Best Wireless Cam solution : A6C ?

 

I’ve discovered the A7, an anwsome solution for have GPS and GPRS in the same chip thx to the great Andreas Spiess youtube channel:

But he he did not talk about the A6C module, maybe because the module was not annonced at this moment, let’s me tell you the avantages of this module:

• Size: If you know the others cam solutions for the arduino and tiny devices, you surly know the ArduCam, and it’s a BIG module because the Arduino can’t be connected directly to the Camera or we need a lot connections so a big module like this one:

  

  OV7670

  The A6C has the same cam(OV7670) but it’s more smaller and we need just 2new connection for the Arduino, RX/TX just for the cam!

• Price: Surly the important point because we can have smaller, better résolution, better gprs etc but much more expensive! I think for exemple to the Raspberry pi Zero and his high definition camera, normaly they cost around 25$ and with a good Gsm/gprs module around 50$. I also wanted to do a wireless camera with a Esp8266, it’s a cheap module but the cameras are really expensive, like this one: http://www.uctronics.com/arducam-2mp-v2-mini-camera-shield-with-esp8266-nano-esp-12f-evaluation-kits.html and i didn’t find a solution above 25$…  But with the high price we have also better résolution, 2M against 0.3M max for the A6C but personaly i don’t know what can happen to a wireless module so i prefer a cheap one which do the basic job. His price is around 12$, with the camera which cost normaly around 3.5$. But the module is likely to cost less in the future because i’ve found only few sellers.

 

I think there is no better deal for a wireless Cam module at this moment, 12$ is a great price and it can be really interesting for the makers community which don’t want to spend more than 15$ for send a picture through a wireless module.

DEMO

 

Camera

AT Commands

AT+CAMSTART         (Start the Cam and choose the resolution)

• AT+CAMSTART=0       (QVGA: 320×240)

• AT+CAMSTART=1         (VGA: 640×480)

• AT+CAMSTART=2        (QQVGA: 160×120)

 

AT+CAMSTOP       (Stop the camera)

AT+CAMCAP         (Take a picture, the default format is .JPG)

AT+CAMRD          (Read the content of the picture)

• AT+CAMRD=fromaddr,toaddr;

 

AT+CAMREC (Not available for the moment)

AT+CAMCFG (Camera configuration)

• AT+CAMCFG=mode,param

This is pure Reverso traduction because i don’t understand what they really say(in chinese):

• 0 indicates that the flash mode, the parameter is 0, Off, 1, 2 Open Automatically
• 1 indicates whether a night market, the parameter is 0, no night vision, 1 open the night vision
• 2 indicates that the image quality, parameters 0,1,2 //7,10,14,20
• 3 indicates that the image is rotated, the parameter is 0, indicating that will not rotate 1 rotate 90 degrees, 2 rotate 180 degree and 3 rotate 270 degree
• 4 The exposure parameters -2,-1,0,1,2
• 5 brightness, parameters -2,-1,0,1,2
• 6 white balance, parameter 0-auto,1-daylight,2- daylight (0x08),3-cloudy(0x09),4- (0x0a) tungsten lamps
• 7 contrast parameters 1-5;

 

Interesting Docs:

Pinout:

a6_a7_a6c_datasheet-en (Page 15 for the A6C)

AT Commands(in chinese)

ai-thinker_a6_a7_a6c_at_v1-02 (Page 171 for the A6C)

 

Few interesting links:

Module in AliExpress:   http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Free-Shipping-Camera-GPRS-module-GSM-module-A6C-text-voice-development-board-the-minimum-system-board/32713287145.html?spm=2114.30010308.3.2.ywlegh&ws_ab_test=searchweb201556_0,searchweb201602_2_10057_10056_10065_10068_10055_10054_10069_10059_10058_10073_10017_10072_10070_10060_10061_10052_10062_10053_10050_10051,searchweb201603_4&btsid=e228f014-6743-4419-9334-4f7f6f0fad21

Doc: http://www.electrodragon.com/w/GSM_GPRS_A6_Module

How to use it: http://www.electrodragon.com/w/File:A6C_Cam_Capture.zip  (You can open with Google Chrome or IE)

Doc from IA-Thinker(there is a part in chinese :/) : http://wiki.ai-thinker.com/lib/exe/fetch.php/modules/datasheet/a6/ai-thinker_a6_a7_a6c_at_v1.02.pdf