camera module from cell phone - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / beginners

author: magic smoke
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: September 10, 2013, 01:56:10 pm
content: hello,I disassembled my old cell phone a while back to see if I can use some parts of it.The speaker was easy and I managed to produce some noise with a controller =)Then there is this small camera module.I'd love to hook it up and take some shots.But I can't find any data sheets.I recently stumbled upon this video:http://www.eevblog.com/2013/09/04/eevblog-514-5-mobile-phone-teardown-lg800g/So I resurrected the project from its slumber in hope somebody of you guys could help me figure out what camera I got there.So here's what I got:It's from a sony ericsson k750.On top (first image):33S522BKPCB:VC-459-11B2VOKNC201 39IC 1:7040639R1AAAIC 2:D6875Q88See the attached images.I tried to google the numbers but could not find anything. =(There's this flexcable plug to connect to the rest of the phone. I'm not even sure if all the camera related workload is done on this module alone.How do I find out how this thing works and how I can use it?The phone should still be working but I neither have a SIM card nor do I have anything to analyse it with except a multimeter.I guess reverse engineering the whole thing is not worth it.

author: Dongulus
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 10, 2013, 02:50:26 pm
content: Likely not worth your time. Buy some sort of camera development board with a well documented camera module if you want to do any camera work.I haven't done extensive work with cameras but the ones I have worked with don't work the moment they are powered on; they need to have many registers configured before they begin taking images. Even if you could somehow decipher the IO lines, you are completely lost without those register tables from the datasheet.Also, I have only ever captured RAW image data which require beefy controllers with high data rates and lots of RAM. The pixel rate of even modest resolution images at low frame rates require clock speeds that your average microcontroller won't meet. However, I would expect that the data rates and memory required for an image with JPEG compression is possible on a microcontroller, but I have never worked with that before and I have no idea what kind of processing power is required for decompression.

author: marshallh
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 10, 2013, 05:39:31 pm
content: The interface is going to be MIPI CSI-1 (or possibly CSI-2). Carrier pcb is by Murata, not sure about the optics or sensors.tIts basically asymmetric multilane USB 2.0 with a burst protocol.If it's a modern 1080p or worse sensor, you could be looking at M-PHY which is basically PCI express lite...You could use:1. FPGA + MIPI discrete D-PHY. I have no idea if these exist. They are commonly available as IP blocks meant for asic integration.2. SoC with MIPI CSI support. See if the Beagleboard black has this support, I bet it does.

author: DavidDLC
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 10, 2013, 05:44:59 pm
content: They work with CSI interface, and one or more different logic voltages something like 3.6, 2.85 and 1.8 volts.I will not spend time trying to make it to work.David.

author: mikeselectricstuff
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 10, 2013, 05:58:37 pm
content: If you want something simple take a look at OV9655 based modules on ebay - very cheap, reasonably documented and available with breakouts.They have internal stuff like de-bayering and scaling so should be amenable to low data-rate apps like driving direct from a MCU.I'm just about to start playing with one

author: magic smoke
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: September 10, 2013, 06:17:00 pm
content: Quote from: Dongulus on September 10, 2013, 02:50:26 pmThis phone has a ~100 MHz cpu and I remember it was even taking video.I have a pandaboard here, so if sony could do this with a 100Mhz thingy, ... well, let me put it like this:While speaking of the panda, I had a look at the camera connector it has, which also brought me to CSI-2 (not the Miami thing, jeeez google)Quote from: marshallh on September 10, 2013, 05:39:31 pmI wasn't sure if they actually implemented that standard.Looks promising.Quote from: marshallh on September 10, 2013, 05:39:31 pmIt's 2 megapixels.Quote from: mikeselectricstuff on September 10, 2013, 05:58:37 pmThe panda officially supports OV5650/40. I was able to find some camera modules available, pretty mus the same thing I have here.It appears to me that the only thing left to do is find a pcb only that connects with a flex cable to my module.

author: magic smoke
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: September 11, 2013, 01:25:31 pm
content: It's me again.I'm a bit confused.The only adapter board I could find is this one:http://boardzoo.com/index.php/pandaboard/panda-cam-adapter.htmlAnd there's no guarantee that it works with my camera.There's no datasheet whatsoever.I know you're probably thinking, but what does this board actually do?When I connect the according flex cable to the camera module, I have a 30 pin connector at the end.So what is this 70$ PCB doing except for the physical compatibility of both connector types?I was hoping to be able to attach this camera module to the board more or less directly by wiring it up - because that's what a standard interface is supposed to allow, right?