Alternatives or replacements for camera flex cable?

[tellblom]

Waking up an old thread.

I need the camera to me outside and the Pi to be on the inside. One solution is if the cable between the camera to be like this one mentioned earlier: http://www.mouser.se/ProductDetail/3M/3 ... Mgods1sAbA

But I rather would like to use these cameras https://www.adafruit.com/products/1937 but the cable is to short.
The best thing with this one is that the controllerboard for the camera is on the inside. I need 50 cm apart so this is a bit short
Anyone knows of a "SpyCam" with longer cable?

[DougieLawson]

You can get up to a metre for a regular Pi camera from http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/AlienSpec-CSI ... 1051772597

Note: that won't have been tested with the new Pi Camera V2.

[PiGraham]

https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/camera ... extension/

https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/pi-c ... GwodLjgP5A

[Son1c]

Has anyone checked Camera HDMI Cable Extension from tindie with 15m or longer cables?

[GothicBeast]

I know this is an old series of posts.
However, hope this helps whoever would stumble onto this page looking for a way to extend the vision of their raspberry pis.

I have used this product successfully as far as 10M away from my pi!! Pretty neat! Kudos to Freto!

https://www.tindie.com/products/freto/p ... extension/

alternate location:
https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/pi-c ... -extension

[texy]

I'd be interested to know if there is a shorter camera cable for the PiZero - say half the length of the supplied cable.....

Texy

[aBUGSworstnightmare]

I'd be interested to know if there is a shorter camera cable for the PiZero - say half the length of the supplied cable.....

Texy

A guy on this threat - viewtopic.php?f=41&t=156098 - mentioned he has designed a 0.4mm thick PCB which fits the FFC on the RPI. Well, no proof given yet but if this really works this sounds like a nice and cheap idea for any lenght of cable on the Zero.

[timmyleur]

is that just an old BUS cable for pc? could you post more details plz. Long flatcable would be AWESOME!!!

[gtoal]

Our beehive project needs a close-up lens so we've been using a NoIR clone until now, as that was all we could find with a focusable lens. Also we needed some physical separation so we've been using (successfully) a 75cm cable.

But now we need better colour rendition, so we're moving to a regular camera. Unfortunately there was only one we could find with local shipping that was focusable:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/5MP-Camera-Modu ... 1488592025 ( http://www.waveshare.com/wiki/RPi_Camera_%28B%29 )

Great. Only problem was when I attached the 75cm cable, the camera almost caught fire! Turns out this camera requires a TYPE A cable (same-side connectors) and all other picams I've seen (official regular camera and clones, and official NoIR and clones) all require a TYPE B cable (opposite-side connectors). I was very lucky that the camera was still usable with its own cable after that mistake.

So the reason I'm posting is that it turns out long (> 30cm) Type A cables are extremely hard to find. It took me 3 days of intensive searching (of catalogs as well as search engines) to locate some, so I thought I'd post them here in case anyone else is ever in the same position:

$6.98 2 off 50cm: http://www.ebay.com/itm/2Pcs-AWM-20624- ... 2501111407

$19.80 5 off 75cm: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Free-sh ... 79478.html

$10.97 5 off 50cm: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Free-Sh ... 42045.html (also 50cm)

$42.80 100 off 50cm: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Free-sh ... 50696.html

regards,

Graham

[PiGraham]

... that was all we could find with a focusable lens.

The standard Pi camera lens isn't focusable in the usual sense, but it can be focused by turning the lens.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6VhRVH3Z6Y
Once the glue is cracked it turns quite easily and smoothly. You can superglue a lever or disc to the lens to make adjustment easier, but be very careful not to get any glue on the glass.

[gtoal]

... that was all we could find with a focusable lens.

The standard Pi camera lens isn't focusable in the usual sense, but it can be focused by turning the lens.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6VhRVH3Z6Y
Once the glue is cracked it turns quite easily and smoothly. You can superglue a lever or disc to the lens to make adjustment easier, but be very careful not to get any glue on the glass.

... and the clones appear to have the same sort of lens but in fact they don't - it's moulded plastic on the front and if you force it to break the (non-existent) glue, you break off the front of the lens itself exposing the CCD! Learned that lesson the hard way

I was able to break the glue on one lens, but it was such a struggle and left the ring of plastic so chewed up that I swore I would never do that again, so I was quite relieved when I found those focusable lenses. Better quality optics too.

I found one external lens that is both focusable and zoomable. You can swap it in directly for the screw-in lenses that come with the focusable units.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-8-12mm-M12-Ma ... 2022503488

[jmmec]

... so I was quite relieved when I found those focusable lenses. Better quality optics too.

