Page 1 of 1

Weather Camera

PostPosted: Thu Sep 13, 2018 2:03 pm
by RogueProeliator
Curious... has anyone implemented a weather camera (that is, one looking at the sky) similar to the BloomSky weather station? Basically would need to be very weather resistant and have a very large field of view... and I guess really good at adjusting exposure settings. I think the wife would love this, but BloomSky station seems difficult to get and I don't want to be dependent on their cloud which may not, but sure seems a candidate to disappear one day...

Adam

Re: Weather Camera

PostPosted: Thu Sep 13, 2018 3:49 pm
by DaveL17
[Insert joke about a weather camera being in the cloud here.]

Re: Weather Camera

PostPosted: Thu Sep 13, 2018 7:00 pm
by Different Computers
I have a BloomSky. Have to say that I'd be SUPER disappointed with it if I hadn't gotten it for some stupidly low promotional price.

It failed completely once, and they replaced it.

The camera failed by starting to go psychedelic colors in hot weather, and they sent a replacement. I kept the old one too. The replacement died totally. I've put the second replacement back in service.

The method of adding BS to WU is weird, complicated, and the only way to get images out of it. I got it to work with one version of the above, and have never gotten it to work again.

Re: Weather Camera

PostPosted: Thu Sep 13, 2018 8:49 pm
by RogueProeliator
I have a BloomSky. Have to say that I'd be SUPER disappointed with it if I hadn't gotten it for some stupidly low promotional price.

Yeah, read some other bad reviews so wasn't worth the other negatives (cloud required to pull data/images, etc.) I don't need the weather station component, so started thinking maybe I could find a decent camera as the image & time lapse is all we would really care about at this time I think.

Re: Weather Camera

PostPosted: Fri Sep 14, 2018 7:18 am
by Different Computers
For straight up cameras, I really like the Wyze cams with the hacked firmware.

Once you change the firmware, the camera software is nearly as capable as a $600 Axis camera for 20x lower price.

Re: Weather Camera

PostPosted: Fri Sep 14, 2018 7:49 am
by RogueProeliator
I'm thinking something along the lines of this:
https://smile.amazon.com/Hikvision-DS-2CD2942F-Fisheye-Camera-Standard/dp/B00ZLO3P8O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1536932479&sr=8-1&keywords=hikvision+1.6mm

Extremely wide angle fisheye lens (1.6mm) to view the whole sky (if I can find a good mount point that doesn't get too much in the way at the edges... But it is nearly $300, which is not cool -- if I wanted to spend that on a camera I would get a good PTZ with a good optical zoom to go elsewhere. Still, we love us some weather pics here, so may have to just watch prices.

Note, I am open to other brands, just have had good luck with HikVision for the most part. I just hate to try some of the random brands I see on Amazon... probably all made in the same factory anyway, though. :-|