Pixy2 Smart Vision Sensor - Object Tracking Camera for Arduino, Raspberry Pi, BeagleBone Black

The pixy2 is a fun little camera that identifies objects by color. It’s a great way to introduce vision concepts. The zumo pixy pet project is pretty easy to follow, assemble and the final little robot is very cute. The biggest problem for me as a small electronics beginner with a CS degree was choosing the correct motors (that is the main reason the robot seems slow in the video). Our FIRST FRC team is using the pixy for this years at home challenges to track big yellow balls. We will likely not use it for on field competitions because the pixy can easily get confused by poor lighting conditions or similar colored objects - it sees & identifies objects by RGB. We’ve had no trouble getting line following to work. The video is line following & sign reading & we change what it does depending on the barcode that we read - the video shows “do a U turn” sign & the U turn was accomplished via dead-reckoning. Every demo program provided works perfectly - no errors & exactly as shown in the example videos. The documentation is excellent & very well done. All together we purchased the pixy (3 for our prototype pixy pet & large robot), 2 pan/tilt mechanisms and the zumo base plus some additional items like ribbon cable to follow the pixy pet project instr. We’re very happy - nice job by charmed labs.

This camera is pretty impressive. Basic functions, well up to a point as it's pre programmed to do much more. I rarely have time to do anything so it took me a while to try it out. I recommend you absolutely buy the servo kit for this and you can see why it's maybe a pricey camera. You need to download some software to run it from your laptop. With the Tilt Servo kit you are then able to use it's real functions. The camera quality is basic and cellphones have not surprisingly better resolution... but cellphones are improving rapidly and lets face it cellphones don't have servo tracking and object or color programming. I mean they can but come on this is cheaper to work with 😂. The camera opened in the program can be adjusted with a few simple clicks and set up. It is able to recognize color. Multiple colors in fact. The LED on the camera will change according to the detected color letting you know what it sees. This can let it track whatever color it recognizes. Best to be in a clearly light area for this. I'll need to try it out some more yes it is worth the money and I'll likely be buying more.

I connected the Pixy camera to my Raspberry Pi 3 B+. It was easy to get it set up by using the instructions on their website. There are examples built into their software. Clarity and color is decent but it really wasn’t designed to make movies. It’s a bit pricey but has lots of features. If you’re looking to just experimenting with the Pixy camera, I would suggest also buying the servo kit so there’s more to test with. This camera doesn’t work well with OpenCV if you’re also playing with that software.

I am a programming mentor for a high-school FIRST robotics team, and we are using this camera to do vision tracking on retro-reflective tape that marks certain target areas for placing game objects. It is used in conjunction with a green LED ring light that makes the tape glow bright green. The camera is connected to a Raspberry Pi 3+ over USB, which is connected to an ARM embedded platform over ethernet. The camera works by recognizing the color (hue) of an object, and is very easy to setup in the provided application. I took the example python program from the manufacturer's website and modified it to work with our design. The camera can run up to 60 fps - we are running about half that fast. There are multiple options for fine tuning object recognition. I didn't rate the camera for image quality as Amazon had listed - the camera was not designed for image recording. It is designed to pass the center X,Y, and width, height of an object, and it does that very well.

I design equipment using vision systems in industrial applications and for the cost of this device it blows me away how capable this product is. I plan to use this along with some serial led light project I built a few months back to paint with in the air in front of the panel rather than with my phone. I can make a magic wand with a multicolor led wand and have this camera translate that to coordinates on the grid. Super easy setup. Took around 10 minutes to get this setup and running. The key to this working is contrast. Just remember that bright standout colors will work much better than low key. This will be a great product that I plan to utilize in many projects to come!

Excellent, works good

I am a long time technologist and am stunned at the changes that have taken place. The Pixy2 is one of the examples of great technology leaps. I have just started on my adventure with Pixy2 and am excited to discover it’s full potential. Thank you Charmed Labs

Used this for a class project where the robot had to follow a target. Did a great job without all of the heart ache of having to develop the software. Do know that an Arduino can not directly power it. It required its own power supply in my project to function correctly. Also I did encounter this error where the pixy would not respond some of the time. It was fixable by booting it up in a specific way, though its been a while since i did it so i forget the exact process.