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