Quick Guide - 2007 Cam and Labview 8.2

[amateurrobotguy]

This is your "crash" setup guide to quickly get Labview to Grab and Track ONLY. That means no manual servo control. Use LabView to see what the cam is seeing.

1)Install Labview 8.2 and don't install the device drivers (they just waste hd space)
2)Google for and install NI-VISA*. This program is REQUIRED to get serial ports to be recognized.
3)Attach a PWM cable (male end) to the female end right next to the switch near the lens.
4)Connect the female end of said cable to any PWM out on the RC (This is to provide the 7.2v power)
5)Attach serial cable from cam board to computer serial port (or USB-Serial converter---a lot slower transfer speeds)
6)Download the CMU Cam .vi (See the sticky notes in this section for link)
7)Open up the .vi
8)Select your COM(serial) port from the drop-down list.
9)Turn on the cam via the switch. Turn on the robot control board. Make sure your backup battery is plugged in as that is what supplies PWM power.
10)Hit the white arrow on the toolbar.
11)You can upload .cfg files to the cam through GUI buttons. These files "tell" the cam what colors to look for.
12)Everything else you should be able to figure out on the go.

*Make sure you serial ports are configured as such:
In XP, right click My Computer--Properties--Hardware--Device Manager--Ports--COM#X--Settings--Rate:115200, 8, None, 1, None

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