I found one external lens that is both focusable and zoomable. You can swap it in directly for the screw-in lenses that come with the focusable units.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-8-12mm-M12-Ma ... 2022503488

That lens looks interesting. Would you have any comparison photographs vs the Pi v1/v2 standard lens?

[gtoal]

... so I was quite relieved when I found those focusable lenses. Better quality optics too.

I found one external lens that is both focusable and zoomable. You can swap it in directly for the screw-in lenses that come with the focusable units.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-8-12mm-M12-Ma ... 2022503488

That lens looks interesting. Would you have any comparison photographs vs the Pi v1/v2 standard lens?

Not at the moment, but over the coming week I need to do some lens calibration anyway so I'll include this one while I'm at it.

Graham

[Pablosj]

Hi, someone knows a cable that is not flat in the middle portion? or something to protect it and makeit more easy to manipulate?
Thanks

[DirkS]

Hi, someone knows a cable that is not flat in the middle portion? or something to protect it and makeit more easy to manipulate?
Thanks

See post in this topic: viewtopic.php?p=1237785#p964776

[HermannSW]

Found yesterday "Raspberry Pi Camera/Flex Collector" as suggestion on Amazon and ordered it for testing (7$ with free shipping):


I did not find this on aliexpress, pimoroni or pihut.

The interesting feature is that it allows to have only 1 type of "longer" cables and use them for Pi Zero as well as Pi [23]B cable extension. Will be interesting whether/how much the cable length of 1M and 2M FFC cables and 30cm Pi Zero cable I ordered on aliexpress and amazon as well will affect transmission quality in different combinations. (this collector will allow to join 1m and 2m cables as 3m cable for connection of v1/v2 cameras to Pi [23]B for testing exteme)

P.S:
I cannot even find it by searches on German amazon, find direct product link here:
https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B073DJB2W1

[gtoal]

There are a few of these extender boards around - for example, https://www.adafruit.com/product/3671

[HermannSW]

The adafruit part is with 2.95$ cheaper, but only if you are living in the US.
Cheapest shipping option to Europe is 15$ ...


Yesterday twice long 30cm Raspberry Pi Zero camera cable and collector arrived and work.
Will do extended tests when 1m and 2m cables will have arrived:

[gtoal]

If US -> DE shipping is too expensive, how about these? - https://www.ebay.com/itm/15Pin-to-15Pin ... 2454866623 and similar - is shipping from China to Europe usually free like it is from China to USA? (courtesy of the Universal Postal Union treaty :-/ )

(I've also seen other extenders on Tindie, eg HDMI adapters for the camera cable...)

[HermannSW]

You are right, roughly the same price as on amazon, but 2-4 week delivery, the amazon part arrived 2 days after order.

I did not find the connector on aliexpress before, but given your link the right search "15Pin 1.0mm FFC Cable Extension Connector" showed connectors for 6.50$, but 2pcs/lot, I just ordered a pair.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/15-Pin- ... 69158.html

If you like or have to solder, you can get just the connector for 0.71$/pc:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Brand-N ... 32429.html

[HermannSW]

There is a £2.50 minimal space "Camera Cable Joiner/Extender for Raspberry Pi" as well:
https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/came ... spberry-pi

[HermannSW]

Today that Joiner/Extender module arrived, via airmail, probably the £4 shipping is OK for that.

The plan was to connect two balls of tin-solder somehow onto different sides, one on pin 13, the other on pin 14.

I am not good at normal soldering, and never did solder something to 1mm spaced pins.
So I took out my Dremmel and removed the plastic on top of pin 14 first (left). That was not perfect because accidently a bit of pin 15 became free as well, but it should suffice. On the right side (other side of connector) you see that pin 13 was freed better:



Unfortunately I was not able to get a tin-solder ball connected. I will ask a colleague for help.

When the solder balls will be connected, this Joiner will allow to capture I2C traffic between any Pi and a Raspberry camera, without modifying the PIs.

[HermannSW]

Today 1m cable (1$+free shipping from aliexpress) arrived after 27 days, first 8MP test looks good:
https://stamm-wilbrandt.de/en/forum/cable.1m.jpg

8MP test for 1m cable plus extender plus 15cm cable to (OTG) Pi Zero is good as well:
https://stamm-wilbrandt.de/en/forum/cab ... r.15cm.jpg

[HermannSW]

Today I received 2m cable, worked as well. Then I connected that with extender to 1m cable from yesterday. 3m are no problem as well:
https://stamm-wilbrandt.de/en/forum/cab ... der.1m.jpg

[markostamcar]

Today I received the Flexible Round Cable [TM] from https://pi-cables.com/ and it works great! Highly recommended.