Aside from running BBSes, what else do y'all run your Pi's to do? I got
Time lapse camera. A Raspberry Pi can run off of one of those cell phone chargers, like the big batteries with USB ports in them. What this means is I can drop one in a wilderness area and it will capture stills from about 24 to 30 hours, depending on temperature and the battery I use. This is usually sufficient for my projects.
You posted elsewhere about the built-in Python HTTP server. There used to be a
lightweight server called boa, which is no longer developed. I used to use that on the Pi to create a simple web interface for whatever I was doing or had
to monitor.
I'd find a nice spot, drop the Pi and battery. Then, I'd use the hotspot capability on my cell phone before plugging the Pi in. The Pi would power up, connect to my cell phone, set its clock via NTP (since it is now connected to the net via my cell phone, if I'm in range of cell phone towers).
But then it would run the boa web server. I could use the browser on my phone to connect to it. I'd see the most recent shot (to check camera orientation), remaining capacity, and I could SSH in and run a menu to set things like "stop capture if between these two times" which I'd use to avoid capturing while it was dark (prolongs battery life).
This worked extremely well with the v1 cameras. All of the photos I have taken
with multiple v2 cameras have turned out grainy for some reason. I have not had time to mess with the camera settings.
I found out that a simple Tupperware bin with a hole cut in it would sufficiently weatherproof it to capture, say, snowfall.
(I don't actually expect anyone to watch these - they are not exactly thrilling, but in case you're waiting for something to compile):
Here is the Pi in action in Flagstaff, Arizona. Flagstaff is in northern Arizona, which is a high elevation and is not desert. I left it overnight in a
forest, and there was a nice snowfall.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgXKzaT0XiI
Here is a video in the old mining town of Bisbee, Arizona. The first part is driving through the town on a dashcam I had, but the second part is taken from the deck of the Air BnB we rented. Winter weather (this was New Years 2017):
https://youtu.be/1nortqc8Paw?t=93
The overlay text is via GraphicsMagick/ImageMagick, which composites text on stills from the command line (in case you've never used it).
A tropical depression. Someone in the UK was producing rain-proof cases for the Raspberry Pi - nice metallic ones, which they don't anymore. This allowed me, for a time, to stick it right out in the middle of rainstorms.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WM7XOURFSb8
One of my photographic hobbies is finding sources of water in the Sonoran Desert. It can go more than a month without rain here, and water is scarce, so it is of particular interest. Tucson's Santa Cruz river used to run year round, but unregulated diversion in the Old West days destroyed it. It is in the process of being reconstituted. I wasn't aware of water releases into the river from a local treatment plant (the water is close to, but not quite, drinking water quality), and I am glad the sudden river rise didn't sweep the Pi away!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BneQ5fmTvEY
More rain, this time from my parents' back yard in Tortolita (near Tucson). Those are the Santa Catalina mountains which rise about 9000 feet above sea level, one of four ranges that surround Tucson.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdIkD8VDKp0
I got kind of experimental with the compositing. I was able to fetch a weather
map and overlay it on the image so you could watch the skies and weather map in
real time, along with humidity and temperature. This is a typical summer monsoon from my back yard, facing West. Weather is nuts here. The extreme heat of the day and then sudden temperature drop at night creates a cycle of evaporation and dispersion during the day, then condensation at night as the temperatures drop.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jT0jdMjIaI
I have had a few Pi's hosed by animal attacks (rodents knocking the thing over then chewing the cable to the battery), and several violent storms. It's great
how cheap they are but I remain unhappy with the case options which are rarely targeted toward weatherproofing *plus* a camera port. Fortunately, the Tupperware bin is a good workaround.
I need time to get those v2 cameras working right.
--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/06/28 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Shipwrecks & Shibboleths [San Francisco, CA - USA] (1337:3/152)