Build Your Own Action Cam With A Raspberry Pi Zero

We've been locked down for some weeks now and although I have been very busy with family, my business and gadget reviews, there was still time for me to have a play with another project which was building my own Action Cam.

I have been a fan of the Raspberry Pi computer since its launch back in 2012. For those of you who don't know what it is, the Raspberry is a single board computer built to promote computer programming in schools and developing countries. These are very small computers which have both HDMI and USB Ports to allow you to connect to a Keyboard, Mouse and Monitor. After downloading the operating system from their website and writing it to a MicroSD, you power it up using a USB cable and you are away!

The Pi comes in different shapes and sizes, the high-end Raspberry Pi 4 being the most powerful and expensive at about £50. For my project, I have used the Raspberry Zero W which is £9.80 and includes WiFi and Bluetooth. The Zero is very small indeed at 66.0mm x 30.5mm x 5.0mm in size. This is a fully functional computer which will run a Chrome web browser and play 1080p HD video!

As well as the Pi computer, there is also a massive range of addon peripherals which connect via various ports, such as a dedicated camera port which I will be using for my project. I specifically need a camera module. I could just plug in a USB webcam, but it will be too bulky, so I have bought an official Pi Camera Version 1.3 which will record Full HD at 30fps and take 5MP stills. This cost me £10 and comes with

2 cables, one for the standard Pi and one for the smaller Pi Zero. I also bought the official Pi Zero Case which comes with 3 different lids for different projects, but importantly one of these is to mount the camera.

Once assembled, I ran two special commands (raspistill and raspivid) which confirmed everything was plugged in ok by record a still 5MP image and a short HD video.

I mounted the camera to my bike helmet by adapting a couple of old GoPro mounts and attaching a small phone power bank to the side of the helmet using velcro. I was then able to power the Pi Zero for some hours using this method.

I then spent a very large amount of time searching Raspberry Pi forums on the web to find the right method for recording video and saving it to MP4. I was also able to live stream video from the Pi to Facebook Live and Youtube and using my phone hotspot I was able to live stream the video whilst riding my bike during my daily exercise.

The Camera works well and after a bit of trial and error, I was able to get good results and the project could be easily utilised as a car dashcam as I was able to configure the video recording to start as soon as the device was powered up.

I am sure that with a little bit more coding, I could have it functioning as a proper helmet cam or dashcam.

The video quality is very good and it is very satisfying to complete a project like this and get the results you are looking for.

If you are interested in building your Pi-powered camera, keep an eye on my website as I will be uploading a proper video over the coming weeks.

Sending you all my very best wishes at this very difficult time.

Review By Matt Porter www.thegadgetman.org.uk