Have you finalized the lens you are planning to ship with? Would you be able to share what you are going with?
Also, the RPi Global Shutter cameras appear to be in short supply and the same for the compute modules. Have you been able to source them?
Are you going to use the RPi Global Shutter camera or a different one?
It’s a good question - I think the issue is deployments will be quite different, so one fixed lens will be tricky to work with everything. Perhaps that’s something we could offer options with?
The other issue is the Arducam IMX296 M12 camera we are using (lots of stock available) has some strange issue where it has strong red tinting even if you use a 650nm filter.
Is there a particular lens/FOV you would are interested in?
So we’ll be using an M12 IMX296 sensor - Arducam the current option, but others like FRAMOS or VisionComponents offer some very high quality builds. Just adds a lot of expense and also very specific drivers.
So, are you moving away from the RPi GS IMX296? Is it due to availability, pricing, or some other technical reason? Is that red tint detrimental for GoB?
The FOV I need is 90 degrees. Have you narrowed down the lens options ?
Only for the production versions due to the size constraint of having such a large lens/form factor. Same sensor on the Arducam/FRAMOS etc but much easier to get into an enclosure.
The V2 Compact OWL works great with the RPi Global Shutter and I don’t see a need to move away from it there, only for space savings. Red tint is bad for any colour based detection because it suggests that NIR light is reaching the red channel. It can be worked out, but must be some sort of setup issue or something I’m missing. Am in contact with them.
The FOV I need is 90 degrees. Have you narrowed down the lens options ?
Ah ok, the commonlands ones you recommended are great, so we’ll go with those most likely. They have really impressive, low distortion lenses - angle is to be determined exactly, but around the 90 degrees so we can get out to 1m at 0.5m height.
Just in case you haven’t seen these GS IMX296: https://www.inno-maker.com/product-category/products/raspberry-pi/pi-camera/global-shutter-with-trigger/
I did see this before, but I don’t think I’ve used them before. So just bought a couple to try - will see how they compare to the Arducam build!
Thanks for sharing the link.
Hi, I’m planning to start building an OWL system, and I’m currently sourcing the required hardware.
Would the Waveshare IMX296 Global Shutter Camera Module, 1.6MP be suitable for the OWL setup as an alternative to the Raspberry Pi Global Shutter Camera / Arducam IMX296?
It also uses the Sony IMX296 sensor, but I’m not sure whether there are any compatibility issues with the OWL software, drivers, or camera interface.
Has anyone tested this particular Waveshare module with OWL?
If not, is there another camera option you would consider a safer / more proven choice for OWL, especially for a first build?
Thanks!
Apologies for the delay in responding @Fil , and thanks for joining the community. Usually I try to respond much faster, but has been very busy with Noktura and also for various family events.
That Waveshare should work well - just make sure it’s the colour version. I know they do the Mono as well. For setup it looks like it will work - you might just need to make some changes in the boot config file. The Arducam wiki does a pretty good job explaining what to do: https://docs.arducam.com/Raspberry-Pi-Camera/Native-camera/Global-Shutter/1.58MP-IMX296/#supported-platforms-and-os
The OWL software will detect it anyway, so no worries there. I haven’t tried this one specifically, but we use the Arducam IMX296 and I have had that work just fine with the Pi.
So I think this would be a good choice for a first build! Let me know how it goes.