For the Geeks

A history of my attempts to create a timelapse movie of the build.

The idea: put a camera on the inner apex of the front wall, capture all the goings-on at 1 minute (later 20 second) intervals for the duration, make a movie out of it. Simples.

Camera #1 (Autumn 2020)

With the help of No.1 son Jack, we managed to put together a camera run by a Raspberry Pi Zero computer, in a nifty little box and bracket, all available from https://thepihut.com/ at a fraction of the price of a real timelapse rig, which was going to cost hundreds of poundlings. 

Plus points: cheap, easy

Minus points: had to offload the photos regularly via a USB interface. Given the position of the camera 8m off the ground, this required a laptop and a very long micro USB lead, which eventually degraded so badly that comms became more and more unreliable.

Camera #2 (April 2021)

Again with help from Jack, we went wireless with a Raspberry Pi Zero W in a near identical setup. Now the means of downloading was via wireless interface to my phone. I was really quite proud of this as I did the code mostly on my own like a grown-up.

Plus points: convenience. Saunter up, turn on wireless hotspot on phone, wait for the Pi to connect, download the files. Range about 15m so adequate.

Minus points: Battery life. The setup used motorcycle-type batteries that needed swapping about every 10 days. We eventually rigged up a phone charger to feed the Pi via the original 10m USB lead, which was ok for that purpose. Also speed of download, which was roughly 30 seconds per file. Since I upped the frames to one every 20 seconds (daylight hours only), the rig produced 33 frames per day, which is a lot of standing around. I eventually stopped downloading the files, having calculated the disk space on the Pi could hold enough data to give me time to develop camera #3. WRONNNNG

Camera #3 (Currently half-built)

Again with the Raspberry Pi Zero, again with the nifty box. This time we include a SIM card and program it to upload resulting images to my web storage. 

Plus points: completely independent.

Minus points: well.

My first attempt to do the soldering required to interface the SIM assembly to the Pi circuit board resulted in a damaged SIM (sorry Jack) so I had to order a replacement. 

While I await the new SIM assembly (I ordered two), I have discovered that Camera #2 has stopped taking new images. I presume the disk is full. This puts the pressure on somewhat, so I thought the best solution was to come on here and whinge about it.

Feel better now. More later.

More progress

Well, I thought I should do a more positive post after my rant. So here are some uplifting titbits:

Paul's made good progress on the South side of the main building, having converted the fifth window to a doorway. This will be our main way to the house, as opposed to the big old front door, which will be for the venue. 

Just inside this door on the left will be the main stairwell and lift up to the living space above. Progress has also been made on that section..

All in all a good couple of weeks, especially considering work done on preparing for the front wall reinforcement. That now has full footings in place, and the steel man will measure up in the next few days, for the structure to hold up that precious front wall during the build process.

We still await one detail of planning permission for our access road, and Lyn is emailing and phoning almost daily to get that sorted out. hopefully soon there will be good news.

All the work Paul is doing would have to be done at some point, it's just being done out of the normal order, but it's all good.

More soon, faithful Owlers.

First Concrete Pour

Historic day today - our first concrete pour. It's only for holding up the front wall so we don't lose a quarter of the building before we even start, but at least it's real actual progress.

Rant:

Who'd have thought, nearly two years after buying the place, 15 months after an (almost) unanimous decision by the council to grant us access over the co-op field, 6 months after a unanimous decision by the borough planning office to pass the planning permission, and two months after signing a lease on said field and beginning to pay (exorbitant) rent on it - who'd have thought we still wouldn't be allowed to build the access road? It beggars belief. To the gods of red tape, I say congratulations. Because of you, we've had to spend a huge amount on shoring up the front edifice. Because of you we have a builder doing his utmost to continue with roughly 40 tonnes of rubble still on site. Because of you we cannot build our footings and the steel structure that would preserve this increasingly fragile building into the future. Be proud. Puff out your chests. You have achieved great things these past two years.

Rant ends.

Some photographs of our hole:

And a video of it being filled:

..and more pictures

This massive footing has cost an arm and a leg, and would not have been necessary had it not been for the huge delay since clearing the trees. Thanks again guys.

More when I'm happier.