warsaw_hive
House Bee
Yes I know you can buy security cameras ready made, but for various reasons I've rejected them.
I sell all my honey from a little stall at the end of the drive. It adjoins quite a busy tourist footpath, but there are no passing cars and is generally off the radar of the local kids. Last year was my first year of selling honey and I went practically the full year without a theft. It all seemed so easy. This year has been totally different, something is being taken at least once a month. I'm pretty sure it is a local person(s), I know for a fact some smashed jars were due to a local troubled kid so they are one of my chief suspects. It is spoiling the enjoyment and something now needs to be done.
I'd like to put a hidden camera in the stall that records who is interacting with it. It just needs to save pictures to an SD card which I will only look at if there is a problem. For this I've been looking at an esp32-cam board that is triggered by an am312 pir sensor. What I'm unsure of (and the reason for this post) is powering it. People who use this forum seem to have a range of skills so I'm hoping there is an electronics whizz here.
A few months ago in anticipation that I might have to do something I bought a 4 pack of Lidl AA rechargable batteries when they were on offer for a few quid. So ideally I'd like to use them. 4 x 1.2V gives me 4.8V which is enough to feed into the 5V line of the esp32-cam. That seems the simplest way to do it, but I think probably not the most power efficient.
The esp32 actually uses a voltage between 3 and 3.6v. 3 x 1.2v gives 3.6V, but that'll probably be higher on fully charged batteries so something will be needed to bring it down a notch. Or I could boost 2.4v (from two batteries) up to 3v. Any ideas on what is the most efficient way to do either of these to save battery discharge?
I've also thought about ditching the PIR and putting a door on the stall that activates a push switch. I could then fully disconnect the battery when not in use, but the problem then becomes cleanly powering it down so I don't corrupt the SD card.
Anyone done anything similar?
I sell all my honey from a little stall at the end of the drive. It adjoins quite a busy tourist footpath, but there are no passing cars and is generally off the radar of the local kids. Last year was my first year of selling honey and I went practically the full year without a theft. It all seemed so easy. This year has been totally different, something is being taken at least once a month. I'm pretty sure it is a local person(s), I know for a fact some smashed jars were due to a local troubled kid so they are one of my chief suspects. It is spoiling the enjoyment and something now needs to be done.
I'd like to put a hidden camera in the stall that records who is interacting with it. It just needs to save pictures to an SD card which I will only look at if there is a problem. For this I've been looking at an esp32-cam board that is triggered by an am312 pir sensor. What I'm unsure of (and the reason for this post) is powering it. People who use this forum seem to have a range of skills so I'm hoping there is an electronics whizz here.
A few months ago in anticipation that I might have to do something I bought a 4 pack of Lidl AA rechargable batteries when they were on offer for a few quid. So ideally I'd like to use them. 4 x 1.2V gives me 4.8V which is enough to feed into the 5V line of the esp32-cam. That seems the simplest way to do it, but I think probably not the most power efficient.
The esp32 actually uses a voltage between 3 and 3.6v. 3 x 1.2v gives 3.6V, but that'll probably be higher on fully charged batteries so something will be needed to bring it down a notch. Or I could boost 2.4v (from two batteries) up to 3v. Any ideas on what is the most efficient way to do either of these to save battery discharge?
I've also thought about ditching the PIR and putting a door on the stall that activates a push switch. I could then fully disconnect the battery when not in use, but the problem then becomes cleanly powering it down so I don't corrupt the SD card.
Anyone done anything similar?
