Camera Problems

[Anderson Jeff]

We have ran into a problem dealing with the camera taking up too much power from the battery is there a way to get around this?Maybe like having the camera take power from a different power supply or programming the camera to turn on and off only during certain times.

[Joey1939]

What camera are you using? and how is it wired to the battery?

I seriously doubt that a camera will use too much power.

[nighterfighter]

The camera runs off of 5V, off USB. (Unless you are using ethernet) I don't think that is going to be drawing lots of current. The maximum current USB 2.0 ports are rated for is 500 mA... (Well, those are the standard values. There are exceptions of course, such as for charging and such, but I'm guessing the roboRIO doesn't allow the USB port to draw much more than 500 mA).

Something else is killing your battery, it isn't the camera.

Edit: I stand slightly corrected. According to the roboRIO documentation (file:///C:/Users/Matt/Downloads/roboRIO%20Specifications.pdf) the maximum current draw for the USB ports is 900 mA.
Still not enough to notice any significant drain on the battery.

(And just because it is CAPABLE of sinking that much current, doesn't mean the camera is necessarily attempting to draw that much current).

Edit2:

As to answer one of your questions: "Maybe like having the camera take power from a different power supply"

The answer to that is no. The only legal source of power on a FRC robot is the one 12V battery. From that battery, all the electronics must be powered.

[RyanCahoon]

While I agree with the previous posters that I doubt the camera's current draw is the issue, I would like to clarify:

As to answer one of your questions: "Maybe like having the camera take power from a different power supply"

The answer to that is no. The only legal source of power on a FRC robot is the one 12V battery. From that battery, all the electronics must be powered.

Additionally, batteries integral to and part of a COTS computing device or self-contained camera are also permitted (e.g. laptop
batteries, GoPro style camera, etc.), provided they're only used to power the COTS computing device and any peripheral COTS
USB input devices connected to the COTS computing device and they are securely fastened to the ROBOT.

[nighterfighter]

While I agree with the previous posters that I doubt the camera's current draw is the issue, I would like to clarify:

Ah yes. I actually had "COTS laptops can be used on the robot, for vision processing however" typed out, but opted to not post it, as I didn't want to quote the wrong rule!

Thanks for posting the relevant rule.