a security camera dome (awaiting delivery of a better acrylic dome), but the last 2 nights, it has been covered in dew. It's doing a little better tonight, but the night is young.
The RPi4 that I'm using is currently inside the dome, and I'm running a USB cable only out to the camera.
I know the RPi could potentially be mounted in with the camera in a box, which would supply some heat. In your configuration, does that provide sufficient heat to ward off the dew, or do you attempt to do it by other means?
For what it's worth, I've put the PoE HAT to power the RPi, which is a good 1-cable way of powering the unit, proving ethernet in plenty of juice for the camera. A bit of heat pops out of it too!
I was about to order a ASI178 but will give this a go first.
I already have the 1.55mm lens which should fit the Pi Camera. For some reason the lens is recommended for cameras up to 5MP - not sure why. I have also ordered a POE hat (with CPU cooling fan included) - Hopefully the POE hat will make power cabling a lot easier.
Will let you know how I go.
Chris
I spent a lot of time hacking with the code to get it running with the ASI120MC-S and publishing it to my website.
However, on the GitHub repo, there is a pull request for someone who implemented a solution with the RPI camera (the older ones).
The API for the cameras are the same, just different parameter selections, so in theory, could be quite easily modified to get working. https://github.com/thomasjacquin/allsky/pull/36
Once I've bedded in my current solution, I'll try and see if I can run up an alternate version with the RPi HQ camera.
ps. where did you source the 1.55mm lens? I've ordered one off Anazon, but it was kind of expensive....
In your configuration, does that provide sufficient heat to ward off the dew, or do you attempt to do it by other means?
For what it's worth, I've put the PoE HAT to power the RPi, which is a good 1-cable way of powering the unit, proving ethernet in plenty of juice for the camera. A bit of heat pops out of it too!
I get a fair bit of dew too but Clayton is like that. It appears to be the dew capital of SA, gallons of the stuff. Having said that, I could drill holes in the cover just under the dome to allow the heat to come into the dome. Even the minor slot width around the camera does allow some of the heat to rise. There is a dew heater you can buy from the AllSky camera people too. That might be better.
Quote:
Originally Posted by turbo_pascale
ps. where did you source the 1.55mm lens? I've ordered one off Anazon, but it was kind of expensive....
I got that from B&H. The price was ok but it took sometime to get it to Australia and that was pre covid-19. So you might be in for a wait.
Do you have concerns about heat during summer days?
I had it going through summer and whilst it got hot and I did use the cooling unit for the Pi4, it did not seem to affect the camera itself. It did get hot up around 76 degrees but no failures occurred. Time will tell whether an automated cover needs to be installed over the camera during the day time. I suspect this won't be too much of an issue for years to come though.
Sounds like I just have to wait for all the bits to arrive and jig it up a bit better. Was hoping to jerry-rig something (which I kind of have) as a proof of concept, but I think it's just going to need a more robust setup.
Very good effort, Rob.
I am looking forward to see more of your progress.
BTW, this youtube presentation on meteor hunting could be interesting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oM7l...ature=youtu.be
My camera and everything else is still in the drawer, waiting for me to have more time to finish this...
The first "official" night out in the properly mounted box was a bit of a surprise, and tested the box integrity.
I had not yet put silicon sealant around the dome, just some electrical tape as a placeholder - I didn't check the weather forecast!!! some water got in, but luckily nothing was affected - the electronics managed to stay dry.
Suffice it to say, there is a lot of silicon around it now, even though I will 100% be dismantling it in the next few weeks for a rebuild.
Major thunderstorm came over with some pretty impressive lightning around 1am and 3am.
I've been tweaking my setup for my cam, and decided to try to run the new Raspberry Pi HQ Camera instead.
I've been having some problems after updating my Raspberry Pi when using the ASI120MC-S (indeed weird problems with my ASI290MM). Weird problems with the images during daytime. I'm going to be rebuilding the operating system from scratch to see if that fixes it.
The attached image is scaled for upload here, but they are 12megapixel images (about 7Mb) as JPGs out of the camera. This was a 30 second exposure.
If you want to take a look at it live, use this URL and hope that it's not cloudy https://allskycam2.turbotalkstech.com
I'm still fiddling with it all the time to see if I can tweak it some more. It's not a super sensitive camera, but at AUD$100 is a heap cheaper than even the crappiest ZWO camera.
Looks good, nice pic of Jupiter and Saturn going across. Pity about the cloud. How did you get the data to be on screen - my Robbo version does not do that? I will upload one of my videos from Younghusband in SA (near dark sky reserve)
I am getting a AS178MC going to compare, bit the enclosure is not so simple due to the USB3 connectors (100mm pipe fitting not big enough.
How did you get the data to be on screen - my Robbo version does not do that? I will upload one of my videos from Younghusband in SA (near dark sky reserve)
I've been having a fair bit of comms with the author over the last few weeks, and I've been doing a fair bit of testing.
He added the text back in about a week or so ago (which still kind of sucks because it leave that graph/axis across the top, but we can't control that - it's built in to the RASPISTILL command when you display the stats).
He added the dark subtraction back in yesterday. I haven't downloaded that one yet.
He has added some code to auto-download the git repo on restart of the service. I don't like that, so I change his code when I update to avoid that.
I am getting a AS178MC going to compare, bit the enclosure is not so simple due to the USB3 connectors (100mm pipe fitting not big enough.
Chris
I'm having a fair bit of trouble with my two ASI Cameras (ASI120MC-S and as a test, my ASI290MM). Both have problems during the day, but seem to be OK at night. Not sure if I just need to start from scratch with the operating system, as it was working OK until I upgraded the OS.
I currently have the ASI290MM installed on this link: https://allskycam.turbotalkstech.com/
It's so much more sensitive than the 120, but it should be for the price!
Not exciting right now because of the clouds. If you look back through the timelapses though, there's a lot of video of the ASI290MC-S