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4.1.2 Automatic Capture Camera

Introduction

When you are out, the little squirrels in the woods might visit your windowsill. Let’s make a automatic capture camera to leave pictures of these little cuties!

Required Components

In this project, we need the following components.

It’s definitely convenient to buy a whole kit, here’s the link:

Name	ITEMS IN THIS KIT	LINK
Raphael Kit	337	Raphael Kit

You can also buy them separately from the links below.

COMPONENT INTRODUCTION	PURCHASE LINK
GPIO Extension Board	BUY
Breadboard	BUY
Jumper Wires	BUY
Resistor	BUY
Camera Module	BUY
PIR Motion Sensor Module	-

Schematic Diagram

T-Board Name	physical	wiringPi	BCM
GPIO17	Pin 11	0	17

Experimental Procedures

Before this project, you need to make sure you complete 3.1.1 Photograph Module .

Step 1: Build the circuit.

Step 2: Go into the Raspberry Pi Desktop. You may need a screen for a better experience, refer to: Connect your Raspberry Pi. Or access the Raspberry Pi desktop remotely, for a detailed tutorial please refer to Remote Desktop.

Step 3: Open a Terminal and get into the folder of the code.

cd ~/raphael-kit/python-pi5

Step 4: Run.

sudo python3 4.1.4_AutomaticCaptureCamera_zero.py

After the code runs, PIR will detect the surrounding environment, and if it senses the little squirrel passing by, the camera will take a photo. The photo interval is 3 seconds, and the total number of photos taken will be displayed through the print window.

There are two potentiometers on the PIR module: one is to adjust sensitivity and the other is to adjust the detection distance. To make the PIR module work better, you You need to turn both of them counterclockwise to the end.

Note

You can also open 4.1.4_AutomaticCaptureCamera_zero.py in the ~/raphael-kit/python-pi5/ path with a Python IDE, click Run button to run, and stop the code with Stop button.

Warning

If there is an error prompt RuntimeError: Cannot determine SOC peripheral base address, please refer to If gpiozero doesn’t work.

Code

Note

You can Modify/Reset/Copy/Run/Stop the code below. But before that, you need to go to source code path like raphael-kit/python-pi5. After modifying the code, you can run it directly to see the effect.

#!/usr/bin/env python3
from picamera2 import Picamera2, Preview
from gpiozero import MotionSensor
import time
import os

# Retrieve the current user's login name and home directory
user = os.getlogin()
user_home = os.path.expanduser(f'~{user}')

# Initialize the camera
camera = Picamera2()
camera.start()

# Initialize the motion sensor on GPIO pin 17
pir = MotionSensor(17)

try:
    i = 1  # Initialize the image count
    while True:
        if pir.motion_detected:
            # Capture an image when motion is detected and save it with a unique number
            camera.capture_file(f'{user_home}/capture%s.jpg' % i)
            print('The number is %s' % i)  # Print the image count
            time.sleep(3)  # Wait for 3 seconds before next detection
            i += 1  # Increment the image count
        else:
            print('waiting')  # Print 'waiting' when no motion is detected
            time.sleep(0.5)  # Check for motion every 0.5 seconds

except KeyboardInterrupt:
    # Stop the camera and turn off the LED if a KeyboardInterrupt occurs
    camera.stop_preview()
    pass

Code Explanation

1. Imports the Picamera2 and Preview classes for camera control, the MotionSensor class for motion detection, and standard libraries time and os for time handling and operating system interactions.

   #!/usr/bin/env python3
   from picamera2 import Picamera2, Preview
   from gpiozero import MotionSensor
   import time
   import os
   

2. Retrieves the current user’s login name and home directory for saving captured images.

   # Retrieve the current user's login name and home directory
   user = os.getlogin()
   user_home = os.path.expanduser(f'~{user}')
   

3. Initializes the camera and starts it.

   # Initialize the camera
   camera = Picamera2()
   camera.start()
   

4. Initializes a PIR motion sensor connected to GPIO pin 17.

   # Initialize the motion sensor on GPIO pin 17
   pir = MotionSensor(17)
   

5. Initializes a counter i to track the number of images captured. In an infinite loop, checks if motion is detected. If motion is detected, captures an image, saves it with a unique name based on the counter i, prints the image number, and waits for 3 seconds before checking for motion again. The counter i is incremented after each capture.

   try:
       i = 1  # Initialize the image count
       while True:
           if pir.motion_detected:
               # Capture an image when motion is detected and save it with a unique number
               camera.capture_file(f'{user_home}/capture%s.jpg' % i)
               print('The number is %s' % i)  # Print the image count
               time.sleep(3)  # Wait for 3 seconds before next detection
               i += 1  # Increment the image count
   

6. If no motion is detected, prints waiting and checks for motion every 0.5 seconds.

   try:
       ...
   
       while True:
           ...
   
           else:
               print('waiting')  # Print 'waiting' when no motion is detected
               time.sleep(0.5)  # Check for motion every 0.5 seconds
   

7. Catches a KeyboardInterrupt (like Ctrl+C) to stop the camera preview and exit the script gracefully.

   except KeyboardInterrupt:
       # Stop the camera and turn off the LED if a KeyboardInterrupt occurs
       camera.stop_preview()
       pass