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I need some help with a camera — Parallax Forums

I need some help with a camera

roughwireroughwire Posts: 78
edited 2007-01-09 00:57 in BASIC Stamp
·I need some help, I have to re-wire a lego· pc camera so I can make it blue tooth and/or wireless so I can place this cam on top of my boe bot... The end is a usb jack. I'll probably hook up the bot with some ir recievers and a universal remote so it can move. Is it possible to convert?

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MIKE

Comments

  • Vern GranerVern Graner Posts: 337
    edited 2007-01-08 19:47
    roughwire said...
    I need some help

    We noticed... Based on the shouting you did in the subject line of this post... smile.gif For what it's worth, its considered good practice to avoid using all upper case as it is seen as "shouting" and is considered inappropriate. SO.. on to the question:
    roughwire said...
    I have to re-wire a lego pc camera so I can make it blue tooth and/or wireless so I can place this cam on top of my boe bot... The end is a usb jack. I'll probably hook up the bot with some ir recievers and a universal remote so it can move. Is it possible to convert?

    The answer to the question "is it possible" is yes. However, the real question is "is it practical" and that answer would be "no". Converting a USB camera to composite video and then marrying it to a video transmitter is decidedly non-trivial.

    If what you are wanting to do is to "see" from the boe-bots point of view, by viewing the image transmitted from a small camera on the boebot, it would be simplest to use something like this:

    http://preview.tinyurl.com/ynyso7

    This is a small "sugar cube" sized wireless camera that can be attached to your boebot. I've used on very similar to this for a number of years. It works well. smile.gif

    Vern

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    Vern Graner CNE/CNA/SSE    | "If the network is down, then you're
Senior Systems Engineer    | obviously incompetent so why are we
Texas Information Services | paying you? Of course,if the network
http://www.txis.com        | is up, then we obviously don't need
Austin Office 512 328-8947 | you, so why are we paying you?" ©VLG
  • Steve JoblinSteve Joblin Posts: 784
    edited 2007-01-08 21:11
    I purchased one of these tiny cameras, but have ran into a few issues...

    1. If I hook up the camera using the AC wall adapter, it works great... when I hook it up using a 9V transistor battery, I get nothing... I checked all the connections and tried it with several fresh good 9V batteries, but nothing... any ideas?

    2. I have an old 9" black and white television that works great and I would like to use it as my "monitor", but it has no video inputs (it is so old, that it has a rotary dial for selecting TV channels)... is there a "converter" that I could connect to the antenna inputs on the TV that would enable me to input the video signal?

    3. I also have a laptop... is there a PCMCIA card that allows for video input so that I could use my laptop as a monitor?
  • Mike GreenMike Green Posts: 23,101
    edited 2007-01-08 21:19
    1) The power drain may be too much even for a fresh 9V battery. Make sure you're using an alkaline battery (they have higher current capacity).
    2) These are getting harder and harder to find (RF video modulators).
    3) Yes, do a web search for PCMCIA video input cards. There are also USB 2.0 devices that work well if your laptop has USB 2.0. There are some USB 1.1 devices as well.
    Eskape Labs and El Gato Software each make one for the Macintosh, but others make similar units for Windows.
  • Chris SavageChris Savage Parallax Engineering Posts: 14,406
    edited 2007-01-08 21:21
    Steve,

    On question number 1, with the 9V battery connected do you measure voltage at the connector?

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    Chris Savage
    Parallax Tech Support
  • Robert KubichekRobert Kubichek Posts: 343
    edited 2007-01-08 21:26
    Steve Joblin said...
    I purchased one of these tiny cameras, but have ran into a few issues...

    1. If I hook up the camera using the AC wall adapter, it works great... when I hook it up using a 9V transistor battery, I get nothing... I checked all the connections and tried it with several fresh good 9V batteries, but nothing... any ideas?

    2. I have an old 9" black and white television that works great and I would like to use it as my "monitor", but it has no video inputs (it is so old, that it has a rotary dial for selecting TV channels)... is there a "converter" that I could connect to the antenna inputs on the TV that would enable me to input the video signal?

    3. I also have a laptop... is there a PCMCIA card that allows for video input so that I could use my laptop as a monitor?


    1) What is the specs of the AC wall wart??

    2) Yes, there are, and they are available, look at the old Playstation adapters, + several surplus parts sites have em as well..

    3) There are several ways to go about this, you could use a USB video recorder/adapter, or you might find the same thing in a PCMCIA card as well..

    Bob scool.gif
  • Steve JoblinSteve Joblin Posts: 784
    edited 2007-01-08 21:30
    Chris: yep... I did a complete continuity check to make sure the connector was not damaged... darndest thing!

    It has been a while since·I was playing with it, but I·did a volt meter check and the 9v battery was more than what the AC Adapter·actually provided (by a volt or two)... I'll check the full specs on the wallwart when I get home...

    Post Edited (Steve Joblin) : 1/8/2007 9:35:46 PM GMT
  • allanlane5allanlane5 Posts: 3,815
    edited 2007-01-08 22:03
    You know you have to check the voltage "under load", right?

    As in, connect the wall-wart to the device, then check the voltage with the volt meter. Then connect the 9-volt to the device, and check the voltage with the voltmeter. The 9-volt must be connected to both the device, AND the voltmeter, at the same time.
  • Steve JoblinSteve Joblin Posts: 784
    edited 2007-01-09 00:57
    Allanlane5: learn somthin' new every day! did not know to do that...

    Well, the only way for me to check was to take the camera transmitter apart (that was fun!)... looks like when I attached the wall wart I was getting the same 8 volt readings... I then hooked up the battery and also got 8 volt readings... that's interesting I thought... so I closed everything back up and hooked it up... got a nice clean picture when I used the wallwart... ... and ta da! got a nice clean picture when I used the battery!

    I could swear that I played and played with this thing for hours and could not get it to work... now, it works... obviously the power of Parallax (Chris), Mike, Robert, and AllanLane5 was just the trick! Strangest thing! Remember how Nuts & Volts used to always have that little "Fuzz" gremlin lurking somewhere on the cover of each issue... he must have moved inside my camera module... when I opened it up, he escaped, and now it works!

    Thanks all for your help!
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