Woick Weather Camera on November 13, 2011 using Indeo
woicik_lapse_20111112.avi
Woicik Weather Camera for November 12, 2011
ImageSalsa and Logitech QuickCam
I had a Logitech QuickCam for Notebooks laying around for web chats. I recently replaced it with a Microsoft LifeCam VX-800 in an attempt to address from audio feedback issues. I also have an old Toshiba Protégé TabletPC.
I connected the QuickCam to the TabletPC and then installed the demo version of ImageSalsa. I read through the ImageSalsa manual. I created a new portfolio and a new canvas. I followed the instruction to enable the camera and add it as a graphic. I was able to see the video feed in ImageSalsa. I did a text overlay of the date and time.
The first issue I had was the image appeared to be fuzzy. I wasn’t sure if it was the software or the TabletPC screen. But then I remembered the QuickCam has a manual focus ring. I played with that and was able to get a sharper image but still wasn’t happy with the sky image. It was an overcast afternoon but the clouds were completely washed out in ImageSalsa. The resolution was only 320 x 240 which I thought might have something to do with it.
I decided to try the LifeCam next. This time the image was completely wrong like the RGB values were off. I did some web searching and found a reference on Microsoft’s knowledge base that there may be driver issues if a Logitech camera was installed first. So, I uninstalled the Logitech drivers but the image was still wrong. I also looked for LifeCam drivers but there weren’t any for this model.
I did some more research and also found many new web cameras that had auto-focus and HD resolution. I started to think that if I am going to go through all the effort to setup a weather camera, maybe I should have a decent camera.
How to setup up a Vantage Vue weather station?
The Vantage Vue arrived. Inside the box was the Integrated Sensor Suite (ISS) and the console. I also ordered a pole mounting kit.
The Integrated Sensor Suite was basically pre-assembled and looked a lot better as a single unit than my previous weather station. There was a brief assembly process to attach the wind cups, wind vane, debris screen, rain collector tipping spoon assembly and the battery. It went together very quickly.
I next added three “C” batteries to the console unit and followed the initial startup procedures. The only thing that I had to look up was my latitude and longitude. Once it was turned on, the console and sensor suite started communicated wirelessly.
I took a look at the pole mounting kit. It was basically two interlocking metal tubes. The manual said it was designed to connect to a wood post. However, I was going to mount next to another metal post that is part of a chain linked fence in my backyard. So, the next day I went to a hardware store to get a longer metal pipe. The requirements were the post needed to be between 1” and 1-3/4”. Their mounting kit was 1-1/4” so I figured that was the best size. I had a slight issue thinking about how to get a 10’ metal pipe into my SUV. But, it fit.
The next day I cut the 10’ pipe into two sections to make it easier to wrap the bottom section around the existing fence pole and secure that with straps. I then used a coupler for the top section. I took the top section and attached the sensor unit. I then took that whole assembly outside and attached it to the bottom section. It looked great!!!
I checked the console unit and date was flowing in. I took a quick glance at the console manual and found the command to reset all the data. My next step is to read the console manual and figure out all the features.
Weather camera idea
On Ambient Weather, I noticed some weather camera software called ImageSalsa WebCam Software. I hadn’t thought about doing this as part of my weather station but I have seen these type of pictures before that had the current temperature and other weather statistics along with a outside picture. I looked around the ImageSalsa website and notice that it was able to pull the data from the Vantage Vue and overlay the text on the picture from a web camera. The software even had the ability to upload the picture via FTP to a website.
Since I was going to have a computer anyway to log the weather data, I was really starting to like this additional equipment idea. What really sold me was the concept of a weather time-lapse movie. The same software developer also make a program called MovieSalsa which creates a movie from a series of photos. I found a sample and was sold. This looked cool.