Pete Wood at RS sent me this video yesterday. He’s been at Electronica 2012 in Germany with Rob Bishop, where RS have been demoing the Raspberry Pi (the large wall-slapping game you can see being played in the video is driven by a Pi) and, most interestingly for you guys, the camera board.
The camera has a 5 megapixel sensor, and can record 1080p H.264 video at 30 frames per second. This board will plug into the currently unused CSI pins on the Pi, using I²C for control. We’re also working on a display board, which will come to market after the camera board.
Pete has, in the tradition of makers and hackers everywhere, employed sellotape and what appears to be a broom handle in his demo. We’ll be making a little mount for the production camera, so sellotape will not be necessary. Broom handles, however, are almost always useful for something or other.
This camera board is a prototype of the production model; we’ve a (very) little way to go before we’re able to send it out to manufacture. We’ve got some testing chamber time booked in December; we need to be sure that that big ribbon cable doesn’t emit any forbidden electromagnetic radiation. We’re hoping to get these ready for sale in the new year, all being well at a price of $25. Keep watching this space!
Do you have plans for the camera add-on? Let us know what they are in the comments.
