Very nice.
Keep up the good work. What programming language and microcontroller you using?
Chris
He is using a small single board computer.
I have the perfect sink for you… A passive Pentium II heatsink. They’re 6"x2-4" generally 1-1.5" thick. I literally have dozens and can post some pics and send one if you really want. My guess is that you can find at least one hanging around somewhere.
Also… What model ITX did you end up with?
Tillin, Sorry I missed this post yesterday.
I went with a Via EPIA ME6000 600MHz fanless, and am using a picoPSU 60-WI for an ATX output DC-DC converter. Currently have a 10GB HDD hooked up but will move to just a 4GB CF card once I have worked out the software issues. right now I’m at about a 2GB image but don’t have any interface applications loaded yet.
The heatsink you mention is the old slot CPU style sinks? I probably have one in a box so I’ll take a look. It’s a good idea if I can make it fit the body.
Seperate issue/development, I picked up a MS VX-3000 webcam last night ($45-$15 rebate). It seemed to work alright although it max’d the CPU to run locally at 640x480. Not sure if that’s just how the video on the MB is implemented or something else. It’s only connecting at USB full-speed data rate (12MB/s) so it doesn’t seem like there should be a bandwidth issue. Anyway, I determined I am going to need to add a lamp up at the camera. I’ve got a bunch of white LEDs left over from a project that should do nicely. Nice observation I made is the webcam is attached to it’s bracket/clip by a single screw so I can easily attach it to a servo bracket. I’ll probably need to use a small pad of double sided tape between the camera and bracket for anti-rotation. It’s small and light enough that I don’t think I’ll need to gut it out of its case. I might pick at building the rest of the arm and pan/tilt this week, or next weekend at the latest.
I still need to figure out what software to use to allow me to serve the camera output to my host PC via an the wireless LAN, and something to run as the client on the host PC of course. Finding something that works and is still lean and mean and to the point will probably be the challenge. 
Hi EddieB
I have a few quick questions… for your ITX…
can the cpu run without the CPU Fan or you are required to use heatsink.
What OS are you runnning.
I still need to figure out what software to use to allow me to serve the camera output to my host PC via an the wireless LAN, and something to run as the client on the host PC of course.
Can you explain this…I don’t really understand…what you mean.
Thank
There is no fan on the main board just a large heatsink that goes across the CPU, presumably the northbridge chip, and… something else possibly part of it’s VRM. I’ve had it pegged at 100% utilization for close to an hour and you could still touch the heatsink. OS currently is win xp pro, with a bunch of stuff turned off and removed from the default installation.
The way I am approaching this project is to make a remote operated vehicle, aka ROV, where I control it from a desktop PC. The ROV itself has the small mini-ITX, a wireless network adapter, and the various interfaces to sensors, motors, servos, and currently a webcam. So I am writing some code to handle the interface to everything but the webcam. The simplest thing I can think of to operate the webcam is to put a webcam server app on the ROV and connect to it with client on the host PC and just have the video display running in a window on one of the monitors. I could probably just use the livechat application (or whatever it’s called) that is bundled with the VX3000 but MS is not well known for making small simple applications that don’t take several hundred MB of disk space and RAM to run. I also don’t want it finding it’s own way to the internet through my firewall and bringing back any social diseases it happens to find along the way. 
So if I can find a open source or well rated free/share-ware webcam server app I would prefer to go that route.
You may want to check out webcam2000, which is free and open source. It is made to serve up single frames in web pages, but I use javascript or a java applet to keep the frames refreshed. It uses very little cpu time. Below are some cams I’ve got hooked up using webcam2000 and some info.
geocities.com/zoomkat/wc2000.htm
geocities.com/zoomkat/wc20000sw.htm
geocities.com/zoomkat/wc2000apptest.htm
geocities.com/zoomkat/wc2000pullscript.htm
geocities.com/zoomkat/webcamsetup.htm
heh, I was going to ask you what you were using with the pan and tilt thing. I found webcam2000 searching with google earlier too. do I understand correctly though that you have to be running a web server like apache to make it work?
You can use webcam2000 with out a web server using the javascript in the web page. To use the applet with webcam2000, then a web server is needed to serve up the applet to the client brouser. To operate the webcam pan/tilt, a web server with cgi support is needed. I like apache as it runs in the background and uses almost no cpu resources. Apache is also well tested and is now very simple to set up and operate.
I don’t know anything about videolan, but “media” servers may be heavy on the cpu useage and have significant delays in tthe video/audio feed. MS has their free media server, but there is ~15 sec delay between the capture and the play back, making it not good for visual control setups.
I’ve sort of got it (VideoLAN) working; can send from the mini-ITX w/the VX-3000 and open stream on my desktop. Have not quite figured out how to get the codecs working yet. 
I am however rapidly reaching the conclusion the mini-ITX needs to migrate to my office or my desktop PC needs to migrate DOWNSTAIRS to my work room. Man am I gonna hurt in the morning. 
Hardware or software making you run? If it’s software, I suggest a session or two of WinVNC.
WinVNC or something like WinVNC is an interesting idea. I will have to research what is available for those types of programs, how much resources they take, and how complicated they are to install. I know a guy at work who uses GoToMyPC internally (as in within the company so he can get at his desktop with his laptop from wherever) so I will see what his opinions are from having used that as well.
About VideoLAN though, I suspect when I removed Windows Media Player using LitePC that may have also removed most of the video codecs. I had forgotten how to check which were installed until today so I will have to check what is still there when I get home. I see that there is a Vista codec pack available for download that is XP compatible and allows you to pick and choose which codecs to install so if this is the problem that may be a fix for it.
How do you like litePC, having not tried it myself im rather curious.
nick_a
I’ve just used it once so far (after doing my initial install and running all the windows update and loading all drivers) and it seemed very straight forward. It doesn’t appear to have created any system instability at this point. I left a few things in place like the IP utilities, disk clean and defrag tools, and IE itself so I’ve not pushed the program’s abilities right to the limit. So far it seems to have done its job though so no complaints.
Hey Eddie, what kind of plastic are you using for the black sheets in your chassis? How is it working out for you?
I’ve been experimenting with different plastics, and I’m not that happy with the results so far. It seems like my sheets either come severaly warped, melt near heat, or crack too easily when drilling near the edge, and I’ve tried a few varieties.
looks like delrin, but i could be wrong
nick_a
actually most of it is 1/4" anti-static UHMW polyethylene and the nose block is 1/2" of the same stuff. I had some left from another project so I used it. I wouldn’t recommend it really as it is somewhat soft and really hard on tools. On the positive side it’s easy to self-tap threads and it doesn’t tend to chip when you’re cuting/drilling it either. I’ll go for delrin or abs next time around though. Most plastic sheets will warp if you don’t store them nicely, but some also un-warp if you put them on a nice flat warm surface with weight on them too.
Thanks, I just ordered sheets of Delrin and ABS. I’ll put it through some torture tests and see how it fares. 