Two Cameras and power?

[JonnyAlpha]

Hi;

We are fast approaching our proposed launch date and need some advice on cameras.

So far we have been using a PiZero v1 with a Logitech C270 Web Cam, been working fine when running from mains power and did take a couple of photos when running on 4 x AA batteries but camera stopped taking photos so maybe insufficient power?
For our flight we have a PiZero v2 which comes with a Pi Camera connector. My plan was to use a Pi Camer mounted horizontally in the Payload to take Horizon shots and the Web camera either poking out of the bottom of the payload or out on a selfie stick angle back down towards the earth?

So I have a couple questions:

1. Will 4 x Energizer Batteries power the PiZero, PITS, LORA, Pi Camera and Web Cam? If not can I up this to 6 or more and still connect to the PITS? The specs on Uputronics state "Onboard 2.5A buck/boost regulator to provide power from an input voltage range from 2.8V to 15V" So I guess I can but just in case?

2. If not how can we get around the power issue? (Possibly answered myself)

3. On the PITS you can select Pi Camera or Web Camera not both for the Tracker to take photos and SSDV so if using a Web Camera as well I guess an additional Python or Bash Script needs to be run to use the Web Camera?

4. I am thinking of trying to also get some video but realise this could also cause power and storage problems, we are using a 32GB SD card at the moment. For video I was going to use Mjpeg Streamer. So if taking photos as well I want to take some video of the launch then stop the video and start taking photos. Has anyone done anything similar and could I Magpie your script?

Many thanks

[edge0f17]

The pi camera uses a lot of power, but a webcam will use more. Dave Akerman could tell you how much, but he will also tell you that you need to test it for yourself. Six batteries should be enough, but you need to leave your payload running overnight to find out.

It is an easy fix to use two cameras with PITS, but I don`t know that anyone has tried it yet. You need to get your webcam running on LoRa first, and check battery life. If would be nice to see different cameras on RTTY and LoRa, but I don`t think you are ready for that yet.

You might want to add a video camera, rather than trying to get video from a webcam.

[JonnyAlpha]

The pi camera uses a lot of power, but a webcam will use more. Dave Akerman could tell you how much, but he will also tell you that you need to test it for yourself. Six batteries should be enough, but you need to leave your payload running overnight to find out.

It is an easy fix to use two cameras with PITS, but I don`t know that anyone has tried it yet. You need to get your webcam running on LoRa first, and check battery life. If would be nice to see different cameras on RTTY and LoRa, but I don`t think you are ready for that yet.

You might want to add a video camera, rather than trying to get video from a webcam.

Thanks for the reply.

Tested again today on batteries for about an hour on batteries and the a couple of hours on mains.
Whilst on batteries I was tracking it using my Laptop and Mobile phone but did not appear to manage to upload any to HabHub.
When on Mains and my Laptop was connected to WIFi I managed to upload 5 x Pics via SSDV to HabHub.
Looking in the RTTY folder there are about 8 jpgs from the period it was on batterie and 25 jpgs in the RTTY folder taken between 11:10 and 11:34 when it was on mains.

So the camera appears to be working on 4 x batteries OK?

Ref trying to use a Pi Camera and Web Camera, I think for the first flight i'll stick to a Pi Camera - as you said we are probably not ready for much more? I would have like to get a pic of the payload in near space

Thanks

[cwgosling]

I have a related question. I'd like to capture both images and video during a high altitude balloon flight. Can I modify the existing camera code for tracker to be able to record and send images at regular intervals but to also record short video clips and save them to the SD card? If anyone has done this I'd love to hear from you.

Sorry if this is a basic question - we're just getting started. Thanks in advance.

[JonnyAlpha]

Hi;

Your best bet is to head over to the PITS page http://www.pi-in-the-sky.com/index.php?id=support and maybe contact the PITS support at support@pi-in-the-sky.com