BirdBoxPiCam2014: The Great Tit Plan

Things seem to be progressing in this bird box, and the female has spent every night since Sunday sitting on the nest.

Both adults stay away from the nest for most of the day, with the occasional visit to add more dog hair and check all is OK.

So whats going on?

Raspi-Cam @90 frames per second

The latest RaspberryPi firmware has added an interesting new camera mode allowing 90fps recording.

Video recorded with this mode is encoded at approximately one quarter of the original speed, producing an interesting slow-motion video.

If you have a RaspberryPi and a RaspiCamera you can start using this, and other new modes, by updating firmware from the terminal:-

BirdBoxPiCam 2014: News from the Nest

The blue tits arrived at the beginning of March and continued to visit almost every morning for a few weeks.

However, they wasted too much time faffing around and lost their deposit. A pair of new comers arrived on Monday the 24th and took control.

This post provides an update on nesting activities and adds some technical details regarding operation and performance.

BirdBoxPiCam2014: updating Time on the RaspberryPi

Ok, so it turned out that using NTP to reset the clock on the Raspberry Pi was not one of my greatest ideas for this project.

NTP is for real computing, where high accuracy is required and small errors need to be slowly tuned out.

My requirements for this bird box project are for a step-change correction each time the system boots up, which may be several times per day. Accuracy is just not important.

BirdBoxPiCam 2014: Seven days of activity

Well its one week since I installed this bird box to the archway just outside our conservatory.

This post covers some of the highs and lows.

The really good news is that the local blue tits have been very helpful, arriving every morning to assist with testing the system.

BirdBoxPiCam 2014: Out there in the Wild

It's only been out there, in the garden, for 48 hours and already there are a pair of blue tits showing interest.

Their activity during the last two mornings has started the Raspberry Pi system and registered a few counts on the interface, which has been very useful, if only to show that the system is still alive!

There is still more work to be done, but at least I have confirmed that the wifi performance is acceptable.

BirdBoxPiCam2014: more on the Camera, Lens & Lighting

Now that I've had a chance to run this system on a lead-acid battery for a while, I can see that the LED lights are much brighter than they were when powered from AA Ni-Cads.

So I've done some mods and captured a few more test images.

Here are some notes and pictures.

How to Install Gambas on the Raspberry Pi

Gambas is a great visual programming environment for Linux, so if you've worked with Visual Basic on Windows, you will feel right at home with Gambas.

Although you can easily install Gambas from the repository using Synaptic, if you want the most recent stable release you will need to download the source files, compile and install manually.

Generally, installing applications from the repository is the best idea. After all, its easy, the package should be stable, and all dependent files should be included.

How to VNC into a Headless RaspberryPi

Much has been written about using VNC with a headless RaspberryPi, but I seem to struggle with some of the suggested methods.

I also generally prefer to use the VNC server "x11vnc", as I like to view the same session as one open by a local user.

So here are my notes...