We are planning a research project where we attach the camera to wild animals to record their behaviour. Since the camera will last for about 2 hours, we need to start the camera at a certain time of the day to ensure that we get video footage when the animals are most likely in their main foraging areas. I have been in contact with the developers of the camera and they said that the only way to achieve this would be to use the auto-record-on-power function. For that the camera would need to get a short 5V signal through its USB port to start recording.
I assume that this would be achievable with an Arduino board. But before I dive into this further, I would like to ask the experts whether using an Arduino board would be over the top for such a kind of project. Thing is, we need to keep the overall package (i.e. camera + power-control-board + battery) as small as possible both in weight and volume.
Any comments and advice are greatly appreciated.
Thomas Mattern
University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
the big advantage of going MCU based is when (not if) you need to change something, it will be a simple task
you could even build an interface so you don't need to reprogram it, just change parameters
rather than an Arduino board, make a bespoke PCB with minimal components
let me know if you want any help with design - I have made several very small boards so this would be a doddle!
just looked at the camera
a board/battery could easily be made as small as the camera
Now that sounds very intruiging as well as somewhat intimidating (at least to me). I have never done anything with PCBs before, so obviously I'd be on a steep learning curve. If that doesn't put you off, I'd be more than interested to learn more about how you would tackle this project.
Hi,
I have a similar requirement to the original poster. I have a Mobius camera and am looking to adapt it for use as a traffic survey camera. This would require an external USB battery and some way of setting it to come on at a pre-set time. (At the moment we use old Sony handycams, which need deploying on the morning of the survey, so can mean me travelling right across the county at 5.00am, so you can see why I like the idea of a programmable camera!) I have little to no electronic knowledge, and naively thought a simple in-line timer between the battery and the camera would be easily available, but I seem to be wrong. Could your suggestions be adapted for my requirements? I'd be grateful for any help that could be offered.
Billyaitch:
naively thought a simple in-line timer between the battery and the camera would be easily available
A search for dc timer turned up lots of promising looking products. Here is an example from Amazon that seems to be the sort of thing you're asking for. Google suggests there are plenty of alternatives if this particular example isn't suitable.
