Looking for a good camera? - Trendnet 110 wireless cam & teardown

[jes1510]

Per a couple of requests I disassembled my new wifi cam and took some pics of the process. There are also measurements of each important piece in each pic.

The camera was purchased from Amazon.com here:
Amazon.com: TRENDnet Wireless Internet Camera Server (TV-IP110W): Electronics


[edit] Thanks to their great support, the latest version of Roborealm supports this camera out of he box.

The camera is held together by two small phillips screws on the back top of the housing. The bottom of the housing has clips that keeps the bottom together.

1056


Removing the front of the chassis will reveal 3 boards. The front board is the camera on a connector that connects to a carrier board. The wireless card is in a socket on the back of the carrier board. The carrier board has a small breakout board on the bottom that has the power and ethernet connectors. There is also a UTC117 regulator on the small breakout board. The datasheet for the regulator can be found here:
http://www.datasheetcatalog.org/datasheets2/98/98580_1.pdf

1057

1058

1059

1060

This is the breakout board. The electronics are on the other side.

1061

Finally here is the camera completely disassembled

1062



Here are the weights without the housing: (Weights taken with a Centech 93543 digital scale.)
Power/Connector board: 20.3 grams
wifi card + camera + carrier board : 64.3 grams
Camer only: 17.7 grams
Wifi card + carrier card : 46.6 grams
complete camera: 84.7 grams

Hopefully this is helpful to someone!

[mod edit: Thumbnailed by popular request. Click once for intermediate sized pic, twice for gargantuan pic. ;) -Adrenalynn]

[Tyberius]

Great pictures! Thanks!

It looks like the camera board could be mounted separately via a cable of some sorts? You know what type of pins its using (spacing)?

[jes1510]

The camera connectors are on approximately 0.05" centers. It uses 2 dual row headers, 0ne is 24 pins, the other is 20 pins.

The power/connector board uses one dual row header on 0.1" centers. It has 24 pins. It looks like the easiest thing to do would be to put the power board on a cable and leave the camera on the carrier board.

[gdubb2]

Probably the same spacing as on our Airlinks. They are either 1.25 or 1.27 mm. It's a challange to find connectors with the proper number of pins in stock. The 24 pin connectors might be a problem, but the 20 are easy with Digikey. Our Airlinks are 26 pins. I ended up ordering some 30's 'cause thats all that was available at the moment. We'll see how they fit in a day or two.

Gary

[ooops]

Jes, great job on pics and description +rep:)

[Zenta]

Thanks for sharing your findings Jes!
Good information to know. I'm just wondering how to make it look good on a hexapod though..

The pictures are great but I would recommend a bit smaller size, had to use horisontal scroll on my old laptop.

Total weight of about 85 gram wasn't bad at all.

-Zenta

[jes1510]

Video Latency test:
YouTube - 20081228194723

The cam looks a bit darker than it really is here. the angle I'm shooting versus added to the CFL light in my office makes for a pretty drab image.

[sthmck]

I was wondering. I just searched for this camera on Amazon and there were two cameras that came up. One of them said TRENDnet Wireless Internet Camera Server (TV-IP110).
The other said TRENDnet Wireless Internet Camera Server (TV-IP110W).
So I was wondering what difference the W made between the two. Besides about $ 40 that is.



Ok never mind.

One more question. Is the board that lens is on the actual camera. And if the round part cant be taken off the board what are the dimensions of that board?

[mannyr7]

Probably the same spacing as on our Airlinks. They are either 1.25 or 1.27 mm. It's a challange to find connectors with the proper number of pins in stock. The 24 pin connectors might be a problem, but the 20 are easy with Digikey. Our Airlinks are 26 pins. I ended up ordering some 30's 'cause thats all that was available at the moment. We'll see how they fit in a day or two.

Gary
Hey Gary, how did those connectors work out for you? I'd like to multi-mount my cam board remotely from the power board as well.

[gdubb2]

Manny,
Lets just say that making a cable with the ultra small connectors did not fit within my skill set. I gave up and just mounted the camera as a complete unit.
Gary

[scowby]

Does anyone have the <embed> code for putting the camera into a webpage? Like, if you wanted to make the cam appear as some sort of <iframe> or whatever inside a page?

[Adrenalynn]

One of the best things about this camera - GPL sourcecode for interface...

http://downloads.trendnet.com/tv-ip110w/gpl_all2281.tgz

[mannyr7]

Has anybody wired their power leads directly to the board of this camera? I am wanting to eliminate the barrel plug and use some more flexible wire. When I put the multimeter across the left contact and the near right contact, I get .3 ohm, same as touching the mm probes together. When I touch left and far right, nothing. Near right and far right, nothing as well.http://lh3.ggpht.com/_RBehtyGR3tY/Si1pbIXh1hI/AAAAAAAAAWU/Z2RSo9WLUOY/s512/Picture%20002.jpg

[Tyberius]

One closest to the barrel plug opening is ground, the one that is parallel to it (not the one off to the side) is positive.

