RadioShack® JPEG Color Camera Board

Comments about RadioShack® Camera Shield:

We have evaluated the review from ElectroTinkerz of Houston. After some internal debate, we will agree that he is technically correct. While we deem it a fine line, we have changed the name from camera shield to camera board. We apologize for any confusion and inconvenience.

To all: Support document links are currently inline with the description on the "Product Summary" tab.

Note: A rating is required to submit a review. RadioShack chose the 3-star middle rating, because we felt we should remain neutral. This rating does *not* indicate our assessment of the product's value and reliability.

Comments about RadioShack® Camera Shield:

I've been tinkering with the Arduino for a few years now and was happy to see Radio Shack had a camera shield, only calling it a "shield" is misleading. It does not fit the form-factor of an Arduino shield and the 4 pins required for power and communications are not on the PCB in such a way that it can just be plugged into the Arduino. Semantics aside, the code works. I had to tweak it a bit to work with the Arduino Ethernet Shield, since I didn't have the Seeed SDCard Shield referenced in the documents, but that was pretty simple. The main problem I have with this product, is getting the images to be in focus. The lens screws in and has a very large range of possible distances from the actual shutter. Not only that, but to get it in focus, you either have to solder in the TV-out pins and connect it to a television, or have it take a picture, then check the picture, then adjust the focus length, rinse, repeat. Not very intuitive or quick. I haven't attempted the TV-out or SPI connections yet, but the UART connection works pretty quickly considering how big each image file is.

Comments about RadioShack® Camera Shield:

When I try to get or view the user manual a schematic for "SchmartBoard 12/24-Pin QFP and QFN Adapter (Mechanical Diagram)" instead.

Comments about RadioShack® Camera Shield:

The download from "Click here to download the support PDE files in ZIP format." delivered a zip folder for me today.

Congratulations RS for listening.

Comments about RadioShack® Camera Shield:

Manual that comes with it tells you to get the drivers from the support section at the web site. No luck with that.

Comments about RadioShack® Camera Shield:

The documentation included with the camera is a wiring guide and instructions to visit the website for PDE examples. The download provided, claiming to include PDF documentation and PDE examples, is an EXE. A Windows binary EXE. Has RadioShack not heard of zip compression?