How much oil is left in my oil tank? Will I rum out while I am away?
Raspberry Pi to the rescue!!! Just take a Pi Zero, a camera module, and an LED light and you've got the guts for an Oil Cam!
This kit is available from Adafruit.com for $45. I added a power supply and a USB powered LED light.
The Raspberry Pi Camera Web Interface software, (http://elinux.org/RPi-Cam-Web-Interface) can be installed and you instantly have a webcam!
Add a magnet from Harbor Freight, a mount, and an oil tank and you have your own Oil Cam! The black cone is a eye cup magnifier, hot glued over the lens for a close up lens. I set mine up to capture one picture a day and save it. You now have a daily record
of your fuel consumption. I used port forwarding in my router to make it accessible from the outside world. I took one more step. I set up my own domain and installed software in my router. If Spectrum changes my router IP address, the software sees it and updates my data to find my modem again.
Jim K2BHM
Thanks Jim, This is a most helpful post. I've been working with Arduino to program some simple toys for our Grandson, now I'm experiencing 'Raspberry Pi envy'. I think I'll add getting one of those to my 'Wish List'...I have a birthday coming up.
Thanks.
This is wonderful!