redcat ALL-SKY-CAMERA USER MANUAL
Contents
1. Kpixels RGB defines the image that will be analysed Images of the sky ground could be uploaded periodically to an ftp server to be defined using SETUP gt EVENTS gt EVENT SERVER EVENT TYPE for further analysis maximum 1 minute periods 10 minutes by default Local storage is also possible because the camera could be equipped with an SD CARD memory optional NOTE Before removal the SD card should be unmounted to prevent corruption of recordings To unmount the SD card go to Setup gt System Options gt Storage gt SD Card and click Unmount Sun shadowing A scripting procedure task suite was developed and embedded on the camera to perform astronomical based shadowing of the fish eye lens in order to enhance the quality of the sky image collected see Shadowing paragraph for further details The quality of such enhancement is related to the atmospheric turbidity and sun elevation Because of the ephemeris based sun shadowing it is important to keep time correct so that by default redcat time is synchronized with a ntp time server default pool ntp org that could be suited to custom settings e g if the DHCP server provides a custom ntp server follow SETUP gt BASIC SETUP gt 3 DATE TIME The Timezone must be setted UTC with no daylight adjustment A table of the azimuth angles multiplied by N 10250000 millisteps rev is 2 R D 40 2 with D 480 and 40 pixels due to top and bottom borders 3 Server co2. or issuing credit at LugoNextLab discretion for any products which are proved to be defective during the warranty period In no case is LugoNextLab liable for consequential or special damage arriving from use or misuse of this product The customer is responsible for all charges caused by modifications or additions to LugoNextLab equipment not approved in writing by LugoNextLab or if in LugoNextLab opinion the equipment has been subjected to abnormal use Abnormal use for purposes of this warranty is defined as any use to which the equipment is exposed other than that use specified or intended as evidenced by purchase or sales representation Other than the above no other warranty expressed or implied shall apply to any and all such equipment furnished or sold by LugoNextLab General features The redcat ASCOb all sky camera performs all sky observation through a web camera AXIS P1343 coupled with a high quality fish eye lens Nikon FC E8 covering the whole hemispheric field of view 180 The system works with continuous power supply than can range between 9V and 15V default 12 V with a maximum power absorption of nearly 20 W Depending on requirements the camera can be equipped with a temperature control system that switch on electronics only when the internal temperature reaches a security level 10 C On the other hand a 10 W at 12V warming system is programmed to be switched on below 5 C In midlatitude sea level norm
3. Sun on first installation 4 In leap years maximum hour is increased to 8784 6 IMPORTANT NOTE DO NOT FORCE THE BAND BY HAND TO DIRECT THE SUN GEAR INCLUDED IN STEPPER MOTOR WILL TURN PERMANENTLY DAMAGED Enter the camera using telnet command with root redcat access credentials and keeping the live view opened on a web browser perform the following steps telnet IP of the redcat cd usr html local scripts task_continuous sh The band will start running leave the band running until the sun is completely obscured and press CTRL C to kill the script when satisfied A second task running in background task_3 sh keep the band following the Sun accordingly to azi1 txt file previously uploaded use top or ps x grep task to see running tasks Exit from the telnet session An integration of these raw function on the web interface to ASCOb is going to be developed and available in next release of the firmware Image analysis The enclosed CD contains a set of scripts and programs for cloud cover analysis that should be performed on a linux windows cygwin personal computer running ImageMagick c www imagemagick org Fig l and Fig 2 show an image of sky and a composited image of snow covered ground respectively as acquired by the ASCOb The camera is configured to automatically upload an image every 10 minutes to a 5 Ifit does not move try the command killall iodserver and perform again task_con
4. al operations the heating system was considere to be unnecessary so that it is installed only on specific requirements Being typical absorption rate well below 5 W it is possible to install the camera on field skipping power cabling using solar or wind generated energy The system is equipped with a 4GB SDCARD for local data storing if based on Axis P1343 Adopting Axis 211 W on requirement or a commercial Wi Fi bridge it is possible to interface the system with a local wireless network skipping also network cable connections A power green LED is globed into the front push button included for future development of the electronic e g it does not take any ACTIVE function System is switched on off by plugging power cable but it could be rebooted through telnet communication login and run reboot command Alternatively to restart the camera go to System Options gt Maintenance Click Restart to perform a correct restart Do not use Restore nor Default buttons because custom system settings in particular inherent to the band moving will be permanently lost Accurately water sealed chassis can be provided both in aluminium or steel Ethernet and power supply connectors follows IP 68 requirements to safely operate instruments on field ASCOb is provided with an integrated levelling system The web cam is based on a embedded Linux system http busybox net on which a lot of TCP IP services run Among others they are http ft
