Upgrading camera to raspberry pi HQ camera

General Discussion
1

Hello,

I would like to upgrade the low light usb camera to the new raspberry pi HQ camera for 4k recording. How would I go about this?

Cheers,
J

2

Which part do you want help with?

A couple of notes on the RPi HQ camera:

  1. it has an IR filter which makes low-light situations difficult to capture (you can remove the filter if you want, although it voids the warranty)
  2. it can take 4K still images, but only 1080p video (so no video upgrade)

If you’re planning to stream from it the same way that the existing camera streams to QGC, the camera module README seems to say it supports h264 video output, in which case I believe it should get picked up automatically by the existing companion software and happily stream to you, albeit with the same resolution as the camera you’ve already got, and worse low-light performance.

For mounting it, you’d likely need to design a custom mount to attach it properly, particularly if you’re planning to push it back far enough that you can fit a C/CS lens with it into the enclosure, unless you’ve got a mount adaptor and a small (M12?) lens that fits as is (see near the end of this article for details).

3

Does anyone have really tested HQ Raspberry Pi in ultra low light conditions with IR filter removed? I would like to integrate this camera to perform both “daylight” video with white LEDs illuminator ( around 2800lm) but also “infra-red” video with IR 850nm LEDs illuminator.
I don’t know if “daylight” video performance are degraded by removing IR filter ?
My initial solution was to use 2 cameras ( one specific for IR vision and a HQ for normal vision)but in this case, the integration isn’t quite easy!!
Thanks for your help!
Regards,
Marc,

4

Just wondering if a 4k camera (low light) upgrade is in the pipeline? It feels like an aspect of the product that’s falling behind a little. Anything on the roadmap? Any fundamental limitations?

5

Yes, higher performance cameras are being actively investigated. We haven’t gotten to the stage of setting up a supply contract for a chosen option though, so I can’t give a timeline on when we’ll be releasing our next camera product.

That said, the BlueOS camera manager is quite versatile, and can support H264-encoded USB cameras, with experimental support for MJPEG and YUYV encoded streams through RTSP, and also supports quite generic stream redirection of IP cameras (e.g. connected via an Ethernet Switch), so there are a range of options you could try out if you want an alternative to our Low Light HD USB Camera. It also supports multiple simultaneous camera streams, although receiving those at the control station computer requires something other than QGroundControl.

The camera section here covers several relevant considerations. The main additional one is bandwidth limitations in the vehicle’s communications hardware, because if you’re trying to send more data than the hardware can handle you could end up with vehicle control issues and intermittent telemetry.

6

Thanks @EliotBR . I hadn’t seen that poll and associated info. Great deep dive into camera trade-offs. I look forward to seeing what you fellas choose for a 4k fwd looking camera option.

1 Like
7

@EliotBR : Just wondering how this is progressing? As we look to camera choices for additional downward looking cameras it would be useful to know what the underlying sensor chip you settled on for the next gen 4k camera.

We’ve been trialing one that’s based on what we believe to be the Sony IMX477 (1.55um sensor) but been a bit disappointed with results so far (could well be camera settings - so lots to play with).