Video Camera

Projects General Guidance
1

I Just ripped this https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B34qKCepzIxLRzMxbkhSeGZublBlTW1vRlNFMlViVkpXZkZZ/edit?usp=sharing
out of a toy I was curious how to connect it to Arduino and what code i could use to let me view the video it generates on computer live

2

Hard to tell

You'd need to see if there are any part numbers on it

Its most probably based on an OV7670

In which case, its very hard to interface to.

It has been done, but not using the normal Arduino ID, as you need to reprogram the fuses in the ATMega328 to get it to generate an 8mhz clock, and even then, its very hard to get the data into the Arduino as the OV7670 doesn't contain any memory, it just spews out video data at 8 mega bytes per second, which is far too fast for the Arduino to handle

You can buy camera modules with the OV7670 plus FIFO ram, but even those are difficult to use.

I know. I have both types and have not managed to get either to work yet.

3

Thanks, I think all just buy one that will be easier to work. Any suggestions?.

4

Depending on what you want to do, the easiest ones to interface and program are the RS232/ Serial cameras,

Unless you wanted to do something like real time motion detection, I'd advise you don't get an OV7670 based camera

i.e I wish I'd bought a Serial camera rather than the 2 types of OV7670 that I've already bought

The last one I bought, from an eBay seller, which was an OV7670 +FIFO, seems to be a newer version, and I can't even get any data for it.
i.e it contains 2 more pins than any available data sheet :frowning:
(The supplier on eBay was no use they don;t know what they are selling, and just sent me an old data sheet)

I'm sure in the long term I can get the OV7670 + FIFO module working, but I don't have the enough spare time (e.g days of effort) it would take to determine what the 2 extra pins do, and how to program it :wink:

Overall the Arduino is not really a very good platform for photos, it just doesnt have enough RAM and isnt fast enough to interface well to the generation of cameras which are available as modules (which were originally used in cheap mobile phones a few years ago)