[Aur0r4]

We spent a bit of time looking into other cameras, but weren't able to find better ethernet cameras that weren't waaay beyond the cost limits. USB and Firewire offer some good options, but interfacing with the cRIO is extremely difficult and would probably require a custom solution. With the number of USB and Firewire options out there, I'm surprised NI doesn't have a module for these interfaces available.

In 2005 we used an Apple iSight wired to a standard motherboard on the robot running LabVIEW. This was before NI was involved in FIRST and the Toronto inspectors weren't able to find any reason to disqualify it under any custom circuits rule. Since it was only processing images and not directly controlling the robot, they didn't feel it violated the controller rule. Yes, it had a hard drive! Didn't work so well due to robot power fluctuations and our robot controller having little time left to talk to the motherboard.... However, that camera was quite good and not too expensive, but it was Firewire... Would love to use it again!