Watchful Pi....I mean Eye.....

[Scott Shepherd]

Yup, it's not much to it. You need to download the OS from onto a SD card (or micro), plug the camera and other stuff in, turn it on, type a couple of commands that are well documented, and you're set. You can't hook but one camera to each Pi, so you couldn't do 3 cameras with this setup.

I did it like this because I have about 8-10 Raspberry Pi's and probably more Arduino's sitting around. A customer owed me money and paid me Arduino's one time

There is no coding involved, unless you wanted there to be.

[Keith Winter]

A fire. Toasted my tables, but didn't mess with the motion control system. And we watch over it like a hawk.

I'm always worried about that when cutting, sorry to hear that happened to you. Glad your motion system is ok. What was cut that caught fire?

[Scott Shepherd]

I'm always worried about that when cutting, sorry to hear that happened to you. Glad your motion system is ok. What was cut that caught fire?

I had cut a lot of acrylic that had small holes in it, and they fell down into the honeycomb grid. I went to the next job which was 1/8" thick rowmark, and while cutting that, it set the acrylic scrap under the honeycomb on fire, that burned really hot until it caught the rowmark on fire. It was burning under the top surface. We looked at it and all was okay. 10-15 seconds later, it finally broke through the surface of the rowmark and was about the size of a small frying pan. A water bottle handled the fire really quickly, but the heat from the burning acrylic melted the rulers and buckled the stainless table, along with melting the honeycomb grid.

We were literally standing right there. It was that fast. No big deal. I trip to the automotive paint store, a few hours, and some parts, and it's as good as new

[Joe Walmer]

That is pretty neat I was looking into getting a Pi and using octoprint for my new laser. Looks like I could do something like this if I go that route.

[Joe Walmer]

Have you ever thought of installing some infrared and temp sensors to an alarm or laser shutoff? You could probably wire it into the door open circuit Got to put that Pi to some good use =)

[Scott Shepherd]

Have you ever thought of installing some infrared and temp sensors to an alarm or laser shutoff? You could probably wire it into the door open circuit Got to put that Pi to some good use =)

Temp sensors are already in the works Joe Our Universal has a built in sensor, so we'll just go off that idea. Now, having witnessed an actual fire, I have a good idea on what's going to detect it better, what to use and where to put it. I'll update this thread as progress continues.

[Keith Winter]

I went ahead and bought a pi and camera myself after seeing this, I think it's a brilliant safety feature! Trying to mount it now, but I have not figured out where to place it so it won't be in the way and also how to run the cable through the machine to the outside. Mind posting a photo of how you ran the cable out the back of your laser and placement of the camera?

[Bill George]

So I have the newest Raspberry Pi and all the stuff, even came with a WiFi dongle for a USB port, so If I add the camera can I stream a wireless video to my cell phone? I suppose I can do some online searching but maybe the answer I get here will relate somewhat to lasers.

[David Somers]

Great idea Scott!

Can your TV handle PiP? If so, and since you have a couple of Pi's hanging around, how about a camera under the honeycomb to catch a fire down below like you experienced?

Also, you mentioned trying the camera outside the cover so you could catch the whole table in one image, but that glare from lights on the cover prevented that? How about a polarizing lens in front of the camera. An el cheapo would probably do it?

Great ideas!!!!!

Dave

[Matt Geraci]

I have no idea what a raspberry pi is but I like it!!!! Been looking at video monitored options for safety reasons myself. Thanks for sharing!

[Craig Matheny]

I use two security cameras and they go to 2 different monitors on our different desk and remote access any time.