Society of Robots - Robot Forum

Electronics => Electronics => Topic started by: GearMotion on August 17, 2009, 10:30:25 AM

Title: JPEG Color Camera - UART Interface
Post by: GearMotion on August 17, 2009, 10:30:25 AM: http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=9334

This is a simple-to-use, UART controlled, color camera with on-board JPEG compression. Capable of resolutions up to 640x480, and a number of color types. Send the snapshot command, and this module will capture a single-frame picture, compress it, and send it back over a serial connection. The easy-t0-use and well defined command set is detailed in the User's Manual below.

This module includes an OmniVision OV7640/8 VGA camera sensor, OV528 camera-to-serial bridge, program EEPROM and a 4-wire cable that mates with the camera module.

Features:

* Low power: 3.3V, 60mA
* 4-pin interface: Vdd, GND, TX, RX
* 100uA current consumption in sleep mode
* VGA resolution; built-in down-sampling to QVGA or CIF
* TTL interface of up to 115.2kbps, auto baud detection
* Simple, well-defined command set
* JPEG codec for different resolutions
* Built-in color conversion: 4 gray, 16 gray, 256 gray, 12-bit RGB, 16-bit RGB
Title: Re: JPEG Color Camera - UART Interface
Post by: dual on August 18, 2009, 08:24:55 PM: out of stock D'X

Looks really easy to use indeed

I've been looking at a camera that I should get for my robot.

I've looked at Blackfin Camera from SRV1 but it's very expensive.
I've looked at AVRCAm but it's not really clear how it tells to implement it
I'm also thinking of a DLink wifi camera and Roborealm on a PC but might not be as Autonomous in my opinion since it requires an external PC for processing.
Title: Re: JPEG Color Camera - UART Interface
Post by: E.Mk on March 08, 2010, 03:04:35 PM: sorry for reviving an old thread... but has can the Axon support streaming 2 of these camera modules over the USB cable?

I'm tinkering around with the Axon and want to know if it can send back video streams back to the pc... and also accept commands for servo positions...

thanks in advance
Title: Re: JPEG Color Camera - UART Interface
Post by: chelmi on March 08, 2010, 04:40:40 PM: It's not a video camera. It takes a single pictures and streams the result.
Title: Re: JPEG Color Camera - UART Interface
Post by: E.Mk on March 08, 2010, 08:50:54 PM: Quote from: chelmi on March 08, 2010, 04:40:40 PM
It's not a video camera. It takes a single pictures and streams the result.

Hey Chelmi, thanks for the quick response.

From what I poked around in the user's manual(http://www.sparkfun.com/datasheets/Sensors/Imaging/C328_UM.pdf (http://www.sparkfun.com/datasheets/Sensors/Imaging/C328_UM.pdf))

It states,

UART: 115.2Kbps for transferring JPEG still pictures or 160x128 preview @8bpp with 0.75fps.

I figured the preview is equivalent to low res video?

I haven't worked with these(or any camera module), so I'm trying to see if I can do something like;

2 camera module + >4 servos connected to the Axon

PC receives video stream from cameras via axon
PC sends commands to servos via axon.

Does anyone by any chance have any tutorial on how to wire up these cameras to an Axon read frames?

I was considering on using USB webcams... but there were a lot of problems - 2 webcams can't be connected to the same USB bus(I guess the USB bandwidth isn't enough to get a consistent frame rate), and so perhaps if I went for a camera module with a lower resolution, I can get consistent framerate from multiple cameras over the same USB port.

... that's my thinking anyway.