Can we use a different camera?

[w84me]

Is it possible to use a different camera and still get the same results as the one FIRST provided us with?

[Greg McKaskle]

Possibly. One part of the question is whether it is legal to use another camera. I believe that will need clarification from GDC. Technically, some/most Axis cameras will work with the drivers in WPILib, and other IP cameras will work with slightly modified drivers.

Greg McKaskle

[Doc Wu]

Originally Posted by Greg McKaskle

Possibly. One part of the question is whether it is legal to use another camera. I believe that will need clarification from GDC. Technically, some/most Axis cameras will work with the drivers in WPILib, and other IP cameras will work with slightly modified drivers.

Greg McKaskle

I hope that the answer is that other cameras are allowed. The Axis 206 camera has been replaced by the 207. You can still find the 206 for sale some places, but will eventually disappear.

The Axis cameras are expensive, for what they are, as well. Dlink has some interesting cameras for 1/3 the price. I don't know if the will work with our software, or not, though.

[jhersh]

Originally Posted by Doc Wu

The Axis cameras are expensive, for what they are, as well. Dlink has some interesting cameras for 1/3 the price. I don't know if the will work with our software, or not, though.

All cheap cameras are not created equal. We tested the D-Link cameras 2 years ago. We recommended the Axis because it's color accuracy was way better, the latency on the image was way lower (hardware JPEG compression), it boots faster, it's smaller, etc. All around, it was easily worth the difference in cost. If you think it's hard to make a vision system work reliably with what we use now, you'll be in a whole new world of hurt if you go for even worse cameras.

D-Link may have released new models since then that are a departure from their earlier performance, but I wouldn't move ahead without validating it thoroughly.