Raspberry Pi WebCam with 3G (Solarcam)

The Idea

• Use solar panel to harvest energy
• Store the energy in a left over car battery
• Power a Pi with camera and 3G-Stick
• Make a nice webcam out of it :)

How To

Update your Pi

apt-get update
apt-get upgrade

Install USB-Modeswitch

apt-get install usb-modeswitch

(you'll need this later to switch your stick from mass storage to modem mode)

Create network interface

Add to /etc/network/interfaces

iface eth1 inet dhcp
allow-hotplug eth1
shutdown -r now

Check interface

It should read like this (on boot):

pi@raspberrypi ~ $ dmesg | grep GSM
[    9.322073] usbserial: USB Serial support registered for GSM modem (1-port)
[    9.805167] option 1-1.3:1.0: GSM modem (1-port) converter detected
[    9.893094] usb 1-1.3: GSM modem (1-port) converter now attached to ttyUSB0
[   10.003375] option 1-1.3:1.3: GSM modem (1-port) converter detected
[   10.145947] usb 1-1.3: GSM modem (1-port) converter now attached to ttyUSB1
[   10.250436] option 1-1.3:1.4: GSM modem (1-port) converter detected
[   10.372741] usb 1-1.3: GSM modem (1-port) converter now attached to ttyUSB2
pi@raspberrypi ~ $

Tips

• Remember that this Pi is in the wild and easily stolen or all the data read
• Don't use your usual passwords for this project
• Don't store keys on the Pi
• Let your master server fetch the data
• Create a special user to access the data from remote

?

---

• Links
  • http://zieren.de/raspberry-pi/huawei-e303-3g-stick/