3D-printed PIKON camera
YouTuber Kevin McAleer wanted a portable, sturdy all-in-one Raspberry Pi-powered camera, so he designed one himself. Meet PIKON.
Kevin was inspired by the DSLR camera he looks at every time he livestreams, so he set about creating something a bit like it in Fusion 360.
His plan was to be able to use this a high quality webcam, as well as something he can take outside and take good pictures with.
What’s inside?
- Raspberry Pi 4
- Raspberry Pi High Quality Camera Module
- Wide-angle lens for the camera from Pimoroni
- Waveshare 3.5″ display (connects directly to a Raspberry Pi via GPIO)
- NanoWave battery pack (“powers the Pi for hours,” Kevin says)
Everything is held together inside a 3D-printed chassis. The shutter button is also custom-made. And the adorably titled Bottom (linked from the original project post) is what you need to print to keep everything inside the chassis.
Give the project video a watch to find out how Kevin made everything, in real time, on one of his livestreams.
Upgrades
Kevin plans to build a Python app that can run on the Raspberry Pi 4 that’s tucked inside the chassis. He hopes it will be able to record video clips and photos, and apply filters. And seeing as he’s used a “full blown” Raspberry Pi 4, he wants to livestream from this camera too.
Kevin is also up for tweaking his design, so drop a comment below if you have an idea to make the chassis better or more durable.
Open source fun for everyone
All of Kevin’s projects are open source. If you want to make your own PIKON, you can download the STL files for free.
6 comments
Aaron watkins
Hey. I have some code I’ve been working on that could be the app. Would be happy to work together on coming up with something. It takes pictures, videos, pictures. And Timelapse. It behave a lot like I imagine a digital camera would. Reach out to my email if interested. My app is like 3/4 finished but it’s using the old python camera code so would need to be ported to new python camera code
Vorms
Hello,
I am very intersted about your developpement. My friend work a lot to understand OpencV. If you can add timestamp in image it can be very good !
Please keep me in touch !
Andrew Powers
Just Printed the Case ( had to do modifications because couldn’t order the battery here in the US) and now focused on the GUI, so would know if you guys have jumped on that python coded version. Would be much appreciated building a youtube channel so will be able to do shout out soon.
Gabriel Naranjo
It would be great if the ports of the Pi could be flush with the case (easier access, looks better)
Gabriel Naranjo
A version with the large lens mount inside the case, and only the black ring protruding would be a great improvement.
MyAnimeGuru
I am shocked to see how advanced we have become in the field of 3d printing.
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