A $25 16MP camera with autofocus for Raspberry Pi boards (Crowdfunding)

Raspberry Pi 16MP camera autofocus

ArduCam has launched a $25 16MP camera with autofocus for Raspberry Pi boards with 40% higher resolution than the 12MP Raspberry Pi HQ camera, while keeping the compact form factor of the 8MP Raspberry Pi Camera V2. The camera is equipped with a 16MP Sony IMX519 sensor, works with any Raspberry Pi board with a MIPI CSI interface, and the company claims that with the existing camera tuning algorithms from the Raspberry Pi Foundation, the camera module beats the Raspberry Pi HQ camera’s quality in every aspect including sharpness, saturation, exposure, and more. The downside is that it lacks supports for interchangeable lenses. Arducam 16MP camera specifications: Sensor – Sony IMX519 sensor with 4656 x 3496 pixels resolution Still resolution – 16MP Video modes – 1080p30, 720p60 Optical size – Type 1/2.53″ Focal ratio – 1.75 Focal length – 4.28 mm Autofocus – Yes with range 10cm to ∞. As […]

Giveaway Week – Foscam SPC IP Camera

Foscam SPC review

The last prize for Giveaway Week 2021 was going to be Crowbits Master Kit ESP32 based educational kit. That’s until I realized there’s a battery inside the ESP32 module, and only more expensive shipping options like DHL or FedEx would be available. So I looked into my treasure box and found the Foscam SPC camera. It’s a 4K security camera with built-in human detection as well as a spotlight, hence the SPC naming, to be able to record color nighttime videos. As you might expect, there’s no battery inside, and that means you’d need a PoE injector, or rely on the included power adapter for power. I reviewed Foscam SPC with the Android app and ONVIF, and it worked pretty well. The spotlight does its job recording clear, colorful videos at night. The package still includes all accessories and quick setup guide as shown below. To enter the draw, simply […]

Reolink RLC-523WA & RLC-823A Review – Smart security cameras tested with Blue Iris

Reolink RLC-523WA 5MP camera review

Hello, Karl here with a security camera review. I’ll start out by thanking Reolink for sending over two cameras to review: RLC-523WA (WiFi) & RLC-823A (PoE). I already had a couple of cameras from Reolink that my buddy had recommended a long time ago. And had a positive experience so I agreed to review these higher-end models. My setup with Blue Iris, unRAID I have been running unRAID for quite a while now to simplify my server requirements. I was running several small SBC’s and a standalone NAS drive and consolidated them onto my main rig. AMD has pushed desktop core counts with their Ryzen CPUs and I have cores to spare. I started with a 3700x giving 2 cores to applications leaving me with 6 cores for my VM’s but recently upgraded to a 3900x. I now give 3 to applications and 9 cores for my VM’s. I started […]

Allwinner D1s/F133 RISC-V processor integrates 64MB DDR2

Allwinner F133-A SBC

Allwinner D1s (aka F133) is a cost-down version of Allwinner D1 RISC-V processor introduced earlier this year together with a Linux capable development board, with the main difference being the integrated 64MB DDR2. Besides the built-in RAM, Allwinner D1s comes with many of the same features as D1 RISC-V SoC, but loses HDMI output and the HiFi 4 audio DSP, and Allwinner made some tweaks to the IOs with one less I2S audio interface, and general-purpose ADC. Allwinner D1s/F133 specifications: CPU – RISC core with 32 KB I-cache + 32 KB D-cache (CNXSoft: not specified, but probably the same Alibaba/T-Head Xuantie C906 RISC-V core as used in Allwinner D1) DSP – HiFi4 DSP 600MHz with 32 KB I-cache + 32 KB D-cache, 64 KB I-ram + 64 KB D-ram Memory – 64 MB DDR2 (SIP) Storage I/F – SD3.0, eMMC 5.0, SPI Nor/Nand Flash Video Engine Video decoding H.265 up […]

