Higher Res Still Camera for Edison.

[SAmad]

Hello.

It seems like much of the camera talk is about fairly low res video. I'm looking to build a project that would take still images at preferably 4MP or higher. I particularly would like to use something like the OV5647, which is available to the RPI. Is there any way to interface this camera with the Edison?

I would use the RPI, but it seems like the Edison will use considerably less power. Power is a major concern, as this will be a battery or solar powered project.

I know that playing with ~1.4 MB of data will not be instanteous... but I'd like to be able to do it in 5 seconds or less. I know that 4MP trail cameras using lesser microprocessors can take shots about 2 seconds apart (and do low res video, something I'm not interested in).

Unfortunately, I am just learning these small systems... so be easy on me.

[Pedro_M_Intel · Accepted solution]

Hello Samadei,

Well, in order to use a camera like the one that you mention, you will probably have to make kernel changes in order to add the correct drivers to the image. So my first suggestion would be for you to check whether or not the OV5647 is supported by kernel 3.10 (which is the kernel Edison uses). If in fact it does support it, then my second suggestion would be that you read and understand the http://www.intel.com/support/edison/sb/CS-035278.htm BSP so you can learn how to add the drivers to the kernel.

Your project sounds very interesting; I'll be looking forward to hearing about it on the future.

Peter.

[SAmad]

I'll have to look into 3.10 to see if its in there... but I feel like thats a step too far. I'm not seeing how to hook up the OV5647, hardware-wise.

The OV5647 I have been able to source uses a 15 pin ribbon cable... a "CSI" interface, from what I gather. I haven't seen how that hooks into the Edison breakout boards... and I'm not clear (yet) how exactly you make the OV5647 kernel driver aware of what GPIO/I2C/SPI/etc. to look for.

Again, I'm really just starting on this kind of hardware.