gpy camera?

[kjm]

In my rpi days if I needed to grab the occasional still frame from a remote site it was as simple as plugging in a usb web cam, and uploading a 640x480 pic over 4G was no problem.

Solutions for the gpy seem a bit scarce? https://forum.pycom.io/topic/5650/connecting-camera-to-fipy-new-findings-of-non-ee has opted for an idea that uses 2 different buses but that looks complicated. Is there an easy way to get a usb cam connected to a gpy via a usb-to-uart adapter or is the gpy uart not fast enough?

[grpatt]

https://forum.pycom.io/topic/6835/camera-uart-reading-pycom?_=1613190557153

I did get a better camera working.

[grpatt]

I am working with a Spinel 1.3MP WDR Serial JPEG Color Camera Module TTL/UART Output. I got most of photo working but I am not familiar with hex to jpg. I translate hex to the picture of my dog using https://codepen.io/abdhass/full/jdRNd.

from machine import UART
from machine import SD
import os
import time
import gc
import ubinascii

is_sd_mounted = False
uart = UART(1, baudrate=115200) #default baud of camera, this uses the UART_1 default pins for TXD and RXD (``P3`` and ``P4``)
gc.collect()
print(" ")
print("Free Memory:")
print(gc.mem_free())
print(" ")
LOG_PATH = '/sd'
def mount_sd():
    global sd
    global is_sd_mounted
    try:    # try: again, we're preparing for a crash. If something goes wrong in the try: section, we'll jump to 'except Exception:' and do that instead of crashing.
        os.mount(sd, LOG_PATH)
        time.sleep(1)
        print("SD mounted OK")
        is_sd_mounted = True
    except Exception:   # Failed to mount SD
        print("ERROR: Can't mount SD card")
        sd = None

def reset():
    uart.write(b'\x56\x00\x26\x00') #Send reset command
    time.sleep(4)
    recv=uart.read() # read up to 5 bytes
    print("Version:")
    print(recv)
    print(" ")

def takephoto():
    uart.write(b'\x56\x00\x36\x01\x00') #Send take photo command
    time.sleep(4)
    recv=uart.read() # read up to 5 bytes
    print("Take Photo:")
    print(recv)
    print(" ")

def changesize():
    uart.write(b'\x56\x00\x31\x05\x04\x01\x00\x19\x11') #Send take photo command
    time.sleep(4)
    recv=uart.read() # read up to 5 bytes
    print("Size:")
    print(recv)
    print(" ")

def compress():
    uart.write(b'\x56\x00\x31\x05\x01\x01\x12\x04\x72') #Send take photo command
    time.sleep(4)
    recv=uart.read() # read up to 5 bytes
    print("Compression:")
    print(recv)
    print(" ")

mount_sd()
time.sleep(3)

reset()

changesize()

compress()

takephoto()

uart.write(b'\x56\x00\x34\x01\x00') #Send get image length command
time.sleep(2)
print("READ IMAGE DATA LENGTH")
recv=uart.read() # read up to 5 bytes
print(recv)
print("Image Size: "+str(int(ubinascii.hexlify(recv[5:9]),16)/1024)+" KB")
print("READ IMAGE DATA")
uart.write(b'\x56\x00\x32\x0C\x00\x0A\x00\x00\x00\x00')
uart.write(recv[5:9])
uart.write(b'\x00\xFF') #Send get image length command
time.sleep(1)

#count=0
pic=ubinascii.hexlify(uart.read(500))
time.sleep(2)
while uart.any()>0:
    pic=pic+ubinascii.hexlify(uart.read(500))
    time.sleep(.01)
#print(pic)
#print(type(pic))
uart.write(b'\x56\x00\x36\x01\x03') #STOP CAPTURE
#print("uartany")
#print(uart.any())
pic=pic[10:-10]
data = pic
print(data)
file='/sd/image122o23.txt'
print(file)
f = open(file, 'wb') # open for writing
f.write(data)
time.sleep(2)
f.close()


gc.collect()
print(" ")
print("Free Memory:")
print(gc.mem_free())

if is_sd_mounted:
    try:
        os.unmount(LOG_PATH)
        print("SD unmounted")
    except Exception:
        print("Failed to unmount {}".format(LOG_PATH))
else:
    print("Unmount SD not required")

[jcaron]

@kjm Seeed’s VC0703-based serial cam has a protocol so simple that it shouldn’t take long to write a driver. Adafruit’s VC0706-based serial camera has CircuitPython drivers, I suppose that should be easy to port to micropython.

I suspect performance may be quite lower than the other cams, though, and the cost higher.

Remember that I2C and SPI can be shared (via addressing or chip select), though.

[kjm]

@grpatt I'm impressed and envious because the chances of me getting something that uses 2 busses to work are low. I don't understand why there isn't any uart based code for serial cams in micropython.

[grpatt]

I was able to get the Arducam working on the gpy.
https://github.com/grahamPatico/micropython-ov2640-Pycom?organization=grahamPatico&organization=grahamPatico

[jcaron]

@kjm The most common camera for ESP32 projects and other MCUs seems to be the OV2640 mentioned in the link above. Note that the "raw" camera seems to have a pretty nasty interface, you probably want the Arducam SPI or some equivalent, which has SPI and I2C interfaces.

There's a micropython driver for it, though it was targeted at the ESP8266 Arduino boards. I don't think it should be very difficult to adapt to a Pycom board. There's a long discussion here and it seems someone managed to get it to run on a GPy.

Once you get things sorted it's just as simple as:

import ov2640
cam = ov2640.ov2640()
nbytes = cam.capture_to_file("/image.jpg")

From what I understand performance is pretty bad, but for a single picture it should work out OK I suppose.

[crumble]

@kjm
No. I don't know if there is a standard for simple image download. Some serial cameras have features for private robotics or industrial usage. So they can detect/trace objects or QR codes and tell you their special data. So I guess you have to implement the download by your own.

The adafruit and Pixy2 CMUCam5 have python examples. May be a start for you.

[kjm]

Do you know of a micropython lib that can tickle a serial webcam to regurgitate an image? I was hoping for something as easy as os.system('fswebcam -r 640x480 -S10 image.jpg') on the pi?

[crumble]

You can try to use an rs232 camera module.