Robustness and Waterproofing Work to Make Camera More Reliable

As with all projects when the fun development parts are proven there is refinement required to make the devices more robust and usable. Below are a few photos of the next iteration of our hardware that makes the product more reliable and flexible.

Improved robustness

Custom electronic board (rather than previous hand wired board)
More robust internal cabling
Custom fitting board and clip mountings
Shock mountings for impact protection
Thermal lens protection design that is harder for dust and insects to settle on
Systematic remote monitoring to track issues
External microcontroller for watchdog and power management

Custom board that sits on top of Raspberry Pi

Water proofing

IP67 case
Waterproof cables
Silica gel sachets
Extension cable weather protection boxes

Thermal management

Gore valves to allow to breathing throughout ambient temperature changes
CPU heat sink

More flexible hardware add ons

Ability to plug in speaker and microphone
Plugs for controlling servos to track animals and fire paintball
Ability to have an AI activated trap

Easy positioning of camera

Low weight electric fence post
Stabilized with tent pegs and tie downs for lightweight, high rigidity positioning (adjusting the tie downs also allows additional adjustment of where the camera is pointing)
Wing nut adjustment for easy positioning (no tool needed)

The new camera robust setups will go through several months of testing with partners around the country and we will let you know how we get on.

A number of people made very useful contributions and suggestions to this part of the project. Many thanks to Logan Stephens and Nigel at Infact along with input from Jaap Overtoom and Phillip Barclay.