Hello friends! Our Pixy camera is connected and PixyMon is working, so we can now teach the camera which colour we want it to detect. In this tutorial, we will select a blue region on a globe, store it as a signature and refine the detection when other parts of the scene also match. We are using the original Pixy CMUcam5 and its matching PixyMon software. The screenshots belong to that setup. If you have Pixy2, use its corresponding software and instructions rather than assuming that every menu and parameter is identical. The most useful idea to understand before starting is that we are teaching a colour signature. We are not teaching the camera the meaning of a globe or asking it to recognize every globe regardless of colour. Once that distinction is clear, the results and their limitatio ...
Hello friends! We have prepared the original Pixy camera and installed PixyMon. In this tutorial, we will put the camera into its firmware programming mode, select the correct firmware file and check that it returns to normal operation afterward. This procedure applies to the original Pixy CMUcam5. The images show the earlier update performed for this series, including a 2.0.17 firmware file. They remain useful for understanding the sequence, but that filename should not be treated as a permanent recommendation. We will choose firmware from the original camera's official resources and keep its role separate from the desktop application and Arduino library. That distinction prevents a common mistake: downloading a newer-looking file for different hardware and assuming it is an upgrade for t ...
Hello friends! In the previous tutorial, we prepared the Pixy camera and identified its cables. Now we will install PixyMon, the desktop application that lets us view the camera image and configure the original Pixy CMUcam5. We will follow the Windows installation sequence shown in the original screenshots, explain the USB driver stage, and check that the camera can communicate with the application. The screenshots are historical, so the appearance of an installer or Windows notification may differ on your computer. This article concerns the original Pixy, not Pixy2. Choose software for the board you own before starting. A successful installation of the wrong product's application does not establish compatibility with your camera. Figure: PixyMon installation for the original Pixy camera. ...
Hello friends! Today we will get started with the Pixy camera and understand how it can add colour-based vision to a microcontroller project. Before connecting it to a robot, we will identify the board, choose the correct cables and establish what information the camera can actually provide. The board in this tutorial is the original Pixy CMUcam5, often called Pixy1. Its software, firmware and Arduino library belong to that product generation. If you have Pixy2, use its own documentation and downloads; similar names do not make the two software packages interchangeable. Our first objective is simple: connect the original camera to a computer, view a useful scene, and prepare it to recognize a coloured target. Once that works, we can pass compact detection results to Arduino and decide how ...
