I hike a lot (Central Europe mostly) and after almost three years of zero incidents, I inevitably ran out of luck yesterday. It was a nasty attack out of the blue by multiple individuals in a remote area. I was attempting to record the situation and speaking to the local Police at the same time while it was going on when I could, and to my surprise, you can't shoot a video with your iPhone while making a call. This kinda sucks, because when the Police finally came to the rescue, those people had already fled the scene. All I have is a few short clips, it's enough to identify them but it won't be enough for the Police to charge them. There were no other witnesses.
I've been thinking how to deal with such events in the future, besides the obvious self-defense options, which I'm now taking much more seriously However, this was a situation I just could not de-escalate, no matter how much I tried, and I needed the evidence.
So, I'd like to build a custom body cam. I've always wanted to make a small electronics project and learn stuff. I just don't know where to begin, and I'm hoping you will be kind enough to point me in the right direction.
I regularly carry a 25k mAh battery pack in my front strap pocket (Gossamer Kumo 36 backpack). There's always some juice left to power this. Of course, the less power it consumes, the better.
The device should be off unless I press a button to start recording. Ideally, I could reuse that button to stop recording, and have an LED to indicate status.
I've been into taking pictures all my life, both film and digital, but when it comes to filming, I'm lost. I'd hope I could just have a fixed combination of aperture of f/4, maybe even wider, and focus distance of 3-4 meters to yield acceptable results even in low light. It's fine to let the frame rate drop a bit. I guess I can set this up in advance? Do these modules support automatic exposure metering?
It should have a decent microphone.
No display.
Regarding storage, and this is likely my biggest concern: I've watched some YouTube videos where they show how to build a CCTV cam. I'd go with an SD card, but on top of that, is there a way to make it work with my iPhone, i.e. when I press that button, it somehow connects and starts streaming data to it? Would I need an iOS app for that? For instance, my mirrorless camera has a wi-fi module, but I need the vendor's app for that to work with my phone. Bluetooth is not an option. Perhaps, alternatively, I could have it save and send smaller video files instead? The goal for this being iCloud sync. Such incidents are likely to happen around cities, towns and settlements rather than really distant areas where there is no signal for days, but also no people around.
I have decent knowledge of Python, some C and Java, it shouldn't be a huge problem programming-wise. I am not a professional programmer though.
And of course, I will be super-grateful for your comments and ideas.
I'd be inclined to run this on a small single board computer, not an Arduino. Surely, there are very small and energy-efficient Raspberries etc. available these days. They are generally much easier to do multimedia stuff with than microcontrollers.
Some better dashcams have recording battery backup, and will be smaller, lighter and more reliable - and available in a shorter timeframe .
I like the possibilities of what you want to do, but i think Iād be looking here first.
Maybe you can develop a package around your choices(3D printed clips, cable set etc : and market it as a ptoduct.
I'm afraid others completely misunderstood the point, and I gotta say, I don't feel welcome at all here (we won't help, stop re-inventing the wheel and other bs).
I don't care whether a similar product is already on the market, even when it's just a few bucks. I wanna try to make my own to learn stuff. I explicitly said so. It's like telling someone Don't follow a tutorial, it's already been done. Unbelievable. All I wanted was to join the community and learn more about how to build something. If you don't want to participate, then don't. I very much prefer to have 0 replies over this.
Alright, wanting to learn is great. In that case, I'd stick with my initial advice to go the SBC-way for this instead of Arduino. Arduinos are nice for sensor-related stuff, driving motors etc. They're generally not so good at processing large amounts of data. There's a grey area these days with higher-end microcontrollers overlapping in terms of capabilities with SBC's, but from a functional perspective, the latter are still a more obvious choice for multimedia applications.
PS: if you experience unconstructive responses, piling further negativity onto it will only make matters worse. Try to ignore responses that miss the point, go with the ones that do make sense to you. Just my $0.02.
Welcome to the forum..
Sorry for your troubles..
Use to hike allot myself, had a nice Nikon back then..
Took thousands of pic, most still in google maps..
A good way to start this might be to pick up a multi-pack of esp32 cams..
I say multi-pack because they are cheap..
My 3 pack 2 work perfect 1 gives me grief..
Get them with the usb boards so it's simple to upload..
Not all of them will have mics, so you may want to do this in steps..
Work the vid/pics first, then add sound..
Most all have SD cards Wifi and blu..
You'll have to construct casing, maybe you got a 3d printer handy??
Get stuck, ask here..
Some comments in this topic, and some PMs, have attracted moderator attention. Please stick to helping @meatsauce if you have help to give, and not so much criticising his / her motives. Seems to me like the original post has sufficient information to make a start, especially as this is a project guidance question.
I guess this is where the confusion comes from SBC stands for Single-Board Computer in this context, right?
@qubits-us Thank you. I've seen those. Agree, my intention was to build a prototype without the mic at first. A friend of mine has a 3D printer and I have some experience modelling high-poly stuff, that shouldn't be a problem either. When you say "multipack", you mean 3 identical units, correct? I'm asking because I've seen multipacks containing different lenses, but those were probably something else, I cannot find it anymore.
And I'm wondering - how hard would it be to calculate the minimum hw requirements back from the desired output? Then add whatever is needed for connectivity + 25 % extra. Does it make sense? Do you guys do that? If this were a reasonable idea, I could try that and then post a bill of items?
Yes.. Something like this..
main reasoning for recommending these units..
their cheap and easy to get up and running..
if all 4 work and you do get something going..
you can have front/rear and side cams..
but like I mentioned, not all mine worked perfect, might need the spares..
However, this was a situation I just could not de-escalate, no matter how much I tried, and I needed the evidence.