So, according to your doc: Near Right = Ground, Far Right = Positive.

I'm pulling this from memory though, so you might want to double check with a multimeter when it has power via plug.

"Left" will ground itself when you unplug the cable, but is positive when a cable is plugged in. I originally had positive on this, and negative on "Near Right" since thats what they were reading with the cable plugged in. It shorted my 5v supply, so use "Far Right" as positive ;)

[mannyr7]

Thanks, that worked. Near R. = neg, Far R = pos

[scowby]

This is good stuff, but I'm trying to take the output of this webcam and place it into a web page. Any ideas on that?

[Adrenalynn]

For jpeg picture push, javascript and java source-code abounds.

For higher framerates, you'd use their API: http://www.trendnet.com/downloads/list_subcategory.asp?SUBTYPE_ID=1172 Look under "GPL Source Code"

[Robot Dude]

Two questions, one comment...

Has anyone tried to eliminate the power board and provide power directly to the camera board? There is more circuitry on the power board then I originally thought...

Is there a way to flip the image on either end? It would be easier to mount the camera upside down if it's possible to invert it somewhere else.

Wow 2.5 amps for a camera! lol We may have to have a separate battery pack just for the camera... :rolleyes:

[jes1510]

I measured around 750mA when a client was viewing the video.

The image can be flipped by using the onboard web server. It's buried somewhere in the setup options although I can't remember where. I have mine mounted upside down and it works great.

A couple of people have wondered the same thing about eliminating the power board. I found a cable for Connor that works if you want to move the power board somewhere else. I do think he had to repin the cable though.

[Tyberius]

You'll also want to tweak with the video compression settings a bit to get the best mix of framerate/picture quality. It works decently out of the box, but you can certainly get better performance with it with a few minor changes to the video settings.

Jes is right, it doesnt draw anywhere close to 2.5amp.

[Connor]

Two questions, one comment...

Has anyone tried to eliminate the power board and provide power directly to the camera board? There is more circuitry on the power board then I originally thought...

Is there a way to flip the image on either end? It would be easier to mount the camera upside down if it's possible to invert it somewhere else.

Wow 2.5 amps for a camera! lol We may have to have a separate battery pack just for the camera... :rolleyes:

The power board has a regulator on it to drop the 5v down 3.3v (If I remeber correctly). So, you would have to have both 5v and 3.3v to feed the main camera.. (Yes, the main board is feed 5v power straight from the power brick through the power card). I ended up using a Castle BEC @ 5.1v and that works fine. As Jess stated, I ordered a cable, but, I had to flip the pins (even/odd) to get the correct pin out.

Thanks, Connor

[Robot Dude]

I'm so glad to here the 2.5amps is not accurate! That makes life much easier. Thanks for the feedback. This is going to be awesome. :D

Peace! Jim

[jes1510]

Well I'm sure it's accurate. A power adapter is rated by how much current it can source at a given voltage. This means that the adapter can source 2.5A at 5v. It doesn't mean that the load will be pulling that much.

Note that if the adapter is unregulated (just a transformer) then the load has to pull the rated current to achieve the given voltage. For example, if we have a 12v, 1A adapter and are only pulling 100mA or so then the voltage will measure higher than 12v. If we pull the 1A then the voltage will be right around the rated voltage.

[mannyr7]

As Jess stated, I ordered a cable, but, I had to flip the pins (even/odd) to get the correct pin out.

Thanks, Connor

Link to this cable? I found the correct plug ends and cable to make an extender at Digikey, but sadly, my soldering skills weren't up to the task! What do mean by "flip the pins"? Can you go more into this?

