Asked — Edited

Wireless Camera Power Questions

Hello,

Since I have received my EZ-Robot kit I have had some concerns over the wireless camera related to the power. The camera works with the computer but the battery only lasts maybe 45 minutes of so on a full charge.

When I plug in the camera (using the supplied usb cord) into my iphone charger, the red light only stays on for about 30 minutes and then turns off. This happens even when the Camera is completely out of battery power, and I assume the charge light should stay on for at least 2 hours. Please let me know if this is a hardware issue, or if the camera charges even when the red light is off.

I am assuming the camera is only charging when the red light is on. If so then ever since I received my camera it only charges for about 30 minutes max....


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#1  

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?

#2  

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.

United Kingdom
#3  

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.

#4  

Yah I will do it but how?

#5  

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?

United Kingdom
#6  

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.

#7  

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?

United Kingdom
#8  

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.