Wyze Bird Feeder - Camera/AI/Battery/Solar/WeatherProof

[Michael Kapp]

Wyze just released this bird cam feeder. It seems like a great deal.

I have been trying to implement something similar for thecrowbox, but it is a harder problem than I thought.. especially when trying to keep it cheap. 

I think this might actually be a good solution and all that really needs to be done is just modifying the mount to attach to the crowbox. 

You can find cheap ESP32 Cameras, but weatherproofing is a challenge. 

ML/AI is also a real challenge. I don't think Wyze has this as good as other products out there, but it is already cheaper. 

I haven't find a great way to power the camera off a battery and/or solar solution. Obviously, it can be done, but not without adding of hundreds of dollars to the costs. 

I am still trying to develop something similar, but with more of an ML/AI focus. 

If any one is interested in working with me,  please reach out! 

Note: Kevin has made great progress on his version (mostly for cats for now):  

https://github.com/petminion

https://www.wyze.com/products/bird-feeder-camera-bundle $164.94 

Deal$139.98

[Stephen Chasey]

Hi Mike,

It looks like you can also get just the camera (with battery) for $90.

https://www.wyze.com/products/wyze-battery-cam-pro

However, not clear that there is any API you coud make use of to leverage bird detection for Wyze cameras (like to enable the Crowbox only for corvids, etc.).

I would be interested in working with you on a solution. I have built a weatherproof camera based on a Raspberry Pi Zero W and MotionEye that monitors my own crowbox-like bird feeder the last year and lets you view a live feed, shows an event dashboard and takes videos of visitors. Cost was about 30 EUR. No ML involved, but there are plenty of options for this on GitHub.

Steve

[Michael Kapp]

Steve,

Thanks for reaching out. After respond to you directly for syncing up. 

The Wyze Battery Pro caught my eye some time ago, but I dismissed it because I couldn't see how it could cycle in/out of deep sleeps and perform ML simultaneously. 

I don't think there is an API, but on at least the older Wyze cams can can put on open source firmware. I tried RTSP some time ago. (https://www.reddit.com/r/wyzecam/comments/sootpn/what_is_the_best_alternative_firmware_for_wyze/)

Thank you,

Michael

[Josh Klein]

A machine-vision enabled camera would be a game changer for the project. A few folks have tried this in the past, but the big challenge tends to be in identifying individual birds. If you could crack that problem you'd have an impact on bird research globally, and especially in this case - identifying individual crows is hard even for experienced researchers with hundreds of hours in the field!! 

- J

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