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I'm looking to re-purpose some of my old phone parts to work with Raspberry Pi. Ie camera. Not looking to use the entire phone.

But can't find any documentation anywhere... anyone have experience with this?

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  • Possible duplicate of Camera input from phone to Raspberry Pi
    – Jacobm001
    Mar 25, 2016 at 16:31
  • @Jacobm001, I'm not trying to tether it. I want to just remove the camera from the phone. So re-purpose the parts... not the phone. I should have been more specific.
    – sam yi
    Mar 25, 2016 at 16:40
  • Oh, okay... Would you mind clarifying that in the original post?
    – Jacobm001
    Mar 25, 2016 at 16:42
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    This is a totally crazy idea! I love it!
    – Bex
    Mar 25, 2016 at 16:57

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It's rather unlikely that you'll be able to salvage any parts of a smartphone. While incredibly common, smartphones are an incredible feat of engineering. There are many, many components all packed into a very small space.

The image below is a picture of a Nexus 4 motherboard. The camera is the black thing in the bottom left corner. With the proper equipment and skill, you might be able to remove the camera from the board, but you'd have to somehow figure out which of the chips above it are related to the camera, and develop some kind of driver for it yourself.

This would be a Herculean task, and honestly, one I doubt is possible for you. Buying a USB webcam or RPi camera would be much more advisable.

nexus 4 motherboard

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    Ooh, the camera is so tiny! Just the thought of trying to solder it free from the board makes my fingertips tingle. What about the screen? Are they better standardized? Is it possible to reuse the touch screen and re-purpose it for a RPi, in your opinion?
    – Bex
    Mar 25, 2016 at 17:00
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    @Bex: We've had that asked before, and unfortunately no. The screens vary wildly from device to device, and are usually custom made for the device they're in. If you could find a driver for the screen, it probably wouldn't be that hard, but the companies that make them have no interest in doing so.
    – Jacobm001
    Mar 25, 2016 at 17:03

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