Camera not powered...?

[Total Meltdown]

Hey Dudes, I'm having a problem with the camera. I finally figured out how to get it mounted, the servos and everything are hooked into the Robot Controller, but when I power on (Backup battery charged and plugged in), the Camera doesn't do anything. The Servos reset to their default position ok, but the Camera itself seems to have no power. I'm sure that the PWM cable is in the right spot for 7.2v power, and it's plugged into an unused PWM spot, but it's still not getting power, and thus I can't connect to it with labview, and the Robot Controller is like "wtf?" and does nothing.

Any ideas?

[Pat Fairbank]

I hate to ask the obvious, but is the camera's power switch on?

[Kingofl337]

There is a small switch on th PCB did you flip that?

[billbo911]

I ran into similar problems last night. The items I went through to get mine working were:
1) Make sure 7.2 vdc battery is charged and connected.
2) Verify correct orientation of PWM cable providing power to the camera, on both ends.
3) Connect serial cable (actually a PWM cable) to camera rs-232 port and TTL board on RC.
4) Pan servo to PWM-01 on RC.
5) Tilt servo to PWM-02 on RC.
6) Camera power switch in ON (up) position.
7) Tether between RC and OI.
8) +12 vdc to RC

If all those are correct, it "should" work.

[Kevin Watson]

Originally Posted by Total Meltdown

Hey Dudes, I'm having a problem with the camera. I finally figured out how to get it mounted, the servos and everything are hooked into the Robot Controller, but when I power on (Backup battery charged and plugged in), the Camera doesn't do anything. The Servos reset to their default position ok, but the Camera itself seems to have no power. I'm sure that the PWM cable is in the right spot for 7.2v power, and it's plugged into an unused PWM spot, but it's still not getting power, and thus I can't connect to it with labview, and the Robot Controller is like "wtf?" and does nothing.

Any ideas?

If you downloaded the code yesterday, there was a window when the available code was messed-up. download the code and drop in the corrected serial_ports.c and you should be good to go. I swear, sometimes it seems like FIRST has got a room full of monkeys writing code. Maybe the monkeys should spend less time flinging fecal matter at each other and more time testing the code before posting it <grin>.

-Kevin

[X-Istence]

Originally Posted by Kevin Watson

If you downloaded the code yesterday, there was a window when the available code was messed-up. download the code and drop in the corrected serial_ports.c and you should be good to go. I swear, sometimes it seems like FIRST has got a room full of monkeys writing code. Maybe the monkeys should spend less time flinging fecal matter at each other and more time testing the code before posting it <grin>.

-Kevin

One little screwup should not get us mad at you, the code you provide is awesome!

[Total Meltdown]

Yes, the power switch is on, I have 12V DC power, and 7.2V from the Backup battery, but I know the camera isn't on because the little lights on the board don't light up like the manual said they should. And no, I downloaded the code a few days ago. I think I had it compiling Wednesday night at the first Programming meeting (Good job on that, by the way), but I downloaded it a day or two before and just never did anything to it.

I'm 99% sure it's a power thing though, cause even bugged code would make Something happen. As it stands now, I have no power, and the laptop doesn't see it as connected when I plug in the serial cable to connect to LabView.

[Total Meltdown]

HAH! Fixed it. There was a nut that was touching two of the wires in the board, and it was causing a short circut, untimately causing the camera to puke. It's fixed now, and no harm done, but Keep an eye on whoever puts the camera together! It's a very easy mistake to make!!