Blogs

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ArduCAM USB Camera Shield Released

 

This shield was upgraded to a new version. The limitation here doesn’t apply anymore.

The ArduCAM USB camera shield is a universal camera control board designed for both PCs and embedded systems like the Raspberry Pi, TI Beaglebone, and similar products. It supports most parallel interface image sensors ranging from 0.3MP to 14MP, including both global and rolling shutter sensors. The camera is packaged with the software you need to put it to work on Windows and Linux systems and  a comprehensive SDK library is provided to support this.  This SDK is fully integrated with Python, which allows for direct integration of our cameras with your OpenCV based applications.

The plug and play USB control interface simplifies integrating the camera with a wide range of computer hardware. The ready to use SDK library and demo source code makes the software integration process straightforward and efficient. Users can make it work in minutes without writing a line of code. The broad range of modules ArduCAM supports, combined with support for formats like RAW, RGB, YUV, JPEG assures our users a successful outcome.

The ArduCAM USB camera shield joins our product line of shields that offer SPI/IC2 interfaces. The USB camera shield offers significant speed gains over the SPI camera shield, running at as high a frame rate as the USB2.0 480Mbps bandwidth allows which can deliver  640_480(VGA at 60 FPS, through  4384_3228(14MP) at 2 FPS. By using a global shutter camera headboard such as the MT9V034/AR0134 together with USB camera shield, the user can achieve industrial level machine vision with our camera on a Raspberry pi without effort.

The ArduCAM is straightforward enough that it can be easily used with PCs and single board computers such as the Raspberry Pi and the Beaglebone. In short, the ArduCAM brings a plug and play solution to digital cameras at the hardware level.

Please visit our github to find more information and examples, and check the user guide here. (more…)

By Lee Jackson, ago
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The GotchaCAM Portable DIY Wifi Camera Based Travel and Home Security and Surveillance System

Introduction

The GotchaCAM Portable Travel and Home Security and Surveillance System consists of the ArduCAM CC3200 Uno and the software from the book “Home Security System DIY PRO using Android and TI CC3200 SimpleLink” by Robert Chin. Both are available
for purchase on major sites like Amazon in US.

The recommended way to purchase the hardware for this system is by buying the “ArduCAM CC3200 UNO DIY Wifi Portable Security Spy Ghost Hunter Camera Starter Kit” that is available on Amazon. This provides you with all the hardware you will need. (more…)

By Lee Jackson, ago
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Second Generation ArduCAM Shields and Modules

Introduction

ArduCAM series camera shield is a universal camera control board for Arduino. It hides the complex nature of the camera and provides the plug and play camera control interface as well as the ready to use software source code library and demo code. User can make it works in minutes without writing a line of code. The ArduCAM supports variety camera modules from 0.3MP to 5MP with different format like RAW, RGB, YUV, JPEG and can be well mated with standard Arduino boards.

ArduCAM Shield V2 and ArduCAM-Mini-5MP-Plus are the second generation of ArduCAM products, they offers the improved performance and enhanced functions than the previous revisions. They not only can capture decent 5MP JPEG images, but also can do 5MP full resolution RAW image capture, which makes it to be the ideal solution for IoT and scientific image processing applications. Even more they can record short movie clips as well.

The ArduCAM is straightforward enough that it can be easily used with an Arduino, however this simple interface means that the ArduCAM is equally easily integrated with other single board computers such as the Raspberry Pi and the Beaglebone black. It isn’t just a camera for the Arduino, it’s a camera that because it can be easily interfaced to an Arduino, can be easily interfaced to any single board computer, either directly, or through an Arduino if needed for a larger system without exposed SPI/I2C busses. In short, the ArduCAM brings a plug and play solution to digital cameras at the hardware level.

(more…)

By Lee Jackson, ago
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World Smallest ESP8266 WIFI Camera

ArduCAM now released a world smallest low cost ESP8266 WIFI IoT camera kit based on ArduCAM-Mini-2MP-V2 and ArduCAM-ESP8266-Nano module. User can implement a 2MP WIFI camera using HTTP or Websocket protocol on ESP8266, and the camera can be acted as an AP and mobile phone/PC can connect to the camera directly or acted as a Station which connected to the home router. The kit can capture 2MP full resolution JPEG still image, even stream low resolution at fairly frame rate video over network or directly save to local SD/TF card. The kit is suitable for portable application, it can be powered from micro-USB or using battery and has build in lithium battery charging circuits. The kit can also be used separately, it is almost identical to standard alone ArduCAM-Mini-2MP camera and ESP8266-12F module. (more…)

By Lee Jackson, ago
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24 x 24mm Coin Size Raspberry Pi Compatible Board

ArduCAM team now is developing a coin size Raspberry Pi compatible compute module. The total size of the SOM is 24mm x 24mm, compared to the official Raspberry Pi compute module and new Pi ZERO, it will be the smallest Raspberry Pi compatible module in the world. The coin size pi Compute Module is fully customizable and can offer the extra features that weren’t provided by the standard Raspberry Pi boards.

Users can run the system on a small 36mm x 36mm adapter motherboard with camera support. It is ideal for battery-powered portable devices like a smartwatch, action camera, etc. The highlight feature of this coin size pi module, it supports dual camera interface and stereo vision which can be used in robots for machine vision applications or high definition drone cameras.

Contact us for more information about customization. 

Note: it is not a replacement for Raspberry Pi boards, just a supplement for Raspberry Pi ecosystem and Raspberry Pi is a trademark of the Raspberry Pi Foundation.

