{"id":3792,"date":"2024-12-01T07:49:34","date_gmt":"2024-12-01T15:49:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/partofthething.com\/thoughts\/?p=3792"},"modified":"2024-12-01T08:43:33","modified_gmt":"2024-12-01T16:43:33","slug":"the-eastlake-skycam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/partofthething.com\/thoughts\/the-eastlake-skycam\/","title":{"rendered":"The Eastlake Skycam"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I had a lot of fun installing an industrial outdoor pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) camera on my roof in Seattle. Whereas most townhouses built today have rooftop decks, my townhouse has a curved metal roof. Being near Lake Union, it has a phenomenal view from the top of the roof, showing the city, the lake, and even Gasworks park. Since it’s pretty difficult and unsafe to get up on that roof, I did the next best thing, which was to install a camera. This was inspired by this skybot cam post.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I spent a lot of time looking at camera options. New cameras from US vendors seem to be roughly $30k, which was way out of range. So I checked alibaba. Sure enough, there was a pretty awesome looking one with 4K resolution. <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I was a little skeptical of how it would turn out, but was pleasantly surprised with the build quality and reliability. It showed up pretty quickly and I tested it out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Getting into the firmware took a second because the password on the sticker was misspelled. I was able to figure it out and get in. The firmware was pretty solid with lots of cool features, and the camera supports basic ONVIF stuff so I can control it with standardized software, e.g. in Home Assistant via Frigate<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The next step was getting it on the roof. I put it in a laundry bag and hoisted it up. I also found amazing S-5!<\/a> clips that are great for mounting stuff to metal roofs without drilling. To get it level on the curved roof, I eventually bought some of that Zinc-Plated Slotted Angle plate to build a little angled platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For grounding, I got a little ethernet grounding thing and one for the power cord too and hooked them up to a ground that I ran down the outside of the house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I punched a hole in the wall and sealed it up to get the power through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Here we are all mounted up on the roof.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
With city view<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Doing some ethernet crimps on the roof<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Not exactly pretty<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This thing has a windshield wiper!<\/p>\n\n\n\n