About the gear

The Montara web cam is hosted using gear all over 10 years old. The camera itself is a Sony Hi8 HandiCam that was dropped one time too many. It has a hard time focusing, but given sufficient fiddling, it'll hold the focus (at least until the next time we lose power). It long ago lost the ability to "roll tape". It was a great camera in its day. It has great optics, and a terrific zoom. Webcams, even the "good" ones like the Apple iSight, can't match it for grabbing a shot of Montara Beach.

It's plugged into a PowerMac 6100 (c. 1994) running Mac OS 9.1 (the most current OS the 6100 can run). It has an AV card with s-video input. Over time, the image has started to show signs of electrical interference. Changing and rerouting cables, checking the ground, and reseating the AV card have not helped. I suspect it's the camera itself.

Well, so much for the PowerMac 6100. It finally gave out. What a bargain, really. That thing ran for over a decade. Sorry to see it go.

We have another, more reliable computer available, but not with s-video input. To be able to use the more modern machine will take a DV camera with FireWire (1394) output. We're looking to raise about $200 to buy a used one off of craigslist. That should give us better uptime, clearer image quality and more zoom.

The weather station is on long-term loan from a community member who loves Montara and wants the community to have a weather station. It's a rather nice Davis Instruments model and cost a pretty penny. Unfortunately, these things take maintenance over time. Right now it needs a few things. The humidity sensor has lost calibration, or may have outright failed. The rain gauge has stopped working. And the firmware needs an upgrade. The computer running the software and making the graphs could use some help, but I might be able to work around that by moving it to Linux instead of Windows.

The repair and calibration is going to run about $89 + shipping to get fixed. If you would like to donate, that'll help get this boxed up and shipped to Davis Instruments that much sooner.

Our site is hosted by The MacHax™ Group, and they handle PayPal donations on our behalf as a convenience. All donations go straight through to pay for the gear that makes the site run. If you have any questions or comments, please let us know: