[hcfman]

PI's are expensive. But they have a very stable and well developed software eco system and are really flexible.

I still buy them. And a lot of them. Because with a Raspberry Pi 5 I'm able to make amazing wildlife camera sysetems that use thermal imaging and local AI to make an extremely effective solar powered wolf detector. I have a system in the field that's been running continuously since September 29 2025, over 8 months autonomously. It also records full frame thermal video in h264 24/7 and I can remotely retrieve images and video. That's a lot of functionality on a Pi 5.

I've collected over 60 videos of wolves from just one site with a Raspberry Pi 5 in this manner. In Belgium... Which is not exactly the biggest hot spot for wolves.

Videos here

https://www.youtube.com/@hcftube1

and here

https://www.youtube.com/@WildlifeSecurityInnovations

[teruakohatu]

What thermal camera are you using with the Pi?

[hcfman]

I developed my own one out of very high quality modules from China and added the software to the Pi so all of the driver software is developed in the Netherlands from our company. Note this was no small matter. It's a product now. But currently we sell them on a project mode till we get all the scalability in place to sell them as boxed units.

https://wildlifesecurityinnovations.com/

Plus the run the pi in secure boot mode with encrypted drives, precisely so we can sell them as a product without loosing all our IP that goes into this. Another nice things about the Pi 5 as a platform as it's possible to do this.

The modules originally come from the company behind guideIR. Personally I think they are the best thermal sensors available. They have amazing onboard image processing so that the living things really popout in the image, you can see this in the videos.

We have photos in the banner for the website. The modules are tiny but we 3D print rain shielding enclosures for them.

We have photos of the wolf project in here

https://wildlifesecurityinnovations.com/projects/wolves-belg...

The modules draw just 1W of power, so they are great for our wildlife camera systems. And of course, they get images day and night. And we use thermal image motion detection to trigger the local AI inference. Normal PIR triggered wildlife systems can only triggrer on largish animals quite close by (Check out the wild boar video from this morning, you could never detect this with a traditional wildlife camera that uses PIR sensors https://youtu.be/rmav8IjWxeo). We can detect animals easy in the 50-100m range and with 24/7 thermal recording we can go back in time, invaluable for behavioral research.

I'm pretty sure we have the only wildlife camera system with thermal modules in high resolutions. All thanks to the Pi 5.

(Actually, we also run this with an ultra low light visible camera, also recording 24/7. With audio in both thermal and visible stream. Running on the same platform). Videos also online with the other videos.

[zipy124]

How are you getting the thermal sensors out of china without running into the export/import restrictions on dual-use tech? Without correct import licensing I've been limited to 9fps and other restrictions (if I want to do it legally).

[hcfman]

I have a good relationship with our supplier and they apply for all necessary legal requirements.

What country are you from ? There’s a list of countries that we can ship to (Only whole systems as that’s our product). 640 resolution requires export licenses for us to countries outside of the EU. We apply for those for our customers. You will need to supply end user statements and identify who you are.

The modules we ship have 25 fps frame rate.

The UK is in the list of countries we can ship to. It is outside of the EU so we would need to apply for an export license for you.

384x288 resolution does not require an export license for us to ship to the UK. But it does require an end user statement.

However, if the UK also requires an import license, then I have no advice for you here. Interesting to know though, as it would complicate exporting to there.

[hcfman]

We can supply camera systems in resolutions 385x288, 640x512 and 1280x1024.

The 1280x1024 modules are out of this world, but very expensive. Here is a video from one of those.

https://youtu.be/-QSkPBqTZh8?si=kEc18Ji2cxOpIEsJ

Later when scalability is in place then also 256x192.

[hcfman]

BTW, I'm also from New Zealand originally. Manurewa :-)