Raspberry Pi HD web cam

The camera is build around the Raspberry Pi Zero W (that does have wireless LAN connectivity) and the Raspberry Pi High Quality Camera that does have a Sony back-illuminated sensor with great size compared to the super tiny one normally used with the Raspberry Pi (sensor size is way more important that pixel count for the final image quality).

It does also have a C and CS mount for choosing among different lenses (this typology of lenses are used for security cameras or industrial applications). Thanks to that, it's possible to use the camera with a wide choice of lenses (high quality made with glass as well, not done with the cheap plastic as the tiny one) and the camera can be used in a wide range of applications, like for a wide angle camera, a telescope one or a microscope as well.

The lenses used in this post are from the company ArduCam that does offer a lot of solutions for many platforms, like Raspberry Pi obviously as well as NVIDIA Jetson, OpenCV AI, SPI solution cameras for microcontroller etc.

Goals

The goal is to build a compact customizable high quality 1080p HDMI camera for any possible use, ready to me mounted with a standard 1/4" screw on any existing tripod and fixture for flexible positioning. It should also have some buttons to easily flip the image to quickly adjust the orientation (so no need to do that in post or use OBS).

Quick and fast setup recap

1. Install the Raspberry Pi OS on the micro SD card by using the Raspberry Pi Imager. In the Advanced options setup the SSH credentials and also a custom hostname for the Raspberry Pi as well as the Wifi connections settings. In this way once booted, the Pi will be autmatically on the local network without the need to use mouse and keyboard.

2. Install the SD and power it up. Access via terminal (mac and linux) of PuTTY. Via terminal (mac and linux) write ssh user@hostname.local to access to the Pi (example: ssh pi@raspberry-pi-cam.local). With PuTTY insert just the hostname.local in the hostname field and follow the login procedure in the terminal.

3. Activate the camera port (interface) and set the screen resolution to 1920x1080 in the raspberry config sudo raspi-config. Exit the config and reboot the Pi with sudo reboot. You have to do the same SSH connection procedure of the point 2. to reconnect afterwards.

4. Update, upgrade, install python3, python3-camera and download the script from GitHub. Run the script to test that everything is working:

   $ sudo apt-get update
   $ sudo apt-get upgrade
   $ sudo apt-get install python3
   $ sudo apt-get install python3-picamera
   $ sudo apt-get install git
   $ git clone https://github.com/marclura/raspberry-pi-hd-web-cam.git
   $ cd raspberry-pi-hd-web-cam/code
   $ python3 web-cam.py

5. Set the camera script to start automatically at power on.

   $ sudo chmod +x web-cam.py
   $ sudo nano /etc/rc.local
   // add this line to the rc.local file before the last line "exit 0", then close and save the file:
   sudo python3 /home/pi/raspberry-pi-hd-web-cam/code/web-cam.py &
   $ sudo reboot

Raspberry Pi Zero W setup

The first thing to do is to flash the micro SD card with the Raspbian OS by using the official Raspberry Pi Imager.

To avoid the need to connect the keyboard and mouse to setup the Raspberry Pi Zero (Pi from now on), open the "Advanced options" menu in the Raspberry Pi Imager (from v1.6 only by pressing Ctrl-Shift-X or latest version does have the icon for that). There check the boxes for "Set hostname" (and give a name for you Pi on the network, so you can search for it not only through its IP address but with nice simple name that you choose), "Enable SSH" and set a strong password to access to it, "Configure wifi" by inserting you local wifi network name (SSID) and password as well, and last "Set locale settings" for time zone and keyboard layout.

Note: if you have problems with the wifi (company firewall & co.), you can use your smartphone as hotspot, just insert the wifi name (SSID) and password of your hotspot. You will see your Pi appear in the devices connected to your hotspot to witch you can connect your computer as well to communicate together.

This initial setup will make the Pi connect automatically to your wifi network so that you can access to it directly form your main computer.

Save the "Advanced options" to go back, and choose as Operating System the first recommended option, the Raspberry Pi OS (32-bit).
As storage indicate the micro SD card (careful not to choose an internal disk of your computer, it will be completely erased if you do so!). Click on Write to flash the SD card, administrator password will be required to proceed.

Once the writing process is done the micro SD card can be inserted in the Pi and then it can be powered up by connecting the cable in the micro USB port that says "PWR_IN". Wait for the Pi do do the first boot (it will take a moment).

Connect to the Pi via SSH

At this point the Pi should be connected to your local network via wifi and accessible with SSH.

Windows

Download and install PuTTY. Insert your Pi hostname that you did choose previously with the Raspberry Pi Imager and select SSH as connection type, click on Open to start the connection.