[nagmier]

manny, what I think he is reffering to there is a plastic retainer, for instance if you look at a standard servo connector you will see the metal showing through on one side on the side closer to the wire side there is a plastic piece that is part of the connector that actually holds the pins in place. With a knife or flathead screwdriver and some ingenuity you can get them out and move them around (again not 100% sure this is what he is reffering to, and I could be confusing more than helping)

[mannyr7]

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_RBehtyGR3tY/SmaE187lK4I/AAAAAAAAAdc/slAWWjfuOyA/s144/Trendnet%20power%20board%20connector.jpg
I had to draw it out before it snapped in my head. Swap the evens and odds. 1 becomes 2, 2 becomes 1, 3 becomes 4, 4 becomes 3, etc... Because just flipping the connector would put pin 1 at position 24 and pin 3 at position 22, etc... Sorry for not realizing the obvious. :o Still need the link for that cable though. :happy:

[Connor]

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_RBehtyGR3tY/SmaE187lK4I/AAAAAAAAAdc/slAWWjfuOyA/s144/Trendnet%20power%20board%20connector.jpg
I had to draw it out before it snapped in my head. Swap the evens and odds. 1 becomes 2, 2 becomes 1, 3 becomes 4, 4 becomes 3, etc... Because just flipping the connector would put pin 1 at position 24 and pin 3 at position 22, etc... Sorry for not realizing the obvious. :o Still need the link for that cable though. :happy:

Yup, that's what I had to do.. here is the link to the cable I used.

http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Detail&name=SAM8317-ND

Thanks, Connor

[Robot Dude]

We've got the TrandNet camera installed and it's working. It's connected with a laptop only, no wireless network on site. In fact there is no RF in the building. The laptop is an MSI GX630 with built in wifi. It's working well but will drop out and reconnect from time to time. Not sure if it's range or something else as it almost appears to be random. Anyone have any ideas?

[Robot Dude]

Well I'm sure it's accurate. A power adapter is rated by how much current it can source at a given voltage. This means that the adapter can source 2.5A at 5v. It doesn't mean that the load will be pulling that much.

Was referring to the 2.5amp rating on the camera not the wall pack. :wink:

If the camera has 2.5a printed on it, but only draws 700mA I'd say the 2.5amp value is inaccurate.

[Adrenalynn]

Mine died shortly after I got it. It started with those symptoms and then on to a hard lockup that required unplugging it to reset and then just about 45sec of ontime before it'd lock up again.

[praelian]

Not to get off topic, but has anyone tried the SRV-1 blackfin/Wifi combo? I'm looking at that for my camera solution, any issues with it?

[lnxfergy]

Not to get off topic, but has anyone tried the SRV-1 blackfin/Wifi combo? I'm looking at that for my camera solution, any issues with it?

It's a fairly advanced setup (not as plug and play as the Trendnet). However, I have one that just arrived today to play with....

-Fergs

[SystemDefect]

I'm shopping around for the Camera system I will use and I'm finding many options but not as many details about my options such as Power consumption, Viewing angels, and weight. Companies never keep the hobbyist in mind when marketing there products, It's such a shame.

Does anyone know anything about..
Linksys WVC54GCA Wireless G WiFi Internet Home Camera (http://cgi.ebay.com/Linksys-WVC54GCA-Wireless-G-WiFi-Internet-Home-Camera_W0QQitemZ230380841727QQcmdZViewItemQQptZPCA _Video_Conferencing_Webcams?hash=item35a3c4aaff&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14)

Or the...
ES-IP606W WiFi Pan Tilt IP Camera
I like this one because it looks so Sci-fi, like the eye from the War-of-the-Worlds Tripods.

[Adrenalynn]

If you can build a biped that can carry a pan/tilt wifi camera, more power to you! Plan on an entry point for the servos to carry that weight at around $10,000, but realistically plan $15,000 by the time you're done. Tyb's Giger might have a shot at it.

You could buy the Linksys, close your eyes and hope. Or you could get the Trendnet noted in the thread here, which has been tested good and used by the majority of competitors (and was used by the gold medalist) that have already paved the way. Reminds me I need to send one of mine back under RMA.

[lnxfergy]

While it may initially seem like a good idea to get a camera with integrated pan and tilt, I'd venture a guess that it's actually a very poor route to go. Connor has a pan/tilt cam on his Argos bot, he's burnt several up if I recall, they aren't designed for extensive use. Second, most of these pan and tilt cameras cost quite a bit more, servos really aren't that expensive. The biggest problem I see is that you'll be stuck with whatever control protocol they provide -- that means either using the cruddy viewer they provide, or hacking the protocol, which may not be easy. On the other hand, you will already have a control system for making your bot walk in a particular direction, its not too tough to add pan/tilt there.

-Fergs

[Tyberius]

I'm shopping around for the Camera system I will use and I'm finding many options but not as many details about my options such as Power consumption, Viewing angels, and weight. Companies never keep the hobbyist in mind when marketing there products, It's such a shame.

Does anyone know anything about..
Linksys WVC54GCA Wireless G WiFi Internet Home Camera (http://cgi.ebay.com/Linksys-WVC54GCA-Wireless-G-WiFi-Internet-Home-Camera_W0QQitemZ230380841727QQcmdZViewItemQQptZPCA _Video_Conferencing_Webcams?hash=item35a3c4aaff&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14)

Or the...
ES-IP606W WiFi Pan Tilt IP Camera
I like this one because it looks so Sci-fi, like the eye from the War-of-the-Worlds Tripods.

