Question: Can anyone provide direction for technical problems using the lego spectrometer thanks

Unfortunately the web based spectralworkbench.org hasn't been modified to work with the raspberry pi camera yet, as it's going to be a bit complicated. But you can download software from the #pi-builder project to access the camera via WiFi and download the image, then switch networks to upload it again to the website... Not ideal but it will definitely work. 

If folks are interested we may be starting a project soon to try to get the pi camera running in a more integrated way with the online software. We wish pi cameras could be set up to run as a normal USB webcam but nobody's figured that out yet! There is theoretically a way with "Linux gadget mode" that's been explored but I've never seen it successfully implemented. In the meantime the best next step to smooth the process may be to get the raspberry pi to join the same WiFi network and connect to it that way, OR to get spectral workbench running on the pi itself, but then people will be less able to connect to the rest of the spectral workbench database because the pi won't be connected to the broader internet. Oof. 

Thanks for your interest though! The "download, switch WiFi network, upload" workflow is the best way for the time being, I think. 

On Sat, Nov 10, 2018, 11:39 AM \<notifications@publiclab.org wrote:

Public Lab contributor mblumhar just asked a question entitled ' Can anyone provide direction for technical problems using the lego spectrometer thanks':

Help them by posting an answer here: https://publiclab.org/questions/mblumhar/11-10-2018/can-anyone-provide-direction-for-technical-problems-using-the-lego-spectrometer-thanks

---

I apologize if this is the incorrect forum, if so please point me in the right direction. We assembled raspberry pi lego spectrometer using the Pi NoIR Camera Module V2. We installed the latest version of Raspbian. The camera works fine with picamera. Our browsers (chromium and firefox) are both set to allow camera access. When we run web based spectralworkbench it indicates it is still awaiting camera access. We downloaded spectral workbench.py and have been unable to get that to work. Any suggestions would be much appreciated thanks

---

You received this email because you are subscribed to some or all of the following tags: question:general,first-time-poster.

To change your preferences, please visit https://publiclab.org/subscriptions.

Report spam and abuse to: moderators@publiclab.org

Check out the blog at https://publiclab.org/blog | Love our work? Become a Public Lab Sustaining Member today at https://publiclab.org/donate
Reply with the email you use at PublicLab.org and your comment will be posted to the website.

Regular USB webcam works with the raspberry pi so that is another work around. I will find another use for the pi camera. I am happy to support Public Lab, I have no "buyers remorse" and I look forward to purchasing other Public Lab projects. That said perhaps the Public Lab store could be a bit more transparent and provide a bit more direction regarding the software challenges using its Lego Spectrometer Kit with Raspberry Pi Camera and Raspberry Pi which is currently priced at $85. Thanks very much.

Hi, @mblumhar - thanks for the suggestion. I think it makes sense.

I've isolated out the code which would need to be ported in order to get this working more smoothly: https://github.com/publiclab/spectral-workbench.js/issues/56

If you are comfortable using JavaScript, something like the following may be a way to open a SpectralWorkbench page, disconnect and reconnect to the Pi network, and get images from the Pi arriving on the capture interface:

We also have recently gotten in some nicer quality webcams which we would be happy to exchange your Pi camera with. The ones that ship with our most affordable kit are fine, but don't have great noise characteristics. If you'd be willing to try out the new one, it would be helpful to advancing the kit, and we'd be grateful!

Regular USB webcam works with the raspberry pi so that is another work around. I will find another use for the pi camera. I am happy to support Public Lab, I have no "buyers remorse" and I look forward to purchasing other Public Lab projects. That said perhaps the Public Lab store could be a bit more transparent and provide a bit more direction regarding the software challenges using its Lego Spectrometer Kit with Raspberry Pi Camera and Raspberry Pi which is currently priced at $85. Thanks very much.