We’re excited to announce the launch of the NestNinja project! 🎉

What is NestNinja?

NestNinja is an open-source smart bird box camera system built on the powerful ESP32-P4 platform. Our goal is to make high-quality bird monitoring accessible to everyone - whether you’re a hobbyist, educator, researcher, or conservationist.

Why Another Bird Box Camera?

Great question! Here’s what makes NestNinja different:

🏆 Premium Quality

We’re building professional-grade bird monitoring systems with premium hardware, reliable software, and proper support.

🔓 Open Innovation

Firmware will be open-sourced once stable, enabling the maker community to build custom solutions. Choose between ready-made products or DIY builds.

💰 Options for Every Budget

  • £200-300 - Complete smart bird box system (estimated)
  • £100-150 - Smart camera module for existing boxes (estimated)
  • £65-100 - DIY component build with community support

🔋 Low Power

PIR motion detection means the camera only wakes when birds are present. Perfect for battery or solar-powered installations.

🎥 High Quality

1080p HD video with H.264 hardware encoding, 160° fisheye lens, and night vision capabilities.

🏠 Privacy First

All data stored locally on SD card. No cloud required, no subscriptions, your data stays yours.

Current Status

We’re currently in the architecture finalization phase. This involves:

  • Testing the ESP32-P4 + ESP32-C6 platform
  • Integrating the OV5647 camera module
  • Optimizing power management strategies
  • Developing the core firmware architecture

Development Status: Firmware is currently private during initial development. We’ll open-source it once we reach stable release (targeting Q3 2026).

Follow updates on our GitHub repository (will be public soon!).

What’s Next?

Our immediate priorities:

  1. Hardware Testing - Validate all components work together
  2. Camera Driver - Get the OV5647 capturing video
  3. Video Encoding - Configure H.264 hardware encoder
  4. Power Management - Implement PIR wake from deep sleep
  5. Basic Streaming - Get video from camera to web browser

Get Involved

Interested in NestNinja? Here’s how:

For Everyone:

  • 📢 Follow us on Twitter
  • 📧 Join our mailing list (coming soon)
  • 💬 Participate in Discussions

For Developers/Tinkerers:

  • ⭐ Watch the GitHub repo for open-source release
  • 🐛 Suggest features and report issues
  • 📝 Contribute to documentation
  • 🤝 Help other community members

For Customers:

  • 🔔 Get notified when products launch (sign up coming soon)
  • 🐦 Share your bird watching wishlist

Stay Updated

  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Watch the GitHub repository
  • Subscribe to updates (coming soon)

We’re just getting started, and we’re excited to build this with the community. Here’s to many happy hours of bird watching! 🐦

Have questions? Join the discussion on GitHub!