[Bradford] Thinking of a project

[Bernard Czenkusz]

Hi guys,

I've found that Raspberry Pi 5 has a ‘low power’ feature plus an 
in-built Real Time Clock, which has a ‘wake up’ capability. A 'Seconds 
to wake up' value can be inserted into a file which is read on going low 
power (Linux ‘shutdown’ but retaining power to the board). After the 
given seconds, the board powers up again.

This suggests a time lapse project.  I would like to take a mid-day 
photo of an apple tree I have, throughout a year, to stitch in a film 
showing snow on bare tree, spring blossom, leafing up, growing apples, 
falling leaves. But due to the difficulty of getting power to the 
garden, I’m thinking of a Solar panel plus battery with raspberry pi 
with camera, all boxed up and mounted.

So the Pi would be in low-power mode apart from a brief mid-day on-time 
for the photo, plus a possible evening on-time period to give myself a 
chance to connect and pull down photo’s or do any changes - hopefully 
this would make the solar/battery combo possible.

I'll be having a go at a script to do timed power ups/downs, but I've 
not given much thought to anything else such as:

  * Solar panel, battery, power management.
  * I should be able to get wifi to the garden, but may need an external
    antenna if the boxing is a problem.
  * Which camera/lens, and its protection: glass covering or naked lens.
  * The physical box and mount.
  * Should the pi monitor voltage, (if possible), provide warnings, auto
    send any data?
  * The RTC can also have a small battery backup in case external power
    fails, probably needed.

I'd be interested in any suggestions, or if anyone has any experience 
with Pi cameras, solar panels and batteries. Perhaps something to 
discuss at the next meet?

Cheers

    Bernie


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