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Is a Model A Raspberry Pi powerful enough to record video?

mickburkesnr

Hi,

 

I'm looking at building a "dashcam" for my car that my girlfriend uses so that she feels safer when driving it. I've come up with the ideas of where to mount it, how it'd work etc. The first issue I've come across is what Raspberry Pi should I use? It's all too easy to want to buy the biggest and best (and I am tempted with the new Pi 2!) but as it's only going to do one job I would like to use the Model A.

 

I note however it has 256MB RAM, but I've no idea how the Pi Camera Board would impact on this. It won't be recording HD video, the quality will want to be standard definition, and it will save the video to a 32GB SD Card (or whatever I have lying about for the moment). The Linux OS I will strip down and make it lightweight as it's only ever going to record files. There will be no need for a GUI or anything like that.

 

I think the Model A will be fine, but I'd like a second opinion.

 

Thanks!

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  • 0

    If you are going to build a small case, Model A would be logical choice. On the other hand, you make add requirements that outstrip the Model A and require more RAM before processor. Power wise the A is best choice. Had you considered a USB drive instead of SD card? The SD card is very slow and video will be streaming from the camera even at standard quality that is a lot of bits and bytes. A notebook drive or USB stick for low power would be a better design choice IMHO.

    Good luck and let us know how the project goes.

    Clem

  • 0 in reply to clem57

    Hi Clem,

     

    Ultimately I thought about, in the future, having something like a "Black Box", so maybe in that respect future uses would require more RAM and CPU power. In terms of a case, I wasn't actually going to do that, I was going to integrate it with the car, so space isn't much of an issue.

     

    I didn't know the SD card was slower to write to, I assumed it would be quick. I'm fairly sure I have a netbook hard drive around somewhere that I could use instead.

     

    I guess I'll be going with the new Pi 2 then! Thanks for the advice.

  • 0 in reply to mickburkesnr

    Glad I can help you clarify the design. Please help me by marking my answer as correct. I am sure the community here will help with your project.

    Clem

  • 0 in reply to mickburkesnr

    The CPU in the A or B is exactly the same. So "powerful" is the same.

     

    The real issue is if there is enough RAM for the GPU to work on compressing the video.

     

    Microcontrollers that "sit in a corner" and do one little thing, can do so normally with a few kb of RAM. Arduino class devices with 2k RAM are everywhere. Bigger microcontrollers have numbers like "200k" (STM32F405 for example). And you are thinking that 256Mb may be too little when it needs to do a thing or two extra?

     

    Personally I would suggest:
    * Get a slightly bigger card. Save video in "full HD".

    * If you don't need USB connectivity, go for the model A. If you expect more than one USB device, go bigger (model B, pi 2).

     

    I wouldn't worry about the speed of the SD card. It is fast enough to store full-HD video.

Reply
  • 0 in reply to mickburkesnr

    The CPU in the A or B is exactly the same. So "powerful" is the same.

     

    The real issue is if there is enough RAM for the GPU to work on compressing the video.

     

    Microcontrollers that "sit in a corner" and do one little thing, can do so normally with a few kb of RAM. Arduino class devices with 2k RAM are everywhere. Bigger microcontrollers have numbers like "200k" (STM32F405 for example). And you are thinking that 256Mb may be too little when it needs to do a thing or two extra?

     

    Personally I would suggest:
    * Get a slightly bigger card. Save video in "full HD".

    * If you don't need USB connectivity, go for the model A. If you expect more than one USB device, go bigger (model B, pi 2).

     

    I wouldn't worry about the speed of the SD card. It is fast enough to store full-HD video.

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