PI Critter Cam Day 13 (Part 2): Setting the Trap

Now that we've got the camera looking for animals at startup and have all the other physical components, we are ready to get some animal pictures.

First, I need a way to put birdseed next to the camera.  I had some extra Y Guides shark tooth sifters laying around, which will make a great plain for holding birdseed.  I'll attach my PI enclosure to that with some wood screws.  I'm also going to cover them with tack in an attempt to keep water from entering the enclosure through the screw holes.

Now, we'll put the PI in the enclosure and here's the complete picture.

All we need now is some birdseed!

But wait... the sifter was built with chicken wire and birdseed will fall through that.  So, I'll put some plexiglassish material from a broken, cheap picture frame between the chicken wire and sifter frame.  

I've plugged in the battery,  added the birdseed and clamped it to my deck.  All we need now is some critters.

I'm not exactly sure how long the freebie battery will power the PI.  I'll check the PI at the end of the day to see if it took any pictures and, if I can figure it out, how long it ran before it died.  

PI Critter Cam Day 13: Pics on Startup

Today, we're going to get our PI set up to start looking for critters and take pictures at startup.  So, when I plug it into the battery, the PI will boot and be ready for action.  

We're using the pi-timolo package now to watch for and take pictures of these critters.  Included in the pi-timolo package is a bash script (program that runs in the Raspian terminal) that you can set to run on startup.  This is according to the pi-timolo's wiki.  To run this guy on startup, you stick a path to the program in the file rc.local

To alter rc.local, use the Terminal and type in sudo nano /etc/rc.local

This brings up the terminal's file updating/ word processing program.

Scroll down to the line right above exit 0 and stick in the filepath and file name.

/home/pi/pi-timolo/pi-timolo.sh

After that, save the file with a ctrl + x, confirm you want to use the same file name with an Enter and you are done.  

Now, I'm going to put a big pile of birdseed in front of my pi, plug it in and see what I get at the end of the day.  

PI Critter Cam Day 12: Enclosure

I've been slowly and methodically planning the enclosure for the critter cam.  I want something that can live outside, can hold a battery, and,obviously, the Pi's enclosure, but with the wifi dongle plugged in.  My ultimate goal is to have the Pi take pictures and post them automatically to Twitter.

Since I'm attempting to do this on the cheap, my enclosure plans started with a leftover container about the size of a few servings of mac and cheese, which should be the equivalent of all the components.  It's got latches on the side, which I'm hoping will keep it enclosed enough to keep the rain out.  

Due to my frugality, I'm attempting to use a freebie battery to power the Pi before investing in something more substantial.  This battery is small, but is intended for cell phones, which means you can plug the Pi into it via the mini USB port.  That really simplifies things significantly.  I tested it out and the Pi was able to boot  and take a picture with it as a power source.  Awesome!

Lastly, it has a tiny vent hole on the top that's about the same size as the camera lens.  To utilize this hole, but prevent rain from getting in, I bought some tack stuff via Amazon.  Here's what the completed enclosure looks like.

In order to fully utilize this case, however, I still need to figure out how to have the motion detector initialize on startup and figure out how to test this thing outside.  I'm thinking a tray with some birdseed might be a good test.  Until next time...