Hello, friends! It’s a lovely day to #godeep, and today we’re stoked to bring a couple of capable products into the picture.
Check out the New Product Video on Youtube:
Let's bring our focus to the new Low-Light HD USB Camera. This camera is ideally suited to use underwater with excellent low-light performance, good color handling, and onboard video compression. A specially-chosen wide-angle, low distortion lens provides excellent picture quality on the ROV. With a 3D printed camera mount, it is a drop in replacement for the Raspberry Pi Camera on the BlueROV2.
Next up we have the Bar100 Depth/Pressure Sensor. It's built around the Keller LD Series pressure/temperature sensor, which communicates via I2C communication, just like the Bar30 Pressure/Depth Sensor. It can measure up to 100 bar - that's over 1000 meters water depth! It has a pressure resolution of 3 mbar, providing a depth measurement resolution of 3 cm in the water column.
The Bar100 is compatible with our Watertight Enclosure Series and we have new Arduino and Python libraries to interface with it. The sensor is already supported in ArduSub for use on the BlueROV2 and other ArduSub vehicles!
2 quick questions. Can I use more than one of the USB cameras with the Raspberry Pi simultaneously? and is it a higher resolution / better camera than the PI camera?
The resolution of the new camera is actually the same as the Rasperry Pi camera, but that is far from the only specification that determines overall image quality. As shown in the comparison shots of the video, the color accuracy and low light capability is vastly better, thanks to the much larger sensor. The overall image is a bit clearer and sharper as well, especially in realistic conditions where visibility isn’t ideal. The field of view is also a bit narrower, but still plenty wide for a good flying experience, allowing for the elimination of distortion that can warp objects and misrepresent scale. We’ve been using this camera exclusively in all our recent dives, and its a night and day difference!
Technically, I believe it is possible to have multiple video streams going at the same time, but we are still working on adding support for this in QGroundCrontrol. I think @jwalser can shed some more light on this.
Yes, it is certainly possible to stream multiple USB cameras and the Pi camera at the same time. We have not come up with a way to do this using only QGC, though.
I’d like to retrofit this camera to my BlueROV2 so will need a camera and new camera mount. Unfortunately I don’t see a camera mount in the BR store. I shouldn’t need to get the entire tilt system, right? That’s the only option I’m seeing.
I have tried the new camera in some really dark murky water. Turning on the lights was just like driving into a blizzard…o wiz at all. Turning off the lights and the camaera is just amazing. No way a diver would see as good as this camera does. I will post some images later showing how good it worked for me
Hey Rusty! What’s the best watertight enclosure for this camera? I’m thinking to buy the 2" series but I’m not sure if it’s too small for it. What do you recommend?
Thanks,
Ernesto
You get the best performance with a dome, which prevents any distortion or narrowing of the camera field of view. We only have a dome for the 4" Series enclosures at the moment.
The board is 32x32mm, which will fit fine in a 2" enclosure, so you could use that if you want.
Thank you! One more question, is the sensitivity of the camera adjustable? I’m just asking because the camera will be used in an AUV at the Robosub competition. I know the camera works in low light conditions, I’m just wondering if it still works near the surface of the water, which is where it will be used the most. Do you recommend this camera to be used in the competition?
The camera has automatic lighting adjustment, like most digital cameras, so it will work equally well in dark and light locations. I think it would be a great fit for the competition, but also please note that computer vision work is often done with cameras that do not have automatic adjustments so that they have a very predictable output.
Examples of computer visions cameras would be those available from Point Grey.
