looking for a camera add-on for Teensy 3.x

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mortonkopf

mortonkopf

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Hi all, I need some advice and guidance on hooking up a camera module or breakout to Teensy 3.x

I am looking to take single images and store them on to the SD card, no high frame rate necessary, as this would take a single image once every couple of minutes or so.

I see that there are modules available that communicate via TTL / rx-tx and via register use. I have not seen a well documented example for using with Teensy 3.x.

In my mind, I have the camera sending image data via a buffer and a file write function to the SD card.

I have come across these two options so far:
OV7670 - example here: http://www.miniinthebox.com/ov7670-...rds_shopping&gclid=CPTJkLq-zcUCFa_LtAodwVEA4A
TTL type - http://www.ladyada.net/wiki/tutorials/products/camera/index.html

Any experiences of adding camera function to Teensy 3?
 
Don't know if it helps, but...
I have a Teensy-LC triggering a Nikon S570 via tacked-on wires/optical relays.
The SD-card storage is on the camera, up to 32GB.
Trigger-interval is 2-34 seconds, but that's 'just typing' to change.
I could draw it up if you need a look.
 
Yes, I was going to mention that it might give better results if you use a normal digital camera that has its own memory card, rather than trying to use an embedded camera. On the medium/high end cameras, you can wire up a shutter release from the Teensy using an opto-coupler or two. On some cameras you can rig up an infra-red shutter release. On others, hook up a servo to press the button. If you don't care about the warranty of the digital camera, you can always get a cheap camera, and mod it to have the teensy complete the circuit that pressing the shutter normal does. Let me know if you need any links for the above.

Alternatively, get a Raspberry Pi and the raspberry pi camera (or the faster versions of the camera available on ebay if you need more low light support).
 
Thanks Wade, Michael. These are both interesting options. The requirement for 'quality' or high density pixels is minimal, as the image will be part of a lower resolution interactive output.

I like the idea of the raspberry pi option, as I can then leave the sd card / storage in-situ, and also access the files without the need to remove the card and read. I guess that I should have added that I am in the processes of thinking this project through further, and now want the captured image to go towards some visual representations on a thermal printer as part of the interaction.

Are the goal posts moved sufficiently…

So, will investigate the cheap digital camera option for one form of interactive output, and the raspberry pi for another. Better brush up on my python.
 
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I'd second MichaelMeissner's RPi recommendation, in fact I set something up like this last week.

A very simple shell script runs via cron to take a picture every minute, adds a timestamp watermark (via ImageMagick), then upload it (via scp) to a web server.

It took longer to download the Raspian image than it did to assemble the hardware and get the shell script working.
 
BTW, this is my Raspberry Pi camera project (putting the pi, camera in a Polaroid 95A body):

2015-02-23-10-30-001-hidepi.jpg

2015-02-23-10-42-002-hidepi.jpg

2015-02-23-10-43-003-hidepi.jpg


Now, I've used this indoors, and the camera just cannot compete with modern digital cameras when it compares to shooting in low light situations. So far, none of the pictures that I've taken have been decent enough that I would consider putting in my album. I've bought this f/1.4 lens, which is 2 stops faster than the f/2.8 lens, but I haven't done as much field testing with it yet http://www.ebay.com/itm/281212355128?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

So if you are going to use a raspberry pi, you might need to worry about how much light you have available. If you go for the noir camera (which has the infrared filter removed), you can get IR leds to light things up, such as: http://www.amazon.com/illumipi-Infrared-illuminator-Raspberry-Compatible/dp/B00HSSSP2W
 
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Regarding lighting, I was hoping to use GPIO pins to rig a simple led setup ( I guess that it could even use a light sensor). I also see that there is a python script project to have the RPi camera always ready so to reduce the time lag.

I still like the idea of using Teensy, however, but cant see it being fruitful. Horses for courses as they say.
 
Yeah, you can use the GPIO pins, but you likely need to use the GPIO pins to switch a FET and power the LEDs via the main USB power source or a separate power source. This is true whether it is a Teensy or a Pi driving the LEDs. The gpio pins can drive small leds directly, but cannot generate enough current for high power LEDs.

Well find a cheap digital camera that writes to a SD card, such as http://smile.amazon.com/Vivitar-12-...1432123311&sr=1-23&keywords=digital+camera+sd.

Trigger the camera via the Teensy, but let the camera do all of the image conversion, and saving to SD card.

Here is one way to mod a camera to be fired by a Teensy: http://www.instructables.com/id/Time-Lapse-Photography/step3/Press-my-buttons/

Another way is to program the Teensy to press a shutter button with a servo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mCgqGIGyRo&feature=topics
 
@MichaelMeissner - to report back on the camera. I went with the raspberry pi in the end. This camera is supposed to be a 'clownish' instamatic for a friends wedding where the box will be sitting in the fancy dress area and people take a selfie and it prints to the thermal paper. A digital copy of each photo is kept on the sd card for my friends to keep.

rasp1000.jpg
 
I know this is kind of an old post but I have just been successful interfacing the Teensy 3.1 to the OV7670 Camera Chip and Adafruit 1.8" LCD display and wanted to share what I have learned.IMG_6100.png.

I've made the code available at: craigandheather.net/misc/TeensyCamera.zip

This hardware software combination captures QQVGA (160x120) images in RGB565 format at the rate of about 1.5 images/second.

You are free to use my code anyway you want but if you do something interesting with it, let me know.

Craig Lindley
calhjh@gmail.com
 
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