Hi all, I have a project that is capturing image using a camera and string the images in micro SD card using a microcontroller.
Camera link is below. http://www.tigal.com/1787
Interface: RS232 Min size of SD card support required is 1GB.
Since the camera sends the image data in Snapshot Picture Preview (RAW) Picture JPEG Picture these formats, I would like my controller to receive them as it is and store them in SD card either using file system or without file system (No complex processing). Controlling the camera will be done by my controller.
My questions are: 1. Does a windows computer can read an image file without file system (Raw image)? 2. Which controller will be cheep and best for this project (Cheep evaluation board is better; I can’t invest more than 200USD). 3. To interface SD card, LPC is having dedicated pins for them. So selecting LPCxxxx series would be better option.
I dont understand this, do does a special customized software application needs read the image file? cant every PC read the image without any dependency?
The camera has a RS232 interface. A PC can collect the serial data coming in and write it to a file, not?
Thanks for keeping this post alive.
>>Tamir says, The camera has a RS232 interface. A PC can collect the serial data coming in and write it to a file, not?
Correct. But i believe i have not mentioned anywhere that i can use a PC to interface the Cam directly. Reading from SD card and displaying is the only scope of the PC as of now. But if i go without file system, i understand from all Andrew's reply that i have to write a PC based application to read them and format them into file format. But please read this post further.
>>>>I dont understand this, do does a special customized software application needs read the image file? cant every PC read the image without any dependency? again typo. I restate this here Do we need a software application running on PC to understand the Raw file and read the raw data from SD card and convert them to .jpeg correct image format?
Flow is that using my controller trigger the CAM, get an Image, name it as Image1.jpeg and store it in SD card using same name, get an other image next time, name it as Image2.jpeg and store it in SD card using same name, and it goes on. Whenever i want to see the images stored in the SD card, just remove the SD card from controller SD slot and view it on any PC by connecting to it.
>>Andrew says, If you're going to store it as files then you obviously need a file system!!
Buying a file system is out of my financetial scope and implementing any free file system such as chan's file system, will take much of my development time but i will have to consider this for better life but not now.
According to the datasheet of microCam,
4.2 GET PICTURE (AA04h) The host issues this command to request a picture from the uCAM. 4.2.1 Picture Type Snapshot Picture 01h Preview (RAW) Picture 02h JPEG Picture 05h
So i assume that the Cam can send me in a file format (ex JPEG if i send o5h), still i have to name it as Image1.jpeg, Image2.jpeg to store them on SD card.
"i believe i have not mentioned anywhere that i can use a PC to interface the Cam directly"
Tamir's point was that you could avoid all the microcontroller and SD-Card issues by simply connecting the camera direct to the PC's COM port.
Had you considered that?
"Do we need a software application running on PC to understand the Raw file and read the raw data from SD card and convert them to .jpeg correct image format?"
If you store in "raw" format, then you will obvisouly need to convert that if you want it in JPEG or any other format!
>>Tamir's point was that you could avoid all the microcontroller and SD-Card issues by simply connecting the camera direct to the PC's COM port.
Thanks for your reply and I understood that. But when i discussed the project, would not above be the first idea to come in anyone's mind, since it occured to me at first.
wont this gives any clue? since the Cam is sending in a specified file formate (.JPEG), cant i take as it as to SD card? But i think the possibility is less. correct?
So why don't you just connect the camera to the PC, then?
What is the point of complicating the issue with a microcontroller and SD Card??
What, exactly, is your goal here?
www.catb.org/.../smart-questions.html
Connecting to a PC COM port would probably be a good exercise anyhow - for you to gain familiarity with the camera, its operation, and its capabilities...