I am planning a project that will monitor a chicken house.
I envision using the Zero for its low power, and also because I (hope) the sensors I want are light enough on power…
Here is what I am looking for:
Pi Zero as main board (I can connect to it using house wifi which should be strong enough)
Temperature sensor
Humidity sensor
Air quality sensor
Barometer sensor
Standard + Infra-red camera - detect the birds but also night use & heat sensing for freshly laid eggs!
(I am thinking of using OpenCV or Tensorflow for this purpose perhaps if not too heavy?)
PIR to detect movement and start monitoring with camera… (else wasting battery?)
So … I am looking for advice/suggestions on:
-> will the zero handle all of this?
-> what kind of power requirement would it have … will a rechargeable power-pack keep it running a while or should I look at solar?
-> any suggestions for sensors I can use?
The BME680 will do the Air Quality, temp, humidity and barometric pressure. I have one in one of my projects, not using the air quality part though. Mine is wired to a Pi A+ running headless, no WIFI being used. I display my info locally on a sense hat LED matrix. Mine is powered by a PowerBoost 1000c and 6600 MAH LIPO battery. I plug it into a power supply to recharge when needed. It’s portable and gets used outside during the day and recharged over night.
The Lipo Shim is nice and compact. One potential drawback is it won’t recharge the battery. That means unplugging your battery every so often to recharge it. And having to have a separate charger. Not really an option for me as my stuff in enclosed in a weather resistant case.
At one time around here some where, there was mention of Pimoroni doing thier own likely better version of the Powerboost 1000c. It hasn’t materialized yet as far as I know. If it did I missed it.