I agree with 'Lynn here, stick with the 'known goods' and try out the Trendnet IP-110W, its solid for it's price. On the subject of pan/tilt IP cameras...I really cannot recommend that route. It's my opinion that you want your weapons mounted on the same pan/tilt as your camera, so you can shoot where you aim/look, etc... unless of course you're designing one hell of an assisted aiming/auto tracking system where it wouldn't be required.

But given that it looks like you're going the SES-based hitec style servo biped route, you're going to be fighting an uphill battle with payload as is, so I'd keep it minimalist and simple; One pan/tilt for your upper torso which houses your weapons and camera. The only way to get any room with payload is to go with very expensive servos (RX-64 and beyond) and custom brackets, which is where I've gone with Giger, and I still have payload considerations.

[Connor]

While it may initially seem like a good idea to get a camera with integrated pan and tilt, I'd venture a guess that it's actually a very poor route to go. Connor has a pan/tilt cam on his Argos bot, he's burnt several up if I recall, they aren't designed for extensive use. Second, most of these pan and tilt cameras cost quite a bit more, servos really aren't that expensive. The biggest problem I see is that you'll be stuck with whatever control protocol they provide -- that means either using the cruddy viewer they provide, or hacking the protocol, which may not be easy. On the other hand, you will already have a control system for making your bot walk in a particular direction, its not too tough to add pan/tilt there.

-Fergs

Yea, the Logitech Orbit camera is what I'm using on Argos, and the gears for the PAN keep stripping.. I think the issue is the camera is encountering some resistance somewhere.. But, I've not had a chance to really figure it out. Stick with the Trendnet TV-IP110W camera.

Thanks, Connor

[Adrenalynn]

That's an excellent point. The second point is one I was just discussing offline -

You'll appreciate that this is like clearing a hot room. Your weapon should be pointing in the direction you're looking. It does you little good if you see a badguy pop up and your weapon is pointing somewhere else. By the time you bring your weapon around, you've been double-tapped and your day has been resoundingly ruined. So we can make a perfect room-cleaning design by just fixing our camera and our weapon on the same pan or pan/tilt. We're always pointing where we're looking - if we see it we can choose to shoot it without any additional time or thought.

[SystemDefect]

I never said anything about using the Pan and tilt portion of it, I was just searching for Cheap wifi cams, Things can always be stripped down. ;) But some are quick to throw sarcasm.

[lnxfergy]

I never said anything about using the Pan and tilt portion of it, I was just searching for Cheap wifi cams, Things can always be stripped down. ;) But some are quick to throw sarcasm.

Oh sorry, I guess my mind reader was broken, I figured since you highlighted pan and tilt that you were planning to use it....

But on a serious note: the Trendnet is often <$70 on Amazon, I'm not sure you'll find a cheaper camera that works as well. And almost certainly, you won't find it by buying different ones and trying each of them. R&D costs money. Collectively we've tested a number of cameras, and so far, none have outperformed the Trendnet (in terms of performance or cost).

-Fergs

[SystemDefect]

I apologize I guess I should pay a little bit more attention to what I cut and paste, It didn't show up as Highlighted when I clicked post

[Adrenalynn]

Actually, and this is entirely rare ;) , my post wasn't intended as sarcasm but rather reality. The reality of bipeds is, simply, payload = money. Bipeds are a goldcard sport. They can carry as much as your credit rating but no more. It really is "all that".

[SystemDefect]

unfortunately for my Pocket book your right, I am trying to build a powerful legged Bot. I'm planning on using 5990's but in tandem on each leg, with custom made feet. As for the cockpit I'm planning on using parts from Hobby Airplane kits to lighten the load as I intend to add more electronics then is necessary.

[sthmck]

unfortunately for my Pocket book your right, I am trying to build a powerful legged Bot. I'm planning on using 5990's but in tandem on each leg, with custom made feet. As for the cockpit I'm planning on using parts from Hobby Airplane kits to lighten the load as I intend to add more electronics then is necessary.

Not to sound dumb here but why would you want to put more electronics than necessary on your mech?
I mean from my understanding these bots are suffering from weight issues with the parts they do have to carry. Why add more?

[SystemDefect]

That's just because I want to do something differn't from everyone else, And we have gotten a little off topic for this thread, My bad ;)

[Robot Dude]

nevermind...

[Tyberius]

nevermind...

