CAMERA Click

How does it work?

Camera Click is based on the OV7670-VL2A, a CMOS VGA CameraChip™ from OmniVision. It supports RGB/GRB, YUV, and YCbCr formats, with a maximum image transfer of up to 30 frames per second. The image processing functions are available through the SCCB interface, such as exposure control, gamma, white balance, color saturation, hue control, and more. OmniVision CameraChip™ sensor technology improves the image quality by reducing or eliminating common lighting/electrical sources of image contamination, such as fixed pattern noise (FPN), smearing, blooming, and such, to produce a clean, fully stable color image. Some other functions are also supported, such as Automatic Exposure Control (AEC), Automatic Gain Control (AGC), Automatic White Balance (AWB), Automatic Band Filter (ABF), and Automatic Black-Level Calibration (ABLC).

With 8-bit MCUs, Camera Click is best used for rendering static images or specific applications where a few frames per second are enough. Regarding the video, this Click board™ combined with a 32-bit target board MCU will enable you to stream QCIF resolution video (176 x 144px). The processing power is the bottleneck, not the sensor, which can capture VGA pictures. The lens on Camera Click allows you to manually set the focus by turning the plastic ring clockwise or counterclockwise.

The OV7670-VL2A camera is connected to an onboard FT900 MCU from the FTDI Chip through a parallel camera interface. This microcontroller is used for processing the images from the camera, and it communicates with the host MCU using the SPI serial interface over the mikroBUS™ socket. The board regarding the RISC 32-bit FT900, which runs on 100MHz and has 256KB of Flash, features the mini USB for further user usage. In addition, there is a Reset button for resetting the FT900 and an RDY pin on the mikroBUS™ socket to signal the camera status.

This Click board™ can only be operated with a 3.3V logic voltage level. The board must perform appropriate logic voltage level conversion before using MCUs with different logic levels. However, the Click board™ comes equipped with a library containing functions and an example code that can be used as a reference for further development.

Specifications

Pinout diagram

This table shows how the pinout on CAMERA Click corresponds to the pinout on the mikroBUS™ socket (the latter shown in the two middle columns).

Notes	Pin					Pin	Notes
	NC	1	AN	PWM	16	NC
	NC	2	RST	INT	15	RDY	Ready Status
SPI Chip Select	CS	3	CS	RX	14	NC
SPI Clock	SCK	4	SCK	TX	13	NC
SPI Data OUT	SDO	5	MISO	SCL	12	NC
SPI Data IN	SDI	6	MOSI	SDA	11	NC
Power Supply	3.3V	7	3.3V	5V	10	NC
Ground	GND	8	GND	GND	9	GND	Ground

Onboard settings and indicators

CAMERA Click electrical specifications