Has anybody tested Mobius camera?

Navio / Edge Hardware
1

Hello I currently use a RPi Cam V2 for streaming video but up to now I did not find yet the perfect raspivid parameters to make it as good looking as an action camera. The quality is as well very dependant on light orientation : colors can completely change if you vary yaw of several degrees!
By the way, the RPI cam ribbon cable is not easily compatible with yaw and roll stabilization due to its thick flat semi rigid shape. This makes my gimbal motors be unable to stabilize cam in high angles (too high force needed)

I have seen some youtube videos made with Mobius cam which are rendering good quality. Flite Test - FPV Cameras, Mobius to GoPro - TIPS - YouTube
Some people as well managed to get video stream acquired from the live out connected to RPi USB port.

I ask myself 2 questions:

  • What are the best “good looking” parameters to use with RPI cam v2?
  • Has anybody any experience in changing the RPI cam with other stuff? How was the result?

Thanks!
Guillaume

2

Sensors in action cameras are usually bigger and better compared to the RPi Cam sensor, which directly results in better image. Hard to do anything about that, but there are a couple of thing that could be improved:

  1. Bigger lens. There are mods to RPi Cam allowing it to use M12 or even M42 lenses. Check here and here. Some camera clones are sold with bigger lenses pre-installed.

  2. Another type of cable. There are smaller and more flexible cables like the one the Spy Camera uses.

colors can completely change if you vary yaw of several degrees!

That’s probably because of the auto white balance. You can set the mode manually, check the doc here:

3
  1. Buy a HDMI to CSI2 Bridge converter from here
    http://auvidea.eu/b101-hdmi-to-csi-2-bridge-15-pin-fpc/

It will convert your 1080p25 or 720p25 Signal from Mobius, Gopro or any Action Cam with live HDMI out via Toshiba Chip to your Raspi Video Connector.

Raspivid and Gstreamer commands are the same as described in the Emlid Docs.

I recommend a flexible Micro HDMI Ribbon Cable, about 2g.

If you have got some money left from Chrismas, buy the new Sony FDR-X3000R with a superb Optical Stabilisation System (B.O.SS) for a smooth live view.

1 Like
4

Thanks @mikhail.avkhimenia and @jakob.ruisinger for your advices

The HDMI to CSI2 bridge solution seems to be a perfect high end solution since it enables video streaming of any action cam on the market equipped with HDMI out.
As with all high end solutions costs are quite high unfortunately (70 EUR for the bridge)

I will try to keep the RPi Cam even though it is clearly not the perfect video acquisition tool but I will try enhance it a bit with a wide angle lens and a flex cable.
By the way I only found this cables to really be flexible here
They even offer kits for shielding which is not bad for avoiding GPS interferences… but all connectors are doubled and cables are too long.
There still is the possibility to solder directly on a CSI male connector but this is very hacky looking

I did not find any “out of the box” CSI cable looking just like the one of the SpyCam (thiner so that it can be twisted…)
Guillaume

5

also be aware that the rpi camera lens is set to focus on smaller distances - you can turn the lens to focus on larger distance!