I'm playing with the idea of a new project. I'd be interested in peoples thoughts/ideas.

Now that my bird-feeder-camera is complete (although all the fucking birds have disappeared), I thought it'd be nice to make something that I can run in 'other' places away from the house - at the back of the garden or in the woods next to the garden.

I thought it could be nice to make some kind of 'thing' that is really cheap to build and wouldn't be the end of the world if it did happen to get stolen.

My initial thoughts are:

1) Buy a really cheap compact digital camera (£20)
2) Buy a PIR sensor (£4)
3) Buy an arduino or a teensy (http://www.pjrc.com/teensy/ $16)
4) Hack open the camera, see if I can break apart the shutter release and possibly the on/off switch
5) Hook it up to the arduino and hook the PIR sensor to the arduino

If the camera is easy to break apart, this should be the easy part. So far I've spent £35 - £40 if I'm lucky. To save as much power as possible on the camera battery I'd need to only turn the camera on when movement is detected and turn it off straight after.

However, I still need to power the Arduino. Do you think I could power it with solar power? With a battery to fall back on. Ideally it'd switch itself off at night, but no idea how it could then turn itself back on...

Or maybe a raspberry Pi would be better for this? There's a really promising camera module being developed for it - but I guess the power consumption would be much much higher..

Anyone got any ideas? :/

One issue I see here is that compact cameras do take a good few seconds to power up, and if it's one with a zoom lens then it'll probably make a noise as it does so.

 

Depends on how long your capture window is, I guess.

Hrmph. Yeah that's true.

 

I wish I could find a dirt cheap digital camera without a LCD screen - it'd save quite a bit of power.

http://www.ladyada.net/make/IoTcamera/

 

Hrmm......

 

a camera directly onto the arduino..

I have a nice camera with a broken LCD. Yours for shipping if it interests you. I can post a model when I get home.

Not anything to do with the project: we took one of the sides of my daughter's cotbed Sunday night and I am very tempted to get a night vision (IR LED) wifi camera so I can watch her fall out of bed.

 

Just as we were going to bed last night I opened the door to check on her. She was right on the edge of the bed then her head slipped down and she ended up on the floor. If I can record it we can both laugh at her if she falls out in the night :)

That's really appreciated, although I'd rather buy something from scratch (within an affordable budget) because I'd like to make something that's replicable at a low cost.

 

So far I think the most promising looking setup is looking like this:

 

1) A very cut-down arduino board. A tiny thing. £10-ish
2) A camera module (£20-ish)
3) a PIR sensor (£5)

 

So I should have the basics working for around £35.

 

This'll only give me 680x480, but that should be enough because the camera will be nice and close to the target.

 

The best thing about this set up is that it'll be extremely extremely extremely small - not much bigger than two match boxes on top of each other.

 

The next issue will be the power management. If I keep the arduino in sleep mode for the majority of the time and only have the PIR sensor active, I'll save a huge amount of power, but I'll need to find a way to have it interrupt the sleep mode.

 

Potentially then I could have it powered by a solar panel and a battery - although that'll increase the cost considerably. I'm guessing the total project cost would be around £100.

 

I've seen non-solar pre-built kits for around £80, so potentially I'm saving around £40 if I go without the solar panel - for a similar resolution.

 

I guess the advantage is that I'll have full control over mine. I could add a wifi module, bluetooth module, SD card..etc..
From what I've seen, the £80 ones just hook directly into the TV which isn't really ideal.

Actually it looks like the camera module will be closer to £30-35

Cheap webcam?

Obviously not as small but you can get a higher res webcam for a reasonable price these days. Powering it might be an issue though.

Aye, I keep going back to that, but the arduino wont be able to power it (or even process it), which then leads me to the raspberry pi, which in turn removes any chance of having this all completely solar powered.

 

gah

Then if I'm going to have to use mains power, there's always CHDK..

Canon PowerShot A800 10MP Compact Digital Camera camera from argos - £40.

 

A custom CHDK script to do the motion detection then take the photos..

 

Solder up a custom battery coupler for it

 

simples.

 

Cant really imagine i'll get it any cheaper than that with such good quality. Means I have a working camera too.

Would one of those cheap-ass keyring digicams do the job?

I just bought a Canon PowerShot for my master plan. A bit more money than I was hoping (£40), but covers a lot of what I want to do. So:

Phase 1:

1. Make my own battery coupler that'll power the thing from the mains. I want this thing running 24/7.
2. Write a CHDK script that'll do the motion detection then take a picture if it detects anything.
3. Hollow out a log (maybe?), hang a bird feeder on one end, then find some way of matching a secure box on the other end to house the camera

Phase 2:

1. A cheap arduino board attached to a solar panel and battery which just has a PIR sensor attached.
2. Make some way of reducing the power used (put it into sleep mode? turn it off?) when it's too dark

Phase 3:

1. Make a box to cover the top of the camera, with a servo which can press the power button of the camera when the PIR sensor fires (and again when the PIR sensor turns off)
2. Attach the camera to the solar panel/battery setup<./li>

If this is all even possible, it'll mean:

1. The only thing taking power for the majority of the time will be the arduino running just a PIR sensor
2. When it detects something it'll turn the camera on and the CHDK will start taking pictures
3. When it finishes taking pictures, it'll go back to just being the arduino

Now I just need to work out if I can get a solar panel that'll produce enough power to keep the arduino running but also drip feed the battery for the power that the camera will use.

If, on average, it does generate more power than the arduino needs, I'll be fine. It could even monitor the battery level (i think?) to make sure that it doesn't turn the camera on unless it thinks it has the juice to run it.

This could be awesome. Or it could maybe not work. Either way... i'll give it a go!

1. See what DC couplers currently exist for the camera. I bought one for mine.

 

2. There are motion-detection scripts already written and on the CHDK website. Check them out, might be easier to start with something that already works.

 

3. Some Canon cameras via CHDK have support for USB control, look into it, might help you avoid the servo and just use a USB cable connected to the arduino board to take the picture.

This is what I have. And I've snipped it and made it possible to connect other sources.

Regarding couplers:

 

I have one for my DSLR already - but this little cannon thing just takes 2 AA batteries and I've not seen one for that (yet). Making my own should be pretty simple (although if I can find a prebuilt one for under £10 I'll get it)

 

Regarding motion detection:

 

Aye, I'll use one of the pre-built ones to start with, although eventually I'll hopefully get rid of it and the PIR sensor will do the hard work. I want the camera turned on as little as possible.

 

Regarding USB:

 

I was thinking about that - but the servo will be turning the cameras power button on, not taking the shot. I need the camera turned on as little as possible if I'm gonna have any possibility of running this from solar.

 

Ideally, turning the USB connection on would turn the power to the camera on, but I tested that out and it doesn't work :(

Ultra technical diagram. Follow the numbers to get a clearer idea of the way it should work.