Multiple Raspberry Pi High Quality 12MP Camera module

It is possible to use multiple High Quality cameras on a single board.

I don’t need to view them all at the same time, just the ability to switch between them.

Thanks

Hello,

Yes, our new multi adapter board supports high Quality 12MP camera module.

 

Thank you for your response Bin, could you post the link on here to make sure I get the correct one?

Hello,

You are welcome .

It is https://www.uctronics.com/arducam-multi-camera-adapter-module-v2-2-for-raspberry-pi-4-3b-3b-5mp-and-8mp-cameras-compatible-with-arducam-mipi-cameras.html

 

Thank you for this.

I am going to purchase a couple of these.

One final question, is there any reduction in quality when switching the cameras?

I intend to use 2 of the 12MP cameras running a frame rate of 30fps and resolution of 1440x1080 (not running at the same time).

Also, can the cameras be switched with one command i.e. so I can run it as a cron job?

I am looking to use this for my nest box project at www.facebook.com/NestBoxLive

Thanks,

Jamie

Hello,

The function of our multi-camera board is to switch the camera channel in time-sharing, which will not affect the quality of the image, but it will affect the frame rate. If 4 cameras are running at the same time, the speed of each camera to send images is only 1/4 of the original .

Thank you for your response.

So will I be able to, for example, use 1 camera for 12 hours a day at full frame rate and then switch go another camera for another 12 hours at full frame rate?

My idea is to use the 12mp camera one during the day and one during the night with the ir filter removed.

Yes. of course.

 

Thank you for your help with this.

I have ordered one to try out.

Many thanks,

Jamie

You are welcome. Any problems Let me know if you need more help.

Hi Bin,

Board has just arrived from Utronics.

Will begin testing later today

Thanks,

Jamie

Hi Bin,

Board has just arrived from Utronics.

Will begin testing later today

Thanks,

Jamie

Hello,

Great to hear that. Let me know if you need more help.

I will try my best to help you.

 

Hi Bin,

Just set things up for a first time run…

This is the output I am getting when I first run ./init_camera.sh:

I assume everything looks okay for camera 1 and camera 2.

I am now trying to run raspivid and ffmpeg using my normal command which is this:

raspivid -o - -t 0 -w 1440 -h 1080 -fps 30 -b 20000000 -g 60 | ffmpeg -ar 44100 -ac 2 -acodec pcm_s16le -f s16le -ac 2 -r 30 -i /dev/zero -f h264 -thread_queue_size 1024 -r 30 -i - -vcodec copy -acodec aac -ab 128k -g 60 -strict experimental -f flv “rtmp://localhost/$(hostname)/live”

Something is not working right. Can I call raspivid as I usually would, and then run the command to switch from camera 1 to camera 2?

Thanks in advance,

Jamie

 

Hello,

Yes, the camera A and B is normal. If you don’t use the camera C and D, you can modify the script here https://github.com/ArduCAM/RaspberryPi/blob/master/Multi_Camera_Adapter/Multi_Adapter_Board_4Channel/Multi_Camera_Adapter_V2.2/AdapterTestDemo.py

The raspivid does not have command to cut the camera A and B, you shuold use another driver to cut the camera A and B. In fact, to cut the camera, you just need to write

#choose camera A

i2c = “i2cset -y 1 0x70 0x00 0x04”
os.system(i2c)
gp.output(7, False)
gp.output(11, False)
gp.output(12, True)

#choose camera B

i2c = “i2cset -y 1 0x70 0x00 0x05”
os.system(i2c)
gp.output(7, True)
gp.output(11, False)
gp.output(12, True)

 

 

 

Thanks for that Bin, I have managed to get it working in some state.

I am randomly getting this problem when changing cameras and running raspivid:

‘Camera control callback cmd=0x4f525245mmal: No data received from sensor. Check all connections, including the Sunny one on the camera board’

Sometimes this happens and sometimes it does not. I have checked the connection on the cameras and they are all fine

Okay, so I have done some more testing this morning.

Here is what I am doing in order:

  1. Booting Pi
  2. Running a modified version of ./init_camera.sh with camera C and D removed (All runs fine and I get both pictures to confirm this)
  3. Running a python script to select camera A
  4. Running my instance of raspivid (All runs fine)
  5. Run a python script to change to camera B (Works fine for a while)
When I change from camera A and camera B a few times, this is the error I get from raspivid:

‘Camera control callback cmd=0x4f525245mmal: No data received from sensor. Check all connections, including the Sunny one on the camera board’

I’ve checked all connections, changed ribbon cables and I am also using very short ribbon cables as suggested in the documentation.

There are some occasions that if I leave raspivid running the above error message goes away and the cameras continue to operate again for a short period.

Any help on this would be much appreciated :slight_smile:

Hello,

Please attach me your test code and I will help you test it again.

 

init_camera.sh: https://pastebin.com/jgrEBxFr

AdapterTestDemo.py: https://pastebin.com/Dcq0DxQL

Note that I am using camera A and C

Hello,

After switch each camera. can you add some delay to try?