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Happyarch edited this page Jun 7, 2026 · 3 revisions

Raspberry Pi Microscopy

A minimal Raspberry Pi 3 OS image and C++ camera application for microscopy. The system boots directly into a full-screen live viewfinder with a Sony Alpha–style OSD — no desktop, no terminal prompt.

Features

  • Full-screen YUV420 live viewfinder via libcamera and SDL2 (KMS/DRM, no X11)
  • Sony Alpha–style OSD: mode, shutter, ISO, focus, aperture, stills counter, recording timer
  • Exposure modes: P (full auto) · A (aperture priority) · S (shutter priority) · M (full manual)
  • 17-stop shutter ladder (2 s → 1/32000 s) and 7-step ISO ladder (100 → 6400)
  • Manual focus stepping, AF toggle
  • Still capture (JPEG) and video recording (MKV, hardware H.264 via VideoCore IV)
  • Camera mode list: select resolution live from a scrollable OSD overlay
  • Configurable crop margins to hide microscope mounting frames
  • Rebindable key map via INI config file
  • Hold-to-quit (5 s) and hold-to-help (3 s) overlays

Pages

Page Contents
Hardware Setup Supported hardware, wiring, and first-boot checklist
Building How to build the binary and OS image from source
Configuration Full microscopi.conf reference
Controls Default key bindings and exposure mode guide

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