Does anyone have directions for putting this together? Maybe I overlooked them.:yikes:
We have been looking for this document as well. We currently believe it will be included in the "Additional Technical Resources (Coming Soon!)
"](http://www.usfirst.org/community/frc/content.aspx?id=452) as posted on the FIRST web site.
oh wow so the kit includes a pan and tilt kit for the camera? Amazing!!! im glad they included that was we were just going to be making our own…
Remember to isolate the camera from the robot chassis!
im going to guess it really doesnt matter what we use just as long as its isolated?
Components and assembly prints are the only things in this document currently. There are no directions on how to assemble it. You will have to figure it out based on the last picture in this document. This is current as of 01/05/09 at 07:08 PST.
I’m starting to lean a bit more towards what 1114 has done in previous years and fix-mount the camera to the chassis. Pan and tilt assemblies seem to be alot of extra code for limited benefit. This year, with the low traction i could maybe see panning, but tilting is simply not necessary. The vision targets are a fixed distance off the ground.
They targets have always been a fixed distance off the ground. This is the first year they moving targets.:ahh:
tilting could be very useful as you get closer to the object, and it runs just out of what would be the vertical viewplane on a fixed camera.
Well, that depends on several factors, including viewing angle (where you put it on your robot vertically within your 60" box), and how big the camera’s FOV is.
moving robots, moving targets… whats the difference?
Seriously? The difference is that a moving target might not be there anymore when your projectile arrives. You can’t necessarily aim at where you see it and have any confidence of making the shot.
Has anyone else had any trouble mounting the camera itself to the back plate? We figured out what the camera is supposed to be connected to but can’t find any way of mounting it.
Edit: We think we might be supposed to use the bolt on the back of the camera to mount it. Can anyone confirm this?
AND,
where can we purchase a spare one from. I’m sure other teams are trying to build two or more bots.
Our team kinda assembled the kit together. Problem is… most of the screws and such didn’t match… so we had to make do/use whatever we felt was necessary to create the camera mount assembly.
The problem still lies in getting the cRIO to recognize the stupid camera…
We use the pdf from FIRST to assembly ours.
We had to drill out the servo horns to attach to the pan/tilt kit.
See pictures below for reference.
Hope this helps.
We mounted on our robot. We had some difficulty getting CRio to recognize at first but the students read the manual and got it going. We had it searching and following for the green and pink swatches in the shop yesterday. We have not decided how we will use it yet.
Guys the camera pan/tilt is a bit hard to ensemble… The best thing is to take the camera from 2007 (teams that have) take of the camera… Drill a 4mm hole in the middle and connect the AXIS camera. i tried it and it works perfectly.
BTW… The FIRST didn’t provide all the materials in the pan ilt kit like screws for example, so i suggest using 3-4mm screws.
The camera chassis is electrically grounded. The rules require that the ground be isolated from the robot. This is a safety issue and the inspectors will check for isolation between the robot chassis and negative battery at competition.
It looks like the best way to do this is mount the camera to a piece of plastic with the mount inside the square so that no camera metal contacts the pan tilt metal. You can attach this small piece of plastic to the pan/tile metal using nylon screws and nuts. As you build up your electrical system it’s always a good idea to verify isolation from time to time. I can tell you from first hand experience that it’s not a pretty sight to watch a servo cable catch fire and burn at competition!
http://usfirst.org/uploadedFiles/Camera_Pan_Tilt_Assembly.pdf
but, yeah the instructions are pretty crappy. New ones possibly might arrive soon, but I’m more inclined to just use the old pan/tilt assembly as a reference.
as for looking for another one, just use Google. (I think it’s called Axis 206 camera?) If yes, then it looks like a new one will be upwards of $100+