Equipment
Scootercam starts 2026 with brand-new equipment and fiber internet. As of today, we’re down to one camera, but we’ve ordered a new PTZ camera. Here’s the hardware lineup:
- Reolink Duo 3 PoE which outputs a 7680×2160 ultra-wide image, using a unique 180° panoramic dual-lens system. We crop the images from this camera and get 5 views, from south to north. Its located along the beach deck wall, but we’ll move it to the Gallows later this spring.
- Reolink TrackMix 4k (not yet installed). This Pan-Tilt-Zoom camera replaces the PTZ camera mounted on the pole at the northwest corner of the beach deck. We’ll set this camera up to patrol – take different shots during the day – and it will be our primary sunset camera.
- Raspberry Pi 5 – this microcomputer is no bigger than a deck of cards. It’s the brains of the outfit, and manages the cameras – taking pictures, turning them in to timelapse videos, and uploading them to the website.
- Tempest Weather Station – a top-quality weather station that sends its data to the Tempest network. Scootercam simply pulls data from there, eliminating the middleman.
Website Work
2026 sees renewed focus on core site operations. We’re spending more time on optimization and speed, so the site loads quickly and without any glitches. We’ve moved much of the website’s timelapse work back to the little Raspberry Pi. Oddly, with blazing-fast upload speeds here, the Pi is better suited for the task. We’ve made extensive use of AI to refactor old scripts and processes, and while result there were a little mixed, the goals became clear:
- Fast loading website with up-to-the-moment weather data and images from the beach.
- Optimized for mobile and small devices.
- Provides unique solar and lunar data
- Displays a timelapse video covering the previous 4 hours; updated every 20 minutes.
- Creates and archives all-day timelapse videos (3 files per 24 hours) archived one month.
- Records and archives daily sunsets archived forever.
The site has its own personality and character. Rotating snippets embellish the forecasts and can be curated on an Admin page. An AI tool helps create new snippets.
