The worry is that the hives might be intentionally disturbed by some people, so the idea is to build a system which would send images of the hives in every hour or so and also detect motion and would snap and upload pictures if motion is detected. All of these would get automatically uploaded to a server and downloaded to a local "viewing device". If motion was detected, then it would also send a text message to a mobile device with a link to the images taken when motion was detected.
The "viewing device" would be a custom-built image-frame, which would download these images from the internet and display them in sequence when requested (by pressing a button or by motion detection) to verify that everything is in order with the hives.
There are several challenges:
1. At the location there is no power, so a solar system with battery needs to be built out
2. The location might not be visited for weeks/months, so it must run pretty reliably
3. The equipment cannot be right next to the hives, because it would get stolen. While there is a building about 80-90 feet from the hives, where the equipment can be stored, there will be a need to wire a small, undetectable camera from the building to the hives to detect motion and snap pictures.
4. The goal is to provide monitoring for the winter season, when in the given location there are weeks when the sky is cloudy, so solar capacity has to be planned accordingly
5. Saving power is crucial - to minimize the solar panels required, so they are less visible:
a. While there is 3G coverage in the area, continuous connection is not advisable, due to power consumption
b. There is no point running the equipment overnight, so I need to build a timer to shut it down in the evening and start it in the morning
All-in-all, quite challenging project.
I think I'm going to go with a solar-powered Raspberry Pi for the monitoring system and for a Raspberry Pi driven image-frame for the "vieweing device".
To be continued....
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