The Official Raspberry Pi Projects Book - Projects_Book_v4

Tutorial STEP BY STEP

(^96) The Official Raspberry Pi Projects Book raspberrypi.org/magpi
PISPY CAM
Set up a motion-activated spy camera in your room to find out
if anyone’s coming in when you’re not there
e’ve all been there. You’ve gone out for the day
and you know you closed your bedroom door,
but you come back and it’s slightly ajar. Who’s
been in there? Were they friend or foe?

STEP-01
Connect up the camera
Attaching the camera to the Raspberry Pi Zero is easy

• see the camera starter guide (magpi.cc/QrMnng).
  You need to first switch out the cable in the Camera
  Module with the adapter for the Pi Zero. Gently
  pull down on the clasp that keeps the ribbon on the
  Camera Module attached and remove the cable. Take
  note of the orientation of the silver connectors on the

W

ROB ZWETSLOOT

Tinkerer, sometime maker,

other-times cosplayer, and

all-the-time features editor

of The MagPi.

magpi.cc / @TheMagPi

cable you removed, and make sure your adapter cable

is the same way round when you insert it. Put the

other, smaller side into your Pi Zero, with the silver

connectors facing towards the board.

>STEP-02

Wire up the circuit

The circuit for this is fairly simple, especially as the

PIR doesn’t need a resistor as part of its setup. The PIR

comes with three connections: VCC, GND, and OUT.

VCC needs to be connected to a 5V power pin, GND

needs to go to a ground pin, and then there’s the OUT

wire which will be our input. We’re connecting it to

pin 8, also known as GPIO 14.

If your Pi Zero has GPIO pins attached, you can do

this via a breadboard; otherwise you can loop the wire

around the pin holes and use a bit of Blu Tack to keep

them in place, or a dab of glue from a glue gun on a

low setting. Soldering is also an option.

>STEP-03

Get the code

Write up or download our code for this project. This

code uses two libraries: GPIO Zero and the standard

picamera library. GPIO Zero can be used to get a

reading from the PIR motion sensor very easily, which

can then be tied into the picamera code so it takes a

photo when motion is detected. We make sure the

photo is given the time so you know when it was

taken, and it then waits five seconds before seeing if

it should take another photo. Save it as spy.py in the

default home folder.

>STEP-04

Final preparations

You can run it first to give it a test. You might want to

change the sensitivity, which you can do by adjusting

> Pi Zero

> PIR motion

sensor

magpi.cc/

CWnNll

> Camera Module

magpi.cc/

bASFoG

> Pi Zero camera

cable adapter

magpi.cc/

2gT2KwE

> Portable battery

You’ll

Need

A very simple Fritzing diagram

just to make sure you know

how to wire up the sensor