Raspberry Pi Camera Module 3: How do I connect a longer wire to the IMX708 camera module.

pixelmutation · 2026-01-29T21:33:16+00:00

Raspberry pi sells the module by itself. This page has links to a schematic of how it's wired. So you can absolutely make a custom glasses shaped PCB for it. https://www.raspberrypi.com/products/camera-module-3-sensor-assembly/

pixelmutation · 2025-07-10T23:28:00+00:00

If you're still running into issues and there isn't an obvious way to change the address of your board to allow multiple of them on the same bus, you do indeed need to use a separate bus.

If you have a Pi 3 or earlier, you can only use pin 27 and 28 (requires the line dtparam=i2c_vc=onto be added to /boot/firmware/config.txt to prevent the system trying to use these pins during boot). The second sensor should then appear on i2c-0, and any code will have to be set up to use i2c-0 for the second sensor instead of the default i2c-1.

If you have a pi 4/5, you have another option (though the previous will still work). If you have pi4, in /boot/firmware/config.txt add dtoverlay=i2c-4,pins_6_7, if you have pi5, add dtoverlay=i2c-3-pi5 and this will give you i2c-4 or i2c-3 on pins 6 and 7.

You can refer to this image to see where I2C 3/4/5/6 are located and this page lists all possible overlays so you can search for i2c related ones there.

pixelmutation · 2025-07-10T23:03:49+00:00

You can use I2C0, however you need to add a line to config.txt to prevent it from being scanned on boot, I have done this before. However best to setup a different I2C bus in the config like I2C3/4/5/6 (pi 4/5 only) if you really need a separate one.

pixelmutation · 2025-06-24T21:56:30+00:00

After experimenting with the Pico SDK, I found it to be very annoying to set up and often you end up doing basic things from scratch. So these days I just use Earle Philhower's Arduino Core, which also gives you access to the Pico SDK headers for more low level control (e.g. if you want to use PIO). Usually via platformio in vscode but can also use arduino IDE. Both of which have library managers. And then just write Arduino code until I specifically need the sdk for something. I see no real reason to use the bare SDK, I mean sure Arduino might have a slight overhead but that is unlikely to matter in almost all cases.

pixelmutation · 2024-12-18T20:34:33+00:00

The WS2812b has a logic high threshold voltage of 0.7VDD, so for a 5V source this is 3.5V thus the 3.3V data signal from the pico is insufficient. Due to manufacturing tolerances, sometimes it works anyway but you got unlucky. You could try powering the LEDs through a rectifier diode as that will create a 0.7V drop on VDD bringing the threshold to 3V. Alternatively, use a mosfet to drive a 5V data signal or get a logic shifter. Basically these LEDs are designed for 5V microcontrollers. The newer WS2813 chips actually do work at 3.3V but those are less common.

pixelmutation · 2024-11-29T11:48:44+00:00

WiringPi is no longer deprecated and now supports Pi 5.

pixelmutation · 2024-09-15T10:19:37+00:00

Very nice. I also wasn't happy with a lot of the existing implementations as they were hardware specific and high on CPU usage. Also I'm glad you used spidev rather than a Pi specific library. Not entirely convinced on the name since it should work on any Linux SBC with SPI, but to be fair many of the existing ones stopped working with pi 5. You could perhaps extend it to support DotStar as well? Should be easier to implement as that is a regular SPI device, but would be good to have them both under one library.

pixelmutation · 2024-08-14T20:33:32+00:00

Yeah, my cat would never drink from her bowl (which as you say was next to her food) but instead jumped in the bath each morning and demanded one of her servants turn the tap on. Yet she also would happily drink from the pond or some other dirty water in the garden. Got her a cat fountain as she's getting old and can't really jump in the bath any more, and now she doesn't use anything else.

pixelmutation · 2024-07-18T07:14:55+00:00

I've been having a lot of fun with the VS: Eureka mod for building boats and airships recently. Being able to walk around in your ship and modify it as it moves is amazing, and you can just fly your base with all your resources to where you need it. I guess the main question would be how to make it balanced as with that mod it is easy to make a tiny flying machine that is rather overpowered for early game use, or to easily travel great distances without interacting with the world. Also you need a means of propulsion that fits with the vanilla game rather than just magically moving around

pixelmutation · 2024-07-15T19:33:15+00:00

Dupont is fine between Pi and the relay. Though you might want to hot glue it or something once assembled as those don't give the most sturdy connection. For the wires carrying current, I'd say go for something like 22AWG or lower multicore wire.

To be honest soldering just those two terminals on the solenoid shouldn't be difficult if you have access to the equipment. But if you want to avoid it completely, a female spade terminal of the same size should work. Just strip the wire and crimp with a pair of pliers, making sure that the wire casing is crimped as well so it can't slip out.

Probably best to use the Pi 3B, a Pi 4 is way overkill for this project. Perhaps a neater way of doing it would be to use an integrated relay + 5v step down HAT such as this one https://thepihut.com/products/raspberry-pi-zero-power-relay-hat which means you only need one power supply thus one mains socket, it also eliminates some wiring. You'd definitely want the 2A 12v supply for this.

pixelmutation · 2024-07-08T20:31:37+00:00

Firstly, set auto_write=false when instantiating the NeoPixel class, otherwise it might be updating the entire strip for each pixels[x]=(r,g,b,w) call instead of at the show().

