I wanted a way to view who was at the door without running down two flights of stairs (I work up in the loft). I purchased a dummy security camera, placed a Raspberry Pi Zero W within it and attached a Raspberry Pi camera module. Using a 20W solar panel, I mounted it above my door along with a solar charge controller and a 12V lead-acid battery. The Raspberry Pi was then connected to the solar charge controller via a 12V-5V buck converter. Using MotionEyeOS, a video surveillance operating system, the Raspberry Pi is capable of live streaming 24/7 and saving videos to the cloud.
This project involved the following skills and techniques;
- Electronics
- Solar Power Generation
- Battery Management
- Raspberry Pi
- Buck Converters
