Bird box upgrade

Discussion Raspberry Pi
1

Hi all,

I have a birdbox containing a raspberry pi zero-w, no ir camera and a couple of ir led’s that has been functioning fine for a couple of years with nesting bluetits every year. Recently the camera has started to fail (image turning red/purple colour). I have tried new ir led’s with no improvement.

So, time to upgrade and a few questions…

Upgrade to latest zero-w? Space is limited so no room for full size pi and can’t get ethernet to birdbox.

I have been using the standard no-ir camera. Upgrade to no-ir zero camera? Wide angle?

Anyone else installed a pi in a Bird box? What are you using?

Any advice much appreciated, thanks.

2

Surely, if it has been working perfectly for a long time - and still works but the colour’s wrong then why blame the Pi-Zero?
If changing the IR LEDS made no difference then have you another camera module to try?
Or possibly even just try a replacement camera module ribbon cable.
Go for the simple stuff before considering replacing the whole kit and caboodle :-)

3

If you have some isopropyl alcohol handy I’d give everything good cleaning. Unplug the camera cable going to the Pi and carefully clean off the circuit board. Keep away from the lens though. If you have some eyeglass lens cleaner solution handy you could use that to carefully clean the lens.
Do the same thing to the Pi, and the camera cable with the alcohol. An antistatic brush is ideal for cleaning the boards but I have used a (clean) toothbrush in a pinch with no ill effects. Condensation etc can leave a residue on things and maybe short something out.
I have several Motion Eye setups on the go here, no birdhouse cameras yet though. I have a Pi Zero 2 W on the way and plan on testing it with Motion Eye OS. The Original Zero W just didn’t do it for me streaming video wise. Lots of lag and stutter. I use Pi 3A+'s mostly, with some 3B’s and 4B’s.
In your case, as mentioned, I’d swap the cable first. If you have a spare Pi Zero try that but I’d bet the issue is with the camera. I have a NOIR V2, haven’t done much with it yet though. I need to add more IR diodes to get more illumination. I only wired up two.