Micropython camera API

[cnadler86]

This is not the first implementation of a camera driver for Micropython, but it is the first aiming to be a general one for various Ports. I used circuitpythons implementation for the esp32 as basis. It is not perfect, but it is IMHO a good starting point. I have precompiled binaries for the generic esp32 boards, but all other boards with a built-in camera Interface will follow.

Here the link for those interested. Have fun 🎢

[jonnor]

I tested it with an OV2640 and it works nicely! Hope to build a project with it soon :) Thank you @cnadler86

[davefes]

@jonnor, which bit of hardware did you test this on? A ESP32-CAM AI Thinker?

[jonnor]

I used the LilyGo T-Camera Mic v1.6 (quite old, no longer for sale). Have also ordered a LilyGo T-Camera S3 and will test when that arrives :)

[jonnor]

I tested on LilyGo TCamera Mic v 1.6. That one is obsolete now, so I have ordered LilyGo TCamera SE and will test that when it arrives in a few weeks.

[cnadler86]

Try first changing the fb_count=2 and/or grab_mode=GrabMode.LATEST. I am not sure if the esp32 gets to hot or hangs by this configuration, but it might help.

[cnadler86]

You could also try another frequency, the default for the ESP32 is 10MHz at the moment

[davefes]

Tried fb_count=2, grab_mode=GrabMode.LATEST and xclk_freq=20000000 and consistently end up with a pink-tinged picture. Taking 5 frames didn't help.

Let me try another few cameras.

[cnadler86]

I think this is more a camera settings thing. Here is what I found in stack overflow:

"To remove the green tint try disabling all of the auto functions except lenc, and set the sensor settings after initialisation to white balance mode 3 or 4, it should get rid of the green tint. The sensor initialises with AGC and AWB enabled so you need to disable them and fix the white balance before taking a picture."

For this, use the respective set_xxx method.

If you still experience problems with the API, please open an issue there.

[davefes]

This is the thread I found:
espressif/esp32-camera#314
Will move to Issues.

Thank you.

[jkorte-dev]

Really interesting project! Do you have any plans to port the driver to the stm32h7xxx ?

[cnadler86]

Hi,
at the moment, I personally don't. I looked very quickly at OpenMV (since they use micropython and STM32), and I also made a quick github search, but I sadly didn't found any driver equivalent to the esp32-camera driver. Porting the API to the STM32 is therefore associated with more effort and exceeds my current capacity. Perhaps we just need to wait until a similar driver is available (if someone knows one, pleas let us know). But, 6 months back I didn't have any plans in starting a MP Camera API....

And to be honest, I hope someone with more experience with the STM32 (I have zero) contributes this feature. Open source projects live from the community and I am convinced that teamwork and distributing the work across several shoulders generates a better outcome compared to a one-man-show. Time will tell...