Cable type for drop cam

[EliotBR (Eliot)]

@jim_p

Would the quality of the signal to the computer degrade over a certain distance?

It’s a digital signal, so it’s not any issues that are caused will be due to lost/corrupted packets, from electrical noise or insufficient bandwidth. Effectively, any frames that get through will have the same quality regardless of distance (which is what @Boko was referring to), but if the tether gets too long there might be some missed or damaged frames.

@jim_p

That’s the reason I didn’t want the camera looking out of a dome, or from inside of an acrylic cylinder.

I don’t believe you mentioned that earlier - does that imply you’re using a flat window, or is your camera external and has a waterproof lens? If it’s the former, you may be interested in this:

@EliotBR

@kurtnelle

Is a dome even needed? I read somewhere that even a flat window is good enough.

“Good enough” depends on your requirements. A camera with its input at the centre of a dome will have a less distorted image than one looking through a flat window, but it’s possible the reduced distortion at the edges/corners isn’t worth the extra development/expense for you. I’m hoping to make a clear guide and possibly a calculator for that at some point in future, but in the meantime you may be interested in these web pages:

• Optics of Dome Ports
• Planar Interfaces and Apparent Positions
• Dome View Ports – Best Performance Under Pressure - DeepSea Power & Light

It’s also of course possible to try out a flat end-cap and see if the results are reasonable or if a dome is required.