CMUcam-driven servos?
 

Is it legal to have the CMUcam drive its own servos?

I know it says in the rules that you can't have custom circuits driving outputs, but I don't know if the camera falls into this category or if FIRST has made an exception for this.

Can someone clarify this?

Re: CMUcam-driven servos?
 

Jamie,

Last year, having the CMUcam control and power the servos was not only allowed, it was the preferred method. As I remember, it was clarified in a FIRST Q&A but never got into the manual.

I would recommend that you post your question on the FIRST Q&A (if and when they ever get it working correctly) and, in the meantime, assume that you can have the servos controlled via the CMUcam.

Regards,

Mike

Re: CMUcam-driven servos?
 

It may be allowed, but it's not something you want to do. Switching to tracking mode from scanning for a target resets the servos to their default positions. There was some annoying problem I ran into last year, where the camera couldn't find something and lock on, because the servos were reseting themselves.

Re: CMUcam-driven servos?
 

If you wanted to have the CMUcam drive it's own servos, how would you do that to begin with... what would you define PAN_SERVO and TILT_SERVO as, if they are connected to the CMUcam instead of the RC

#define PAN_SERVO pwm01

If we do run them from the RC, I'm guessing that we are supposed to extend the servo pwm's down to our robot controller also?

Thanks