• 1
    Video
  • 2
    Gathering the Parts and Building the Enclosure

    I went to Hobby Lobby and got several items. One was a snowman that was based off of an Elf on a Shelf, with dangling legs and a stuffed head. Second, I got some "snow" and filled up the snowman with it. Lastly, I collected a round cookie tin that was just large enough for a Raspberry Pi to fit inside. I punched 2 holes into the tin, one for the Raspberry Pi Camera Module and one for a power cord to fit through. I also put a hole in the lid so the servo could rotate the snowman.

  • 3
    Setting Up the Pi

    DFRobot reached out to me and sent their Raspberry Pi 3 and Raspberry Pi Camera Module. So after I opened up the boxes I got right to work by setting up the SD card. First I went to the Raspberry Pi Downloads page and downloaded the most recent version of Raspbian. I then extracted the file and put it into a convenient directory. You can't just copy/paste a .img file to an SD card, you have to "burn it" onto the card. You can download a burning utility like Etcher.io to easily transfer the OS image. After the .img file was on my SD card I inserted it into the Raspberry Pi and gave it power. After about 50 seconds I unplugged the cord and removed the SD card. Next I put the SD card back into my PC and went to the "boot" directory. I opened up notepad and saved it as a blank file named "ssh" with NO extension. There was also a file I added called "wpa_supplicant.conf" and put this text into it:

    network={     ssid=<"SSID">     psk=<"PASSWD">
}

    Then I saved and ejected the card and put it back into the Raspberry Pi 3. This should now allow for the usage of SSH and connecting to WiFi.