I put together a sky/roof rig with (4) 180* Color4K cams...

[Ri22o]

I decided I wanted to see ALL of the things...

After some posts on here about weather and watching the sky, and wishing I would have had my own, better footage when a meteorite came down a few months ago..., I figured I would put together my own sky cam rig. And, because I can't just do things to do things, I thought it wouldn't be a horrible idea to also have some cams on the roof for complete overwatch. I realize they won't be great at night and are only 3.6mm, but it is what it is. Worst case they get angled up and I have more coverage of the sky.

Parts list:
Cameras: IPC-Color4K-T180
Junction Box: Carlon 6x6x6 - E989RRR
POE Switch: UltraPoE 60w POE+ Extender
Lightning Arrestor: Tupavco TP302
Ethernet Bulkhead: ANMBEST Ethernet Panel Mount
Cable Gland: 2 Hole M32 Cable Gland
Roof Mount: RCA Universal Roof Mount
Mounting Bracket: RCA Antenna Wall Mount Bracket

I have the cams mounted to the junction box and the ethernet bulkhead installed. I am waiting for the cable glands to show up and then I can route the connections from the cameras up through the bottom of the box.

I have not quite decided how I will mount it to the roof, but I am sure I will figure something out.

Another consideration I have had, and it wouldn't be hard to put inline, would be a fiber gap between the box and the house. Having already been hit by lightning once in the location where this will be deployed I want to do my best to lessen any damage if it may happen again.

Here is my progress so far. I'll add more pictures as I get further into this.

 

[looktall]

Looking good.
I thought you might be a bit low powered on that poe switch but it looks like you'll just make it by a handful of watts.

 

[Ri22o]

Looking good.
I thought you might be a bit low powered on that poe switch but it looks like you'll just make it by a handful of watts.

There should be plenty of overhead. The cams only pull 5.5w and the total switch budget is 60w. Max draw is just short of 12w each, but I have no plans to run the onboard LEDs, AI, or speaker.

 

[looktall]

There should be plenty of overhead. The cams only pull 5.5w and the total switch budget is 60w. Max draw is just short of 12w each, but I have no plans to run the onboard LEDs, AI, or speaker.

If you're not gonna run the cameras near full draw then you'll have heaps to spare.

 

[Ri22o]

I lucked into an off the shelf antenna arm and mount that fit perfectly with the junction box and will give me the freedom to adjust and level as I need. I may add a piece of flat steel under the box between the tabs, just to help support it a little more, but other than that I think it will work.

Just waiting on the other cable glands to show up and then it's tearing it apart to silicone/seal everything and put the proper length bolts in where needed.

Any suggestions on how to treat the incoming ethernet cable so it's not exposed to the elements? (mostly concerned about sun/UV degradation.)

 

[looney2ns]

Use good quality outdoor rated cable, and it should be fine exposed.
Ideally, the pigtails for the cameras would be inside the junction box.

 

[biggen]

Any particular reason you want to put the switch in the Jbox? It will get pretty hot in there all sealed up.

 

[Ri22o]

Use good quality outdoor rated cable, and it should be fine exposed.
Ideally, the pigtails for the cameras would be inside the junction box.

I couldn't find any good way to seal the holes without putting them all on their own junction boxes mounted to the outside of the main junction box. I am going to keep as little outside of the box as possible, but they will be going up through the bottom with a cable gland.

Any particular reason you want to put the switch in the Jbox? It will get pretty hot in there all sealed up.

The goal was to have only one ethernet cable coming from the house and into the box. I will see how it goes and address it if/when it fails.

 

[Ri22o]

I am still waiting for the last couple pieces so I can start finalizing everything, but I wanted to get it outside to see how it looked and to start working through any issues I needed to troubleshoot.

For those running the 180 cams, what would be the best distance for setting the splicing? I currently have them set to the max of 200m since they will be pointed at the sky.

 

[DsineR]

I couldn't find any good way to seal the holes without putting them all on their own junction boxes mounted to the outside of the main junction box. I am going to keep as little outside of the box as possible, but they will be going up through the bottom with a cable gland.

The goal was to have only one ethernet cable coming from the house and into the box. I will see how it goes and address it if/when it fails.

When needed, check out industrial environmental switches.
This one rated from -40° - 167° 6-Port Hardened Industrial Gigabit PoE++ DIN-Rail Switch - TRENDnet TI-UPG62

 

[Ri22o]

I am getting close to deploying this, but wondering the best course of action for the lightning arrestor. Would I be ok to just ground it to the outlet or should I run a dedicated length of copper wire to the grounding rod by the meter?

 

[bp2008]

Brilliant build so far. I love it.

I am getting close to deploying this, but wondering the best course of action for the lightning arrestor. Would I be ok to just ground it to the outlet or should I run a dedicated length of copper wire to the grounding rod by the meter?

I would be wondering the same thing. Trouble with lightning is it is so hard to predict. The voltages are so high that everything looks like a wire. Wood, rubber, the open air, everything. I'd expect a direct strike would laugh at your protections and turn the lightning arrestor to slag. And maybe everything near it too.

