Episode 465: Lego Raspberry Pi HQ Camera

Very interesting project!!!

This project has no charging inside, I was fairly tight for space. I use a little Adafruit USB C microLipo battery charger to charge my batteries.

Hey !

Nice project

I didn't find how you charge your lipo battery in this episode.

Is it possible to give me an idea ?

Thanks !

SOLD! I am going to drop an order for a few units and see what we can do.

I have been creating animation projects for model railroad layout for a number of years. Before retiring I pondered what I would do. It was suggested that not working in technology would be something I would consider. I didn't think it was realistic to walk away from something I did for 40 years. I enjoyed working in technology. I didn't particularly like the way it was managed in the company I was working for.

I have worked with Raspberry Pi's for a number of years. I am not a model railroader. Don't see the enjoyment of playing with the trains. It is not something that I am interested in. I started dabbling with my son-in-laws father helping to lay the infrastructure for hi 40X60 ft layout. He hoped to include computers. Now that computer thing piqued my interest.

To date there is a drive-in movie theatre (Pi with 7" screen), 12ft cloud with cloud strike and ground strike lighting and thunder (Pi with mosfets and LED strings), a helicopter run-up and run-down simulation (Pi with L293 motor controllers), office building billboard (Pi and TFT display) and lately light, sound and motion simulations using Nano's and DFPlayer modules and a number of other gizmo's to provide animation.

I have been looking for a small display for sometime. The TFT display is 3.5 inches  and mounts to the Pi. That is rather difficult to work into a roadside billboard. Now your 1.3 inch display that can be attached with a cable looks ideal. I leave the physical construction to the modelers. I focus on the electronics.

If you are interested in the model railroad stuff just send me an email. I have some personal stuff I can share. Thanks again for responding. Finding experience before tackling a job is almost a good as having the experience yourself.

The image quality is super, I was really impressed by the little screen. I think it'd be great as a little billboard.

My son loves model trains, he's only got lego one himself at the moment (he's nearly 6), but usually we go to a few model railway exhibitions each year with him, and I think your idea would fit in perfectly on a layout.

The one I used in the camera was actually broken by the time I did the assembly, the top 25% of the screen wasn't displaying correctly.

The edges of the lcd are very sensitive to heat. I tried to use hot glue to fill the gap between the screen pcb and the lego, but the glue gun made contact with the edge of the screen and damaged it. So make sure you don't put any heat directly on it, if you make a stand to enclose it in you should be fine though.

I'd love to see it when you've made the billboard, I fully imagine my son will want something just like that in a few years when he's down to a smaller scale. For now we're busy installing a lego track around the flowerbeds in the garden!

Than you so much for the response.

I found a supplier for the display. Newark is out of stock on the North American side of the pond but I did find another Canadian supplier.

Can I get your insight on image quality? I watched the video a few times and believe the display will work. I plan to use the display for animation on a HO model train railroad layout, highway billboard signs. The display would reside in a stand that looks like a roadside billboard and the Pi would push product advertisement pictures?

I like the fact the display is separate from the Pi. I have used displays that attached directly to the Pi GPIO pinout but it makes for a rather large enclosure.

I'm not looking for magazine quality display but looking at your video the pictures look pretty good. Would you care to comment?

No problems, not sure why it wasn't included, it was my first video so I probably just missed it as a newbie error!
It's the Pimoroni PIM476 1.3" SPI LCD.

If your in the UK then it is available here: https://cpc.farnell.com/pimoroni/pim476/lcd-breakout-1-3-spi-colour/dp/SC15317

The newark page is here: https://www.newark.com/pimoroni/pim476/1-3-spi-colour-lcd-240x240-breakout/dp/39AH4066  but is currently showing 0 in stock

Let me know if you have any questions, and it'd be great to see you on the Twitch thread if you can make it!

Can you provide the part number for the display?

I realize this project is last year. I found the link researching for an upcoming element14 Presents Live Twitch Stream: Lego Raspberry Pi HQ Camera. The display shown in the video is smaller than I have used and would like to investigate.

Can you provide a manufacture and part number for display?

It would have been handy if I'd had a bigger screen as I could have displayed the battery level better and other useful information such a image number. Touch would have opened up more options for control and zooming too, and the possibility of menus and options. I picked this LCD because I wanted to keep things the same as the original toy camera, and screen was pretty much the same size as the original sticker.

However if I was going to do any upgrades to the camera in the future, or rebuild it then I think I'd pick a screen like your suggestion, as it would make life much easier!

Great job on the build.  I suggest ussting the 3.5 touch LCD.    thank you for sharring