Raspberry Pi Camera Car Demo

[KeithMacdonald]

Here's an article from Raspberry Pi Weekly  on a Pi camera mounted to the front of a train.

 

Quote

Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W sits in the front car of a custom-built train carriage and drives the Raspberry Pi Camera Module. They cleverly decided to attach the camera to the wheel track right at the front of the carriage so it turns with it, giving you a true POV as if you were the driver.

 

Article:

https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/ride-a-model-railway-from-the-train-drivers-pov/?mc_cid=9052d76752&mc_eid=01189790b7

 

Video:

 

[WIMorrison]

What scale of train is this fitted into and are there any pictures and details of the actual installation rather than just the output of the recording?

 

It would nice to know the actual size of the unit, what is it fitted in, how is it powered and how is the media accessed, e.g. is it simply a Micro SDHC or is it Wi-Fi and if Wi-Fi what software is used?

 

At the moment the video just shows something that can be done easily using a £15 camera from eBay that comes complete with a working app 😏

[KeithMacdonald]

10 minutes ago, WIMorrison said:

What scale of train is this fitted into and are there any pictures and details of the actual installation rather than just the output of the recording?

 

It would nice to know the actual size of the unit, what is it fitted in, how is it powered and how is the media accessed, e.g. is it simply a Micro SDHC or is it Wi-Fi and if Wi-Fi what software is used?

 

At the moment the video just shows something that can be done easily using a £15 camera from eBay that comes complete with a working app 😏

 

Err, well, there's a bit of technical detail under the video's "Show more" details

 

Quote

 

...now it is technically possible to stick a full blown Linux quad core computer on board and stream real-time 1080p video for an incredible first-person view. We built a little train car out of scraps that lets the camera rotate with the wheels. The railroad uses DCC with the Digitrax DB150 base station. I've connected it to a Raspberry Pi 3 running JMRI so we can drive trains with the Engine Driver app or the web throttle in addition to the physical Digitrax controllers. The next project is replacing all of the toggle switches that run turnouts with Arduino based controllers that can receive control from DCC.

 

More information here:

 

 

[WIMorrison]

Thanks for the twitter information.

 

I will stick with the 1080p camera I bought that comes complete with Wi-Fi, IR Capability, a phone app, a 3-hour battery, and packed in a waterproof cube which is smaller and costs less than this lot (plus doesn't need any programming or management) - though it does need charging occasionally 🤣

 

It was sold as a 'spy camera' 😏

[KingEdwardII]

I note that they used the original Pi Camera Module for this project, which is large and clumsy for the intended use.

 

There is now a ZeroCam, designed for use with the PI Zero, that is much smaller and would be far better for on-train use;

 

https://thepihut.com/collections/raspberry-pi-camera/products/zerocam-camera-for-raspberry-pi-zero

 

Yours, Mike.

[RobinofLoxley]

Some people love re-inventing the wheel. Others do it constantly without realising.

[Enterprisingwestern]

3 hours ago, RobinofLoxley said:

Some people love re-inventing the wheel. Others do it constantly without realising.

 

They must be members of MERG then?

 

Mike.

[melmerby]

On 21/06/2022 at 16:03, RobinofLoxley said:

Some people love re-inventing the wheel. Others do it constantly without realising.

Some people like making things, others just open boxes.............🙁

[BoD]

On 20/06/2022 at 19:47, WIMorrison said:

Thanks for the twitter information.

 

I will stick with the 1080p camera I bought that comes complete with Wi-Fi, IR Capability, a phone app, a 3-hour battery, and packed in a waterproof cube which is smaller and costs less than this lot (plus doesn't need any programming or management) - though it does need charging occasionally 🤣

 

It was sold as a 'spy camera' 😏

If you are looking for one I would suggest not searching for video spycam 

[WIMorrison]

Why not?

[BoD]

All but one of the sites returned by Google were pornographic video sites.

[melmerby]

You need to be careful which you buy and where from.

Amazon has a load of "fakes" which don't have the spec claimed.

Plenty of 1* reviews on there, in some cases outnumbering other reviews.

 

e.g. IR leds that aren't even leds, 1080p claimed but actually a fraction of that.

Wi Fi that only (barely) works with their crappy phone app, 30fps but less etc. etc.

 

Looks like pot luck whether you get a decent one or not.

 

Edited July 11, 2022 by melmerby

[KeithMacdonald]

On 11/07/2022 at 11:40, melmerby said:

You need to be careful which you buy and where from.

 

So true - which is why I buy from PiHut

e.g.

https://thepihut.com/collections/raspberry-pi-camera

[melmerby]

13 hours ago, KeithMacdonald said:

 

So true - which is why I buy from PiHut

e.g.

https://thepihut.com/collections/raspberry-pi-camera

I'm near the end of my "Camera Car" project using a old Triang Mk 1 coach to house it all in.

 

I'm using a Pi Zero 2 W, Standard Pi Camera V2, (I tried the Zero Cam but the cable is much too short and inflexible and there arent any extension cables), a couple of ultrabright white led "marker lights" for illuminating the darker areas, 5v worth of NiMh batteries for the Zero+Cam and a decoder to switch everything on and off using DCC

The camera also tracks around bends to give a more realistic view.

 

[melmerby]

First Test of my camera car: