How to turn your Raspberry Pi camera into a webcam
Have to share this one with Gadget Master – how to make your own “Raspberry Pi USB webcam” using a Raspberry Pi Zero inside the housing along with one of the Raspberry Pi camera modules
The team at Raspberry Pi were inspired by the PiSight device – created by one Max Braun – which used the now-20-year-old Apple iSight webcam casing. They decided to give it a go, and make an extensive tutorial to show the process.
“We’ve teamed up with the folks over at ideasonboard.com to bring you some great new software, and in this tutorial, we’ll demonstrate how to use it with your choice of camera and a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W using USB OTG (On-The-Go) technology. The result is a plug-and-play USB webcam that can rival any expensive off-the-shelf web camera. Our Raspberry Pi will be programmed with bespoke UVC (USB Video Class) software — simply plug it in to any Mac or Windows computer and it will automatically show up as a camera you can use in any video application you choose.”
It’s not for the faint hearted, note, but very impressive it looks.
Ashley Whittaker writes to put things in context:
“We slightly amended Max’s original design for the 3D-printed parts so they fit our newest Raspberry Pi Camera Module 3. You need to print just two small support pieces so that the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W and the camera module will sit nicely inside an Apple iSight shell. You can find the parts on Printables, and download them for free. We found an Apple iSight on good old eBay and we’ve made a disassembly video to show you how to remove the internals.”
You can read the full tutorial on the Raspberry Pi website which covers how to 3D print your own mount designs for holding the camera in place.
NB USB
It is also worth checking out some comments, too – there might be valuable advice about the USB setups required (it sounds like a USB 3 host port is required, for example…). The Pi tutorial specifies using a:
“USB to micro USB cable (or, if if you’re using a Raspberry Pi 3B/3B+, you’ll need a micro USB power supply and a standard USB to USB cable; if you’re using a Raspberry Pi 4, you’ll need a USB-C to USB cable).”
Credit where it’s due, too, and the tutorial was developed with Dan and Kieran from Ideas on Board who helped with the software.
Read More: How to turn your Raspberry Pi camera into a webcam – Electronics Weekly