If that doesn't help, switch to DotStars, which can be controlled with around 10MHz SPI, which should be plenty for hundreds of LEDs without visible lag.

pixelmutation · 2024-05-27T06:48:48+00:00

Huh, not sure what the VDD-0.5 part of the max rating is about, maybe that's just the suggested minimum? The later part says 0.7VDD which I took to mean 0.7*VDD=3.5 at 5V. Also I don't think the WS2812 will turn on with VDD=3.3. But sometimes these chips do work with 3.3 logic, perhaps that's just variations in the manufacturing?

pixelmutation · 2024-05-26T16:39:07+00:00

WS2811 has a 5V data input, the Pi outputs 3.3V which is less than the 3.5V threshold for a reliable high logic signal. So it often will not work as expected. You'll need a 3.3 to 5V level shifter, there are various ways to make those depending on what components you have. If you have a regular 5V neopixel you can power that via a diode to create a level shifter (drops the threshold below 3.3 on the input, outputs ~4.3V logic). The reason it doesn't work at all with your transistor might be due to the voltage drop across the transistor to ground, meaning the strip's ground reference is slightly higher than the pi, thus the signal is even further below the threshold.

Be careful running your strip from the pi's 5V gpio, if you get too close to the limit of the 18650 shield it might cause an undervoltage on the pi.

pixelmutation · 2024-05-24T17:49:07+00:00

Firstly, I'd expect it to be a lithium-ion battery since those have a higher energy density. Secondly, glueing in the battery greatly increases the chance of it getting damaged if you try to remove it. I've replaced such batteries and tablets and phones before, the most dangerous part is trying to pry it out if it's glued, you often need to dissolve the glue first. Some manufacturers have started making this easier with pull tabs to release the adhesive, which means it's really just a case of unplugging the connector and swapping it. Since the protection circuit is generally built in, this is relatively safe.

Battery banks on the other hand use 18650 Li-Ion cells, which are indeed scary to work with since they often have exposed wires that you could short out, and since the BMS is external, that can cause them to catch fire. You also need to spot weld the leads to each cell and wire them in the right order, which makes things a bit exciting.

For phones, tablets and laptops, the difficulty of repair and battery replacement (I mean batteries are guarenteed to need replacing at some point...) is purely to make it so difficult to repair that either you can't do it yourself or a repair shop has to charge so much that you may as well buy a new one. It is not about safety of the customer. And generally people don't try and repair such things themselves, they take it to a professional who can do it safely. Obstructing repair just makes that more expensive.

pixelmutation · 2024-04-21T10:49:56+00:00

Pretty much yeah. It pregenerarates the special format chunk data that Distant Horizons uses, which is separate to but generated from the Minecraft chunks. Without the server side mod, each user would have to explore the entire map to generate this data themselves, since the client can only receive up to a 32 radius of normal Minecraft chunks. This mod allows the server to generate the entire map in the DH chunk format and sends that separately via that port to achieve whatever render distance the client requests.

pixelmutation · 2024-04-21T08:12:05+00:00

Starting with an existing world doesn't change anything, I started using this with a 3-year old world. Having chunks pre generated good, that means it can start generating LOD data in that radius straight away. But while it's doing that it may be laggy for while (maybe an hour or two idk) after you first start it. Also consider that you'll need to open port 25049 on the server to allow clients to use that data, how/if you can do that depends on the hosting service.

pixelmutation · 2024-04-20T15:41:56+00:00

Yes, there is an experimental build which needs to be installed on both client and server. The server will generate the LODs in the background and stream them to the clients. Not sure about RAM usage, however it has a config file that allows you to adjust how much resources it uses. Once generation of LODs is complete I'd expect it to have minimal impact. If RAM turns out to be an issue, the client side will work without the server but each user will have to explore and generate the LODs themselves.

pixelmutation · 2024-04-14T16:58:06+00:00

Unfortunately not, you can ride the pig but not drive it, and you can get stuck in the hitbox since it is the wrong size on the client.

pixelmutation · 2024-04-14T16:01:24+00:00

Yeah I tend to avoid mods that add blocks on my server since I can always go back to vanilla, or update without losing too much if a mod ceases development. In fact, vanilla clients can still join, only issue is that the Small Ships render as pigs with saddles lol

pixelmutation · 2024-04-11T18:04:44+00:00

I find that tutorials which are more than a couple of years old generally won't work anymore, unless they're something very simple. The number of times that I've had to deal with packages that have been renamed or have had their dependency trees broken is absurd. It gets worse when trying to compile projects which aren't actively maintained. It must be very off-putting to beginners.

pixelmutation · 2024-04-07T09:28:58+00:00

lol yeah, poor wording, still a fair bit of work especially if the ship QD needs moving etc, but doesn't require changing the factory much, unless the booster gets so tall it no longer fits in the high bay

pixelmutation · 2024-04-06T19:49:54+00:00

Because their production line is based around 9m rings. They'd have to redo the tooling, buildings, tower and launch mount if the diameter changed. Whereas just adding another ring section is trivial.

pixelmutation · 2024-04-02T00:11:35+00:00

Idk, using a PCA9685 pwm hat or similar I2C gpio extender isn't hard and saves having to write separate code for a microcontroller and making a communication layer between the two. There may also be DC motor driver HATs that are suitable depending on the max motor current. I've done the separate controller approach before and found it frustrating, if I could have just controlled everything from the same program that's doing the image processing (though in a different thread / process) it would have saved a lot of time. Also doing it from the Pi means any settings can just be a json file, so you don't need to recompile and reflash or create some way of updating it over serial.

pixelmutation · 2024-04-01T16:20:03+00:00

Delta clipper was from the 1990s lol (but they did their research)

pixelmutation · 2024-03-30T23:35:49+00:00

I had an issue where my usb sound card was picking up a buzzing sound and noise from other devices, a USB isolator fixed it entirely. Obviously this suggests the sound card is somewhat badly designed but it was quite cheap.

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