Allsky image tweaking/Dew control suggestions please

[peng155]

Hi Folks,

Now that I have my Allsky software issues taken care of... I'm turning my attention to image tweaking and Allsky camera/Pi housing issues..

Currently I have the following:
Pi4b / 4Gb RAM/ 64GB SDcard/ CPU fan
POE/Network adapter
ASI 224MC camera

Question 1:
I'm trying to tweak the both of my Daytime and Night time settings, but I'm just going to worry about my Daytime setting first
This is what my Daytime settings are currently:
Daytime Capture: Yes
Daytime Save: No
Auto-Exposure: Yes
Max Auto-Exposure: 100
Manual Exposure: 500
Mean Target: 0.650
Mean Threshold: 0.024
Brightness: 100
Delay: 30000
Auto-Gain: Yes
Max Auto-Gain: 300
Gain: 40
Binning: 1x1
Auto White Balance: No
Red Balance: 40
Blue Balance: 95
Frames To Skip: 5

I live in the Seattle area, and the weather conditions have been absolutely lousy, overcast, rainy, gray skies, just not weather to drag my telescope out for... given the weather current weather conditions, should i be waiting for more clearer sunny skies to try and make my White Balance adjustments??

Question 2:
I currently have my Allsky box sitting on a platform at ground level in the backyard, so i can make any physical adjustment that are needed before I mount the thing up on the roof... I got an old Direct TV dish that I'm finally going to take down, but I'm planing on using the mask to mount the Allsky camera box to. I need to figure out how to control the moisture in the box.. most of the Dew heaters run on 12v, does anyone know of one that runs on 5v? if so is that powerful enough to control the moisture?

I've attached a couple of pics of my Allsky box, and how the pictures from my Allsky cam currently look..

Anyone that provide me with suggestions, i would appreciate it

Thanks

[schoerg]

You can connect your heater to 5V, it will not produce as much as heat, but maybe it will suffice.

I see that you use a PoE adapter, you could switch that to one that outputs 12V, but then you need another DC-DC converter to get back to 5V.

[peng155]

@schoerg
Thanks for the suggestion... It's only about a 5 to 6 foot distance from where the final mounting location of the Allsky box will be to the attic entry point on the roof, I'm thinking of just putting in a POE hat on the Pi, and running the Ethernet cable and a separate 18AWG wire from the attic to a 12v dew heater in the dome. I'm boning up on the the Pi GPIO ports to see if maybe I can incorporate some sort of temperature thermal controller to turn the dew heater on and off... Maybe a thermistor and a temp sensor to operate the whole thing

[schoerg]

I have this relay: https://wiki.52pi.com/index.php/EP-0099 which is I2C and a BME280 as temperature sensor. A script checks every few minutes if the outside temperature is below <5 °C and starts the heating output.

[ericofpendom]

Have a look at my setup here...#3866

I use an Arduino that is plugged into the USB on the Pi and a simple sketch that reads the sensors and controls the heater and fan. It is working great so far even though it has only been on the roof a few days. I have tested it on the bench and in the garden prior to putting it on the roof and it performed well. If you would like any further info please don't hesitate to ask.

[Alex-developer]

If you cat fit it in the box you could use a 12v/5v PoE hat for the pi, like this one https://www.waveshare.com/poe-hat-c.htm

[peng155]

@Alex-developer
Oh.... I like this!! Thanks for the tip

[SeetJesus]

I had real condensation problems.....added 2 small 5v fans (intake and output) This helped keep the temperature in the box similar to ambient. It still wasn't working great so I added a 3rd 5v fan and blew air up into the dome from the interior of rest of the housing. (like a defroster in your car) This worked great. I haven't had an issue since. It doesn't take much flow on the 3rd fan)