RasPiCamCorder 2 – standalone raspberry pi camcorder with buttons, screen and DropBox capability

 Electronics, python programming, Raspberry Pi Camera, Raspberry Pi Hardware  49 Responses »
Jun 242013
 
RasPiCamCorder 2 - standalone raspberry pi camcorder with buttons, screen and DropBox capability

This blog is about the very much improved version 2 of the RasPiCamcorder. I originally built a quick and dirty free-standing camcorder two days after the Raspberry Pi camera was launched. I was in a hurry, as there was a Cambridge Jam two days later. Major novelty factor. It worked ok and it looks like this… Now we need buttons Later on I thought it’d be nice to have one that booted straight into camcorder mode and had buttons to control it with, so you don’t need an additional device to use it. I’ve also […more…]

Testing RS 5200 mAh USB lithium battery pack as a UPS

 Raspberry Pi Hardware, Review  9 Responses »
Jun 222013
 
Testing RS 5200 mAh USB lithium battery pack as a UPS

At the end of my previous blog post, I mentioned that I was going to test the large pack to see if it was suitable as an uninterruptable power supply (UPS). Since it can be charged while being used, it seemed reasonable to see if it works for this function. Three days testing So I decided to put it on test for three days. Those three days ended at 9 am this morning, although I’ve still left it running. The pack has been powering the Pi, while the pack itself is connected to my 1 […more…]

Pi duration tests and review of two new lithium battery packs

 python programming, Raspberry Pi Hardware, Review  52 Responses »
Jun 192013
 
Pi duration tests and review of two new lithium battery packs

I’ve got a couple of new battery packs in from RS. As part of my testing, I wanted to see how long they could power a Pi at idle, with nothing but the battery pack and an Edimax wifi dongle connected. I know how much power this uses because I’ve made measurements in the past. Model B with just Edimax = 2.0 Watts at idle Model A with just Edimax = 0.81 Watts at idle (included for completeness – this test is on model B) I just want to know roughly how long it lasts […more…]

Automatic Exposure Compensation Testing for the Pi Camera

 Electronics, python programming, Raspberry Pi Camera, Raspberry Pi Hardware  6 Responses »
Jun 162013
 
Automatic Exposure Compensation Testing for the Pi Camera

In the 4 weeks since the Pi camera came out, I’ve spent a fair amount of time testing and fiddling with different things. I’ve also made two RasPiCamcorders – I hope to document the Mk2 version soon. It’s the reason I haven’t blogged much in the last week. I’ve been working on the hardware and software for it. One thing I hadn’t done until this week was test out the various settings for exposure compensation and white balance. Previously, I’d only used the automatic settings, which work pretty well. But there are some circumstances where […more…]

Part 2 – Raspberry Pi Camera stills VS video, Old VS New – resolution comparison

 Raspberry Pi Camera, Raspberry Pi Hardware, Review  16 Responses »
Jun 062013
 
Part 2 - Raspberry Pi Camera stills VS video, Old VS New – resolution comparison

In the previous comparison I did a week or two ago, the resolution of video and stills output was compared. With respect to reading a car license plate from across the street, there was precious little to choose between the output. With the latest release of the camera drivers, (sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade) I took the opportunity to run the test again with both old and new drivers. The most noticeable change is that the field of view of the stills is much greater. It transpired that the previous stills output was […more…]

Adapt your Raspberry Pi Camera for close-up use

 raspberry pi, Raspberry Pi Camera, Raspberry Pi Hardware  10 Responses »
May 252013
 
Adapt your Raspberry Pi Camera for close-up use

The Raspberry Pi Camera is a fixed focus module, so that anything from about 0.5m to infinity is acceptably sharp. This has strengths and weaknesses, as with every design decision. The weakness in this case is that if you want to film or photograph anything closer than about 50-75cm it will be out of focus. With large SLR cameras, what people do is change the lens for a macro or close-up lens. We can’t do that easily. The other (cheaper, but generally less good) option photographers use is to add a small, screw-in, close-up magnifying […more…]

Another way to convert Raspberry Pi Camera .h264 output to .mp4

 raspberry pi, Raspberry Pi Camera, Raspberry Pi Hardware  21 Responses »
May 232013
 
Another way to convert Raspberry Pi Camera .h264 output to .mp4

This is going to be short and sweet. I picked it up from a video by the Marvellous Matthew Manning (reminds me of the “marvellous mechanical mouse organ” from Bagpuss – Google it if you need to ask) otherwise known as RaspberryPi4Beginners. Matt’s made a video which complements several of my recent blogs about the Raspberry Pi Camera. His channel is Raspberry Pi For Beginners, but that doesn’t mean that only beginners can learn something from it. I learnt this alternative way of wrapping an .h264 stream to .mp4. It’s much simpler than using FFMPEG […more…]

Raspberry Pi Camera stills output VS video output – comparison

 raspberry pi, Raspberry Pi Camera, Raspberry Pi Hardware  9 Responses »
May 222013
 
Raspberry Pi Camera stills output VS video output - comparison

After reading a few comments in the Pi forums about perceived quality differences between stills and video, I thought I’d test it out for myself. Some people are saying that the video quality is better than stills. “Quality” is quite a subjective thing, but resolution is a bit easier to test. This was a pretty simple test. I left the camera propped up facing the same Nissan Micra as yesterday’s blog and remotely took a still shot (by ssh) raspistill -t 3000 -vf -o reg-plate.jpg …and then I shot a few seconds of 1080p@30fps video… […more…]

Comparison of real resolving power of RasPiCam with other cameras

 Raspberry Pi Camera, Raspberry Pi Hardware, Review  5 Responses »
May 212013
 
Comparison of real resolving power of RasPiCam with other cameras

Talk to any photography geek and you’ll hear that the glass is a lot more important than the number of pixels. This is definitely true. It doesn’t matter how many pixels you’ve got if the light isn’t gathered and focussed nicely onto the sensor. Sensor size is the other large factor. The larger the sensor, the better the pictures (generally). The optimum is therefore good glass and a big sensor. With phone cameras, you usually have a small sensor and a small lens, which is far from ideal. Good glass costs hundreds or thousands and […more…]

NOOBS New Out Of Box System for Raspberry Pi owners

 Linux usage, raspberry pi, Raspberry Pi Hardware  3 Responses »
May 202013
 
NOOBS New Out Of Box System for Raspberry Pi owners

Gordon Hollingworth announces a New Out Of Box System for Raspberry Pi owners at the Cambridge Jam. It’s a setup/recovery system to make it easy to set up your SD card from the outset and also recover it if something corrupts. It boots in seconds. To activate it, you hold down the shift key while powering up the Pi. Very impressive and should make a big difference to those for whom flashing an SD card image is the stuff of nightmares. It should be out in a week or so.

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