For the geeks #2

Hi there, bespectacled reader.

Well, I tried and tried (and tried) to get Camera#3 working with a SIM card, uploading pics to my website as described previously. A few problems with that:

1. I'm rubbish at soldering. Appalling. So actually constructing the rig was so time-consuming and error-strewn, by the time I got to the software I was already losing the will.

Hell

2. The SIM assembly has very proscriptive power demands. It would run on my desk as long as I used a USB port to supply it, but an actual USB charger made it shriek "Over Voltage" and switch off. Since the thing was going to be powered from a USB charger, this was a showstopper.

3. The SIM card I bought from Three refused to register on the Three network. The O2 SIM from my phone would connect in a heartbeat, so at that point there was nothing wrong with the rig. The Three SIM worked perfectly in a phone. This was infuriating.

4. Once on the network, the software required to upload files to the internet (minicom) is so badly documented, I felt like I was 15 and trying to buy a round, getting no help from the gorillas at the bar, and sarcastic answers, winks and nudges if I asked a question. Basically I don't have the patience to learn the skills required.

So, I decided to improve on Camer#2 by putting it in a specially constructed waterproof enclosure. 

Well, it's a sandwich box. 

Camera#2.1 now has the following upgrades:

• Wired access as well as wireless capability. Plan is to take a laptop once a month, plug in and use WinSCP to download what we have.
• I've protected the 10 metre USB cables, hoping the comms won't degrade over time as in the past.
• I've put magnets on the box so it can be attached easily to the steel which will be in the way of the current camera position. These magnets are proper strong. I plonked it on a radiator in the house and virtually had to use a crowbar to remove it.
• The Raspberry Pi at the heart of this has been beefed up to 64gb on the Micro SD card. That will hold roughly 10,000 photos, in case I'm too bone idle to go and harvest images every month.
• The software has been improved so that the camera only fires every 20 minutes from 9am-4pm in Winter, 8am-5pm in Summer. I'm fed up deleting black images taken during hours of darkness..

Some pics:

Yes, that really is a sandwich box.

I hope to have this installed in the next couple of weeks, more news as I get it. 

I now have a full 5-minute movie of the site since October 2020, but thanks to the GORT (gods of red tape) there's nothing much to look at, unless you like the leaves falling as the seasons change, occasional snow cover, or next door's wandering cat. 

Later, geeks.