BlueRov 2 camera change

Blue Robotics Software
1

I need to change the camera on my BlueRov 2

My application is to detect objects in a long distance (about 10 meters), however basic camera’s view angle is so wide and there are no such functions like zoom, white balance, auto focus.

I tried USB low light camera from your company, but it was not enough for the application

The camera should be:

  • zoom image
  • narrow view angle
  • auto focus
  • white balance

Can I use normal usb camera?
What kind of other USB cameras can I attach?

Many thanks,

2

I am not aware of any cameras that meet all of your requirements. The pre-installed software will only run our USB camera and the Raspberry pi camera, but it is possible to modify the program to run other cameras.

If you want to stream the video to the surface, it will need H.264 output. The program we use to stream the video is called gstreamer, there are other programs that you can use though.

3

You could look into an additional camera, separate to the on-board electronics. With the sort of features you require, the easiest option would be a board level or repurposed CCTV camera in a waterproof housing. We have built one for our own BR2 and also several clients. You can fit a narrow lens, and can get zoom (digital at least) with UTC control to the surface on most cameras. If you go for HD-TVI format, you can run the HD video signal and UTC control up a spare pair of conductors on the existing Fathom tether, at least 100 metres. You then just need a TVI to HDMI converter at the surface to watch on a monitor/record to a HDMI USB drive.

4

thank so much all.

we decide to change M12 lens cause we think it’ll more easier way to develop.

after change, i ll post about camera upgrade in this forum

many thx,

hava a good weekend.

5

Jacob, its possible use an camera Logitech c920? They have h264. I want to buy one, but need to confirm if work with raspiberry pi 3 on usb port

Santrovitsch

6

I believe it should work. I’ve purchased one just now, and I’ll confirm.

7

Tanks a lot

8

It works!

9

Hello Jacob, I want to use Microsoft Life Camera. it is possible? What should I do to modify ./start_video.sh to use this camera?

10

Hi Irfan,

If the camera outputs H264 you are good to go, it’s not necessary to change the start video script, there is http://192.168.2.2:2770/camera configuration webpage for that.

11

Thank for your reply Patrick,
Can you give me an example how to change that code in configuration webpage. if I don’t use camera output H264?

12

It’ll be necessary to encode the video to h264, like described here.
This’ll probably force the companion hardware, making the video and the system unstable with such high computation usage.

13

I have a logitech C930e lying in a cabinett, I thought I could get use for it in a drop camera. This camera also have H264 but I can not get it in http://192.168.2.2:2770/camera. What am I doing wrong.
Have restarted.

14

Are you using the raspberry pi camera and the C930e at the same time ? It’s only possible to use one camera at the time, but both can be connected.

  • Open the companion terminal via: http://192.168.2.2:8088
  • Check if your camera is connected with lsusb
  • If it’s connected, check the output of v4l2-ctl --list-formats-ext --all to see if the V4L can communicate with the camera.
  • If the camera appears to be compatible, you can check the camera device with ls /dev/video* and select the correct one in http://192.168.2.2:2770/camera.
15

16
16727×591 96.2 KB

this is the result

16

It appears that your camera is connected 046d:0843 Logitech, Inc.
Can you use v4l2-ctl --list-formats-ext --all -dX where X is the camera id ? E.g: X=1 for /de/video1, X=0 for /de/video0 and etc.

1 Like