OpenMV Cam H7: the Open Source MicroPython Powered Machine Vision Camera

• Tweet
• Pin It

The New OpenMV Cam H7 is an upgrade of the previous OpenMV Cam M7, replacing the STMicro STM32F7 micro-controller by a more powerful STM32H7 MCU clocked at up to 400 MHz and introducing removable camera modules for thermal vision and global shutter support.

The OpenMv Cam aims at becoming a super powerful Arduino with a camera on board that you program in Python. In fact it can be programmed with MicroPython 3 using OpenMV IDE or in C language, if you desire.

MicroPython is a popular open-source microcontroller operating system that runs on other micro-controllers like the BBC Microbit, ESP8266, ESP32, the Teensy, and Adafruit’s Feather Circuit Python boards.

Programming your OpenMV Cam H7 using Python versus C gives you less than 1 secondcompile/load/execute times allowing you to quickly iterate on your project.

That said, the OpenMV Cam H7’s firmware is 100% open-source and you can program the OpenMV Cam H7’s STM32H7 microcontroller directly in C if you prefer.

OpenMV CAM H7 adds support for Multi-Blob Color Tracking at up to 80 FPS, Global Shutter at 80 FPS at VGA/QVGA, 200 FPS at QQVGA, and 400 FPS at QQQVGA, thermal vision support via a FLIR camera module, as well as CNN neural networks via Arm’s CMSIS-NN library.

OpenMV CAM H7 camera board specifications:

• MCU – STMicro STM32H743VI Arm Cortex M7 microcontroller @ up to 400 MHz with 1MB RAM, 2MB flash.
• External Storage – micro SD card socket supporting up to 100 Mbps read/write to record videos and store machine vision assets.
• Camera modules
  • Omnivision OV7725 image sensor (default) capable of taking 640×480 8-bit Grayscale /  16-bit RGB565 images at 60 FPS when the resolution is above 320×240 and 120 FPS when it is below; 2.8mm lens on a standard M12 lens mount
  • Optional Global Shutter camera module to capture high quality grayscale images not affected by motion blur
  • Optional FLIR Lepton adapter module for thermal machine vision applications
• USB – Full speed (12 Mbps) micro USB interface with the board appearing as a Virtual COM Port and a USB Flash Drive in your computer
• I/Os
  • 1x SPI bus up to 100 Mbps, 1x I2C
  • CAN Bus, Asynchronous Serial Bus (TX/RX)
  • 12-bit ADC, 12-bit DAC.
  • 3x I/O pins for servo control.
  • Interrupts and PWM on all I/O pins (10 I/O pins on the board).
• Misc – RGB LED, 2x high power 850nm IR LEDs.
• Power Supply
  • 5V via micro USB port
  • LiPo battery connector compatible with 3.7V LiPo batteries.
• Dimensions – 45 x 36 mm
• Weight – 19 grams

OpenMV CAM H7 has now launched on Kickstarter, but you’ll have to be fairly patient before getting you board as actual shipping is only planned for March 2019.

Related Posts

• 

  Building a 3D Digital Clock with Arduino
  Building a 3D Digital Clock with Arduino
• 

  Creating a controller for Minecraft with realistic body movements using Arduino
  Creating a controller for Minecraft with realistic body movements using Arduino
• 

  Snowflake with Arduino
  Snowflake with Arduino
• 

  Segstick: Build Your Own Self-Balancing Vehicle in Just 2 Days with Arduino
  Segstick: Build Your Own Self-Balancing Vehicle in Just 2 Days with Arduino

One Comment

1. Pingback: OpenMV Cam H7: the Open Source MicroPython Powered Machine Vision Camera - HudsonWerks