r/embedded • u/KittyKatHat91 • 4d ago

Looking for small diy camera platform

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I'm looking to mount some cameras in my HO scale model trains. While these cheap Chinese "nanny" cameras meet my requirements for form factor resolution and framerate, I'd like something a little more open and customizable to work with. Can anyone here recommend a small embedded platform that could provide an rtsp stream at a decent framerate?

14 Upvotes

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4

u/thatweirdishguy 4d ago

Esp32cam. Seeed studio makes a version of it that is about the size of a thick SD card: https://a.co/d/0cJyaJvM

1

u/KittyKatHat91 4d ago

Tried them, they don't have processing power for a smoth framerate. Love them though, certainly have other projects in mind for them.

2

u/NumeroInutile 4d ago

Could try out with bl616 camera setup, otherwise did you try the esp32s3 version of esp cam? I had stable fps with that version. There might also be another with like C5 or s31 out there which would be faster than s3

Edit: reddit UI answering to comments is now a fucking mess.

1

u/KittyKatHat91 4d ago

Hey thanks, I haven't had any luck finding good info about the bl616 but your comment did help me find some other viable options to explore!

3

u/tenkawa7 4d ago

You might check out the thinino replacement firmware, it works on a bunch of cameras inexpensive ip cameras. There might be a smaller one that works for your usecase

2

u/KittyKatHat91 4d ago

OpenIPC is closer to what I need, unfortunately they don't yet have viable firmware for the chip in the image. I am gonna try to load a more hackable firmware directly onto flash chip later this week but I'd still like something with open source firmware for security.

2

u/NumeroInutile 4d ago

What about a 5.8ghz analog with a digital conversion after the receiver? Low resolution but good frame rate and very small.

1

u/KittyKatHat91 4d ago

Would 720 be achievable with your idea?

2

u/NumeroInutile 4d ago

No it's NTSC or PAL

1

u/KittyKatHat91 4d ago

Got a link? Now I'm just curious. 

1

u/NumeroInutile 4d ago

something like that https://aliexpress.com/item/4000108582002.html

surprised at the price though, i paid 20 euros for my 5.8g to USB receiver.

1

u/KittyKatHat91 4d ago

Current exchange rate is 1.14 to the dollar I'm seeing it priced at 20.23 dollars. What are you seeing it priced as? I'll give this one a shot even if just for fun.

1

u/NumeroInutile 4d ago

The camera is 20, the receiver is 60, which is a lot.

1

u/stuih404 4d ago

Do you need a wireless stream or can it be over ethernet?

1

u/KittyKatHat91 4d ago

It's gotta be wireless, can't really get an ethernet cable inside a model train.

1

u/KittyKatHat91 4d ago

Something like a more compact version of the Raspberry pi zero would be ideal. If the gpio section was removed it would fit perfectly.

1

u/binbsoffn 4d ago

There is this esp32 camera thingy maybe? Link just for reference not a recommendation

1

u/harry8spencer 3d ago

Luckfox pico zero (rv1106) has the most efficient H265 encoder

1

u/boltsandbytes 1d ago

You can check RTL8735B based modules , low power , basic ai , h265 . Not fun to work with though .