I Did It My Way

After one learns a thing or two about hardware, they will never see a device in quite the same way again. Every new gadget purchase will be disassembled and inspected as a matter of course, and every design feature will be scrutinized. Understanding modern technology at this level is a very valuable skill, but it can also have some unintended side effects. In particular, nothing will ever seem to be exactly what one is looking for — this could be changed, that could be moved, and a few additional bells and whistles really should have been included.

Machinist and hardware hacker Trevor Flowers knows this feeling all too well, and as we all do from time to time, let it get under his skin. In his case, the problem was cameras. Nothing quite fit the bill for his ideal vlogger’s camera for people who want to hack their own software and sensors. So, Flowers decided to create a custom camera design that would be everything he wanted it to be. And for this reason, the camera was given the tongue in cheek name My Dang Camera.

The design goals are a bit loose to give Flowers room to experiment and see how various options pan out in real-world use. In general, My Dang Camera is to have a 3D printed case that feels nice in the hand, should use custom PCBs to handle button and jog wheel inputs, should have a nice user interface based on existing open source software, and should be flexible in terms of single-board computers and sensors that it uses. My Dang Camera also must have a flip-around display, and the integration should not be too tight to allow for the easy swapping of components.

The project is coming along nicely, but there is still much work to be done. If you have an interest in experimenting with customizable cameras, this project is well worth following.