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News<br />
FEATURE<br />
PI ZERO<br />
REVISION<br />
The Pi Zero is back in production and now comes with a camera connector<br />
PI EYE IN THE SKY<br />
To celebrate the launch of the new Pi Zero on<br />
16 May, Dave Akerman launched one of them<br />
– with Camera Module attached – in a highaltitude<br />
balloon. As it soared from a Herefordshire<br />
field to the edge of space at an altitude of over<br />
34km, some spectacular shots were captured<br />
(magpi.cc/1XeuQCO).<br />
F<br />
or anyone trying to get<br />
their hands on a Raspberry<br />
Pi Zero, there’s doubly<br />
good news. Not only is the smallest<br />
Pi model back in stock, due to a<br />
new production run of 250,000<br />
units, but it comes with an extra<br />
feature: a new port to connect the<br />
Raspberry Pi Camera Module. This<br />
opens up a whole range of new<br />
possibilities for miniature projects<br />
using a camera.<br />
To fit the diminutive form factor<br />
of the Zero, the camera port is<br />
slightly smaller than the CSI one<br />
on other Raspberry Pi models.<br />
Therefore, a special adapter cable<br />
is required to connect it to the<br />
wider connector on the standard<br />
Raspberry Pi Camera Module<br />
(including the NoIR). The new<br />
custom cable is flexible, 15cm<br />
(6 inches) long, and costs £4/$5 –<br />
the same price as the Zero itself.<br />
While stressing that this is a<br />
revised version of the Pi Zero and<br />
not a brand new model, since<br />
the rest of the board is unchanged,<br />
Raspberry Pi founder Eben Upton<br />
is pleased that a recent hiatus in<br />
the production for the miniature<br />
model, during the run-up to the<br />
Pi 3 launch in February, enabled<br />
the team to add the new camera<br />
connector. Asked whether this<br />
was something they wanted to<br />
include originally, Eben admits:<br />
“No… It’s a thing we didn’t think<br />
we could add.” More recently,<br />
however, following feedback from<br />
users requesting the feature, they<br />
realised they could fit a small<br />
camera connector to the righthand<br />
edge of the board.<br />
CAMERA ADAPTER<br />
Through “dumb luck”, it was discovered that<br />
the same fine-pitch FPC connector used on the<br />
Compute Module IO Board just fits onto the righthand<br />
edge of the Pi Zero board. Instead of using<br />
the Compute Module’s optional PCB adapter to<br />
connect to a Camera Module, however, a flexible<br />
custom cable has been designed. As well as being<br />
sleeker and more practical for miniature projects,<br />
it’s less costly at £4/$5. Like the new Zero itself, the<br />
cable is available now from the usual Pi retailers.<br />
6 June 2016<br />
raspberrypi.org/magpi
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