I have been developing an small project for two weeks now using the SSC32 and an standalone bluetooth receiver (Serial Port Connection / RS232). Now I'm able to control my RC Car (home made with Lego) with my mobile phone (Nokia N95).
What I would like to do now is to install a **CHEAP** camera together with my SSC32 and the Bluetooth connection, that means that I have to be able to send and receive data from and to the SSC32 and also the camera using the bluetooth serial port connection. I think the SSC32 has four sensor connections but I don't know if any of them can be used for a serial camera (i.e. CMUcam). I have been reading a lot of information all over the internet and also here but as I'm new in this kind of electronics (and all electronics in general) but good programming I need some help finding the cheap way to build my RC car with camera attached.
Do you know any cheap camera with serial port connection (I hope this connection is the one I need) that can be used with the SSC32, using as output/input port only the one from the SSC32 (Serial port)
Crokis:
**CMUCAM (for example) attached somehow to the SSC32 which is connected to a Bluetooth device (the serial port of the SSC32 is connected to the bluetooth and I would like to keep this configuration if possible)** I have read that there is a way to connect the CMUCAM2+/3 to an AtomBoard which will be connected and communicate to the SSC32 but I don't know how can I connect the Bluetooth Serial Port Device that I have to the CMUCAM. Probably I'm doing everything much complicated but I would like to install a camera together the SSC32 using only one bluetooth device.
Could someone help me out with this??
I really appreciate all post and answers from the people of this community. Thanks!!
The CMUcam runs a serial interface, so it can be connected to the BB2, which accepts serial input. But that’s not raw NTSC, if you mean to put it up on a monitor. You can apparently dump a raw image that could be sent back over the Blue Tooth.
There are no provisions on the SSC-32 for an additional serial interface, and there is no code to support it.
What I need to do is to be able to connect the CMUCAM (or another camera) and the SSC32 together to the same bluetooth device, so I can comunicate with them from my mobile phone (via bluetooth). Nowadays I can comunicate with the ssc32 via bluetooth and also I can comunicate with the camera via bluetooth but both devices separately. I need to connect somehow both devices (ssc32 and the cam) to the same board and then the board to the bluetooth device so I can talk with both devices from the bluetooth attached to the PC or the mobile phone. I need to control the SSC32 from the mobile phone and receive the images from the camera (sent to the mobile phone as well). I have all the code but by now I need to use TWO bluetooth devices and I would like to comunicate with only one.
Thanks again for the answer, I hope this message clarify my question.
I see your dilemma! Can you 'phone handle two bluetooth connections at the same time? If so, I believe you could just use a second bluetooth module on your 'bot. If not, then perhaps some custom switching between the SSC-32 and the CMUCAM.
A multiplexer chip, and a J-K type of flip-flop could have an output bit from the SSC-32 switch over to the CMUCAM, and then a command from the CMUCAM could switch the F-F back to the SSC-32.
If the ssc32 and the cam are both operated in a command/response mode and there are no conflicts in command coding, then you may be able to use both over the same link. If the cam and the ssc32 have differing operating voltages you may need to protect the lower voltage device when a common connection is used.
If they only respond when addressed, then with a chip select on the TX lines, you might get by quite easily. Or adding a TTL buffer for the TX signal of both SSC-32 and CMUCAM could do it. The code of each would have to know when to enable/disable the drivers, 'tho.
I’m no video expert, but I seriously doubt BlueTooth is the best way to view images from a camera. This would only work with a very slow frame rate and very low resolution. If you want to watch the video you might try wifi. TrendNet has a nice wireless wifi camera.
Ok guys, thanks all of you for all the answers but I’m not clear enough with any of them.
Now I have another question for the same thing:
Can I control an Arduino card (just this for example) with my ssc32 using the ssc32 serial port connection? What I mean is to connect the serial cable from the PC to the scc32 and then send a line (a command) to the ssc32 which will tell the arduino card what to do. I think, if possible, in order to do that I will need to connect the Arduino Board to the TTL connection of the ssc32 (I don’t even know how to send the command to the Arduino from the ssc32).
Is it possible to send and receive commands/data, using the ssc32, from and to the Arduino Board?? I know that it is possible to control the ssc32 with the Arduino (or other boards) but I’m not sure about the other way around.
