[Bradford] Thinking of a project

[bradlug at hackroyd.org.uk]

 I took a quick look on aliexpress.com There are solar/battery combinations, ready made, with various current capabilities.Brian
    On Saturday, 3 May 2025 at 13:06:30 CEST, Bernard Czenkusz via Bradford <bradford at mailman.lug.org.uk> wrote:  
 
   
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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