But a lot of lightning damage is from something much smaller than that. Like induced current from a long wire acting as an antenna, picking up energy from a more distant lightning strike. I've lost multiple long displayport cables (hybrid fiber optic/copper) that way. For small stuff like that, the ground wires in your walls would handle it just fine.

It is medium sized surges that would worry me. Something with enough energy to damage a ground wire but not jump around too much to other components. I don't know how likely that is. It seems like if there's enough energy to be risky going through your house's ground wiring, it would likely be enough to jump across air gaps or through insulation and go where it shouldn't anyway.

 

[Flintstone61]

I think Indiana has too much lightning.
Better send that up here to the Frozen North where it will be safe....

 

[Broachoski]

I have been anxious to see photos of this complete assembly and the views of the sky since the beginning of this cool project.

 

[Ri22o]

Brilliant build so far. I love it.



I would be wondering the same thing. Trouble with lightning is it is so hard to predict. The voltages are so high that everything looks like a wire. Wood, rubber, the open air, everything. I'd expect a direct strike would laugh at your protections and turn the lightning arrestor to slag. And maybe everything near it too.

But a lot of lightning damage is from something much smaller than that. Like induced current from a long wire acting as an antenna, picking up energy from a more distant lightning strike. I've lost multiple long displayport cables (hybrid fiber optic/copper) that way. For small stuff like that, the ground wires in your walls would handle it just fine.

It is medium sized surges that would worry me. Something with enough energy to damage a ground wire but not jump around too much to other components. I don't know how likely that is. It seems like if there's enough energy to be risky going through your house's ground wiring, it would likely be enough to jump across air gaps or through insulation and go where it shouldn't anyway.

I am more concerned with a direct strike since this will become the very highest point of my roof and I have already been hit. Two other neighborhood houses in very close proximity have been hit as well within the last couple years. My strike was likely a product of my own doing (much like this) in that I have a HAM antenna in the attic that ran to a radio that was grounded. I wonder if the outcome would have been different if the radio was not grounded? I could see where the surge jumped from the antenna coax to the ground wire in the nearby Romex, so it was seeking ground.

I plan on the arrestor being turned to junk if it gets hit, but I would rather lose $100 worth of that and the fiber converters than everything else upstream.

I have two thoughts with how to wire the arrestor:

• Direct to ground. This would keep the arrestor a little more isolated from anything else on the house circuit, but I now have a line running through and down the side of the house that can jump to any other line it wishes to.
• Through house wiring. Easier and the surge would have a good path to ground, but now I have introduced the surge to anything else in the house that is plugged in and anything within proximity of any romex is at risk.

I am leaning towards direct just for the ability to limit it jumping from the romex to anything else.

I did have the surge take out an LED headlamp that was sitting on the basement floor. It turned on and wouldn't turn back off.

 

[Ri22o]

I have been anxious to see photos of this complete assembly and the views of the sky since the beginning of this cool project.

It took several weeks for the glands I had ordered for the camera pigtails to be delivered. Had I known they were being slowboated I probably would have ordered a couple other options.

I may try to get this up on the roof this evening.

 

[CaptainCrunch]

I am getting close to deploying this, but wondering the best course of action for the lightning arrestor. Would I be ok to just ground it to the outlet or should I run a dedicated length of copper wire to the grounding rod by the meter?



View attachment 177999

In the view example, all of the camera views are pretty level. In the shots of the build, half the camera shrouds are mounted opposite the other half. Are you going to be mounting them with half facing more up and the other half facing more down?

 

[Ri22o]

In the view example, all of the camera views are pretty level. In the shots of the build, half the camera shrouds are mounted opposite the other half. Are you going to be mounting them with half facing more up and the other half facing more down?

In the example in my backyard they were the same way; some up and some down. My thought is to have E/W more level as an overview and with the top of the FOV just above the horizon. To do this the shroud needs to be on top. N/S will be angled upward for more of the sky and the bottom of the FOV above or at the horizon. In the most recent picture, I did a quick job of basically setting the top of the flat ones to match the bottom of the angled ones.

All of this is completely subject to change once I get it mounted on the roof and check the FOVs. I could end up needing to have all shrouds on the bottom and everything could be way out of any sort of alignment.

We get a lot of hot air balloons over our neighborhood and I have had several really good opportunities over the last month where having this deployed would have given some good images of them. There was one that basically buzzed the tower and landed in the under development neighborhood behind my house.

 

[CaptainCrunch]

We get a lot of hot air balloons over our neighborhood and I have had several really good opportunities over the last month where having this deployed would have given some good images of them. There was one that basically buzzed the tower and landed in the under development neighborhood behind my house.

I'd have to consider adding the EmpireTech PTZ1A2M. Your setup seems like it would make great spotter cams.

 

[Ri22o]

I'd have to consider adding the EmpireTech PTZ1A2M. Your setup seems like it would make great spotter cams.

I have been trying to find a reason why I need one of those...

If my neighbors thought I was crazy before, putting that on the top of my roof would surely win me an award.