Things to do with a Raspberry Pi

Things to do with a Raspberry Pi part 1. On a whim I bought a Raspberry Pi to make a simple and cheap wildlife cam. Hoping to see what wildlife comes and goes through the garden. Raspberry Pi 3 Model B bought from Ebay as a customer return for £22. Raspberry Pi version 1 camera module bought for £6.25 from Ebay. Camera mount from Ebay for £5 and a case for the Raspberry Pi from Amazon for £10. The other parts I already had lying around.

All the parts…

This is the collection of parts. A baby milk tin. I knew there’d be a use for it someday… A water bottle nozzle for a rain guard. A micro USB lead. Some scrap balsa wood and plywood to make a mount to attach the camera to the inside of the tin. The Raspberry Pi and camera module and a USB power bank. It needs to be one that has a decent capacity and outputs 2 amps really. The higher the capacity the longer the camera will run.

Close up of the Raspberry Pi and camera module.

Cut down water bottle nozzle to fit into a hole cut in the tin to keep rain off the lens.

Scrap balsa and ply mount/shelf to attach the camera too.

Rain guard fitted with the help of a hot glue gun. The eagle eyed will see the water bottle bottom opposite the rain guard over some cooling holes.

All packed into the tin with plenty of room.

The OS software chosen is Motioneye which you install on the micro SD card. Very simple to set up with lots of options including motion detection. Stills and video are downloadable wirelessly from a web browser too. It’s a bit bright at the moment so a coat of paint may be in order. Satin black perhaps?

Does it work?

After final assembly I put the unit outside on the decking with a slice of bread to see if I could attract some wildlife. Almost straight away a local squirrel took the bait. The motion detection worked a treat too…

Update

Looks a bit less in your face with a coat of satin black. Can’t do a lot about the plastic lid though.