Miniature TTL Serial JPEG Camera with NTSC Video

Description

This tiny little camera module can be a pretty neat project addition, it is just like our other JPEG cameras (same chipset/software), but much smaller and slimmer. It was designed to be used in security systems and does two main things – it outputs NTSC color video and can take snapshots of that video (in color) and transmit them over the TTL serial link. You can snap pictures at 640×480, 320×240 or 160×120 and they're pre-compressed JPEG images which makes them nice and small and easy to store on an SD card. Perfect for a data-logging, security, or photography project.

One nice thing about this particular camera is all the 'extras' that come with it. For example it has auto-white-balance, auto-brightness and auto-contrast taken care of for you as well as motion detection built in! That means you can have it alert your project when something moved in the frame. The lens is manually adjustable, it has a 1-15 meter focal distance by default which is good for most projects.

We also carry a much larger, but enclosed weather-proof version

Using the module is pretty easy and only requires two digital pins (or a TTL serial port) – by default it transmits at 38400 baud. Of course we wouldn't just leave you with a datasheet and a 'good luck', we even spent a lot of time researching the module and DSP to make a really nice Arduino library with example code that shows how to change the image size and compression quality, detect motion, control the video output stream, etc. We also have a very detailed tutorial that will help get the most use out of your camera.

Example photo 1 (outside street) & example photo 2 (inside person)

Note: We have these working great with classic Arduino UNOs (and other Atmega328-based 'duinos) but they are not yet MEGA compatible.

The datasheet is in Chinese, but it still has some useful diagrams

Module size: 20mm x 28mm
Module Weight: 3g
Image sensor: CMOS 1/4 inch
CMOS Pixels: 30M
Pixel size: 5.6um*5.6um
Manual focus adjustable from 5 to 15meters
Output format: Standard JPEG
White balance: Automatic
Exposure: Automatic
Gain: Automatic
Shutter: Electronic rolling shutter
SNR: 45DB
Dynamic Range: 60DB
Max analog gain: 16DB
Frame speed: 640*480 30fps
Scan mode: Progressive scan
Viewing angle: 60 degrees
Image size: VGA?640*480), QVGA?320*240), QQVGA?160*120?
Baud rate: Default 38400
Current draw: 75mA
Operating voltage: DC +3-5V (the power pin is marked 3.3V but it goes into a 3-5V input regulator so you can power it with 3-5VDC)
Communication: 3.3V TTL ?Three wire TX, RX, GND?

We have a fairly full-featured Arduino library with examples that demonstrate how to use the camera
The datasheet for the DSP processor itself (not terribly useful for the module but good for reference
This is the DSP management tool (windows only sorry!) it allows you to tweak pretty much everything on the camera as well as test it out via a serial port
A basic python sketch that will let you snag a image over a serial port – good for testing when you cant use the DSP tool above
This is the 'protocol cheat sheet' for the sensor its a little crummy – we suggest reading our library code and porting it instead of trying to do it from scratch with this sheet

Check out our detailed tutorial on how to use this camera module with an Arduino (and in general

Fabien's Netduino + Camera tutorial