Hi, I have been looking at the Raspberry Pi Camera Board - Night Vision & Adjustable-Focus Lens (5MP) and trying to work out if the LED intensity is adjustable to cut down on heat and power draw. I want to use it in a rig for a trail cam. Most nights the position will have some “very small” urban light spill. Does anyone have any experience with this? The subjects would be around 3 metres from the camera at any one time.
Just another thought, if the LEDs are not adjustable, maybe hooking up motion detection would be the best alternative.
Thanks Brock
The Raspberry Pi Camera Board - Night Vision & Adjustable-Focus Lens (5MP) has a photoresistor to monitor for when the IR LEDs should switch on. There is also an adjustable resistor that lets you set the ambient light threshold before they are triggered, but they will be either on or off, you can’t adjust how much IR light is added.
You might be onto something with adding a motion detector to try and trigger the IR LEDs that way as it could save a lot of power.