(This post made Raspberry Pi engineer and forum moderator very upset and they said that it will breach the bootloader license. But thanks to Kristina Brooks work on an open-source bootloader for Raspberry Pi, released under BSD and GPLv2+, and not including any “Raspberry Pi only” conditions, although it is a “poor” alternate at the time being, and a lot of fans build bare-metal firmware. Brian Benchoff said it could also end up being killed and will never see the light of day, just as what happened to the ODROID-W board, but they can’t kill the spirit of hacking just for funs and keep us away from building something new. Once again I have to emphasize that it is not a replacement of Raspberry Pi boards, please order pi boards from Pi foundation. Our SOM maybe double or even triple price than standard pi boards, so this SOM is only available for someone who really needs it and NDA required.)

(more…)
By Lee Jackson, ago
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ArduCAM ESP8266 UNO board for Arduino Camera

Introduction

ArduCAM now released an ESP8266 based Arduino board for ArduCAM mini camera modules while keeping the same form of factors and pinout as the standard Arduino UNO R3 board. The high light this ESP8266 board is that it well mates with ArduCAM mini 2MP and 5MP camera modules, supports Lithium battery power supply and recharging and with build-in SD card slot. It can be an ideal solution for home security and IoT camera applications.

(more…)
By Lee Jackson, ago
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New Book “Home Security Systems DIY” using ArduCAM Mini Camera Module

The author Robert Chin wrote a book for Home Security Systems DIY using Android and Arduino using ArduCAM Mini camera module Arduino and Android. For Arduino and its camera fans, it is right for you to read about it. And now it is available on Amazon

Introduction

This book shows you how to build your own wireless home security system using an Android cell phone or tablet, an Arduino microcontroller, an infrared motion detector, a Bluetooth adapter, and an optional ArduCAM Mini digital camera. All these items are low cost off the shelf parts that are widely available for purchase. This book shows you how to build your own home intruder alarm system that allows you to detect the motion of an intruder and then call out to an emergency phone number using an Android cell phone or just alert you to the intruder with an Android tablet. In addition, an ArduCAM Mini digital camera can be added so that pictures of the intruder can be taken when the motion detector is tripped. You can also use the book’s ArduCAM Mini camera based security system for continuous surveillance of your property. The image data is stored locally on the Android device and does NOT require payment of storage fees as with some home security company plans. This book will also go into the technical details of the hardware set up as well as the author created Android and Arduino software. With these technical details you will be able to customize and expand these systems to suit your specific needs. (more…)

By Lee Jackson, ago

ArduCAM CC3200 UNO Board for Energia

Introduction

ArduCAM team now announces to release a new CC3200 UNO board which is full featured development board almost like a combination of CC3200 Launchpad plus CC3200CAMBOOST pack from TI while keeping exactly the same size as Arduino UNO and pin out.

It is based on TI simplelink series CC3200 chip, which gives you an ARM Cortex M4 processor with a built-in WiFi stack and radio. It supports things like web servers and SSL out of the box. It can be mated with existing thousand kinds of Arduino shields without effort. It makes writing firmware for these devices easier, since a lot of the work is already done. The collection of libraries aids in getting prototypes running quickly. You can even debug Energia sketches using TI’s fully featured IDE.

In addition to standard Arduino pin out and Arduino development environment, it also has additional ArduCAM standard camera interface, user can use TI Code Composer Studio (CCS) to develop and debug camera based application.

ArduCAM CC3200 UNO has build in SWD and JTAG debug circuit, you do not need additional debugger tools to do the debugging. It supports TI CCS and Uniflash seamlessly. If you’re looking to connect things to the internet, with the goal of building some sort of “Internet of Things,” this new ArduCAM CC3200 UNO board is your right option. (more…)

By Lee Jackson, ago

Arduino Panorama Photography with ArduCAM

Panoramic photograph is a technique of photography, using specialized equipment or software, that captures images with elongated fields of view. It is sometimes known as wide format photography. In order to create panorama photos, you have to take several photos from different view point and stitching them afterwards. There are basically two ways to get these photos, one is to use one camera and shooting from different position, the other is to use multiple cameras and shooting at the same time. The later has better stitching result than the former and requires less photography experience, but more complex hardware equipment.

With the hardware nature of ArduCAM shields especially the ArduCAM-mini and Multi-Adapter board for Raspberry, you can connect multiple cameras to a single Arduino or Raspberry Pi board, even shoot the cameras at the same time. In this demonstration we will use 4 ArduCAM mini 5MP with its adapter board and an Arduino UNO R3 board to create your own panoramas or virtual tours.

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By Lee Jackson, ago

ArduCAM now Supports ESP8266 Arduino Board with WIFI Websocket Camera Demo

It is good news to hear that the Arduino IDE support was announced on the ESP8266 community forum, the source code can be found from . It is more than another Arduino board, but can be thought as an Arduino combined with a WIFI shield. With faster CPU speed and much smaller form of factor, most important the less than $10USD price is more attractive, you are worth to try although there are also some limitations. Setup is fairly simple with downloads for Linux, OS X, and Windows. A more detailed setup can be found from the adafruit guide.

(more…)
By Lee Jackson, ago

ArduCAM Rev.C+ Shield Released

Introduction

ArduCAM series camera shield is a universal camera control board for Arduino. It hides the complex nature of the camera and provides the easy to use camera control interface as well as the ready to use software source code library and demo code. The ArduCAM supports a variety of camera modules from 0.3MP to 5MP with different formats like RAW, RGB, YUV, JPEG and can be well mated with standard Arduino boards.

(more…)
By Lee Jackson, ago