SonotaCo.JP

[Stephane]

Hi Sonotaco,

I don't know if it's the right place for this. If not, do not hesitate to remove this post.

I made an electronic system based on Arduino platform allowing to switch off/on the camera at the sunset and sunrise time. This system allows to preserve the camera about daylight and switch off the power consumption of camera during the day.

The description of this project is at the address:
http://www.jouin.eu/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=22

The post is in French but I think that it's easy anderstanding from schematics.
The next step (in progress) is to use a display, for an easy programming and an ethernet board in order to put the PC in sleep mode with "magic" ethernet command.

[SonotaCo]

Hi Stephane
Thank you for introducing an interesting equipment.

It seems it gets longitude, latitude and current time from GPS
and use TimeLord lib for the computation of Sunrise and Sunset Time.
I don't know about TimeLord lib at all, but it seems nice....

As far as I know there are only two tools for this purpose.
One is the PC program NightScheduler that I wrote...
program: http://sonotaco.com/soft/download/NS001.ZIP
manual in Japanese: http://sonotaco.com/soft/NS/index.html

And the other is shown in the figure....
It is an intelligent timer sold in Germany. It is a standalone sun-relative switch with computer.

Yours can be the third one that can be run anywhere by using GPS.
Cheers

[ceres]

[Stephane]

Thanks for your feedback.

The TimeLord lib is based on NASA calculation for sunset/sunrise but there are some manners to calculate (some example are given in the web).

My sunswitch is easy to use!


Stephane

[Stephane]

After some time, the software is finished at last!
(it allows to power on a pc with wake-on-line too)

[Lightningwizard]

Perhaps a more simple ambient light sensor switch could work just as well for our purposes? It can be very cheap. Something like:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/WOODS-Photoelectric-OUTDOOR-LIGHTING-TIMER-All-Weather-SECURITY-HOLIDAY-NIP-/170930235221?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27cc3c6755
or
http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Outdoor-Light-Sensor-Control-Street-Lamp-Switch-Auto-Operated-10A-220V-2-0w-/170873094655?pt=US_Light_Bulbs&hash=item27c8d481ff

Turning off power only protects the sensor if the aperture of the lens is DC-controlled. It closes without power. But using manual lenses which remain fully opened, the sun could still burn into the sensor when powered off. In such case the only solution is not to have the sun in view at any time, or mechanically cover the lens.

Oscar

[Stephane]

I developped the sunswitch mainly::
-to power on/off the PC automaticaly for economical aspect.
-to power off the camera during the day (the lens that I use is protected of the sun when the camera is power off).
-to control this in local for protected network aspect.
-To learn Arduino plateform (I'm developping standalone seismic sensor and I'm started from the sunswitch codes)

The systems based on light sensor are low cost but they can be put in defaults due to weather conditions (I tested!).

For manual lenses it is easy to add in sunswitch a servo-motor with cover to protect the sensor (the arduino plafform used has outputs for this).For this, few code lines must be added in software.


PS: the second ebay link is removed.