I’m considering adding the Wyze Cam v3 Pro mod on Printables to the P1S, and I’m just wondering if 20FPS is good enough to monitor prints. It doesn’t seem too choppy, and I’m sure it’ll be a lot better than the 0.5FPS of the built-in camera. Is there a better option out there (I’m looking for something which mounts onto the top glass or inside the chamber)?
I’m gonna be honest, if you’re just checking in on the print and making sure it isn’t spaghetti, you don’t really need a new camera. If you wanna record youtube quality timelapses, go for it, but for normal monitoring, you won’t see much improvement.
That question may appear to be subjective to some. However, in the early part of streaming video, the standard for full motion video was a minimum of 15 FPS. Just to put that into perspective, this is how the various full motion video standards stack up:
Video Type | Frame Rate (Frames Per Second, FPS) |
---|---|
Computer-Generated AVI | 15, 24, 30, 60 (customizable) |
Computer-Generated MP4 | 15, 24, 30, 60 (customizable) |
Broadcast TV (NTSC) | 29.97 |
Broadcast TV (PAL) | 25 |
Film (Standard) | 24 |
IMAX (Traditional) | 24 |
IMAX (High Frame Rate) | 48 |
Low-Bandwidth Video | 15 |
As a gamer I can tell you that there is a raging debate about who’s FPS is better. To me it’s a fools errand unless you’re playing competitive First person Shooters. I have a 240 Hz monitor capable of 240 FPS and truth be told, my eyes and brain cannot perceive the difference between that and 60 FPS. However, the P1 series is at best 5 FPS and that is hard to watch but in Chinese parlance it is “Chabuduo” (差不多) or “close enough”.
My personal opinion is you should never use a camera as an alternative to your eyes; if you need to rely on your camera because you’re worried your print has a high chance of failure, then you shouldn’t leave your printer unattended in the first place. That being said, the built-in P1 camera should be enough even for ensuring prints are going well. I know some people prefer to have high quality and frame rates for convenience; as much as I love convenience, I really don’t think modding in a new camera is worth it, because after a while (at least in my experience) you grow to trust your printer enough that you barely ever use the camera and when you do, the built-in one is enough. So, just keep that in mind.
Are you sure you enabled 240hz refresh rate in the settings? It’s under “advanced display” in the display settings tab.
You must be new here, you clearly don’t know @Olias
Well… I guess should go back and RTFM… I mean I must be new at this.
I used to design video equipment and I remember studies done by the military that tried to determine what frame rates were required for realistic flight simulators to completely avoid any flicker and present a “real-time” experience. What I remember from their studies, was that 60 Hz was adequate for most people, but that some people could perceive a different up to about 100 Hz, so 120 Hz kind of became the gold standard there. I have also seen studies that talk about the need for 95 Hz or higher for VR systems to avoid nausea. I have never seen any double-blind studies that found any real difference in human perception for frame rates above 120 Hz, just individual anecdotal accounts. I think it is just specsmanship that higher is better. I really doubt that anyone really can truly perceive a difference between 240 Hz (~4 ms), 180 Hz (~6 ms) and 120 Hz (~8 ms), but I could be wrong.
As far as the OP question, I would agree that anything below 15 Hz will seem choppy, but above will at least feel like you are watching video. But even lower frame rates may be acceptable for monitoring the print. The camera in the A1 mini is more like 1 frame every 2-3 seconds, so it is just a series of snapshots with intra-frame artifacts due to slow scan, and even then, I can usually figure out whether there is a problem or not.
I have parallel experience. In the past, I worked in product development for TCP/IP video distribution technology. The primary use cases were CIC systems for the DoD, broadcast TV control rooms, and, of course, digital signage distribution systems. Our company operated at the cutting edge of this technology.
Like you, we found that there wasn’t any definitive hard science to determine what constituted an acceptable frame rate—or at least, no consensus within the industry about what was necessary. As a result, our guidance to customers was based on who they were, rather than what they were doing. For example, digital signage could function well with frame rates as low as 15-25 FPS. Command Information Control systems might require high frame rates for live video feeds (e.g., drone pilots), but in most cases, they could manage with much lower frame rates.
Fast forward to today’s VR. I own both the original Oculus Rift and the newer HP Reverb G2, which features a 90Hz refresh rate. Truth be told, in VR, you can perceive the difference, but not by much. My primary applications are fast-action flight sims (like Elite Dangerous and Microsoft Flight Simulator), where motion fluidity is important. However, I find that 60Hz is actually a better sweet spot for my preferences. To me, it all boils down to personal preference.
Returning to the topic of Bambu cameras, I’ve been working on a custom ESP32 camera setup to replace the Bambu P1 camera, which doesn’t meet my needs due to poor light handling, color accuracy, and frame rate. Of course, everything is a tradeoff. I’m almost at the point of buying a second Bambu camera upgrade kit and interface board just to reverse engineer it—if for no other reason than to indulge my other hobby.
I believe that many people can perceive the difference between 60 and 100 Hz, at least in their peripheral vision where motion detection is most sensitive (got look out for those saber-tooth cats stalking you!). But above 120, I have severe doubts. I know that I can still detect some flicker at 60 Hz in my peripheral vision, but no flicker at all at 100 Hz.