PolaPi-Zero is a Polaroid-Inspired Raspberry Pi Camera

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Electronic technician and Raspberry Pi enthusiast Pierre Muth has unveiled a new Raspberry Pi Polaroid camera he has created in the form of the PolaPi-Zero, which uses a thermal printer to provide instant hardcopies of your photographs.
The project uses a Raspberry Pi zero  equipped with a Pi Camera Module, a 7.2V battery with voltage regulator, and a few buttons.

In his original PolaPi build, Pierre had been forced to cannibalise a retail-grade thermal receipt printer, leaving the unit bulky and weighty.

With the new model, following in the footsteps of the small-bodied Raspberry Pi Zero, he managed to acquire the Nano Thermal Receipt Printer from Adafruit: a smaller device marketed specifically for use with boards such as the Raspberry Pi and Arduino. Coupled with a Sharp memory LCD, the camera allows its user to see the image on screen in black and white before printing, guaranteeing the quality of the photograph before you commit to the print.

Pierre used the project as “a good excuse to start learning Python (finally)”, in part due to the array of existing Python code available online. His original camera ran using Java, and though he admits to the final Python code not being the most elegant, he provides it via both his GitHub repo as complete code, and as a downloadable image for the Raspberry Pi Zero.

For further information you can visit the MagPi Magazine page.

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