
Raspberry Pi Zero grows a camera connector - Artemis2
https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/zero-grows-camera-connector/
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geerlingguy
With a camera connector, the Pi Zero is finally a full replacement for the A+
in all the projects that I've done/have in mind. Since it has full GPIO
without a header, it's actually easier for me to wire things up in a more
compact way for specific projects.

And since it's $5, I worry a lot less about sticking these things in areas
where moisture, temperature, and potential-for-getting-snagged-by-a-kid are
slight concerns.

For the immediate future, I hope to get one and use the adapter cable to stick
in a small box with a camera for a plug-and-play time-lapse camera. Basically,
add a knob that sets the interval on the side, then plug in a battery or plug
into microSD, and it will start dropping pictures on the microSD card until
it's powered off. Great for construction, dusty, or outdoor environments!

~~~
whyenot
I'd be interested to see how well it works. I did something similar (a camera
trap) with the model B and the problem I ran into is that the unit would often
overheat and shut down if left in an enclosure in the sun. I didn't want to
use active cooling, as the noise might scare away animals. I think the model A
or a Zero would work better.

~~~
knob
What were you running to grab the images? Where you processing with motion or
something of the sort? Anything else running on the model B?

I ask because I have about one dozen Raspberry Pis (Model B, B+, and I think
on of the latest one?) working as webcams. Yet I snap one photo per minute...
and one 60 second video every 10-15 minutes. They rsync off-site.

And they're all running in a security camera housing, under the
sun/rain/shine, in front of beaches, inside a ziplock bag.

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iask
Cunning and small, yet elusive like Bigfoot. I can't seem to find one at a
reasonable cost.

~~~
casylum
On the blog he they stated production of the Pi Zeros had to be delayed to
build up the Raspberry Pi 3's. Now that the initial surge of Raspberry Pi 3's
is done, they stated they will build "thousands a day" until demand is met.

~~~
noonespecial
I'm not sure "thousands a day" will ever even clear the backlog of people
waiting to get their first much less keep up with the latent demand of people
who would buy a handful once they knew they could reliably get them for use in
projects.

You can claim 1000's (as in 2) and still not even make 3/4 million per year.

~~~
m_mueller
Is the backlog really in the millions? That would be impressive.

~~~
yetihehe
Yeah, when they shipped first raspberrys the demand was in millions. Now
because Zero is so small and cheap, everyone who needed pi for tinkering will
order several zeros, including me. The only thing which prevented me from
getting one was lack of camera connector.

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alexellisuk
Very happy to see the camera connector.

Anyone interested in the exact stock count figures?
[http://stockalert.alexellis.io/](http://stockalert.alexellis.io/) along with
full source-code and blog write-up on how it works.

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donatj
We have a very small run project (tens) we plan to integrate the zero into,
but have yet to be able to get our hands on one to even dev with, and are at
the point where we are reconsidering the decision.

While it's nice to see improvements to the board, I'd love improvement in the
supply chain.

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superuser2
It's still baffling to me that we give Raspberry Pi all this credit for making
a $5 computer when there is nowhere you can actually exchange $5 for this $5
computer and it has remained that way since launch.

Being reliably in stock at the alleged price isn't a nice-to-have side
benefit, it's the _only thing there is_ when you claim to have vastly reduced
the price of something.

Unless someone can point to a US distributor who actually has one of these
things in stock for $5, color me unimpressed.

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pcr0
The stock situation is disappointing. They could've launched it a few dollars
higher, and they'd still get the same demand with easier ramp-up.

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intrasight
Wow. So the camera is now 5x more expensive than the computer. Perhaps some
day we'll get a less expensive camera.

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1024core
Can you do some image-processing on the images captured from the camera, in
realtime? For example: motion detection, or image enhancement or some
filtering? I'm asking if the CPU is powerful enough to do a pass over the
image in 30ms... or if not in 30ms, how long would edge-detection take on a
Zero, on a full HD image?

~~~
Sanddancer
Yes, you can. There are even tutorials for doing things like motion detection:

[https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/turn-your-pi-into-a-low-
cos...](https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/turn-your-pi-into-a-low-cost-hd-
surveillance-cam/)

However, for the really fancy stuff, you probably wanna look into programming
for the VPU, which has some pretty decent muscle behind it.

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stonetomb
They're trying keep mfg in the UK and the unit price-volumes are too low
(they're likely playing super conservative with their orders).

There are other elephants in the room as well...

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jwr
Is that the third type of camera connector that the RPi designers have used
already? Or is it the same one used on the compute module development boards?

~~~
khedoros
I thought that they all ("all", excluding prototype hardware) used the same
physical connector (a 15-pin ZIF connector). As far as data lanes and such,
I'd assume that the Pi-Zero will take its cues from the non-compute-module
Pi's and run 2 lanes of data on interface 1.

edit: Ah, OK. So it's a fine-pitch side-mount connector. I didn't realize that
it actually uses different hardware.

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Florin_Andrei
So that means new Pi Zero batches will ship with the connector on the main
board? (as opposed to connector-less earlier batches?)

Like a new version of the same hardware?

~~~
snoonan
This update adds a camera connector. The GPIO header is still not populated on
the board. This is actually great for those who plan on soldering different
kinds of connectors (right angle, female, bottom-mounted, etc)

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ndesaulniers
sold out everywhere

~~~
alexellisuk
Check the site I posted. Can you order from the UK?

~~~
throwaway049
Your site is reporting a lot of units available but clicking thru to the
vendors shows only bundle offers, not the device alone. It would be great if
your site could distinguish between those.

~~~
alexellisuk
All the single units go within the first day or few hours of the stock being
available. The packaged sets pimoroni have are good value for money if you can
use the additional pHATs. I've used the scroll/explorer/dac pHAT.

Someone raised a PR on my todo list to breakdown by category.. it would be
more fragile - maybe done better through the Shopify API, negotiate an access
key with the store etc etc.

