Cheap 'n' Cheerful Underwater Webcam
by AndyGadget in Outside > Water
15103 Views, 172 Favorites, 0 Comments
Cheap 'n' Cheerful Underwater Webcam
This idea came to me today while watching fish in the pond. I used a flat sided perspex box (a Ferrero Rocher chocolates box), a cheap webcam, a length of duct tape and plenty of hot glue to get up close and personal to those aquatic chums.
I'd already made the box when I remembered Kiteman's Zeroth Law so the photos don't show the whole process. Remember to set the focus first if you're using a manual focus webcam; I used about 8" (200mm). The webcam is held in place with 4 dabs of hot glue. The PSU block is only for ballast, but I needed the tiles too to stop the box floating. Seal the cable entry and the box join with hot glue.
This took about ten minutes to make and I'm treating it as a proof of concept for a more engineered version on a pole to use later in the year when the pond plants have grown and there should be some newts around.
Warning - Bubbles coming from the box are a bad sign. I had to get the webcam out after 20 minutes or so due to a small leak - those boxes are very brittle!
I'd already made the box when I remembered Kiteman's Zeroth Law so the photos don't show the whole process. Remember to set the focus first if you're using a manual focus webcam; I used about 8" (200mm). The webcam is held in place with 4 dabs of hot glue. The PSU block is only for ballast, but I needed the tiles too to stop the box floating. Seal the cable entry and the box join with hot glue.
This took about ten minutes to make and I'm treating it as a proof of concept for a more engineered version on a pole to use later in the year when the pond plants have grown and there should be some newts around.
Warning - Bubbles coming from the box are a bad sign. I had to get the webcam out after 20 minutes or so due to a small leak - those boxes are very brittle!