Step 1: Basics for your BeeCam

Contents

1. Why the R. Pi?
2. What to order
3. How to set it up, attached to a monitor and home network

Purpose

Getting started and building with Raspberry Pi is well documented, but everyone seems to have a different solution. When I was getting started, I found myself spending too much effort trolling through blogs, forums, websites and books to find the right answer. So, the purpose of our “tech hacker” blogs is to get you going quickly by bringing together the best content, and augmenting when needed.  Yes, you will still have to read and follow some tech guides, but hopefully this will make it easier for you.

Why the RPi?

I chose the Raspberry Pi  (RPI) so that I could get up and running quickly, to learn some new technology, and incur little investment. Raspberry Pi is optimized for education and for low cost, so the choice was easy. More information can be found at the official  Raspberry Pi website.

Instructions

Read this guide here: Getting started with the Raspberry Pi. Once you’ve read that post, you may be able to hit the ground running. If not, here are some of my notes.

Get your hardware sorted.  As always, we have so many choices in technology, which can make it a chore to just get started.

Some of the hardware you’ll have to buy, but my guess is you will have some of this in your stash (* indicates new purchase; all else were in our stash)

1. *Raspberry Pi 2 or 3 (I have the RPI 2)
2. *Micro SD Card (at least 8 GB)
3. *RPI Camera Module
4. *USB WiFi dongle
5. *RPI Power Supply
6. USB Webcam
7. *USB extension cable, if needed
8. Monitor/cable with HDMI (I use my TV)
9. USB Keyboard
10. USB Mouse
11. Ethernet cable
12. *Case for the RPI (I use one similar to this so the camera could be secured easily)
13. Small screw driver(s)
14. Bring your reading glasses so you can see well enough to maneuver the tiny parts 🙂
15. Old coffee can for official weather-proofing 🙂

⊕ When I started, I purchased this kit, but in reality it included stuff that is not needed for a simple webcam. Also, the WiFi dongle that came in the kit didn’t work reliably and the instruction book was out-of-date. My recommendation: use your old stash of hardware when you can, and for the stuff you need, buy each component a-la-carte.

Get your software sorted. Once your hardware is in order, you’ll need to get software installed on the SD Card. Refer here to get Raspbian with NOOBS and to understand formatting tools as appropriate.

⊕ Even though I purchased a kit that had Raspbian already loaded, I had to reformat the SD card and re-install.

Bring It Together. Now that you have your hardware and software, it’s time to bring things together. Refer here for basic instructions on connecting the Pi. Be sure to finish your set up by getting your wifi working and running the software updates.

⊕ Depending on the RPI you purchase, you may have additional instructions. For mine, I also installed a heat sink and the camera. These instructions came with my purchase and they were simple to follow.

Take a tour of the Raspberry Desktop

Familiarize yourself with the desktop. You’ll often have to use the command line, so be sure you know how to get to “terminal” mode: Click the Raspberry icon (top left) –> Click Accessories –> Click Terminal.

Build Your Own BeeCam Table of Contents

1. Build Your Own BeeCam TOC
2. Raspberry Pi Basics
3. Headless RPI
4. BeeCam: It’s Alive
5. BeeCam from Anywhere
6. Maintenance
7. Go Green
8. Summary/Next