Some code from PiDoorbell (Shallow Thoughts)

Some code from PiDoorbell

If anyone has been waiting for the code repository for PiDoorbell, the Raspberry Pi project we presented at PyCon a couple of weeks ago, at least part of it (the parts I wrote) is also available in my GitHub scripts repo, in the rpi subdirectory. It's licensed as GPLv2-or-later.

That includes the code that drives the HC-SR04 sonar rangefinder, and the script that takes photos and handles figuring out whether you have a USB camera or a Pi Camera module.

It doesn't include the Dropbox or Twilio code. For that I'm afraid you'll have to wait for the official PiDoorbell repo. I'm not clear what the holdup is on getting the repo opened up.

The camera script, piphoto.py, has changed quite a bit in the couple of weeks since PyCon. I've been working on a similar project that doesn't use the rangefinder, and relies only on the camera to detect motion, by measuring changes between the previous photo and the current one. I'm building a wildlife camera, and the rangefinder trick doesn't work well if there's a bird feeder already occupying the target range.

Of course, using motion detection means I'll get a lot of spurious photos of shadows, tree limbs bending in the wind and so forth. It'll be an interesting challenge seeing if I can make the code smart enough to handle that. Of course, I'll write about the project in much more detail once I have it working.

It looks like the biggest issue will be finding a decent camera I can control from a Pi. The Pi Camera module looked so appealing -- and it comes in a night version, with the IR filter removed, perfect for those coyote, rabbit and deer pictures! -- but sadly, it looks like its quality is so poor that it really isn't useful for much of anything. It's great for detecting what types of animals visit you (especially at night), but, sadly, no good for taking photos you'd actually want to display.

If anyone knows of a good camera that can be driven from Linux over USB -- perhaps a normal digital camera that supports the USB camera protocol? -- please let me know! My web searches so far haven't been very illuminating.

Meanwhile, I hope someone finds the rangefinder and camera driving software useful. And stay tuned for more detailed articles about my wildlife camera project!