> exclusively for Mac Why not just have it connect as a generic mass-storage device?
The software being exclusive to Mac is apparently a feature in this case.
Show HN: I made a tiny camera with super long battery life
51–60 of 309 posts
Re: Show HN: I made a tiny camera with super long battery life
#52Would this be suitable for strapping on a helmet to take a picture every (other) second on a bike ride and turn into a time lapse video afterwards?
Looks like yes > capture photos at particular times or on certain dates, perfect for time-lapse photography With 50k photos on a single charge you could capture almost 28h of continuous 0.5fps video.
I was wondering about the weight which I couldn't find specified (although at that size it can't be much) and about ways that you could attach a strap to it.
Re: Show HN: I made a tiny camera with super long battery life
#53> exclusively for Mac Why not just have it connect as a generic mass-storage device?
Totally fair question! My reasons were: 1. To maximize Photon's battery life I tried to make the hardware do the absolute minimum to record imagery. To that end, Photon stores images on an unformatted SD card (ie one huge linear array of bytes) which is easy and fast to index into. 2. A 16-bit MSP430 handles writing the image data, and the MSP430's codespace is 99% exhausted without dealing with the complexities of a…
Can I ask why you went with a MSP430?
I'm not judging, they were all the rage in low-power embedded applications 10-15 years ago, just feels weird to see it in a modern design today, when the market now is flooded with low-power ARM chips that are way more capable than that, and probably easier to program.
Re: Show HN: I made a tiny camera with super long battery life
#54>USB-C >just as god intended ???
Not sure about god inventing USB-C but satan definitely invented usb 3.0 micro b
Re: Show HN: I made a tiny camera with super long battery life
#55Cool project, here's a few comments after a quick glance over: - There's no license on the code and design files in the Github repo, thus this currently isn't open source but rather "source-available". If you plan to allow others to modify the code and build their own cameras you should add an appropriate license. - The Mac only support (and it's MacOS only, with no iPad/iPhone support) with a dedicated app to operat…
> Linux support is pretty much a requirement
Support isn't required for linux: I think there will be people who will be keen to hack up Linux support based on the open source code available, and the same with Windows. However if "Dave" wants access a larger market, Windows or even Android support would make sense.
Re: Show HN: I made a tiny camera with super long battery life
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
Totally fair question! My reasons were: 1. To maximize Photon's battery life I tried to make the hardware do the absolute minimum to record imagery. To that end, Photon stores images on an unformatted SD card (ie one huge linear array of bytes) which is easy and fast to index into. 2. A 16-bit MSP430 handles writing the image data, and the MSP430's codespace is 99% exhausted without dealing with the complexities of a…
It's pretty cool that your MSP handles the SD Card directly! Personally I think you should keep the focus on a polished mac app. For other platforms you can do just the bare minimum with a web app that uses WebUSB. People will bitch that it's Chromium only but, I mean, chromium has 95% market share outside Apple world (and I say this as a FF user). A hardware solution could be to add a cheap microcontroller that woul…
>It's pretty cool that your MSP handles the SD Card directly!
SD cards aren't really black magic since they "speak" SPI, meaning people have been interfacing basic microcontrollers to them since forever.
Re: Show HN: I made a tiny camera with super long battery life
#57Your "fine print" is an honest breath of fresh air.
Excellent communication throughout the page!
Re: Show HN: I made a tiny camera with super long battery life
#58> exclusively for Mac Why not just have it connect as a generic mass-storage device?
Totally fair question! My reasons were: 1. To maximize Photon's battery life I tried to make the hardware do the absolute minimum to record imagery. To that end, Photon stores images on an unformatted SD card (ie one huge linear array of bytes) which is easy and fast to index into. 2. A 16-bit MSP430 handles writing the image data, and the MSP430's codespace is 99% exhausted without dealing with the complexities of a…
Thanks for sharing the explanations, and hey it's open source so someone can make a linux version if they want!
Re: Show HN: I made a tiny camera with super long battery life
#59That is neat and your project docs are a fun read.
You'd get a design identity ++ if the dovetail backplate was more similar to ejecting toast. . . .but looks like that isn't in the final anyway.
Did you consider radar[0] instead of PIR with the MPS430?
Re: Show HN: I made a tiny camera with super long battery life
#60> exclusively for Mac Why not just have it connect as a generic mass-storage device?
Totally fair question! My reasons were: 1. To maximize Photon's battery life I tried to make the hardware do the absolute minimum to record imagery. To that end, Photon stores images on an unformatted SD card (ie one huge linear array of bytes) which is easy and fast to index into. 2. A 16-bit MSP430 handles writing the image data, and the MSP430's codespace is 99% exhausted without dealing with the complexities of a…
Ok, so an app is needed to get the data from the device to a computer, and you wanted to focus your efforts on a "polished" Mac app. But why not make a non-polished Windows app as well? Or have someone make it?
Also, is the RAW data specific to the device and if so, why? If the device simply used, say, DNG or TIFF, then decoding could be done by external software, and all your own software would have to do would be to read the SD card and produce RAW files...?