Chicken Cam
It turns out that those 2-Gang PVC Junction Boxes from the big box store make a decent weather proof case for Raspberry Pi projects. This is a Chicken Camera I promised my wife for Christmas.
As you can see it's still a tight fit. I got some 6" right angle USB extension plugs and a 10' right angle micro usb cord for IO and power. Even still, I had to sand off a bunch of plastic from the plugs to get them to fit in the box. I glued all three cables into the 1/2" to 3/4"conduit plugs that came with the junction box. this allows me to screw the cables into the junction box and make water tight plugs.
For network I cut the SMA antenna fitting off a USB Network Adapter then soldered a uFl plug on the card in it's place. My first attempt at soldering surface mount components went better than I expected, it only took two tries to get it on there. The uFl allowed me to run an SMA pigtail so the antenna get's mounted outside the box. I know I could probably have just used an integrated antenna but the box goes inside the coop which is wrapped in hardware cloth to keep the critters out. Unfortunately, the hardware cloth makes a fairly effective Faraday cage blocking most of the WiFi signal. This way, the external antenna can stick out through the hardware cloth boosting my signal.
The CSI camera is mounted to a bit of 3/8" cutting board. On the back side I milled a 1/8" deep channel and silicon glued a piece of glass to make a weather tight cover over the camera and IR LED's. Each is set in it's own hole drilled through the cutting board so there is no reflection off the glass in the camera view. Hint, purchase the stand off first, then mill the grove for the glass cover. I had to add a few washers to shim this up so the camera did not make contact with the glass face.
I plugged two USB cameras into the external jacks for a total of three cameras. One is inside the Hen House and one out side under the eve of the roof giving me a picture in the Hen House, In the Coop Yard, and the Back Yard outside.
I'm running a current version of MotionEye OS. Calin Crisan has done a bang up job on this specialized distro. The only problem I'm having with the set up is it keep hanging up with three cameras. I'm getting Low Power warnings in the logs, some times resulting in the device failing to boot until I unplug one of the USB cameras. I suspect the real problem is the super bright IR LEDs that came with the CSI camera. If it continues to be a problem I may try isolating them from the CSI buss. Looks like some later editions of this design did exactly that.
I may have to sacrifice one of the USB cameras anyway since scope creep has dictated that I really need to add a button that allows remote opening and closing of the Hen House door and I did not provide any external weather tight plugs for GPIO. Frankly, I'll probably end up doing some bit bashing over one of the USB ports for the door. Currently looking for a cheap alternative to a USB Gertboard, Really just need to drive a motor and solenoid and listen to a couple photo interrupters. The solenoid will act as a dead bolt, the motor will lift the door on a string, and the photo interrupters will act as proximity switches to know when the door is up or down and the solenoid should be turned off locking the door in position. I already have a door that slides on aluminum angle with a pull string.
As you can see it's still a tight fit. I got some 6" right angle USB extension plugs and a 10' right angle micro usb cord for IO and power. Even still, I had to sand off a bunch of plastic from the plugs to get them to fit in the box. I glued all three cables into the 1/2" to 3/4"conduit plugs that came with the junction box. this allows me to screw the cables into the junction box and make water tight plugs.
For network I cut the SMA antenna fitting off a USB Network Adapter then soldered a uFl plug on the card in it's place. My first attempt at soldering surface mount components went better than I expected, it only took two tries to get it on there. The uFl allowed me to run an SMA pigtail so the antenna get's mounted outside the box. I know I could probably have just used an integrated antenna but the box goes inside the coop which is wrapped in hardware cloth to keep the critters out. Unfortunately, the hardware cloth makes a fairly effective Faraday cage blocking most of the WiFi signal. This way, the external antenna can stick out through the hardware cloth boosting my signal.
The CSI camera is mounted to a bit of 3/8" cutting board. On the back side I milled a 1/8" deep channel and silicon glued a piece of glass to make a weather tight cover over the camera and IR LED's. Each is set in it's own hole drilled through the cutting board so there is no reflection off the glass in the camera view. Hint, purchase the stand off first, then mill the grove for the glass cover. I had to add a few washers to shim this up so the camera did not make contact with the glass face.
I plugged two USB cameras into the external jacks for a total of three cameras. One is inside the Hen House and one out side under the eve of the roof giving me a picture in the Hen House, In the Coop Yard, and the Back Yard outside.
I'm running a current version of MotionEye OS. Calin Crisan has done a bang up job on this specialized distro. The only problem I'm having with the set up is it keep hanging up with three cameras. I'm getting Low Power warnings in the logs, some times resulting in the device failing to boot until I unplug one of the USB cameras. I suspect the real problem is the super bright IR LEDs that came with the CSI camera. If it continues to be a problem I may try isolating them from the CSI buss. Looks like some later editions of this design did exactly that.
I may have to sacrifice one of the USB cameras anyway since scope creep has dictated that I really need to add a button that allows remote opening and closing of the Hen House door and I did not provide any external weather tight plugs for GPIO. Frankly, I'll probably end up doing some bit bashing over one of the USB ports for the door. Currently looking for a cheap alternative to a USB Gertboard, Really just need to drive a motor and solenoid and listen to a couple photo interrupters. The solenoid will act as a dead bolt, the motor will lift the door on a string, and the photo interrupters will act as proximity switches to know when the door is up or down and the solenoid should be turned off locking the door in position. I already have a door that slides on aluminum angle with a pull string.