Raspberry Pi based Instant Replay system
Posted: Mon Mar 06, 2017 7:37 pm
Hi all,
As some of you know, I've been working on retrofitting my Microwizard P2XL with an Arduino timer for serial communication as well as timing. As an adjunct to that project, I picked up an old Raspberry Pi B+ as well as a V2 PiCamera, and thought it would be cool to interface them with the Arduino timer to add an instant replay to the system:
https://youtu.be/-QyMxKfBaAE
The cool thing about this system is that it doesn't rely on another sensor to trigger the replay - it simply gets a signal from the arduino timer when the first car finishes, then pulls video from a continuous loop (about 7 seconds) to make sure that it gets the first car finishing as well as any finishes which occur up to a second later or so. It then takes the 90fps video and pulls it down to about 20fps to give a slow motion replay.
In the video, I don't have the PC hooked up to get the serial communication, demonstrating how this system could be used stand-alone with any arduino based timer by adding a couple lines of code and a couple of resistors (for a voltage splitter) to the shield board.
I've got a little work to do, as the camera isn't well focused at this distance, and I'm not sure it is the angle I really want. Additionally I think I'll have the replay play two or three times total. At some point if I feel ambitious, I may do some basic serial communication to overlay text with finish times on the monitor, but that's a task for after I get all the electronics in a box.
So, for those of you who do use instant replay, what do you find is the most effective camera angle?
As some of you know, I've been working on retrofitting my Microwizard P2XL with an Arduino timer for serial communication as well as timing. As an adjunct to that project, I picked up an old Raspberry Pi B+ as well as a V2 PiCamera, and thought it would be cool to interface them with the Arduino timer to add an instant replay to the system:
https://youtu.be/-QyMxKfBaAE
The cool thing about this system is that it doesn't rely on another sensor to trigger the replay - it simply gets a signal from the arduino timer when the first car finishes, then pulls video from a continuous loop (about 7 seconds) to make sure that it gets the first car finishing as well as any finishes which occur up to a second later or so. It then takes the 90fps video and pulls it down to about 20fps to give a slow motion replay.
In the video, I don't have the PC hooked up to get the serial communication, demonstrating how this system could be used stand-alone with any arduino based timer by adding a couple lines of code and a couple of resistors (for a voltage splitter) to the shield board.
I've got a little work to do, as the camera isn't well focused at this distance, and I'm not sure it is the angle I really want. Additionally I think I'll have the replay play two or three times total. At some point if I feel ambitious, I may do some basic serial communication to overlay text with finish times on the monitor, but that's a task for after I get all the electronics in a box.
So, for those of you who do use instant replay, what do you find is the most effective camera angle?