Hiring arduino expert (not a joke)

Threads merged.

Interesting project, but are you sure you will want to pay the price for a LIDAR? Anyway, what is the budget and timeframe? (And you can answer me with a PM, if you prefer).

You will need to describe your project/requirements in more detail.

Are you wanting LIDAR to just detect the presence of a car or also measure the distance to it?

If your only wanting to detect the car then maybe you could mount a wireless device on the road where you want the car to be detected and it sends a signal back to trigger the DSLR.
The detector could be magnetic, beam break, radar to name a few.

For some ideas, see this incredible LIDAR 3D mapping project, using the Lidar-Lite from Garmin (40 m range).

You want to detect the car from a distance of 100m, right? That's also where the camera is?

Can you give a sketch of your project as I'm joining the ranks of "sounds interesting but I don't get what you really want".

Thank you all for your reply and not beating me up too badly.

Answers:

  1. Timeline is 1 week after all materials bought. I buy all materials of course for you. Send them to you.

  2. Trigger would be mounted on my house. So maybe elevation of 5m.

  3. Want a trigger that is right next to DSLR camera. Not a trigger that is wirelessly tethered to camera that is some distance away. I’d like trigger and camera very close to each other.

  4. Trigger just for presence of car. Not distance or speed.

  5. Budget flexible. Let’s talk if interested. I have other projects too.

Thanks so much again. Awesome little world of electronics. If I wasn’t an art major...this would’ve been great hobby.

Maybe something like this to start:

pathfinderwy:

  1. Timeline is 1 week after all materials bought. I buy all materials of course for you. Send them to you.

Buy and have shipped directly makes more sense.

  1. Want a trigger that is right next to DSLR camera. Not a trigger that is wirelessly tethered to camera that is some distance away. I’d like trigger and camera very close to each other.

Mechanical or electronic trigger?

  1. Trigger just for presence of car. Not distance or speed.

Do you want to make a distinction between car and person appearing? Car and truck? Car and elephant? All have their own challenges.

Easiest is "make photo when something appears". Basically a camera trap. Taking a photo is cheap; you can easily sort through the photos later.

Some other thoughts:

  • should it work at night?
  • in bad weather?
  • rain and snow?
  • on dark cars, too?

Awesome replies. Here were my thoughts:

  1. Yes, a 'car trap'. Don't need to take pictures of people and not sure can even do so at that distance anyway. Just car.

  2. Not sure if mechanical vs electronic trigger...how is a DSLR Nikon camera triggered? Here is a sample trigger using IR/sound:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1074910-REG/miops_miops_n2_miops_for_nikon_2.html/?ap=y&gclid=Cj0KCQjwrdjnBRDXARIsAEcE5YmgdYsnQ03fx77Qq4QK_r6JRWvMcDpKgvTSjDZ2mjAUsRaHmDE3kz0aAplUEALw_wcB&lsft=BI%3A514&smp=Y

  1. Would like it to work in poor weather, on dark cars etc.

The most reliable car detection is by induction loop in the tarmac. It'll detect any big hunks of metal basically, regardless of the weather, rain and snow, whatever. It will work. You'd need a link (wireless makes most sense) between the point where you want to detect the car and the camera.

I don't see an easy way of detecting a car from 100m distance. LiDAR doesn't normally get that far.

pathfinderwy:
2. Not sure if mechanical vs electronic trigger...how is a DSLR Nikon camera triggered?

I'd suggest you have a good look at your camera, and check the manual of it on how to trigger it. That link is obviously an electronic trigger.

Wen I made a panaorama image device for a friend, we went to using a mechanical wire trigger on Nikon. IR is fine, but not that reliable (and you have to mount it somewhere where the camera sees it)

pathfinderwy:
3. Want a trigger that is right next to DSLR camera. Not a trigger that is wirelessly tethered to camera that is some distance away. I’d like trigger and camera very close to each other.

The camera would remain at your house just a small (hidden) wireless transmitter near the point you want to detect the car that when triggered sends a signal to a receiver next to your camera and the receiver triggers the camera shutter.

Yes, electronic trigger looks right.

Lidar speed guns have a range of 1000m+, so it would seem possible to detect cars at 50-100m, right? I mean, here is a module that detects up to 180m:

Nice idea but I can't do an induction loop in the road.

In ideal circumstances, it can get that range. Certainly not in the rain or snow.

Speedguns (that sort used by pocice) are expensive and the opening angle is bigger than your defined 0.6°. And the operation proncipal is not the same as in your application. You need a kind of switch for object moving perpeniculat to your line of sight, not parallel to your line of sight.

Please look at the datasheet of https://www.sparkfun.com/products/15180: 180m@90% reflectivity,70m@10% reflectivity / 130m@90% reflectivity&100Klux, 50m@10%reflectivity&100Klux --> You will detect new white cars at 100m distance in clear weather.

Just other questions
After resolving the car detecting task there is the photo task.
Which lens do you use?
Camera will be fixed? Car arrive from one direction only?
What about a photo taken in night? Long exposure mean a blurry car image.
What about photo taken in bad weather condition? In heavy rain, for example.

zoomx:
What about photo taken in bad weather condition? In heavy rain, for example.

Just mount some wipers on the camera lens, what's the problem?

What about heavy snow? Or simply fog?

Don't worry too much about details. I wanna pay someone $1200-$1500 for help prototyping this thing. I have reasonable expectations around performance and it does NOT need to be perfect. If interested and experienced, shoot me a message. thanks!