Sid’s Project: STM Camera!!

I recently had the pleasure of learning about Sid’s STM CAM! It’s a very unique project, in which Sid explores the inner workings of digital logic, and bare metal programming, with the help of his STM32 Nucleo F401RE and his 0v7670 camera module! While Sid could’ve easily done this project using higher level programming languages, and libraries that handle the communication between the camera module, Sid took the challenge of researching how to interface with the camera module with no external help.

A picture of Sid showcasing his code for his project

Sid got inspired to make this project, after he took a visit to Greece, in which he saw many pretty sights. However, he felt that his iphone camera just wasn’t doing it justice! Instead, he thought about his DSLR camera at home, and eventually, he got inspired enough to make one himself!.

Overview

Sid’s camera works by having a camera module send 8 parallel bits, along with a clock signal, which indicates when new bits are available to read. This system is called DMA (Direct Memory Address), and is a convenient way to read data from a camera module. his micro controller board then reads this data, according to the clock signal. In the future, Sid plans on adding an LCD screen to view the captured image, alongside an SD card slot, to store the images. He will also add a battery, to make his project mobile.

For the camera, Sid is using the HiLetGo Ov7670 camera module, which comes with an accessible pin out that’s easy to use. He also is using the ILI 9341 LCD Display to showcase the camera picture.

If anyone has any questions about his project, you can see it in more detail here: https://github.com/lxremipsxm/stmcam