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Using Dual Webcams

Hello all, I don't know if I am doing something wrong. I know awhile back DJ made it possible to use dual webcams. I bought 2 difedant cams but can't get both to work at the same time. When I run 2 cams in EZ builder , it freezes them both up. I have one fixed and the other on a pan and tilt. The fix will be used for the robot navigation. The other is for me to look around with. My robot is running its onboard pc with windows7 32 bit. Any suggestions would be helpful.


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#5  
Dual webcams work great, as you can see in my demonstration video. I do not know what issues you may be experiencing. Are there any messages in the Debug window?
#6  
Hey guys, thanks for all the replies. I am using a Microsoft life cam and a Logitech c110 web cam. Yes I thought that having the same webcam would be a driver or identification issue with the 2 cameras. I haven't had a bunch of time to figure all of it out yet. DJ, I will look into the debugger to see what's going on. Thanks all, you answered my question, it's me. I must be doing something wrong. I thought I seen it some where in here that you can use 2 cams at the same time. Thank you and I will keep posting on my progress.
#7  
DJ, I tried to find that demo video for the dual cams. If you could, would you please post a link to it. Thank you very much. By the way, you Rock the robotic world with all you hard work. Thanks again for all that you do for us!
#10  
Thanks DJ, I will keep up dating this post with I find. I obviously I must be doing something wrong. I will keep trying till I get it!
#11  
Ok guys, here is the latest update on my dual camera issue. I tried using both of my webcams on my desk top pc and they work fine together. So to answer any questions out there, yes dual webcams are possible in Windows7. My robot has an onboard mini ITX pc 1.6 GHz with 2gigs of ram. I plugged the webcams back into the mini ITX and tried to use them in Windows7 I will only let me run one at a time. So with that said, DJ, sorry for doubting you. It looks like a hardware problem on my mini ITX and not in the ARC or the EZ-B. I don't know what to do to fix this, but I will just have to move on with my build and worry about the dual cams later. Thanks for all the help and support.
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#12  
I LIKE the pvc idea. A nice light frame material:) thats makes me think! I'm sure it could even be covered very easily with a light aluminum sheeting if one wanted to do so.

How heavy is your robot?
Also, was wondering what motors you used for this project?
#13  
I also really like the PVC platform. Great for those of us that don't have the metal working capabilities.
#14  
Hey all,
Thanks for the compliments. L.O.R.A. (Logic Orientated Robotic Assembly) weighs in around 100 pounds. She has a full metal main frame that I welded. The frame holds the dry cell car battery and the motors. The motors are form General Motor power seat. The drive wheels are from a Razor Scooter of some type. L.O.R.A. is real bottom heavy. That makes her real stable. I came up with PVC pipe idea for 2 reasons, light and easy to work with. I don't have an issue building my bots out of metal, I just wanted something easy. My thoughts were to put clear plexi glass on each deck and on the 4 main sides. I was going to put brushed aluminum on the 45 degree corners. Each deck has designated purpose. One deck is fuses and motor control. The next deck is the Jet way mini ITX pc and 40 gig micro hard drive from IPod's, the Ez-B and the sonars. If your bot need a hard drive, look into these micro hard drives on EBay. The hard drives are so small; they are about the size of a business card. They are the smallest spinning disk hard drive out there. These hard drives are classed as 1.8" there half the size of a laptop drive. You have to buy an adapter to connect them to an IDE connector on the pc. If you look up IPod Hard Drive on EBay you will find them. The top deck has the webcam, the Wi-Fi antennas and now a 3M Micro touch LCD monitor. I found the monitor today at the Good Will resale store for $50.00. The monitor is 15" with a built in touch screen, speakers and mic. The best part is the monitor runs off a wall pack that feeds the monitor 12vdc. These types of monitors are all over EBay. Sometimes they call them POS (Point Of Sale monitors like checkout registers) some of them are expensive.

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#15  
Ok everyone,
I think I might have figured out my dual webcam problem. My desk top PC is running Windows7 Ultimate and the robot's onboard PC is running Windows7 Home. According to a Google search, there are 3 types of Windows7 with a bunch of extras as you go up to 7 Ultimate. So, apparently, the Ultimate will run 2 webcam and Home version will not. I guess latter I will upgrade the robots PC to 7 Ultimate. If anyone here wants to try it, please post your results so I won't feel like I am crazy! I am going to try it on some other PC's of mine that has other Windows 7 OS's to see if my findings are correct. *confused* *confused*
Canada
#16  
Sorry @airwave1206 You just might be a little crazy (welcome to the family :P)

The Windows version seemed like a perfect reason for your issue... a little concerning since my plan is to also use a net-book with Win7 HP and dual cameras... I just had to test it now to be sure I didn't stall out down the road.

Fortunately (or unfortunately) is does NOT seem to be the issue you are running into...
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#17  
@gunner thanks, I will keep trying. I too have an HP netbook with win7 upgraded from the starter version. I havent tryed it yet. I am starting to wounder if it's just the lack of processor on the mini-ITX, but it's actualy biger and faster then the HP netbook. ok well thanks and I will keep plugging away.
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USA
#18  
@airwave where did you get your copy of win 7 and have you ran win update. I have had a couple netbooks that used the chipsets that your motherboard does and I had problems using any outside device besides keyboard mouse and ext hard drive. It was very strange but after taking a closer look apparently the systems I had with win 7 were missing drivers and some basic feature a full desktop install would have. For example I couldnt even plug a ext dvd drive in the usb and watch a movie. It didnt support that device and forwarded me a.link to Microsoft website to buy a upgrade add on to watch dvds for 17.99. I just wonder if this is s similar issue since your board has similar hardware. Maybe try a full install of win 7 if you have it? Just ideas here.:)
PRO
USA
#19  
Woops I read more and yea do a fresh install to ultimate and call it a day. Most issues are software related.
Canada
#20  
Actually Josh made a good point, even with a fresh Windows 7 install and all updates, I had issues with sound and SD read/write issues on my net book. Had to load Intel chipset and XP card reader drivers. Your on board PC might just need a few driver tweaks.
PRO
USA
#21  
And if you have a true dual core be sure to install x64 version which takes full advantage of the second core and enables hyperthreading on intel dual core systems. There is no down side to this. Also find and install the most recent video drivers. When utilizing web cams you are using your integrated video card.
PRO
USA
#22  
Hello just checking up , did you ever get your second camera working?
#23  
Hello all, it's been awhile for this issue. I gave up on the dual web cam on my bot due to the mini ITX just doesn't have the video power. I did test the dual cams on all of my other pc and it works on them. My ITX is 1.6 single core with on board video. I have moved on to other projects, but still not forgotten. The ITX does have a PCI-E slot and I might try a video card. I an running Win 7 32bit and it now gives me a low video error. The question now is to spend the money upgrading the on board pc or do I really need the dual web cams. I have moved on to the Sure compass modular bandwagon. Failure after failure, I think I figured it out and it's browning out the ez-b. I connected to a external power source. I worked the great until the smoke came out of the compass chip. Rember to always chech the output voltage before connecting delicate circuitry!
#24  
@jstarne1
I just got my bot fired back up and found an old video card that fits the pci slot. Is hard to find those old pci cards. To answer the question, yes it was my jetway mini ITX not having enough horsepower on its onboard video. With this old low grade PNY pci video card, I now can run both cameras with no lag or issues. Now I just have to raise the top section of my bot to accept the video card that now stands up off the motherboard.
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