5. p smtp telnet ssh ntp time server Dimensions Height 350 mm Maximum Diameter 160 mm Weight 3 kg Web Video and Images Video and image encoding of ASCOb is highly configurable through the web based interface to the camera settings The unit is is shipped with DHCP enabled and typically could be directly localized at http axis MACNUMBER local view viewer_index shtml address after al least one minute after power up In other cases among Windows Axis Camera Management program also Bonjour uPnP avahi discover could be used on mac win linux respectively to resolve the IP assigned to the camera by the DHCP server It is possible of course to assign a static address see SETUP gt BASIC SETUP gt 2 TCP IP For all sky camera based on P1343 Axis web camera the maximum image resolution is 800x600 JPEG On the other hand the camera is shipped with a default 640x480 resolution that could be adjusted following SETUP gt LIVE 1 Or at axis MACADR local pwdroot pwdRoot shtml use root redcat as first access credentials for http ftp and telnet protocols Twelve word MACADR corresponds to the serial number of the camera Suggestion communicate your mac address to your network manager he probably could assign a fixed DHCP address to the camera VIEW CONFIG gt Image Appearance Do to the need of centre the whole sky image produced by the fish eye on the active area of the camera a total of approximately 220 3 14 152
6. r eye candy results for this choose Being all source codes available to users any custom adjustment or definition of new cloud detection schemes could be easily implemented conv sh image jpg 5 produces image o jpg output file An example is given in Fig 3 Fig 3 An original jpg image produced by the web camera left and the analysis of cloudiness given by the conv suite right 10 11 Specifics Model Serial number Issued Camera type and mac 12
7. redcat ALL SKY CAMERA USER MANUAL 2012 Apr 01 ver 1 NL LugoNextLab Www redcat sci com www Lugonextlab eu Warranty Prior to shipment LugoNextLab equipment is thoroughly inspected and tested to applicable specifications However should equipment failure occur LugoNextLab assures its customers that prompt service and support will be available All equipment originally manufactured by LugoNextLab which is found to be defective will be repaired or replaced subject to the following considerations In suspection of failure contact LugoNextLab info lugonextlab it yielding unit model serial number and a description of the failure symptom We will assign a Return Material Authorization RMA number which must appear on the outer label of the return package All units components should be properly packed for handling and returned with freight prepaid to the LugoNextLab designated Service Center and will be returned to the customer s user s site freight prepaid and invoiced A Coverage of Two Years from shipping is guaranteed Returned unit part will be repaired and or replaced at LugoNextLab with no charge for technicians actions or parts not excluded by warranty Equipment provided but not manufactured by LugoNextLab is warranted and will be repaired according to the terms and conditions of the respective equipment manufacturer s warranty General Under this Warranty liability of LugoNextLab is limited to replacing repairing
8. tinuous sh It is of course possible to disable the uploading of the images on the standard ftp by accessing the liveview setup pages SETUP gt EVENTS gt EVENT TYPES gt select uploadsky event gt Modify gt switch to Never on Activation Type section Fig 1 Diurnal and urban nocturnal view of the whole sky taken by an ASCOb It appears to be possible to follow night time cloudiness if sufficient light pollution is present ote Fig 2 A snapshot time series of the ground status of a snow covered surface an image every 6 hours BSRN co Concordia station Antarctica 75 S las 2 An image analysis session A simple cloud detection algorithm have been developed an shipped along with the CD of the ASCOb camera Suite is composed by e a bash scripts conv sh a gnuplot script conv plt a fortran program conv detect cloud f Gnuplot Ver gt 4 2 www gnuplot info and Imagemagick convert tool www imagemagick org should be installed on the system they are available for 9 both windows and Linux systems It is sufficient to call conv sh with an image filename as first argument and a number from 1 to 5 as second argument corresponding to 5 different cloud schemes All clouds schemes are applied but just that selected is used for plotting results Better performance was obtained using the conversion scheme 5 based on HUE parameter The plotting script was arranged to give bette
9. uld also be http or smtp included in the system at usr html local scripts azil txt It contains the hour of the year starting from 0000 UTC hhhh time format hours ranges from 0000 to 8760 and the corresponding azimuth sun angle deg from North positive eastward in millisteps The iqbaltab awk AWK script present on the product CD can be used to perform the calculation of such a table in case of need Then to upload a correct azi1 txt file the following steps should be performed ftp IP_of_the_redcat gt put local_azil txt_file gt remote file usr html local scripts azil txt The revolution of the band is clockwise in northern hemisphere and counter clockwise in the southern hemisphere and is fixed on the electronic board At this stage a switch of the revolution direction can be performed only by inverting one of the bi polar stepper motor phase Please refer to www redcat sci com for switching direction Installation When installing the camera on field be sure to level it accurately using the three 50 mm 120 screw and then to fix it with the two 70 mm M6 screw to a solid base A 10mm monkey wrench could be useful on first installations due to a certain bolt hardness ASC0b shadow band is not equipped with a zero reference sensor but it is important for image analysis and normal operations to refer the front push button toward local South direction within a certain accuracy 10 Of course the band will not shadow
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