Raspberry Pi – Introduction- what is it?

Raspberry Pi – Introduction- what is it?

Part 1a: Introduction and Raspberry Pi setup

Introduction

In this project we will be covering how to build a fun DIY motion detecting camera which is capable of emailing videos and sending you text alerts over your phone when motion is detected. For this, we will mainly be  using a small but powerful computer called RaspberryPi and a RaspberryPi camera module.

Skills

You do not need to have any prior knowledge of RaspberryPi , Unix or Programming.

The main skills you will pick up as a result of doing this project are installing an operating system on the Pi, some cool unix commands and a little bit of programming in python. The Unix commands and Python programming are generic skills which you can build upon later especially if you like that aspect of this project, they are very helpful tools for a career in IT/CS. 

I will be covering this project in about 5 parts as follows:

  1.  Part 1- Setup (this will have 6 sub-parts 1a to 1f) , which we will cover today with video guidance!
  2. Part 2- Installing/compiling motion software with MMAL from github 
  3. Part 3- Configuring motion and setting up gmail environment for texting
  4. Part 4- Python Scripts to send emails and texts- I will provide the scripts
  5. Part 5 – Final setup and testing 

 

Components 

The full list of components required for this project is as below:

  1. RaspberryPi 3B+ with onboard wifi– $49
    Includes power cable
  2. Raspberry Pi camera module
    ( version 2 ) – $25
    OR
    ( version 1 ) – $13.5
  3. Micro SD card (preferably 32GB)  – $8
  4. RaspberryPi case (optional) -$9

Pre-requisite components, which i believe most of you will have at home are:

  1.  USB- Keyboard and Mouse
    I prefer: Logitech mouse+keyboard – $20
  2. HDMI monitor or TV
  3. Wifi network 
 If you have the pre-requisite components already, the project will cost you approx : $80 , if you get the cheaper camera, a case and a new sd card (or close to $62 without SD card and case)
Also note that you will be able to use the same RaspberryPi for other cool projects that I will be posting about at a later date like – DIY sprinkler system which accepts commands from phone and automated robots. 

Overall this is a pretty good deal considering other commercial camera systems which have the same capability like emailing videos and sending text notifications cost about $150-$200 and sometimes require monthly subscription fees.  

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