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I am using the Waveshare RPi Camera (F), which comes with two IR LED boards to enable nightvision (they look like two big eyes on either side of the camera 'nose' - at least that's what it looks like to me).

RPi Camera (F) with IR LED boards attached

Both of these LEDs get very hot. Waveshare recommends installing heatsinks (which I have); however, I would also like to turn off the power supply to the Camera Serial Interface so that it is not consuming power when not in use.

Is this possible? If so how do I do it, and would this be something I could easily incorporate into a python script to switch it on again?

I have tried simply disabling the camera in config, but power still goes to the LEDs.

There are no switches on the LED boards, they simply draw power through the camera.

I am using Raspberry Pi 2 B+ running latest Raspbian. A similar question came up in my search but no answers, so I have given some more specific information in my question.

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Deleuze
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4 Answers4

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To the best of my knowledge the CSI camera connector's 3.3V pin is connected directly to the Pi's 3.3V pin. There's no way of shutting that off in software.

From the photo you've posted, the easiest thing I can think of is adding a physical switch or relay between the LED boards and the camera board. It's just a positive and ground connection on each side, so it shouldn't be too complicated to rig a couple of bits of perfboard or similar between the sections to allow you to switch the LEDs off.

goobering
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An inspection of the published schematics will show that the 3.3V is directly connected to the camera.

Inless the camera module includes some power control, there is no way of controlling it from the Pi.

Milliways
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My colleague has solved this problem by powering the LEDs not from the camera module but from the Raspberry's GPIO pins, enabling/disabling them when needed by a Python script - I think there is a multitude of other ways to control GPIO outs. The downside to this is that you'll need a bit of additional wiring, and the LEDs have to be separate from the camera module, or you should put some non-conducting material between the LED and camera modules if you want to keep them physically connected.

Andrey Tkachenko
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You usually can do this in the panel they provide if you type in console :

sudo raspi-config

If you need to do it without the panel, check this :

How can I enable the camera without using raspi-config?

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qwert
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