“Homemade” Ice Fishing Camera

[780sjc]

I work in the security Industry so one thing I have always struggled with is how much companies like Aqua Vu and Marcum are charging for the quality and technology you are getting. The cameras they are using are junk with extremely low quality specs. A quick comparison with a standard CCTV camera highlights how far behind they are (and I don’t know why).

I bought the cheap Marcum on sale the other day from Cabelas (it’s yours for $300) and it sucks.

I decided to finally try sending an IP camera down the hole to see how it does in comparison.

Specs:

Style - Turret
5MP
2.8mm lens
0.003 lux
Power - POE
IP67 rated

The very first challenge is the IP67 rating which is not submersible. I decided to start with a turret camera due to the enclosed nature of them and just removed it from the base.




I then opened it up and started to add sealant to any area that had a seam or a screw.











After I closed it backed up I added a heavy bead of sealant across where the main gasket is and crossed my fingers. I also added some sealant around the camera lens and IR\LED lens.

Next was a 40 foot section of direct burial cat6 cable and a watertight connector around the RJ45 crystal.







After I connected it I added more sealant. Again, none of this is rated to be submerged so I kept that in mind and was pretty liberal with sealing everything.



After it all dried I wrapped all the connections in Eletrical tape to keep them stiff.

I also added some fishing weights to the bottom.

All I did for now to get the camera looking horizontal was tape the cable to the top.



The second challenge is a power source that’s portable and convenient.

For now, all I’m using is a 450 Watt inverter that can run off a 12 volt battery.



For a monitor, I’m using a laptop. Although any Android or windows based device should work. The camera software is a free download from the manufacturer.

I plugged a POE injector into the inverter to power the camera and then a short patch cable from the second port on the injector into my laptop.

Toss it all in a case and I’m ready to test.




We fish Wizard lake a lot since it’s 30 min from home and as some might know it’s a very murky lake. Perfect place to test it out.




I was impressed!



This is just a screenshot that I sent to my phone so the quality is downgraded a bit but for wizard I was really happy with it. A cleaner lake and it should perform very well.

This is a fairly average camera by industry standard so you could go even higher with specs.

The true test here was could I get the camera sealed and would all the the extra hassle be worth it for the added image quality.

Now to figure out how to get this all into a more portable kit.

Feel free to PM me if you want a hand building one.


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