Hello everyone, looks like we will start on building our dream home this year. I do want to set up a raspberry for automated photo shooting from the construction site. One picture per day is enough, I do want to create a timelapse video afterwards. The new neighbour is a friend, he allowed me to set up the camera in his house facing the construction site. Only problem he does not have a power supply at his window…
Anyone having experience with a solar module and a battery to power the raspi? Feel free to share your jdeas!
Given the relatively temporary nature of the use case, in your shoes I’d opt for a rechargeable power bank of some description instead of relying on a small solar set up.
I’ve used a dash camera connected to a power bank for a similar purpose. I’m sure an rpi would sip power in comparison.
Is an extension cord really out of the question? Keeping a power bank running 24 hours a day means you will have to recharge it quite often, even if it is large, since the power bank circuitry itself consumes current proportional to its size, more or less. And a solar panel would have to be at least 1 foot on a side, maybe bigger, and facing the sun. Maybe not that practical for a window installation.
You might be better off scripting a phone. Maybe the phone can completely power itself off except for the minute or so per day where it would boot itself, take a picture, and power off again.
Things to consider:
- Moisture and Humidity.
- Heat.
- Verification of operation.
- Theft.
- Hardware reliability.
- Cost per image.
A raspberry pi is not the type of device I’d recommend for this due to its reliance on a microSD card for its os installation. It will likely fail due to many read/write cycles. Replacing the card with a drive causes increased susceptibility to 1 and 2.
Consider the cost per photo as a metric. In the scheme of building a house, the cost for even a $1k purpose built solution is insignificant.
You can absolutely install a raspberry on a USB stick/SSD? I do it all the time?
