Night Sleep

I finally managed to get what I think is a viable way to put remote SkyCams to sleep at night; to conserve power so I can get a picture every 15 minutes for my web page (www.n7qnm.net). I've got a combination of Linux shell scripts and python code.

Here's the high level -
For sunset -
I have a shell script that calls sunwait (https://github.com/risacher/sunwait) that I run at 1600 every day.
sunwait has a "wait" function that blocks until sunset and then returns.
The second line in the shell script uploads the current picture to my website (a sunset picture)
The third line invokes a python script that uses Astral to calculate the number of seconds until tomorrow's sunrise and sends that to the camera.

For sunrise -
I have a python script that connects to the MQTT broker and waits for the "INFO" message from the camera, when it finds that, it sends a command to the camera and resets the cycle to 15 munutes.

It's worked for a couple of days, and my battery voltage is running from 3.95V at sunrise to a little over 4V at sunset.

Feel free to give these a try! You'll need to download and install sunwait, and then change the lat/long, and also do the same thing for Astral in the setSkyCamNight.py script.

Any suggestions or improvements welcome! I'll post results here as we get on into winter


Here are the scripts:
Sunset.sh
#!/bin/sh
/usr/local/bin/sunwait wait set 46.186555N 119.828222W
/home/pi/bin/setSkyCamNight.py
/home/pi/bin/upload_picture.sh /home/pi/SDL_Pi_SkyWeather2/static/CurrentPicture/A215.jpg Webcams/Sunset.jpeg

SetSkyCamNight.py
#!/usr/bin/python3
# set SkyCam interval
#

import json
import paho.mqtt.client as mqtt
import os
import socket
import sys
import time
import datetime
from datetime import timedelta
from astral import LocationInfo
from astral.sun import sun

import traceback

MQTTCYCLECHANGE = 11

from subprocess import check_output

def on_publish(client, userdata, mid):
print("published message",mid)
client.disconnect()
client.loop_stop()
print("Exiting")
sys.exit(0)

def on_log(client, userdata, level, buf):
print("log: ",buf)

# The callback for when the client receives a CONNACK response from the server.
def on_connect(client, userdata, flags, rc):
print("Connected with result code "+str(rc))
# Subscribing in on_connect() means that if we lose the connection and
# reconnect then subscriptions will be renewed.
MyTopic = "SKYCAM"+"/"+cameraID+"/"+"INFO"
def on_message(client, userdata, msg):
print(msg.topic)
print(msg.payload)
try:
if (cameraID != ""):
SplitTopic = msg.topic
SplitTopic = SplitTopic.split("/")
if (((SplitTopic[1] == cameraID) or (cameraID == "+")) and (SplitTopic[2] == "INFO")):
myMessage = json.loads(msg.payload)
if (myMessage["messagetype"] == "4"):
# last INFO message - SkyCam only listens for a short while
sendMessage(client, cameraID, sendWhatCommand)
except:
traceback.print_exc()

def sendMessage(client, cameraID, messageType):
# send command to SkyCameraRemote
# get msg topic
MyTopic = "SKYCAM"+"/"+cameraID+"/"+"COMMANDS"
# set up JSON
myIP = check_output(['hostname', '-I'])
myIP = myIP.decode()
myIP = myIP.replace("\n","")
myIP = myIP.replace(" ","")

print("sending messagetype %s to:%s " %( messageType, MyTopic ))
# send time to sleep message
city = LocationInfo("Prosser", "WA", "America/Los_Angeles", 46.186555, -119.828222)
now = datetime.datetime.now()
tomorrow = now + timedelta(days=1)
s = sun(city.observer, date=tomorrow, tzinfo=city.timezone)
sleepTime = int((s["sunrise"].replace(tzinfo=None) - now).total_seconds())
myMessage = {
"messagetype": MQTTCYCLECHANGE,
"myip": myIP,
"timetosleep": sleepTime
}

myMessage = json.dumps(myMessage)
client.publish(MyTopic, myMessage)

print("Messge Sent:",myMessage)

# main program

# what ID to test
cameraID = "A215"
# this command will be sent after an INFO messagetype 4 from cameraID
sendWhatCommand = MQTTCYCLECHANGE

client = mqtt.Client()
client.on_log=on_log
client.on_connect = on_connect
client.on_message = on_message
client.on_publish = on_publish
client.connect("localhost", port=1883)


# Blocking call that processes network traffic, dispatches callbacks and

# handles reconnecting.
client.loop_forever()

Sunrise.sh
#!/bin/sh
#/usr/local/bin/sunwait wait rise 46.186555N 119.828222W
/home/pi/bin/setSkyCamDay.py
/home/pi/bin/upload_picture.sh /home/pi/SDL_Pi_SkyWeather2/static/CurrentPicture/A215.jpg Webcams/Sunrise.jpeg

SetSkyCamDay.py
#!/usr/bin/python3
# set SkyCam interval
#

import json
import paho.mqtt.client as mqtt
import os
import socket
import sys
import time
import datetime

import traceback

MQTTCYCLECHANGE = 11

from subprocess import check_output

def on_publish(client, userdata, mid):
print("published message",mid)
client.disconnect()
client.loop_stop()
print("Exiting")
sys.exit(0)

def on_log(client, userdata, level, buf):
print("log: ",buf)

# The callback for when the client receives a CONNACK response from the server.
def on_connect(client, userdata, flags, rc):
print("Connected with result code "+str(rc))
# Subscribing in on_connect() means that if we lose the connection and
# reconnect then subscriptions will be renewed.
MyTopic = "SKYCAM"+"/"+cameraID+"/"+"INFO"
client.subscribe(MyTopic)

# The callback for when a PUBLISH message is received from the server.
def on_message(client, userdata, msg):
print(msg.topic)
print(msg.payload)
try:
if (cameraID != ""):
SplitTopic = msg.topic
SplitTopic = SplitTopic.split("/")
if (((SplitTopic[1] == cameraID) or (cameraID == "+")) and (SplitTopic[2] == "INFO")):
myMessage = json.loads(msg.payload)
if (myMessage["messagetype"] == "4"):
# last INFO message - SkyCam only listens for a short while
sendMessage(client, cameraID, sendWhatCommand)
except:
traceback.print_exc()

def sendMessage(client, cameraID, messageType):
# send command to SkyCameraRemote
# get msg topic
MyTopic = "SKYCAM"+"/"+cameraID+"/"+"COMMANDS"
# set up JSON
myIP = check_output(['hostname', '-I'])
myIP = myIP.decode()
myIP = myIP.replace("\n","")
myIP = myIP.replace(" ","")

print("sending messagetype %s to:%s " %( messageType, MyTopic ))
# send time to sleep message
myMessage = {
"messagetype": MQTTCYCLECHANGE,
"myip": myIP,
"timetosleep": 890
}

myMessage = json.dumps(myMessage)
client.publish(MyTopic, myMessage)

print("Messge Sent:",myMessage)

# main program

# what ID to test
cameraID = "A215"
# this command will be sent after an INFO messagetype 4 from cameraID
sendWhatCommand = MQTTCYCLECHANGE

client = mqtt.Client()
client.on_log=on_log
client.on_connect = on_connect
client.on_message = on_message
client.on_publish = on_publish
client.connect("localhost", port=1883)


# Blocking call that processes network traffic, dispatches callbacks and

# handles reconnecting.
client.loop_forever()