A Fun Project for the Weekend, FishCam!

I crashed my drone a couple months ago and the only reasonable thing I could do is to take it apart. It turns out I had a bunch of project ideas with what I could do. I never got to any but when we went to our ranch I had an idea. The camera has a WiFi connection to an app I have, and since the fight controller still worked I could view live video from it! In the end I made a waterproof Tupperware camera in a 1 hour car ride.

Supplies

This is more of just telling you how I recycled something pretty useless to me into something that I will use but if you wish to make it here are some of the things I used.

A Visuo drone for the camera and WiFi capability (you really can use anything)

A small watertight Tupperware

A Ziploc that fits around the Tupperware (turns out the Tupperware isn't waterproof after all)

Paper towels

Just a weight or a rock

A LOT of Duct tape and rope

As you can probably tell I used really common items I could find around the house.

Step 1: First: the Uses

At our ranch we have a creek and whats more fun than watching fish from a comfortable place inside? We have a scouting trip coming up and this is the first one where we all get to go fishing. With this off the dock I could see under the surface and maybe have a little fun spotting fish.

Step 2: Version 1.

This had the WiFi camera and a battery for it, along with a bunch of paper towel. I also put a Ziploc quart bag around it. It mainly worked and caught some cool footage but if I want this to go on a scouting camp out its going to need to run for some time.

But before we get into that ill tell you why I needed to make a second version. I was pretty careless about handling it and by just chucking it into the water every single time I broke it. One soldered wire that is the ONLY data line for the camera HAD TO BREAK. So now no footage shows up.

By needing to take it out and re-solder I decided I will improve it.

Step 3: Version 2.

With the camera data wire re-soldered I could put everything back in. But we will need some extra power. I'm going to attach a backup battery to the bottom and wire it up so that the power bank is connected to the charging point of them main battery. I hot glued the hole where the cable comes through and stuffed it with more paper towel to make sure if any water gets in it won't be a problem for a while.

Now for testing!

I'm going to test it in our pool, but this weekend i'm definitely taking it on our scout fishing trip!

Step 4: Conclusion

This was more a weekend project inspired by boredom. I'm glad I did this because all the parts were just sitting in my closet unused. Now they have a purpose and I can have some fun on trips. This may have not been recycling common garbage but it is more like recycling old parts that seem useless. Its more of up-cycling.

Tell me if you liked it or maybe even tried to make it yourself!