The All-seeing Kite

Seeing things from above has always been fascinating - the idea of gaining an eagle's view is maybe one of the oldest in humanity; one needs not look further than the myth of Icarus. But let's not overanalyze things: I wanted to have a look from above without resorting to one of the quadcopters flooding the market. That's how I came up with the idea of equipping a kite with a wifi-enabled camera that can stream video to the ground. The all-seeing kite was born!

This project was created for the "Elements" speed challenge (please vote!),

For this project you need:
a) A kite. You can build one on your own or you can buy one ready made. Make sure to use a kite that is relatively robust and can carry a little bit more than it's weight (in my case, that was ~70 grams extra ballast :-) )

b) An ESP32-CAM module.This is a small board based on the ESP32 microprocessor that also features a tiny camera. Thanks to the ESP32, you have both WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity on-board and a regulated 3.3V input as well as a 5V input (unregulated). Moreover, this module also sports an SD card slot, so you can program it to record videos/images offline.

Be aware that the ESP32-CAM module has no USB connector onboard, so you also need an FTDI breakout board to connect and program it.

c) A power-source. I used a 18650 Li-ion battery which provides a nominal 3.7V. It may have been an overkill, since it accounted for roughly 2/3 of the weight of the final camera assembly. On the other hand, it was what I had readily available and it definitely provides enough power for hours of video streaming.

d) A slide switch, so that you don't have to remove the battery each time you want to stop the video stream. I used an Apem 25136NAH, but actually any switch you have lying around will do, provided it doesn't weigh more than a couple of grams.

e) A case to put your electronics together and to hang it from the kite. I have 3D-printed a case, so if you use the same materials and have access to a 3D-printer you can print the provided .stl file.

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f) You can connect an external antenna to the ESP32-CAM module, if you plan to fly your kite really high. The built-in antenna is good only for relatively small distances.

g) A little bit speculative design here: You could even build a servo to control where your cam is looking at! But let's leave this for a future project.

Firstly, you have to program your ESP32-CAM module to stream video. Please check a very nice instructable that explains how to do exactly that:

https://www.instructables.com/9-RTSP-Video-Streame...

You can choose to create an Access Point and have your mobile device connect to it, or let you kite connect to an existing WLAN (for example you could setup an AP on your laptop).

Once this is done, you only have to connect your cam module to a power source and, preferably, a switch.

Solder one of the GND pins (e.g. the one with the black arrow in the pic) to the minus (-) pole of the battery.

Solder the 3.3V pin (red arrow in the pic) to one end of the switch and the other end of the switch to the plus (+) pole of the battery.

WARNING: Before soldering, make sure that everything works as expected. You can use dupont cables instead of soldering the pins, but the connections won't be stable enough for our use-case.

As an added extra step, you can glue-gun the connections afterwards to improve the stability and ruggedness of your construction. After all, this thing is meant to fly!

For the case, you can print the attached kitecam.stl file or you can devise something on your own. It is important that the whole assembly can hang from a central point in the kite - that is the purpose of the two holes in the case design. Moreover, by moving the battery case across the printed case, you can control how the whole assembly balances out when hanging from the kite.

Once printed, put the ESP32-CAM module with the camera facing down, so that the camera protrudes from the small square window and slide on top the 18650 battery case. The battery case should slide between the two pin-lines of the camera board and the whole assembly should be a really snug fit.

In the kite I used, the rope is very conveniently attached to a central hole on the kite. This is where I also used a cable tie to hang the camera assembly. Depending on your kite, you may have to improvise - make sure that the camera assembly hangs relatively loosely from the kite, so that it always looks more or less to the ground when flying.

That was it! Your kite is now equipped with eyes! Let it fly and enjoy the view!

PS. I'll post some outdoors pics when the weather here allows it - it decided to go completely calm as soon as I completed this project :-D