While working on my weather balloon project, I was side tracked and decided to create a surveillance camera! As with all of my projects, this one will of course come in parts.

Part 1 includes the Nexus One, a 2500mAh Li-Ion battery, and weather proof box. The system is designed to be mounted in a discrete location, while taking time lapse photos of an area – photos are up loaded to my dropbox account. Photos can either be taken on an interval, or on motion detection. The modem is turned off for most of the night, which helps save some battery life. The current 1 minute interval configuration will last about 2 days before the batteries die.

Phase 2 involves a solar charging system rated for a 330mA charge rate, a solar charging manager (basically a really big capacitor between the panel and batter, and a bigger 6600mAh battery. This system should, in theory, never need to be taken down from its perch. We will see once the parts arrive and I am able to do some testing. I will also add a batch upload feature which will store photos on an SD card rather than directly uploading to dropbox. Once per hour a batch upload sequence will commence. This will keep the modem off for most of the day, again in theory, save precious battery life.

Part 3 will most likely involve winter proofing the enclosure. Cold -20C temperatures will with out doubt cause all sorts of problems for the batteries. I am looking into low power heating elements, and different enclosure options.