Quote:
Originally Posted by neutrino15
I was just fixing a bent PWM for the millionth time when I actually looked at the CMUcam itself and realized something. Why the heck is the whole board mounted on the moveable camera mount?! This is big, clumsy, and places the PWMs right infront of the lens. I noticed that the little camera sensor itself can detach from the board, and be plugged in with a 32 pin ribbon cable.
So my question, why don't we mount the board (with all the serial and power connectors on it) to a stable part of the robot, and just the camera (with a ribbon cable link) to the swivel stand itself.. Wouldn't this make much more sense?
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My guess is that the chief reason the IFI mount is done that way is for cost reasons--32-pin ribbon cables have a nonzero cost, making it cheaper for them to mount the sensor directly to the board.
Of course, there's nothing stopping you from going that route should you desire. The main concerns I could see involve interference on the cable (as the CMUcam already faces a bit of motor interference as it stands) and the general concerns of another point of failure for the camera (the cable can break or get unplugged). Welcome to the world of pros and cons.