man, I hate SMDs. After a lot of struggling I finally managed to build a PCB and finish the microscope build.
Photo of a beetles claw, taken with the PCB illumination.
Same claw, taken with an improvised illumination.
Does anyone know how to remove the saved shading table? I feel like I need a fresh start.
@mzedp that is great progress. From the other thread Camera error help - General - OpenFlexure Forum, have you now lost the camera connection completely or is it still a colour problem? The issue might be related to the SD card installation. They are a bit if a weak link in the Pi system. If you have a new SD card then that is worth trying. 64GB should not be a problem, the Raspberry Pi Imager deals with it.
If your camera is working, then it would be helpful to see the image without calibration. Go to settings > camera and at the bottom there is a button the Disable Flat Field Correction. It is visible in the screenshot in your post 20 on this thread. on that screenshot there is an image that looks pretty much exactly as I would expect without any adjustments before flat field correction and certainly without adjusting colour channels.
Camera calibration going green was an issue that we had in previous versions of the server, but @r.w.bowman made changes that remedied it and I have not seen the issue recur. You should never need to use the Pi camera settings directly, the auto calibration should deal with it, and then auto gain & shutter speed if you need to adjust for a dimmer or brighter sample.
Hi @WilliamW and @Nico - thanks so much for all the help so far!
My camera is working now, so it’s just a color problem at this point (the camera is also lower res than recommended, 5MP instead of 8MP so I’ll have to upgrade eventually).
I’ll try with the new SD card and will report back, thanks for the tip!
Edit: Here’s what I see when I disable flat field correction -
Which camera module is it that you have got exactly? The software is designed to work with the Pi Camera V2.1. This allows the lens shading and colour correction to work, but unfortunately it mostly does not work at all with other modules, and certainly not reliably. For example the Pi camera V1 and V3 do not work.
The next iteration of the software will all being well allow it to work with other cameras, but until then unfortunately only the Pi camera V2.1 is supported.
I guess this is a V1 - “OV5647” - I had originally bought it for another project, and had a V2 for this one, but it didn’t work. Guess I’ll need a new V2.1… unless that software update is coming soon? 
Pi Camera V1 certainly will not work properly. I tried one by mistake a while ago, I had taken it out of an old project and did not check the version. I am actually surprised you get as far as you have done with the V1.
If it was a new V2 I am a little surprised that it has stopped working. They are usually reliable, although if you unplug them when the Pi is on that can be a problem.
This is why we aim to keep electronics work-arounds that are compatible with manual assembly, for both a Sangaboard compatible motor controller and a standard 5mm LED illumination. Hand building does not scale well, so the SMD versions are good for production.
I know - I played myself on this one, over-complicating it and using the wrong tools for the job.
Plus, I’m sure I did it the wrong way around (went to connect the LED last and didn’t have room on the board to solder it - could’ve been easier if I started from the LED).
But hey, I did this as a learning experience, and learn I did - I had never before ordered PCB’s online or made an SMD circuit.
I just ordered a couple of V2.1 cameras, as well as a cheap 100X objective and some immersion oil.
Looking forward to seeing what I can see!
Alright! Gonna call this build thread a wrap, now that I’ve finally got a v2.1 camera installed, my microscope is working perfectly. Thanks for the help, and the awesome work!
The build proved a bit more complex than what I think my contacts back home would be able to replicate, so I’ll give a try to the simple version next.
Here’s an image of the beetles claw used as reference at the begining, after installing the proper camera.
Just to let you know, in case you reach this post, that I probably have figured out how to adjust the configuration of V1 cameras. Please, take a look at RPi 1B + PiCamera V1.3 - Auto Calibration (SOLVED!)
