I am new to Arduino programming, and recently my father has been troubled with gas-stealers from his machinery, I decided to make my own security system based on Arduino. This is how I imagine it working:
-It should be able to work for 11-22 hours straight, without any major malfunction
-Once the petrol-cap has been removed the device "activates"
-It takes 3 photoflashed pictures using a VGA camera modul (a simple lil' arduino camera that can be found on E-bay)
-The Arduino stores it in a microSD card (I would plan to attach one microSD modul on the device as well)
-Then immidately sends these pictures in the form of an MMS using a GSM device.
I found all of the components on stores, and saw youtube videos of them functioning properly on an Arduino, but all of them worked separetly, not together with all of these other components at the same time. My question is, is there an arduino that could fulfill this task properly? I am worried that the 16 Mhz would not be able to get the job done in time... Do you think it is workable? Or should I use multiple Arduinos and divide the tasks inbetween them?
All tips/recommendations (links to useful tutorials for the most part) would be appreciated, I'm just interested in advanced aruino programmers' opinion.
the arduino 16Mhz is sufficient, but libraries for camera, SD filesystem and GSM phone might limit the program memory space. Not necessarly, all I know is SD filesystem only takes >30% of an UNO/Nano 32k.
Here-s an alternative approach that might suit your needs .. or not.
Use an ESP8266 module instead of arduino. You can find it at same price as a nano or pro mini and recently is supported in Arduino IDE
It's extra memory flash allows it to store the image before sending, sparing you the need for an SD card.
It's wifi connection allows it to send an image via local wifi in internet, local wifi can be a working smartphone in access point mode that isn't needed off working hours, when Arduino guardian is needed.
Or even store the image directly in internet as fast as it retrieves it from the camera.
Or, a simple script application on the smartphone may receive image from ESP via WiFi, store it on phone's SD, send an alert SMS.
That spares you the need to use a GSM module. They-re not expensive, but add complexity and require an extra phone SIM payment.
If you have several vehicles in a parking lot, you might configure local Wifi network with ESP8266 to use a single phone as image storage and SMS gateway for all of them.
You might want a PIR motion sensing too, to record pictures of anything that moves, trigger SMS alarm when cap is opened. This makes it harder for the thief to simply cover the camera before uncapping the gas tank.
Some serial camera modules also have this ability - to sense motion.
