Do you have just the camera or do you have their other controller that also has a Matchport B/G and servo controller as part of it? My quick look through their documents I was wondering if they hooked this up through a serial port or did everything through the Ethernet connection. My guess was it generated ethernet output and the other controller data was probably being handled by the blackfins processor and sent through the same way… Could be wrong.
Nope I have not hooked it up to the Pro yet. I was thinking of trying it out with the Arc32 as could plug into S_IN/S_OUT which is a hardware port. The issue that I don’t know is that we setup some fixed baud rate, which I am not sure if we can easily change on the fly. Also not sure about baud rates. That is since the Bap28 runs at 16mhz and the arc32 runs at 20mhz their hardware serial ports won’t run at 115200 or 230400. The closest is 125000. The highest matching baud rates is 38400 and I am not sure if you can download programs at that speed…
Also not sure what is the best way to plug in 3.3V to run the board while on the robot…
I just got the blackfin camera with the green breakout board, which have the 3.3vdc regulator along with the matchport pins, so I was able to just plug my other matchport right in and use the first port just for the blackfin, the second port is easily available.
Baudrates are changed via the Matchport web interface or even using telnet to the matchport, the changes are easy enough to make.
I’m not positive on the connection on the blackfin where it’s directly connected to the camera, but I think there are schematics on the site, I don’t think it’s ethernet though… Might even be I2C… I know that internally it does 60fps from the camera to the blackfin cpu…
Hey guys, this project sort of went all wonky on us… I think we need to return these modules and find something else. I emailed you guys on this as well.
It is my understanding that thews system boards have connections for 2 serial ports (You can goggle for this). Some have build boards that convert to RS232.
Install an updated firmware like DD-WRT. If we can some how enable these serial ports. Maybe with some utility like ser2pl. Also configure as a bridge, if we could get something like this to work…
Unfortunately I am not a Linux expert… Been many years since I did much UNIX stuff… Anyone else have experience in this? Does this sound possible? reasonable?
Kurt, maybe you can consider a different approach: use a small linux embedded system (like robotshop.com/world/bipom-ar … ebian.html), connect a normal usb camera to it, an usb wireless N stick, a flash drive for storing anything you may want and you got all set. This will allow you to go with some cheap wireless N/webcam modules and give you the flexibility of running a small streaming server + webserver + whatever code you may want for the controlling part of your rover.
If you go with Debian, you may find all the software for this project already available.
Actually that looks great, abomba
Now, the question will be how easy is to get a webcam connected and stream the image out and, also, have some bandwith for telemetry and/or rover control. The one from RobotShop.com have a compatibility list and support for few regular webcams and wireless sticks that may make life/development easier. Another thing to consider is the cost of the entire solution…
Sounds good. But at this point I think maybe I will step back and and ask the simple questions:
What are the goals here?
What are the cost constraints?
Is it the assumption that when done the end user will not need a soldering iron to do this project? Why I ask is for example, you can add 2 serial ports to a WRT54GL router, but they don’t have come with anything in the holes. You can buy kits for this from Curious Inventor…
If a Linux based processor such as the gumsitx can do this, the question will be does it make sense to then integrate all of the robot functionality into the Linux processor and not hook up something like an Arc32 or a Bap28? If so is this a route you want to explore?
If we can for example get a router that has a USB port on it? Can any of them support a USB to RS232 adapter and allow us to use the port over the net? If yes, but this requires a different set of software to be loaded on the router, such as DD-WRT or OpenWRT and requires us to do some customizing of the firmware, is this a viable solution?
I did some more research on our issue with having video and use of the serial ports last night, and everyone should take a look at the xport module at - gridconnect.com/xport.html .
I was on the phone with tech support at lantronix last night and the solution is to add the xport device, this would be used to hookup up a network camera, in turn it uses one port of the matchport and we are left with one serial port after this.
My question with that, is I believe it can only run at 921K, which is a tad slower than 10m or 100m of the Ethernet. So I guess the question would be is how well does the web cam run on it?
Using a WRT54GL router is not a bad idea, is flexible, is cheap can add serial port(s) and is running linux. The only problem I see is the size… else is a great platform for many projects.
However, if you are looking at 10/100 MBPS network and able to do streaming at 30 fps, you may want to consider a SBC or embedded computers (e.g.: RB-100/110 maybe? or a second hand LE-307 from ebay) with enough CPU to handle this task. A serial camera will never be able to provide the speed you are looking for even if you manage to get it run (stable) at 1 mbps… Just my 2 cents.
The goal has been to make a remote piloted bot with usable video at reasonable frame rates, AND a serial channel for bot control. I called for a laptop as the PC end, but a PC on a network would also fit the bill. Serial control without video can be done with cheaper equipment. Video without the control aspect is worthless. I would have expected the carrier board to sell for around $25.00 and I expected the module required to be in the $60.00 neighborhood. So a solution for well under $100.00 was the goal.
I was told by a rep at Lantronix that it might be able to be done with a firmware change, but I was promised a call today that has not happened yet… I am willing to buy these modules 100 at a time, to make this a reality, but I dunno if it’s really possible or not. I just can’t believe this is the first time these functions have been requested.
This is a cool way to do this, but as you said it’s large. I was looking for a solution that didn’t require modifying a router, as it’s not something anyone can do. Plus the availability of these WRT54GL routers in not guaranteed over the next few years.
The xport idea is good but it will add to the overall cost. I’m going to give the Lantronix guys a few more days before I officially stick a fork in this. Sorry it’s turning out this way. Not what I had intended by a long shot.
I talked again with Lantronix support today, and I was very clear to them about what is needed, and the solution is still the Xport, I did mention to them the description gives us the impression that it will only convert serial to ethernet when we need to convert ethernet to serial, however if you think about it, it has two way comms, and the only downside to this so far other then the cost is you will need 2 ip addresses, one for the xport (video)and one for the extra serial port.
Just for the hec of it I was looking at some really small routers, however none of them allow for adding a serial port which sucks… IT would of been nice to get a tiny router(2"x4") and use it for a cheaper solution.
I am kinda suprised like Jim said that this kind of thing hasn’t been thought of or done before, well at least where you don’t have to take apart a wrt54g router…
I’m still looking at some other ideas, but nothing solid
I think we need to return these modules and find something else. I emailed you guys on this as well.
.
