I was wondering what the different uses for the 2 cameras are, and how to implement them into the robot. Thank you.
I can tell you, do not use the Microsoft cam for vision tracking. The settings are too unstable and unpredictable. The axis camera works well for vision tracking as long as you can handle latency.
Can I use the same camera for the reflective tape tracking AND just regular vision (on the ds)?
The LifeCam worked great for us, especially for gear tracking. We had no issues all season with it aside from an occasional issue when combined with the navx board. You can use the same camera for both depending on your use. If you are turning the exposure down all the way for tracking, you won’t be able to see anything but black and the green target on the DS. If you are leaving the exposure up for tracking, then you can.
We have found that w/the Microsoft USB HD LifeCam 3000 it can be necessary to wait until communication has been established w/the navX-MXP/navX-Micro for about 1 second before beginning streaming from the camera. So that’s the only issue that I’m aware of, and there’s a reasonable workaround. Feel free to send me a private message is you’re interested in more info.
- scott
Again I am not sure why people think there is a latency issue with these cameras. As far a latency with the Axis camera. I had our vision system running at 33 FPS running through the field at 320 X 240 and 15% compression. We have beautiful video and our vision system locked on immediately when the target was in the window. Note some of that was the software to find the target but the camera delivered the pictures at 33 FPS. You can make it go faster but the field would be the limit because of the band width limitations.
I want you to know that Axis camera setup is actually very easy to do. I use the axis camera just for that reason. I log into it set it up and I never have to worry about it again. I am not required to set up exposure or frame rate or anything after I set it up initially.
There is an exposure setting for the axis camera in the log in screen. Once set, you never have to set it again unlike the USB camera. The other thing I like about the AXIS camera is once you set up the address it talks. I can plug the camera in any time and it just takes off. I do not have to restart anything like the roborio or the robot software to get it to talk. When my vision software found the target it was the only thing in the picture. I could point it at a window with the sun coming directly in and the target was the only thing the camera saw. You drop the exposure to 0 and the Axis camera works great.
Don’t let people tell you the axis camera is not capable. One other thing I found out this year is the Axis camera set up tool also works on the M1014 camera. I wasn’t expecting much when I tried but it worked great.
Our auton was awesome for side peg with the navX-mxp and the axis camera running through the field. We didn’t use it much because we we very good at the straight with the navX and drive straight code.
The Axis had cleaner mounting and better configuration. It was easier to stream and (IIRC) easier to manage multiple cameras at a time. Unfortunately, Axis cameras don’t like 12V. All ours are dead from when they all got plugged into the light ring power in 2014 in rapid succession. The Lifecam probably doesn’t like 12V either, but we haven’t found out firsthand, at least not yet. YMMV.
We had 2 lifecams on our bot this year, one for the operator livestream and one for the vision processing. We never had a single issue with using it for vision processing, there was a bit of delay but nothing that hindered performance. We had to manually configure the exposure settings in the lifecam software but after that it appeared to keep them without a problem.
We’ve used the lifecam extensively for vision tracking without a problem.
6325 uses Microsoft Lifecams. One for vision and one for drivers. We turned down the exposure all the way to 5 on the LifeCam using V4l2 on a Jetson and it works fine. I read somewhere a while back that you only some exposure settings work on the LifeCam. 5 works fine for us.