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Show HN: I made a tiny camera with super long battery life

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Re: Show HN: I made a tiny camera with super long battery life

#281

Post by glial »

imhoguy wrote: post #206
davekeck wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That is likely even lower than the effective self discharge rate of a lithium coin cell battery. That's what I've found too. Based on my measurements and calculations, Photon uses 5µA (MSP430 + motion sensor) while sleeping, while the battery's self-discharge is more like 80µA. That's probably a good argument for using a more powerful chip though, if the battery self-discharge is that high, hah.

Maybe tiny solar panel + capacitor, like 1980/90s calculators had, then it could run "forever" - digital Millennium Camera.

This is a cool idea!

Re: Show HN: I made a tiny camera with super long battery life

#282

Post by davekeck »

azinman2 wrote: post #246

This looks exceptionally cool. Thank you for writing an excellent Mac app - forget the rest of the hate here. Do you think this would be appropriate for turning into a long form video? I’m imagining seeing videos of my boys growing and playing where I just periodically dump the camera and eventually sitch it as frames into a movie. Anyway to know when it’s about to write over itself in storage?

> Do you think this would be appropriate for turning into a long form video?

Time-lapses are certainly one of the intended use-cases. I still need to add video-export features to the companion app though. Right now it only supports exporting images.

> Anyway to know when it’s about to write over itself in storage?

Currently it silently overwrites the oldest photos once the storage is filled, but I've been thinking it should have a setting to prevent that.

When the battery gets below 2%, the device enters "battery trap", where it stops capturing images and simply blinks the red LED every 5 seconds. Maybe there should be an optional setting to enter that mode when the storage is filled. Would that work for you?

Re: Show HN: I made a tiny camera with super long battery life

#283

Post by azinman2 »

davekeck wrote: post #282
azinman2 wrote: post #246

This looks exceptionally cool. Thank you for writing an excellent Mac app - forget the rest of the hate here. Do you think this would be appropriate for turning into a long form video? I’m imagining seeing videos of my boys growing and playing where I just periodically dump the camera and eventually sitch it as frames into a movie. Anyway to know when it’s about to write over itself in storage?

> Do you think this would be appropriate for turning into a long form video? Time-lapses are certainly one of the intended use-cases. I still need to add video-export features to the companion app though. Right now it only supports exporting images. > Anyway to know when it’s about to write over itself in storage? Currently it silently overwrites the oldest photos once the storage is filled, but I've been thinking it…

I could always just use ffmpeg to turn into a video.

Blinking when full would work. I think it’d also be helpful to know when that might be- like could I see the expected date somehow based on the rate of capture? Maybe that’s too niche of a feature.

Re: Show HN: I made a tiny camera with super long battery life

#284

Post by davekeck »

kaladin-jasnah wrote: post #264
flapjaxy wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure I follow the criticism here. Is the issue that a paid product only supports Mac, or an open source project didn't build for multiple OSs? If it's the first; I've seen tons of Mac only software due to the perception that it's a more lucrative platform. (Users are price tolerant for good products). If it's the last; scratch your own itch. Since it's open source you can write the softer yourself. I'm not su…

Looking back, I could have phrased my original comment better, but my criticism is neither of those things. I'm just saying that as an open-source project that has an open-source specification, the author could make it clearer that an interested customer could buy one of these and write their own open-source Linux/Windows implementations as opposed to making it sound like "if you don't own a Mac, this product isn't f…

Appreciate your thoughts.

In case it helps explain the wording: I went with "exclusively for Mac" because I intended it to be an in-group signal to Mac folks that the product is high quality and conforms to the norms of the Mac platform. In my experience, cross-platform GUI software usually doesn't conform to Mac software conventions (and IMO just kinda sucks by Mac software standards). So my wording is trying to convey that the software isn't your typical cross-platform Electron/QT/GTK app.

Anyway, would love to add Linux support, just trying to figure out if that's what I want to do with my life right now.

Re: Show HN: I made a tiny camera with super long battery life

#286

Post by davekeck »

parag0n wrote: post #255

Thanks for putting in the effort and time into this cool project. My question is: How does your manufacturing process look like if someone decides to click the "buy" button and do you have any open orders currently? Also do you actively use it currently on your bike or do you know some use cases of someone that bought/has it?

> How does your manufacturing process look like if someone decides to click the "buy" button and do you have any open orders currently?

I assembled ~120 of these devices beforehand so I just need to package them up and ship them out when I get an order.

> Also do you actively use it currently on your bike or do you know some use cases of someone that bought/has it?

I intended to put the device in the garage to catch the thief, rather than attach it to the bike. But with a good mounting solution (which I should invest some time into!) you could certainly use it on a bike for time-lapses. It should work great for a cross-country road trip.

A friend of mine is using it to do a timelapse of a house construction project, and I mailed out the first orders today so they're in the wild now!

Re: Show HN: I made a tiny camera with super long battery life

#288

Post by davekeck »

mjard wrote: post #228
davekeck wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Currently it replaces the oldest photos, yes. (There might be use cases where you only want to keep the first 20k photos though -- if anyone wants that, get in touch and I can add a setting.)

I figured that was the case. That makes the most sense for your original use-case. I ordered one last night, are you seeing a large uptick of orders from this post?

Definitely, the HN crowd has been kind.

Re: Show HN: I made a tiny camera with super long battery life

#290

Post by davekeck »

NegativeLatency wrote: post #46
clumsysmurf wrote: post #16

I try to avoid devices with built in batteries. Could a version be created that uses a replaceable 18350, 18650 or even AA? I'm OK swapping every few months etc, but when its time to dispose of it, I don't want to fret about how to remove the battery for recycling.

Also when the battery dies and it renders the product garbage that only someone with fairly advanced skills can fix.

I 1000% agree with the sentiment, I hate that we throw so many electronics away.

I need to make a blog post showing how to replace the battery.

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