Prop Camera (PSM + C328)

Rayman

Here's a little demo of using the C328 camera with the PSM (Propeller System Module)
to create a controllable digital camera.

There are several formats available, but this demo shows a 160x120 16-bit color
preview until the button is pushed and then it saves a 640x480 jpg file to the SD card.

There are a few tricks going on here...· The preview image is actually bigger than Prop RAM.
So, I'm writing the data directly from the camera to the LCD GRAM.· There are several other
preview modes in case you do want to manipulate image data in RAM...

Also, I'm using an undocumented high-speed baud rate of 460800 baud to get the preview
data, so it can refresh once a second.

Here's the code, photos of it working, and a sample jpg image from the camera (not the best, but I'm in a hurry!)...

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My Prop Info&Apps: ·http://www.rayslogic.com/propeller/propeller.htm

Post Edited (Rayman) : 9/4/2009 9:57:03 AM GMT

Rayman

Let it run overnight and it took over 26,000 preview images!

(So, I think it's robust enough to do time-lapse work...)

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My Prop Info&Apps: ·http://www.rayslogic.com/propeller/propeller.htm

TreeLab

How did you find the undocumented baud rate of 460800 ?

BTW : WinZip complains about the archive file (bad menu handle). Was it prepared by the tool?
Cheers!
Paul Rowntree

Post Edited (TreeLab) : 9/4/2009 4:44:56 PM GMT

Rayman

TreeLab: Found it by looking up the datasheet for the OV528 chip on the device...

Zip was created by the tool. I just downloaded it and it worked, so I don't know what's going on with that...

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My Prop Info&Apps: ·http://www.rayslogic.com/propeller/propeller.htm

HollyMinkowski

erco has a thread over in the sandbox about those
imported keychain cams. They cost $20-50 from various sellers
and take 1280x960 jpg stills and 640x480 video/audio at 30fps.
Some have cmos sensors but the best quality have ccd.
There is an 4gb micro sdhc card inside in a socket.
Some cams come with 8gb!
erco popped one open and took some closeups..it looks
like the cams are easily hackable for control by a prop.
The cam has a 3.7v lion battery inside and so the prop
and the cam could probably both run from a single v source
just a tad lower than this...maybe something like three D cell
nimh's with a diode in the line to the prop?
I'd say these cams are probably sensitive in IR so you could
do night vision time lapse by switching on a few powerful IR LEDs
just as you snap a pic.

Here is a sample video from one of the ccd versions.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTxh-veCALU&

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- Some mornings I wake up cranky.....but usually I just let him sleep -

Rayman

That does look like a great hacking project!

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My Prop Info&Apps: ·http://www.rayslogic.com/propeller/propeller.htm