Elf – 2WD Pi Robot
Adding a Raspberry Pi Camera to Elf
I finally found the time to add a Pi Camera to Elf!
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The Raspberry Pi features a CSI camera connector – and the Raspberry Pi Foundation had a great little five million pixel camera module made for the Raspberry Pi.
This is great news for robots, as the RPi camera module is far higher resolution than readily available 720p USB cameras, and the Broadcom SOC can encode h.264 video real time from it.
As you can see, I used a Pimoroni Raspberry Pi camera mount along with some M3 standoffs to mount the camera.
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I installed the camera software following the simple instructions found at the Raspberry Pi Foundation.
The side shot above shows how the camera cable is inserted into the CSI connector.
Note that the blue tape on the FFC cable has to face the Ethernet connector, and the “fingers” face away from the Ethenet jack on the Raspberry Pi.
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Above you can see how the FFC cable is mounted on the camera module – the blue tape side of the FFC cable is facing out from the camera module.
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Frankly, I am not perfectly happy with how the HC-SR04 ultrasonic sensor and Raspberry Pi camera look on the front of Elf, but until I have time to make a nicer bracket, this arrangement will have to do.
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I feel the “camera tower” makes Elf a bit too tall.
I am considering moving the HC-SR04 distance sensor onto the lower deck (in front of the 4xAA battery pack) and perhaps mounting the camera module on a tilt/pan assembly.
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I also changed the 4xAA battery pack I was using for Elf – upgrading it to a battery holder with an on-off switch.
Here’s looking at you kid!
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Article Index
- Meet Elf
- Power supply & Development
- Building Elf: RoboPi, Servos, Sensors, Analog In
- Connecting the Motor Controller & Range Sensor, Sample Code & more
- Adding a Raspberry Pi Camera to Elf
- Installing & Using MJPG-Streamer
- Raspberry Pi Camera h.264 Streaming from Elf
