Anyone used the new CMUCam2plus?

[PhilBot]

I personally would like to see the Plus version in the 07 Kit, because it overcomes two big problems we had with the CMUCam2:

1) We had one unit where the power switch went bad. The new unit looks like it uses a larger more robust switch (that is acessible from the outer edge)

2) The camera board had a connector on one edge, but no way to firmly mount the board to the carrier. So if the bot got bumped, the camera could move and wreck your shooter allignment. We resorted to a spacer and hot glue. It worked, but it wasn't any fun when we had to replace the board with the bad switch.

The 06 Kit came with a RS232 adapter for the RC, I guess we'd also need one to connect to a PC for testing.

[Greg Marra]

Originally Posted by PhilBot

2) The camera board had a connector on one edge, but no way to firmly mount the board to the carrier. So if the bot got bumped, the camera could move and wreck your shooter allignment. We resorted to a spacer and hot glue.

Ah yes indeed. We put a piece of plastic dowel between the camera board and the main board, then screwed the camera board into the dowel. There are little tiny holes at the edges of the camera board that we used, but it was rather difficult finding screws that small.

With a redesigned pan-tilt housing from IFI, the CMUCam2+ looks like a much better alternative.

[chris31]

I like that its all in one unit. This will keep the camera from comming loose on the board after the robot takes a few hits.

[Astronouth7303]

Off course, if IFI did use that, it would kill any possibility of simultaneous tracking of multiple colors. You can do that on the CMUcam2, using slave mode. But since that requires hooking the camera board to several processing boards, it discludes the CMUcam2+ from such an arrangement.

Doubtless, it will be interesting.

[PhilBot]

OK, that's seriously cool. I had no idea you could do that.

Is the serial comms to each processor board shared (multi-drop), or do you need to use dedicated serial channels?