If it is possible to control the Arduino Board with the SSC32 using the TTL connection means that I could connect the CMUCAM to a “Serial to TTL converter” and then to the SSC32 (as the Serial to TTL is bidireccional). Then I will send a command to the CMUCAM through the SSC32 to start sending image and then another command to read the info (DF command to get data). In my case it will be sock.send(“command”) and sock.recv(NUMBER) because I’m using bluetooth (this is what I use to communicate with the SSC32). I found the Serial to TTL convertor at: active-robots.com/products/accessories/act-sib.shtml
CMUCAM(serial)+"(serial)Serial to TTL converter(TTL)"+(TTL)SSC32(serial)+"(serial)Bluetooth standalone device(BT)" <–> (BT)bluetooth of the mobile phone.
Are my questions clear enough??
Thanks again guys!
The ssc-32 has no other general serial capability other than the rs232/ttl connection on the board. As previously mentioned it may be possible to connect the serial connections of other components to the serial connection points on the ssc-32 and use the same wireless rx/tx gizmo. Previous answers have the info on what would be required, so give it a try and see if it works.
Thanks guys. You answered really quick!
Actually I’m not too good developing my own components by now… But I understood that I can try to connect the CMUCAM and the SCC32 to the same connections in the bluetooth receiver because they are using totally different commands (I guess both devices will receive the command at the same time but only one of them will be able to understand it, right?). I’ll try soon.
One more question: do you think that it will be possible to connect a parallel port camera (i.e: compuvisor.com/alparpordigw.html) to the serial bluetooth standalone device?? I can see that the parallel port is using TD and RD cables (2.bp.blogspot.com/_9q0ixLvw75o/SwEhFE0W0-I/AAAAAAAAABg/tSPzG5pFwro/s1600/interfaz-rs-232-c-primera-parte_22683_10_3.jpg) and maybe I could do the same as the CMUCAM (I already have the convertor from Parallel to Serie so I don’t need to make my own cables). I guess I will need to program my own drivers to control the parallel camera which will be a problem using pys60.
Maybe I’m gessing too much but I’m IT-Programmer and not electronics oriented…sorry if I keep bothering
I have read through this a few times. I hesitated to reply cause I wasn’t sure where to start!
Your microcontroller should control everything. The CMUcam should connect to the microcontroller. The SSC-32 also connects to the microcontroller. It’s the microcontroller that communicates with the camera to tell the SSC-32 what to do. Try asking questions based on this control scheme.
I know that I didn’t get into the site for long time but I stopped on going through the web trying to find solutions and started doing the things by myself.
The end of the project is almost done.
Two proyects came out from my first question:
1)Sabertooth 10A Motor Driver + SSC32 (RS232) + Bluetooth-RS232 (BLUEMAX05) connected to N97 via bluetooth + N95
-I created a bluetooth server in pys60 which resides on the N95, activates the camera and sends live video to my nokia N97
-I also developed an app for the N97 with pys60 which receives the video feed from the pys60 bluetooth server from the N95 and displays it on the N97 screen, at the same time I can control the robot sending signals to the BLUEMAX05 from the N97
(N97 is receiving the signal from the N95 camera and sending signal to the SSC32 though BLUEMAX05)
Same as number 1 but using wifi, which is much faster sending the images, can be controlled over internet and has much more range and doesn’t hangs the bluetooth stack…
-All components are the same but the device which is giving the commands to the BLUEMAX05 is the N95 over bluetooth. I developed a small webserver for the N95 so the live feed can be seen from internet and commands sent to the bluetooth can be controlled though the browser of an external device (in this case the browser of my N97)
“3”) I also developed an app in J2ME to control the robot over bluetooth directly for almost all java capable phones in the market (I cannot see the video feed but at least I can move the robot)
I cannot publish pictures but, if you want, you have work from here.
Thanks for the help!
*By the way, it is a crawler from Tamiya with six modified track wheels but in any case a robot. The two tracks from the front and from the back can be independently moved up and down with one servo each and they are tracked from the two track wheels from the midle. robotshop.com/tamiya-remote-rescue-crawler-70169-1.html
