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04-24-2014, 08:09 AM | #24 |
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Very cool idea. I would think a cleanly packaged system would find a market, especially if it offered spectators of an event to control what action they are seeing.
Such a cool project. Well done. |
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04-24-2014, 05:17 PM | #26 |
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Setup looks great and incredible results especially with no time to really debug it.
I would also consider adding gps/tracker setup. If its going to be used for car to car setups it might be easier and give a more fluid track on the car being filmed. Have you considered scaling the whole thing up to use larger cameras? |
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04-24-2014, 10:32 PM | #27 | ||
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That is pretty darn cool.
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05-12-2014, 02:51 PM | #28 | ||||
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I've been continuing my work on the remote controlled camera system. I've made enough progress that I think an update is in order.
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The new transmitter/receiver features a much better cable design that is much less prone to stress and failure. I hooked it all up and drove down to my testing location. On my first test, I literally ran out of road at 0.7 miles. The video transmission was still clear. This is a huge trial success. I moved to a longer road, and finally maxed out the video transmission at 1.1 miles before it became unusable. Again, this seems like a huge succes, and means that the hybrid (and expensive) digital video system wouldn't be required. Quote:
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Where there's a will...there's a way: The two biggest problems that still exist are 1) Extending the design to three (or more) camera's in spite of only 12 available receiver channels on the DragonLink; 2) Stopping the servo controlled relays from false firing and turning on the camera when I don't want. So taking a hint and design from embedded systems control, I found a little (and cheap) CPU powered control module -- called a "Teensy board." The Teensy 3.1 is controlled by a pretty powerful 32-bit ARM processor (just like the ones in your cell phones). It's cheap @ $20 per board. It has about two dozen programmable digital input/outputs. It has 12 PWM outputs (can be used directly for RC servo motor controls). The list of capabilities goes on and on, and makes it a very suitable microcontroller for this project. Solving the 3-camera (12-channel limitation) problem: The DragonLink controller uses a standard transmission protocol called PPM (Pulse Position Modulation). The Teensy-3.1 can read and decode PPM signals. In theory, this means I can use the Teensy-3.1 to read the PPM signals, and assign my own functions. To solve the 12-channel problem, I would use of the RC 3-position switches to select the camera. The Teensy could read the PPM stream and know that this particular stream is meant for "Camera-1" (or 2, or 3). Then all of the other controls remain the same. If the camera controls only need four servo channels, then using the Teensy to read the PPM stream to know when to talk to "Camera-1" (or 2 or 3), the Teensy could output the appropriate PWM channels only to that specific camera module. This approach would allow me to multiplex multiple camera's onto only five servo channels. 12-channel problem: solved! Solving the servo/relay flutter that turns on my camera's when I don't want: The Teensy-3.1 helps solve this problem also. The Teensy has dozens of digital outputs. By writing a small program to read the PPM stream, I know when I want to turn on/off my camera's. Instead of sending these signals to the PWM servo controller, I could instead output an "on/off" message to one of the digital I/O pins on the Teensy. Add a resistor, transistor, diode, and 5V relay switch, and I can use the Teensy to directly control the relay without using the servo controller. Without the servo controller means no servo flutter; this means no false on/off signals to the camera. ON/OFF problem: solved! Designing the Teensy board: This is the easy part. Just go down to Radio Shack or just about any decent electronics store to buy the parts to create your own breadboard circuits. Using the breadboard, I was able to prototype everything. Then once I got it working, solder the components down to the real circuit board. You might remember this picture from the original design. That was the old design. And compare it to the new design. I've made some color circles on each photo to see what has changed, and how it is being replaced. RED: Everything circled is red is gone and no longer needed with the new design. YELLOW: Everything circled in yellow on the original board is replaced by the Teensy-3.1 on the new board. The Teensy-3.1 board is approximately 2 x 0.75 inches. BLUE: The servo controlled relays on the old board are replaced with transistor controlled relays on the new board. MAGENTA: The voltage regulators on the old board and new board are the same. This will provide a really good size reference between each board. The original board was approximately 0.75 square feet (12 x 9 inches). The new board is approximately 3 x 8 inches. GREEN: This is the power switch to charge the GoPro camera's while in use. The original servo-controlled power switch is replaced by a simple power transistor. No more servo controlled switches. BLACK: These are new jumper switches. By installing jumper switches, each board can identify itself to the software as "Camera-1" (2, 3, or 4). This allows each board to run identical software, but control a different camera depending on the selection of this jumper block. |
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