Hi.
There are external cameras available that connect with MDVRs (image attached). In my case, I do not want to install an MDVR. Instead, I want to use it with a GPS vehicle tracker that already has a serial port in it. But the camera cannot be connected directly to it. I do not need a continuous video stream. I only need the picture when a certain tracker pin is set to HIGH via the software.
So the mission is when the pin is set to HIGH -> Arduino/ESP gets the picture data on that moment from the camera -> outputs it on its serial port which is connected with the tracker's serial port -> tracker pushes the data into the Database -> we get the image details from there and regenerate it.
The camera has a 4-pin aviation cable. Almost all MDVR cameras use the same connector. Two of those pins are for power (10V) and GND. On the other two pins, I read around 0.3V and 0.9V. The sticker on the camera says "1080P, 2.8MM PAL".
I used ESP32-CAM for this project but the picture quality is not up to the mark and it gets even more disturbing at night. It would be helpful if someone can put me on the right track.
I think I would consider using Raspberry Pi instead of Arduino for this project. There are Python libraries available for Pi which you can use to capture stills from video cameras.
However, I don't know if there is an easy way to interface one of those MDVR cameras to a Pi. But the Pi has a wide range of high quality compatible cameras to consider.
This datasheet is for the GPS tracker. It does not show any Rx/Tx feature as of now. This is something that the vendors will add to their hardware if I manage to give them the image data.
As for the camera's datasheet, I could not find any on the internet and I also did not get one from the vendor. These are available on Alibaba and many other places that offer vehicle-related services. I am attaching a flyer. Please check the ACAM120 and ACAM130 models.
@PaulRB , I did consider Raspberry Pi and that is very expensive. I believe ESPs can do the job as I would be needing the image only when asked for and a 1-2 minute delay in image processing is acceptable.
