My course has primarily focused on robotics projects using the EZ-B controller and a camera for real-time interfacing. With recent developments, I am planning to create an additional video that incorporates Synthiam's support for other types of controllers. Although I've successfully flashed an alternative controller, it lacked compatibility with camera integration and Wi-Fi capabilities. The absence of an onboard computer limits the use of a USB camera, posing a significant challenge.
This dependency on specific components like the EZ-B, IO Tiny, and cameras can be problematic. For my course project, Mecha Morphix, which involves controlling five servos, the Arduino Mega seems excessive. I am in search of a suitable controller, compatible with Synthiam ARC, that includes both Wi-Fi and camera support to effectively replace the EZ-B.
I noticed that the ESP32 with a camera is listed among the supported controllers for ARC. Has anyone experimented with using the ESP32 in conjunction with a camera for such applications? Any insights or experiences would be appreciated.
hahahha hippie code...yes this was me simply logging into the board with my iphone and turning on the camera..will try tomorrow with firmware!
I played with dozens of these things in hopes to build a cheap robot controller. The iotiny seems to work best but yeah it’s kind of expensive and hard to find.
if you end up putting together a cheap controller with camera I would love to see the solution. I was trying to just build a cheap opensource robot connected to synthiam for kids at school. Idea was connect to AI and use camera, microphone, servos and led display based on Otto bot. but never found a cheap solution. If you solve this would love to hear it. As you can see I tried a few esp and adapter boards as well
Otto bot https://www.ottodiy.com/
...I'll add that the the company Freenove has excellent documentation and they have amazing customer support and will respond in 24 hours to questions. And they have alot of cool kits.
https://freenove.com/
@nink, The IOTINY is priced okay at $50 but the camera is listed at $90 in plastic housing not including shipping. Some of my beta testers listed part availability and pricing as one of the top reasons for not pursing robotics as a hobbyist in my questionnaire to them. I've tried to give various options in the Mecha Morphics course for various budgets. Example - I completely removed the Dynamixels which were the most expensive thing in ALAN. ($1500), choices for ujoints and so forth. I feel its important to pursue all options for controllers and hardware as long as ARC is supported.
You can use the esp32cam as an ezrobot camera. That will connect to the iotiny. check this: https://synthiam.com/Firmware/ESP32-Cam-UART-HLT3KZKGG3F
@Nink, will an esp32 cam not work for your needs? It has 5 servo or i/o ports
Yeah it probably could run 4 servos to walk, the cam to see, an ultrasonic sensor for distance with a Bluetooth speaker and microphone tied back to the host PC.
the ESP32 cam is pretty underpowered so you need to be careful with your code. Don’t try moving servos or reading sensors when using the camera etc. I could probably go back and look at this again but I stopped volunteering with the young kids a few years ago. These days I volunteer with First Robotics, these are high school kids building complex robots to compete in competitions. You would actually enjoy this @DJ as they combine robotics and AI and compete at local universities in an arena. They have a global completion every year in the US. https://firstroboticscanada.org/frc/
@Will when you do get the right components AliExpress is a great place to get cheap components in bulk. Not sure if same in US as I live in Canada so we don’t have the expensive import costs and tariffs on China electronics.
..I love Aliexpress I've ordered alot of stuff in the past, but that was before the insane tariffs. Might be a wash these days.
Testing firmware. I started with the Doit ESP 32. All works fine except its very slow sending data to the servo. See Video. Tried 3 servos same result. If you look you can see me stop moving the mouse and the blue receive light stays on as a lag or delay. Any ideas?
Latest arc, latest plug, advanced servo settings on default...