Raspberry Pi mini monitor
Labrigger has been experimenting with Raspberry Pis. We still find a lot of uses for Arduinos for little jobs around experimental rigs. Their simplicity and predictable performance (no background processes) make them easy to implement and reliable. Given how useful Arduinos have been, it stands to reason that something with more power, like a Raspberry Pi, might be similarly useful.
However, in practice, we haven’t found a lot of use for Raspberry Pis. The platform entails about the same level of complexity as a full computer, without a matching level of computational power. For example, while it’s relatively easy to run a little LCD like this (above) with a Raspberry Pi, it only runs at about 17 fps (see this discussion as well, and this open access report).
Raspberry Pi and similar computer-like packages are interesting, but their uniqueness is largely confined to the small physical footprint and low price. These features are key for making them very useful for some applications, like this recent field research project. How are you using Raspberry Pis in your lab?
I know what you’re saying, I’ve certainly found more uses for an Arduino, especially once you include an Ethernet Shield. However, if you need WiFi, in my experience it’s a lot cheaper to get a Pi+USB dongle than to get Arduino + WiFi shield.
That is the only time I’ve seen a Raspberry Pi get heavy use: as WiFi capable monitor of a -20 freezer via an I2C Temperature sensor.
We’ve been using the Pi with the Pi camera for capturing behavioral data during imaging/recording and behavior. At 30-90fps, frame loss is surprisingly low. Although success to be determined, are working on incorporating real-time object tracking through open CV/Python, which is nice since it can all be done on the Pi. The 2 B model makes quite a difference on processing power…
Thats really cool, Jason! We are trying to use the pi to monitor mouse pupil diameter during behavior. But I am struggling a bit with finding the right lens to mount on the pi so that we can get a good zoomed in view of the eye. I did mange to find a website that sells C- mount adaptors for the pi but finding the right lens is tricky.
Any suggestions/ideas?
Hi Anu,
I know I came across some options a while ago, but you’re probably more up to date. I did however use a cheap iPhone mag-lens to place over it and I 3d-printed a mount for it to use as a low-tech digital microscope with my daughters at home. Magnification is good but working distance is less than 1cm.
http://www.amazon.com/Neewer-Phone-Mobile-Microscope-iPhone/dp/B00A6MTIS2