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Martha Cove Marina |
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| About Martha Cove, the web site, weather station and web cam. |
| Martha Cove |
| Situated at the base of Mount Martha and just inland of Safety Beach, Martha Cove is a residential and marina development located a one hour drive south of Melbourne, Australia. Latitude 38o 19' South, Longitude 145o 0' East. The marina has a water depth of 2.4 metres. |
| Web Site Objective |
| The web site owner is a keen sailor and discovered that the weather at Martha Cove differs from Melbourne, Mornington or further south. The objective of accessing real time Martha Cove weather via the web was achieved early on, and it seemed logical to add in weather radar, marine traffic and other general info relevant to Martha Cove and boating in the area. |
| Technology Overview |
| A wireless weather station collects weather data which is stored on a local computer for periodic upload to this site. An IP camera uploads video and still images to cloud storage which then creates a time-lapse series of images which can be viewed on the Web Cam page on this site. |
| Weather Station |
| The weather station comprises 3 solar powered modules which transmit data wirelessly to a console. The first module is an anemometer and wind vane installed 10 metres above ground level and it reports wind speed and direction every 3 seconds. The second module reports outdoor temperature, barometric pressure, humidity and rainfall at 12 to 24 second intervals. The third module is a temperature probe suspended in the marina one metre below the water surface reporting water temperature every 12 seconds. The console stores all data in a logger for periodic uploading to a local computer. |
| Camera |
| The 5 Megapixel IP camera is configured to video continuously and to capture still images when triggered by detected motion and saves these to both an onboard SD card and to cloud storage. When triggered the camera can also send an email alert message to the site owner. Video is recorded at 1080p resolution and still mages are 1920 x 1080 pixels with a file size of between 150 and 300kb. Typically 120+ images are uploaded each day at intervals of 5 minutes or more. |
| Computer |
| The computer runs 24/7 and is connected to the weather station data logger. Software is configured to collect from the weather station console all weather data at 1 minute intervals and also produce wind charts at 10 minute and other charts at 15 minute intervals. Immediately following these tasks the software creates and uploads new web pages to this web site. A "rolling 48 hour" tide chart specifically for Martha Cove is also updated every 15 minutes by separate software and is uploaded to this web site every 30 minutes. With a solid state hard disk and a fan-less CPU the computer has no moving parts, is silent and consumes minimal power. |
| Network |
| The camera is accessible remotely to view live video images or adjust camera settings. The (host) computer is accessible remotely via a secure (client) computer to adjust software settings, reset, or to change the web pages uploaded to this site. The camera connects via Cat6 cable and the computer connects wirelessly via a 4G router which has line-of-site to a 4G tower in Pickings Road. |
| Summary |
| Given the above task intervals, current weather, wind direction and speed dials, and historical weather highs, lows and totals displayed are at most 5 minutes delayed. Historical weather charts are at most 15 minutes delayed and tide charts are at most 45 minutes delayed (although the latter displays a rolling 48 hours at all times). Still camera images are uploaded instantly when motion is detected. For sailors keen to track wind speed and direction whilst out on the water there are special fast loading web pages (optimised for mobile phones) with wind data updated every 60 seconds and wind charts updated every 10 minutes - click on the links herein or visit the Links page. |
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Contact : info@martha-cove.com |