RPi Camera extension lead? Product suggestion

Discussion Raspberry Pi
1

Here’s a product suggestion for something I’ve been searching for, seemingly for ages and seemingly everywhere: an extension lead for the Raspberry Pi camera.

I don’t mean a longer cable. I’ve already got those.

I mean a short cable that connects to the CSI slot at one end, and is about, let’s say, 3-5cm long (one or two inches) and terminates with pre-fitted, already-soldered-on, CSI/FFC connector so that I can then chain on the original FFC cable to the actual camera (housed as it is in the lovely Pimoroni camera mount, which so neatly fits on top of a Poundland mini tripod).

The reason is, unscrewing Pibow lids is a time-consuming process, and I frequently have to move my Pis in Pibows around, as I run the Cotswold Raspberry Jam.

So if I could just fit a short little cable permanently to the Pi, have it route through the existing Pibow CSI slot, this would made the Pi + Pibow portable, and then allow me to attach or detach the original cable + camera at my convenience, no need to take the lid off.

Taking the lid off and on again drives me literally nuts, those damned nylon nuts & bolts ping off everywhere, and I’m waaay too fat/old to be scrabbling around under desks to retrieve them, that’s assuming my failing middle-aged eyesight can even see them. (Daughter #2 is getting rather good at it, though) Yes, I know I can buy more bolts & nuts. Done that, got those too. Still not as convenient as my idea would be.

Please?

2

This is is certainly possible- I picture a tiny little board with two of those FFC connectors opposite each other, and a couple of screw holes for secure mounting.

I dislike the camera ribbon cable altogether, and wish it was something a bit more… well… designed to be out in the open. I don’t think it’s possible to barrel up all those signals into a nice USB-like cable though :(

3

Yeah. Given that I can already buy 15-way FFC in any length I like, from 3cm to 60cm or more, the bit that actually matters is some kind of coupler.

The soldering involved is waaay too intricate for my fat fingers, though. Hence my desire to purchase something ready-made.

4

It looks like you can buy 15pin through-hole flat-flex connectors which would be much easier to solder- but since they use two rows of offset pins at a 1mm pitch they wouldn’t fit on a proto-board.

It sounds like an idea that one of the smaller players in the Pi community might want to Kickstart- I don’t think there’s any other sensible way to do it, since the market for camera couplers is either very small, or very quiet!

5

Someone’s nailed it! https://www.raspberrypi.org/camera-board-extension/

Case closed :D