Camera with nrf52

[Raja]

I am following blogs and questions for image transfer with nrf52 and arducam on this site and github. I can see we can use arducam OV2640 module. It has FPGA chip at back. It is very costly around 50 Uk Pounds around 60 USD on amazon uk.

Can we use another module which is at lower cost like "Arducam Mini module Camera Shield 2 MP OV2640" it is around 10 usd.

Image:

When working on camera with nordic what specifications should we look so it can work with nrf52?

[endnode]

Any embedded system interfacing with nRF52 can basically use only SPI, UART, I2C, I2S or QSPI (in case of nRF52840). In addition not all of these wired interfaces can supply throughput you need and then of course BLE also isn't typically able to transfer video or high res images, unless your bandwidth and latency requirements are set reasonably (and also typically when you control both sides of BLE link so no phones/tablets or other black boxes).

That's it I guess.

[Raja]

Thank you for reply @endnode I can see above lower cost module has SDA and SCL pins. So it should work from interface point I hope. But will the Nordic provided github camera library work with this? So I wanted to ask this from community before buying the module as if some one has already tried this. Thank you.

[endnode]

Presence of some PIN label doesn't mean anything;) you should carefully study both spec sheets (nRF5x and camera module) to understand if throughput of SPI is enough for your intended use. And no, unless you find something on the internet or in Nordic nRF5 SDK it's unlikely that someone would do the job for you for free;)

[ovrebekk]

Hi

The main difference between this module and the one used in our example is that this one has a parallel output, while the more expensive option has a chip that converts the parallel interface to a standard SPI slave interface.

We don't have any dedicated hardware for parallel data transfer, so to use this module you would essentially have to bit bang the communication. This is fully doable since the module has a slave mode (allowing the Nordic device to set the clock), but since we don't have software for it someone would have to develop the low level driver.

Alternatively, if someone else has written a bit banged driver for a different MCU you might be able to port it to the nRF52 (just make sure you still abide by the specification).

Best regards
Torbjørn