[TriEmbed] Camera Advice

Wed Apr 30 17:29:27 CDT 2014

Thank you all for your suggestions!  A lot of options to look into.

I should clarify that although the camera is currently indoors, I would
eventually like to move it outside the window, as Paul suggested.  This
would both give me a better perspective on the feeder and remove the pane
from between the camera and its subject.  But it is also why power
consumption is a concern: short of drilling a hole in the wall or window, I
can't get a cord out there.

Rodney, what solar panel do you use?  My impression was that even a 45 W
panel will not be
enough<http://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=41&t=31859>
most
of the year.  (If I could keep the Pi, the RPi camera is a natural choice;
the sensor seems to be of high quality, and I could always try to
custom-mount a better lens one
way<http://www.instructables.com/id/The-SnapPiCam-A-Raspberry-Pi-Camera/>or
another<http://www.ebay.com/itm/Raspberry-Pi-Camera-Board-w-CS-mount-Lens-fully-compatible-with-official-module-/281212355128>
.)

Best wishes,
Ted

On Wed, Apr 30, 2014 at 6:47 AM, Rodney Radford <ncgadgetry at gmail.com>wrote:

> Ted, a couple comments on your first post.
>
> Have you tried using the RPi camera?  I tried a couple of webcams and was
> unhappy with them on the RPi - either the resolution was not good enough,
> or the data stream was too high for the PI's USB bus.  The RPi camera
> really works great and you should definitely give that a try.
>
> As for the power being too much for a solar cell, I have an RPi now that
> is solar powered and it is working fine for me.  You just need to have the
> solar cell first charge a batter and then run the RPi from the battery.
>  This allows you to work through periods of no/low sun and changes the
> requirement to having a solar cell whose average power exceeds that of the
> RPi (plus the loss to battery and charger).
>
>
>
> On Wed, Apr 30, 2014 at 5:22 AM, Tom Billman <tbillman at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi Ted,
>>
>> Thanks for the post.  What problem domain are you really attempting to
>> solve ?  The photo, cute bird by the way and thanks for naming it,
>> indicates your feeder is well within reach of a power cord. A Pi plus a UPS
>> solves your power issues, costs next to nothing, and takes no time to
>> implement.
>>
>> The imp looks pretty interesting, Thx for the link.
>>
>> Now a remote setup does have all of the power issues you mention.   That
>> situation begs the question of "how remote" ?  Too far for WiFi, etc...
>>
>> IMHO, these are all great questions.  There's nothing wrong spending time
>> and money on these real-world puzzles.  Much better than watching TV (again
>> IMHO). Enjoy the journey!
>>
>>  I am interested in low-power sensor networks. Also, I would consider
>> reflowing some Electric Imp modules on a custom PCB board if people are
>> interested.
>>
>> Best regards,
>>
>> Tom
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Apr 28, 2014 at 1:32 AM, Ted Pudlik <tpudlik at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Hello,
>>>
>>> I'm working on a system for my bird feeder that would detect birds, take
>>> photos of them and put these photos up online.  I assembled a working
>>> prototype using a Raspberry Pi (with a WiFi dongle), a passive IR sensor
>>> and a Logitech webcam, but it suffers from two drawbacks:
>>>
>>>    1. The power consumption of the Pi is too large to permit long-term
>>>    operation on battery or solar power, restricting installation options.
>>>    2. The image quality leaves a lot to be desired.  (Here's an example
>>>    picture<https://www.dropbox.com/s/bdqquj6um0vluyg/Carolina_Chickadee.jpg>
>>>    .)
>>>
>>> To solve issue 1 while keeping WiFi connectivity easy, I'm looking into
>>> replacing the Pi with an electric imp <https://electricimp.com/>.  I'm
>>> not sure what to do about the camera, though.  Adafruit sells a camera
>>> accessible via serial port <https://www.adafruit.com/products/397> that can
>>> be made to work with the imp<http://forums.electricimp.com/discussion/comment/5824#Comment_5824>,
>>> but capturing quality stills is not its strength.  The excellent built-in
>>> iPhone cameras can be bought surprisingly cheaply on eBay<http://www.ebay.com/itm/Replacement-Rear-Facing-Camera-for-iphone5s-/281316823054?pt=US_Other_Cell_Phone_Accessories&hash=item417fca100e>,
>>> but I'm not sure how to get them to talk to anything other than an iPhone.
>>>  Another possibility might be buying and cannibalizing a cheap digital
>>> camera<http://www.amazon.com/Kodak-Easyshare-Digital-Camera-Silver/dp/B003VTZE1M/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1398662318&sr=8-2&keywords=digital+camera>,
>>> but again I don't know if the modules inside could be interfaced with a
>>> standard microcontroller.
>>>
>>> What would you recommend?  What's the best way to get a reasonably
>>> priced camera that takes high quality stills and can be easily controlled
>>> through a standard bus?
>>>
>>> Thank you for your help!
>>> Ted
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Triangle, NC Embedded Computing mailing list
>>> TriEmbed at triembed.org
>>> http://mail.triembed.org/mailman/listinfo/triembed_triembed.org
>>> TriEmbed web site: http://TriEmbed.org
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Tom Billman
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>> TriEmbed at triembed.org
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>>
>>
>
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