Could it be the wireless camera does not charge correctly with an iphone charger? Does it need to be plugged into a computer USB port?

Well just plugged it into a USB port on my computer and the red light stayed on for 10 minutes and then just shut off. This is really weird as the camera battery was completely dead when I plugged it in to charge.

It's possible, I'm not sure how many amps the iphone charger can put out or how many amps the camera needs when charging, try it on a PC and see what happens then.

To be honest, I always recommend doing the camera mod and throwing out the battery in favour for connecting direct to the EZ-B, I've read (somewhere) that the camera is much more stable when running from the EZ-B than it is when running on the battery. It's a simple mod to carry out too once you manage to prise the camera casing open.

Yah I will do it but how?

I found this tutorial, but is this the best way?

http://youtu.be/9EB70ehdJbo

The only downside it that you cant put the case back on, or can you?

So once you do this, does this mean you don't have to use the wireless usb adapter for the camera? And the data is sent over the EZ-B?

How will this work with ARC, do I use the same Camera module, and still have tracking features?

I really need to bookmark the link to the tutorial.

The best topic about the camera mod

Basically, use a servo extension, cut the one end off and solder the red wire to the +ve terminal of where the battery went (assuming you removed the battery) and the black to the -ve. If you want to control the on/off connect the white up to where it's shown in the topic I linked to. You will need a script for turning on/off the camera as timings of simulating holding down the button are needed, and those timings seem to differ between cameras, or at least both my cameras need slightly different timings. Once it's on it stays on and if power is cut and restored it goes back to on, at least the one in Melvin does.

You can get the case back on, just cut a small hole for the wire to come out of in the plastic back piece, I managed to get it through where the antenna is on one of mine.

Once it's done you still need the USB dongle, it's too much data to send over bluetooth.

Using the camera remains the same.

Ah I see so connecting the camera to the EZ-B is just for providing power.

Although why do we need the script for turning the camera on, will the power button work?

Yes the power button will work. I have the script because I cannot get to the power button on my camera, it is inside the head of Melvin which is inaccessible.

I also want to put the Cam inside Rolling-Olli's head, but i don't want to use a port of the ezb to switch the cam on and I can't get to the on-button.
Did anybody have done a "always-on" mod for the cam?
The goal is that the cam is on when i switch the robot on.

Marc

The camera in Melvin's head is always on, at least it has been since I put it in there.

I'm not entirely sure how I managed it but I believe that once it is on it will remember it's status for the next time it's powered up. I do have the white signal wire connected but I don't have any control for it.

I cannot give any guarantees that this would work or that it wouldn't fry the camera but from what I know, a Set(digitalport, on) will make the signal wire +5V and a Set(digitalport, off) will make the signal wire ground. So in theory, applying +5V to the signal wire, or the position in which you connect it, will emulate the switch being held down.


The best thing to do is;
1. Connect the servo cable for 5V and ground to where the battery connects
2. Energising it
3. Turn the camera on.
4. Check it's on and an image is being transmitted.
5. Disconnect the power.
6. Leave for 5 minutes.
7. Reconnect and energize.
8. Check the camera's status.
If it's on then it looks like it remembers it's last state. I'd say to repeat the above steps 5 to 8 above a few times to make sure.

It's something I plan to test at some point but currently I'm unable to as my EZ-B's are not easy to get to.