$99 Lepton FS module cuts the cost of FLIR thermal cameras by half

FLIR Lepton FS

Thermal cameras based on FLIR Lepton modules are pretty cool, but also quite expensive. Teledyne FLIR Lepton FS offers a much more cost-effective solution with the non-radiometric 160 x 120 resolution micro thermal camera module going for $99, or about 50% less than other FLIR thermal camera modules. The lower cost was achieved with some tradeoffs, notably a reduction of thermal sensitivity and scene dynamic range, as well as up to 3% inoperable pixels. But Ron Justin, GroupGets founder, told CNX Software that the lower specs are more than worth it for users only needing an imager, as opposed to a radiometric sensor. Lepton FS module specifications: Sensor technology – Uncooled VOx microbolometer Spectral range – Longwave infrared, 8 μm to 14 μm Array format – 160 x 120, progressive scan Pixel size – 12 μm Effective frame rate 8.7 Hz (commercial application exportable) Thermal sensitivity – <75mK NEDT (noise […]

M5Stack UnitV2 AI module gets USB camera and M12 camera versions

M5Stack Unitv2 USB

M5Stack UnitV2 is an ultra-compact Linux AI camera powered on Sigmastar SSD202D SoC with a dual-core Cortex-A7 processor @ 1.2 GHz, and 128MB on-chip DDR3 that was launched in April 2021 with a Full HD camera featuring a 68° field-of-view. M5Stack has now introduced two new models, one called M5Stack UnitV2 USB without any camera at all, instead relying on an external USB UVC camera, and the other named M5Stack UnitV2 M12 equipped with an M12 socket and shipping with both a normal focal length camera with an 85° FoV and wide-angle focal length with a 150° FoV. M5Stack UnitV2 USB M5Stack Unitv2 USB specifications: SoC – SigmaStar SSD202D dual-core Cortex-A7 processor @ 1.2 GHz with 128MB on-chip DDR3 Storage – 512MB on-chip NAND flash with around 100MB free space, MicroSD card socket Camera – N/A Audio – Built-in microphone Connectivity – 2.4GHz WIFi 4 up to 150 Mbps (RTL8188FTV), […]

miriac AIP-LX2160A 16-core embedded platform delivers up to 130 TOPS with 5 Hailo-8 modules

miriac AIP-LX2160A embedded SBC

MicroSys Electronics miriac AIP-LX2160A embedded platform combines a 16-core Cortex-A72 NXP LX2160A networking processor with up to five Hailo-8 AI accelerator modules delivering up to 130 TOPS of AI inference performance. The board supports up to 128 GB RAM, up to 4x SATA hard drives, up to 100GbE connectivity, and appears to be especially suited to applications with multiple IP video streams requiring real-time video analytics. miriac AIP-LX2160A specifications: SoC – NXP Layerscape LX2160A with 16 Arm Cortex-A72 cores @ up to 2.2 GHz AI accelerators – 2x Hailo-8 M.2 AI Acceleration Modules, upgradeable to up to 5 Modules via NGFF M.2 Key M card System Memory – Up to 128 GB DDR4 RAM & optional ECC, up to 3200MT/sec, up to 4 ranks (combined design: 2x discrete & 2x SODIMM) Storage 4x SATA III ports Up to 256 GB eMMC 5.1 flash, additional eMMC device on carrier board Up […]

Open-source Allwinner V3 ISP driver to enable blob-free camera support in mainline Linux

Allwinner V3 ISP Linux driver

Bootlin has just submitted the first patchset for the Allwinner V3 image signal processor (ISP) driver in mainline Linux which should pave the way for a completely open-source, blob-free camera support in Linux using V4L2. There are several blocks in an SoC for camera support including a camera input interface such as MIPI CSI 2 and an ISP to process the raw data into a usable image. Add to this the need to implement the code for sensors, and there’s quite a lot of work to get it all working. Allwinner SDK comes with several binary blobs, aka closed-source binary, but Bootlin is working on making those obsolete, having first worked on Allwinner A31, V3s/V3/S3, and A83T MIPI CSI-2 support for the camera interface driver in the V4L2 framework (and Rockchip PX30, RK1808, RK3128 and RK3288 processors), as well as implemented support for Omnivision OV8865 and OV5648 image sensors earlier […]