“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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[Elchinodiablo]

Nice. I have always wondered the same thing having spent some time working with cams in the past. Sounds like a good business venture coming up!!

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[57charlie]

Two thumbs up on your DIY project, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that underwater picture.

[Savage Bacon]

Awesome project!

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[58thecat]

Well heck ya that seems to be a great set up....well done!

Post after more trial runs to see how things hold up!

[calgarygringo]

Looks good for your version 1.0. Just a suggestion though for your goop make sure you use an underwater type. 3M 5200 would be the best choice and it will not break down under water and never worry about a leak. Otherwise nice work.

[SNAPFisher]

Yeah, Keep posting over time. I'm wondering how the sealant will hold up. Good idea though!

[780sjc]

Thanks guys. I’ll keep you posted if the sealant holds up and like mentioned above, there are some marine specific ones that would be best if this doesn’t hold.

Worst case scenario I would need to pull the guts out of the housing and try to find an IP68 rated enclosure.

[New2Elk]

I don’t know much about camera specs so perhaps this is a total miss, but what about those USB “inspection” cameras you can get on Amazon? A lot of them are already waterproof and come with 30-50’ of cable. They plug right into the laptop without needing much else. I’ve never tried one underwater but we have used them to look down deep drilled holes for pile foundations years ago. Personally I can’t bring a laptop along on most of my outings so I can’t use it anyway but if you’re bringing a laptop already, may be it’s a solution?

[Coiloil37]

I did the same thing a few months ago. I wanted a troll camera that was live feed but dedicated fishing ones are dear as poison. I bought a 12v reverse camera with a 9” colour screen and 50 meters of cable. It’s capable of running up to 4 cameras simultaneously but I’m currently only running one. The cameras themselves are only $85, the whole system cost me $320. The one I bought is IP68 rated but being as I’m using it in the salt I covered the whole camera in sikaflex. I put a piece of tape over the screen, covered everything in sikaflex then peeled the tape off the glass on the front. I tow it around 10m behind the boat off a planer about 3 meters under the surface just below my dredge. Keep in mind I’m fishing billfish and other palegics in the deep blue. So far it’s worked well, the picture quality is great, I can see about 30m through the water behind the boat and see fish when they show up. I can also see the lures running above the camera.

I plan on using it on the reef when I start fishing for the bottom vermin this winter when the palegics leave and perhaps I’ll get to a point where I run a second camera off the other side of the boat so I can watch both sides of the prop wash on the troll.

[nast70]

We fooled around with my GoPro hero. Used the app on the phone to live view. There is a delay of about a 1 sec, so you couldn't use it to set a hook on a soft bite. But the image quality is great.
This was the first go at Gull, pretty murky, but still, lots of fun: https://youtu.be/SoyYyMKgb6g