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LatteSkyCam

userHead VM1 2018-01-26 02:45:30 4098 Views1 Replies
Hi! I finally received my LattePanda after long waiting.

Unfortunately screen that I received turned out to be faulty, it has somekind of mark in the middle of it (Im returning it for a new one).
Anyways the screen was good enough for me to use it to install Teamviewer so I can run the panda without the screen.
Although Im not super techinical, I dont really know anything about coding etc. Ive always wanted camera for watching the night sky remotely. At the moment Im running my first test on my balcony, panda is inside plastic box to keep the snow out. I bought active USB hub to provide enough power for the camera and USB relay. I use the relay to flip a plastic lid infront of the lens to avoid sun frying the sensor. There is a motor that turns the lid infront of the lens, I can see from the images of the camera that it is in correct position to block the sun.

The camera is DMK 51AU02.AS. Im running it via Firecapture, using script to loop images every 5 minutes. I think focus might be a bit off though, once I get more clear skies Ill have to fine tune it.
Placement of the camera isnt final, I would love to have it in a real dark sky site. But before that I need to make sure it runs smoothly without need of physical interaction. Also I need to build a good casing for it to keep it dry, for my balcony test plastic bag will do.

Obviously this could be done easily with any other PC, but panda is compact and has Arduino if I need it. It suits well for my purposes, just thought I would share my first tinkering here. Attachments AllSky_232403_0000.jpg Test image, some stars visible. AllSky_232403_0000.jpg (273.06 KiB) Viewed 3599 times