I’ve been asked a few questions about cameras and how I acheive the quality of the images.

Above you can see the camera that I’m currently using, purchased from ebay. These stream the image to Ispy software which detects the movement and records the image. The camera antenna is coated with a protective spray and mounted externally to the nestbox.

I then had to think about lighting so I developed an arduino based lighting system. The arduino samples the external lighting levels using a lDR resistor circuit, the ardunio reads the voltage on the pin and completes an A to D coversion and then automatically adjusts the led light in the nestbox to follow the external lighting levels . This system has proved not to bother or upset any nesting birds.

The nestboxes are powered by 12v leisure batteries which are charged by folding solar panels. The whole systems uses 4.2 watts so the battery can easily be replenished on bright sunny days. You need enough charging power from the panel to cover the night time operation which can prove difficult with cloudy dull weather so re-charging may also be required.