My Silly Pondcam – Post 17 – Let’s put together our new case

Now I don’t feel as good about this post as I have about a bunch of the others because we already did this once and it didn’t work out too well. But you need to know why this case is different than then last so I will show you.I already mentioned that I figured out how to cut plexiglass. It basically is very carefully cutting with a table saw, then lots and lots of sanding. Then after that you have to sand some more to make sure all of the pieces fit together will no gaps.

I was all proud of myself and explaining it to my dad and he had a good idea. He said the way a woodworker would build a small box is to use tape to hold it together then get it all aligned and then glue the edges and bring it together to hold it all in place for drying.

That idea sounds perfect for the pondcam case. So I do that. I build my box and tape it together with blue painters tape. Here is what it looks like all taped together.

I unfold it to prep it for the epoxy. I will not be putting the back on as I will need to put the camera in before the final stage.

I carefully mix and spread epoxy on the edges that need to meet, then bring it altogether. As I am doing this I am very careful to make sure I am setting the correct pieces, my eyes are always fixed on the writing I put on each piece (top, bottom, side, etc.) at the same time I can’t get this song out of my head that my wife teaches my kids about washing their hands. It  goes like this (Sung to the tune of “Frère Jacques/Brother John”)… So you can be tortured like me some day with this silly song, here are the lyrics:

Top and bottom, Top and bottom,
In between, in between,
Rub them all together, rub them all together,
Make them clean, Make them clean.

Yes… I know I am a little nuts. But that is what goes through my head when I have to concentrate and deal with anything that has a top and a bottom.

So after I throw down the epoxy and bring the box together it looks like this.

Unlike the old pondcam case where I had that grey pasty looking epoxy, this stuff is clear. I can examine potential problem areas as it is curing. I can see where the edges meet with the epoxy and try and put pressure where I think there may be issues (I can see there is an issue at the top and at the bottom, the last pieces I made).

The next day I do a similar test with water (by filling it up) as the last case and I can see there is an issue, not as drastic as the last case, but definitely a problem that would destroy pondcam (I don’t think it would survive another soaking).

I dry it all out and take some measurements. I have to make the camera sit flush so I put a small piece of finely measured, cut and sanded at the bottom to make sure the bottom of poncam stays in the correct position to make the camera point straight instead of angled. This will hopefully take care of that leak and also make it so I don’t have to drill holes and push wood dowels thought later.

That part was easy enough. I start to think about how water got into our last case. I know I have to be much more careful now. This case has taken me a really long time to build because of all of the sanding and trepidation. If I didn’t want pondcam to get wet before, I so much more don’t want it to get wet now. I decide to build in some reinforcement to give me even better odds.

I cut some strips of plexiglass and then I; sand and sand and sand… Then I take a little break and sand some more. I cut them to the exact length and place them everywhere to reinforce the case and hold the camera in the correct position.

Literally every part where plexiglass meets I fit a carefully sanded strip and glue it into place (yes I use the mock goop glue for this, not epoxy). Here is what it looks like drying overnight. What you see is me  building out the back wall with a border of those strips so that our back will have double the area for epoxy to cure.

After this dried I put our cable assembly in and tested it. I didn’t take any pictures because then I would force myself to write about each one. This keeps me up way too long and makes my posts hard to get through because they are so long. Instead I will sum up:

– When testing I was trying to connect the antenna cable to the camera and I ended up breaking the connector off. This caused a big problem and I had to troubleshoot it. I found the issue and then reconnected it and tested to make sure it worked.
– I permanently mounted our pondcam wireless access point in its new weatherproof case.
– I went to the store and bought a firewall just for pondcam and pondnet. Actually they had some cheapy refurbished ones so I bought three of them. I don’t want any of my projects to touch my actual work network. I reconfigured pondcam so it would be on its own network (They were 14 bucks… old technology, maybe not so good for fast wireless networks but perfect for pondcam).
– I reconfigured pondam’s wireless network to be unencrypted with no password. I want people that hang around my pond to see that they can just connect and browse the web and not worry about asking anyone for a password.
– I test pondcam again and again and make sure everything works as expected. Then I put the back on.

Here is what the pondcam looks like in its new case right now. I spread as much expoxy as I could without fear of it leaking onto the inside of the camera and clamped the back of the case down. I am not sure there is any turning back from this. This case better work.

Now that has to cure all night.

One last thing… Just like the silly song that was going through my head that I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I have a similar thing going through my head every time I have to wait for something to dry. Except it isn’t a song, it is a story. If you have ever read  “Go dog, Go!” to your kids you will know exactly what I am talking about (I have read that book to my kids so many times). Near the end of the book it goes like this “Now it is night. Night is not a time for play, the dogs go to sleep, the dogs will sleep all night”.