# Building a solar, GSM remote camera to send photos to phone

**URL:** <https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/t/building-a-solar-gsm-remote-camera-to-send-photos-to-phone/3018>\
**Category:** Uncategorized\
**Created:** [2 July 2018 05:51 UTC](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/t/building-a-solar-gsm-remote-camera-to-send-photos-to-phone/3018 "2018-07-02T05:51:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Peter49143](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/dfb087/32.png) [@Peter49143](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/u/Peter49143)\
**Post date:** [2 July 2018 05:51 UTC](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/t/building-a-solar-gsm-remote-camera-to-send-photos-to-phone/3018/1 "2018-07-02T05:51:31Z")

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Hi All,

I’m a newbie to the electronics world, so this might be biting off more than I can chew… but I thought I’d see how complicated it is.

Up till now, I’ve bought trail cameras to monitor a remote feed bin for animals. Given I’d like to deploy a number of cameras, I’m wondering if building my own is a cost effective option. Cost and reliability are the 2 main factors - as far as functionality, I just want a camera that I can txt and it will send me a MMS of the feed bin (only needs to be during the day). If it had a timer to automatically send it twice a day (on email or txt), that’d be a bonus. It would need to be solar powered as it needs to be set-and-forget.

Just interested to know how hard this would be and approx cost? Any thoughts?

Cheers

Pete

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**Author:** ![Josh](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex028/user_avatar/forum.core-electronics.com.au/josh/32/1244_2.png) [@Josh](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/u/Josh)\
**Post date:** [2 July 2018 06:35 UTC](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/t/building-a-solar-gsm-remote-camera-to-send-photos-to-phone/3018/2 "2018-07-02T06:35:10Z")

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Hi Peter,

People have achieved things similar to this with [Raspberry Pi](https://core-electronics.com.au/raspberry-pi/boards.html)’s and [Pi cameras](https://core-electronics.com.au/raspberry-pi/camera.html). Instead of texting the Pi, you can send a command over Wifi/Twitter/email/etc and it could send a photo back over email or upload to a shared location. This could also be easily done with a timer if you wanted to. If you want to use solar, you could combine a [solar panel](https://core-electronics.com.au/power-batteries/solar-power.html) with a [LiPo battery](https://core-electronics.com.au/power-batteries/liion-lipoly.html).