Compatible Hardware

This is a list of tested and recommended Hardware. Recommended means it has been tested by the developers and works well (presumably out of the box). This is not a complete list of all compatible Hardware, but if you run into issues, consider using something that has been extensively tested.

Recommended¶

Raspberry PI Zero 2 W
Cat 1, 4G Modem hat (comes in EU and US versions, with and without GPS) - Explicitly tested firmware versions: AirM2M_780EU_V1138_LTE_AT
PiCam V3 (Wide) - only cam so far with HDR
INA231 - smallest breakout board for the INA current/voltage sensor

Cameras¶

Cam	Pros	Cons	Setup	Settings
Raspberry Pi Cam V3	+ HDR + different FOV options + No IR option for darkness + good noise handling + high resoluiton (12MP)	- autofocus (*) - expensive	Works out of the box	Brightness, Sharpness, Contrast, Saturation, Focus (Auto & Manual), Exposure (Auto & Manual), Gain (Auto & Manual)
Arducam 12MP IMX708	+ HDR + M12 lens (**) + small PCB + high resoluiton (12MP)	- availability - expensive	additional Setup	Brightness, Sharpness, Contrast, Saturation, Focus (Manual), Exposure (Auto & Manual), Gain (Auto & Manual)
OV5647	+ fixed focus + Inexpensive + M12 lens (**)	- low resolution (5MP) - no HDR - pyhsical size	Works out of the box	Brightness, Sharpness, Contrast, Saturation, Exposure (Auto & Manual), Gain (Auto & Manual)
IMX219	+ fixed focus + Inexpensive + M12 lens (**) +physical size	- medium resolution (8MP) - no HDR	additional Setup	Brightness, Sharpness, Contrast, Saturation, Exposure (Auto & Manual), Gain (Auto & Manual)

(*) Autofocus is a downside for our use-case because the lens assembly will shake during operation
(**) M12 lenses are a standard and can be exchanged for other lenses

Additional Setup¶

Some cameras require additional setup to work at all, or have some recommended additional settings.

Arducam 12MP IMX708¶

Although this camera uses the same chipset as the RPi Cam v3, there are still some hardware differences that will not allow for the Arducam version to be picked up automatically and instead needs an overlay to be enabled. In order to do this, switch to RW mode and add the following line to /boot/firmware/config.txt:

dtoverlay=imx708

Optionally change the existing line in /boot/firmware/config.txt:

autodetect=0

After rebooting, make sure that the camera is picked up properly:

dmesg | grep imx708

This should show output similar to following

[   12.173300] imx708 10-001a: camera module ID 0x0302

NOTE: Do not forget to switch back to RO mode once you are done.

OV5647 (Picamera V1.3, Bewinner)¶

This was the chip being used for the Picamera v1.3. Lots of generic options exist on Ali-Express. Generally speaking, IMX219 options will always be better than this one, so unless you already have one of those lying around, there is little upside of getting one of those.

IMX219 (Arducam 8MP, generic Ali-Express options)¶

There are a lot of IMX219 based cameras you can find on Ali-Express for very little money.

Although this camera uses the same chipset as the RPi Cam v2, there are still some hardware differences that will not allow for the Arducam version to be picked up automatically and instead needs an overlay to be enabled. In order to do this, switch to RW mode and add the following line to /boot/firmware/config.txt:

dtoverlay=imx219

Optionally change the existing line in /boot/firmware/config.txt:

autodetect=0

Rotating Image¶

If you can only mount your camera upside down, you can rotate the image by adding the following overlay in /boot/firmware/config.txt after changing RW mode:

For IMX708 based cameras (they are usually rotated by 180 degrees):

camera_auto_detect=0
dtoverlay=imx708,rotation=0

For OV5647 based cameras:

camera_auto_detect=0
dtoverlay=ov5647,rotation=180

NOTE: Do not forget to switch back to RO mode once you are done.

Tested¶

SBCs¶

Our main platform is the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W but you can also use:

RPi 3 (3B, 3B+ and 3A)
RPi 4 (B)

Modems¶

Cat 1, 4G Modem hat with GPS (Variant: Zero-4G-CAT1-GPS) - Default frequency bands are set for the Chinese (Asian) market: 1, 3, 8, 34, 38, 39, 40, 41

Voltage Sensor¶

INA266 - slightly bigger than the INA231, but more readily available on places like Amazon

V3xctrl PCB¶

If you are using the v3xctrl PCB, you need to set Shuntresistance to 5 milliohm and the Max Expected Current to 16A to get correct power draw readings.

Potential Candidates¶

The following components are expected to work but have not been explicitly tested.

SBC¶

Any multi-core Raspberry Pi (or alternative SBC) with at least 512MB of RAM should be sufficient. A hardware encoder for H.264 is required.

Modems¶

Any 4G modem that provides an RNDIS interface should work.

It is strongly recommended to use a modem that also provides a serial interface for querying modem stats via AT commands. Without this, features like reception monitoring, signal quality reporting, and band limitation configuration will not work.

Cat 4, 4G Modem hat with GPS (SIM7600G-H 4G HAT)

Cameras¶

Technically, any compatible camera should work. However, we recommend the PiCam V3 (Wide version) as it is currently the only camera that supports HDR, which helps with difficult lighting conditions.

If HDR is not important for your setup, any PiCam, ArduCam, or compatible clone should work. We recommend choosing one with a decent FOV (Field of View).