We’ve seen a lot to rework here at Scootercam Worldwide. Almost every bit of Scootercam has been replaced – from the code that runs the cameras to the cameras themselves. Here’s a rundown.
Originally Scootercam was a symphony, with dozens and dozens of scripts and scriptlets that played together in harmony. But our orchestra had a problem: if a piccolo missed a note, the entire percussion section stoped and half the horns lost their place. So, the goal this winter was to rewrite the score, so the system could better take care of itself. Along the way we got a major upgrade with fiber internet – which makes it possible to upload more and larger files. This shifted heavy server work back to the Raspberry Pi. So, every bit of Scootercam’s code has been reworked since last summer.
We replaced both cameras and finalized their deliverables. Here’s what the cameras do now – although some features aren’t ready for prime time:
Reolink TrackMix
Our main camera is mounted to a pole on the beach deck. This pan/tilt camera has a wide-angle and a telephoto lens. We have 5 preset locations – views from south to north; so five views x two lenses = 10 camera positions. The camera repositions during the day to give us different perspectives. The camera positions for sunsets at the appropriate time, and faces the northwest sky overnight, looking for auroras (the camera’s infrared lights are turned off overnight).
- The TrackMix sends a new image to the website every ten minutes.
- It creates timelapse videos by taking an image every 10 seconds and compiles a rolling 4-hour timelapse every 20 minutes.
- At the top of each hour, the TrackMix records :10 seconds of live action with audio. This is appended to the previous 2 hours’ clips, for a :30 clip.
- The camera records sunset timelapse videos, capturing images from 20 minutes before sunset until 20 minutes after. To accommodate sunset seasonal changes, we have different camera positions for deep winter (farthest south), deep summer (farthest north), and the rest of the year.
Reolink Duo3 (Panorama Scootercam)
This is an ultra-wide camera in a fixed position, on the wall. The Duo3 is really 2 cameras side-by-side. The images are electronically stitched together to make a single ultra-wide view. This camera helps illustrate the sun’s seasonal dance.
- The Duo3 sends images to the website every 10 minutes. The images include the composite, ultra-wide view, and the left- and right-side components.
- The camera records sunset timelapse videos, capturing images from 20 minutes before sunset until 20 minutes after.