Mac/Linux

Open the terminal and type ssh followed as well by the Pi hostname you did choose previously with the Raspberry Pi Imager, for consistency in this post, it has been used the one from the screenshots as an example:

ssh pi@raspberry-cam-1.local

In case this doesn't work, you have to know the IP address of your Pi on your local network; access your router (type in your browser 192.168.3.1 to access it, this is normally the IP address of your router) and you will see the list of devices that are connected with the corresponding IP.

If you did the hotspot point with your smartphone you should have all the list of the connected devices, so you should be able to know the IP address of the Pi. The command will be similar then, but instead of using raspberry-cam-1.local use the IP address, as and example it could be something like 192.168.1.52:

ssh pi@192.168.1.52

Once successfully connected, the terminal will ask you for the login. Type pi as login user if asked (PuTTY) and then the password you choose from the previous Raspberry Pi Imager SSH setup.

At this moment you are inside the Pi filesystem via the command line (CLI)! It's possible to navigate inside it, create files and launch commands. The main commands required to know that you can type and execute by pressing Enter on your keyboard are the following:

cd .. move up one folder
ls to show the list of the files available in your current folder
cd foldername enter in the folder with the name you specified
rm filename.txt delete a file that is in the current folder !attention on what you delete
rmdir foldername delete a folder !attention on what you delete

Setup the Pi

The first thing to do is to activate the camera in the configurations. According on the version of the OS installed, some options are called and located differently, so just search in the menu to find them. Type this in the terminal:

sudo raspi-config

Camera activation

To activate the camera, scroll down with the arrow keys to Interface Options > Camera and a prompt window will ask you if you would like the camera interface to be enabled, say Yes. A confirmation will appear.

Video resolution change

Navigate to Display Options > Resolution and scroll down with the arrow keys to CEA Mode 34 1920x1080 30Hz 16:9 and press Ok.

Packages installation

In order to use the camera it's necessary to install some packages. First the system has to get the list of the last available versions of the packages and then upgrade and install them.
To do this type in the terminal the first following command command and press enter to execute it and once done then the second one.
If the terminal asks for a [Y/n] just type "Y"and press enter again. I could take a while to upgrade:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get upgrade

The next step is to install the python packages to use the camera, type this in the terminal:

sudo apt-get install python-picamera python3-picamera

Camera script

At this point the Pi is ready to run any python script. The one that will be used here can be found at this GitHub repository. You can either download it and upload it to the Pi or create a new file with the nano editor of the terminal.

Option 1: create the script from the terminal

Type the following command to open the nano text editor and create a new file:

sudo nano

Select all the code from this GitHub repository, copy it and paste it by just pressing the right click of the mouse in the nano editor.

That's all, press Ctrl+X to Exit, you will be asked if you want to save the file, press Y to confirm, type the name of the file (we will call it web-cam.py) and press Enter to finish.

You can now see the newly create file if you type:

ls

Option 2: upload the script with FileZilla to the Pi

The other method is to use a FTP program to access to the Pi and copy the script in it. First thing you have to download the script from GitHub. Right click on the "RAW" icon and select "Save link as ..." to download the web-cam.py file.

Download and Install the FileZilla client.

In FileZilla click on File > Site Manager and click on "New site". Select the potocol SFTP - SSH File Transfer Protocol, and insert in host the hostname of the Pi (raspberry-cam-1) on the port 22.
Use the Normal logon type and use "pi" as user and the SSH password. Click Connect to continue.

On the left hand side you have your computer, on the right hand side the Pi. Navigate to your desktop and upload the web-cam.py file.
Once done close FileZilla.

Run the script

The script is ready to be run. To do that you have to make it executable by typing this command in the terminal:

sudo chmod +x web-cam.py

To test it run this command and attach the Pi with the micro HDMI cable to your monitor or video input:

python web-cam.py

You should be able to see the image form the camera, and with the rotate button to flip the image. To stop the script from running, press Ctrl+C.

Set the script to run automatically at startup

To run automatically the script and use the camera once the Pi is powered up, it's necessary to add the script to the rc.local file (that will be executed as administrator at the system startup):

sudo nano /etc/rc.local

Add the following line just above the "exit 0" text. Pay attention to not delete or modify anything else!

sudo python /home/pi/web-cam.py &

Interesting note: the "&" is necessary because it will indicate to the Pi that it doesn't have to wait for ending this script to do something else, but the "&" will say that it can run other task in parallel with the web-cam.py.

Press Ctrl+X to Exit, Y to save, and Enter to save the file with the same current name and exit from the nano editor.

From the terminal reboot the Pi to see if the script properly starts at the beginning:

sudo reboot

To do any modification, you have to connect again via SSH as before (when the Pi reboots, it cuts the communication).