Introduction:
This project started as a justification for owning XBee modules (which I have owned for 2 years but never properly used). But I think its a good stepping stone to an even bigger project: my future quadcopter. So here goes: the initial design of my time lapse camera that sends images serially.
The concept:
A small waterproof box outside my apartment holds a tiny camera, battery and radio. Inside my apartment, a radio attached to an Arduino gets the images and writes them to an SD card. The Arduino also contains an LCD, set of dip switches (to set the mode), multiple sensors (IR and PIR) for detecting motion and a potentiometer for controlling settings (likely the time between shots). Once my budget and skill-set expands, this same camera can be mounted onto a flying quadcopter, take photos from the sky, and send them back to Earth!
Whats next?
I'll be working on a BOM, schematic and mechanical design over the next couple weeks, and upload them as I complete them. So far I have managed to sort out how to use allocate of my Arduino pins (yes, a shift register was necessary). Got my schematics drawn on my lab notebook, so I'll do them in Eagle shortly. I do have some concerns about processing time of the Arduino and whether the MCU can handle interfacing to this many devices. I guess prioritizing may be necessary.
Stay tuned! Lots of fun to follow.
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