I think the point here wasn't so much that he needs to go out and buy more expensive servos, but that he needs to be mindful of payload limitations. A camera that weighs 500g (like the pan/tilt one) is not going to happen on anything short of extremely high end servos, but more to the point; it's a waste when much lighter, compact cameras such as the trendnet IP-110W are available. That type of camera is perfectly suited for lighter bipeds such as the BRAT or Scout.

[Robot Dude]

Wow some of you DO read minds... Yeah I posted something to that effect, and decided it wasn't worth the potential flamage. Was going to ask someone to delete the post. I'm too used to having admin privileges... lol

[Tyberius]

Wow some of you DO read minds... Yeah I posted something to that effect, and decided it wasn't worth the potential flamage. Was going to ask someone to delete the post. I'm too used to having admin privileges... lol

I don't think anything you said was deserving of any flaming; I understand your point, I just think mine might have come across in the wrong way! :)

[robokoi]

back on topic (just for a moment, promise!)

But on a serious note: the Trendnet is often <$70 on Amazon, I'm not sure you'll find a cheaper camera that works as well. And almost certainly, you won't find it by buying different ones and trying each of them. R&D costs money. Collectively we've tested a number of cameras, and so far, none have outperformed the Trendnet (in terms of performance or cost).

Anyone reading this thread has (just maybe) heard about the Trendnet camera many times over. If we stop there, we may never find a better performing option. Anyone interested in trying other cameras should not be discouraged, but should be aware that they're funding some R&D and should probably work with the currently preferred camera at least as a backup.

On camera comparisons, is there anywhere outside this thread and a few others which collects and compares the tried cameras? I only really look in MechWarfare on the forums, so don't know if there's wiki-like areas we can use as well. This could apply to many other aspects of the game, too: comms & protocols, control devices (joysticks, etc), guns and other weapons, ...

[gdubb2]

Our situation is a little on the unique side. We must deal with light weight, bouncing around on a walking robot, and a boatload of RF noise in the area. It may seem that others haven't been tested, but how does one duplicate the environment?

From personal experience, I can state that the Airlink AIC-250W does not work very well in this environment. While I was having difficulties at RoboGames, the folks with Trendnets were not. That was enough for me to change.

I am all in favor of testing, just don't know how do do it properly for our needs.

Good Luck
Gary
Mech: "Bheka"

[lnxfergy]

Anyone reading this thread has (just maybe) heard about the Trendnet camera many times over. If we stop there, we may never find a better performing option. Anyone interested in trying other cameras should not be discouraged, but should be aware that they're funding some R&D and should probably work with the currently preferred camera at least as a backup.

On camera comparisons, is there anywhere outside this thread and a few others which collects and compares the tried cameras? I only really look in MechWarfare on the forums, so don't know if there's wiki-like areas we can use as well. This could apply to many other aspects of the game, too: comms & protocols, control devices (joysticks, etc), guns and other weapons, ...

I never suggested that we stop looking. But the original question asked 3 days ago was to evaluate several other cameras, and the OP of that question then followed up that "I was just searching for Cheap wifi cams". Hence, the Trendnet is probably the best option for him, if it has to be low cost, and the first one he buys has to "just work".

I would never discourage someone from further R&D, however, they need to know that it will cost money and that they also need a testing environment. You can't do R&D, and build a mech, on a shoe-string budget. Frankly, if you're looking to up your performance as much as possible for the lowest cost, I'd use the tried-and-true methods for things like cameras and control, and focus more on the walking and munitions -- that's where the biggest gains are to be had, and many of the gains for walking come down to spending time tuning software and gaits (essentially these gains are free if you don't track your time).

At the moment, the Trendnet is the only really well tested camera that is known to have held up at Robogames. As Gary has stated, the Airlink is worthless at RG (Tyberius and I can both attest it's practically worthless even outside RG, we both dumped it before the games due to the repeated signal dropping). Not sure what Linksys or the others have to offer now, but in the January to April 2009 timeframe, the offerings were all quite a bit heavier than the Trendnet, and I'm not sure that any gain in performance would be worth added weight for most competitors.

Edit: Just noticed that your question expanded to documentation beyond cameras. There are currently several tutorials on Mech building, and of course this forum. There is not yet a Wiki, or similar, for mech warfare (although I do like the idea). Unfortunately, you'll have to be careful walking through these threads, as there really are only a handful of people who've built a working (or even almost working) mech, and many more who've posted (at times) ridiculous things that did not pan out or work in the least.

-Fergs

[Tyberius]

Then there is the $400 professional grade wifi video encoder + nearly HD camera setup I picked up for Hagetaka, which is only marginally better than the $70-90 Trendnet IP-110W...

[Adrenalynn]

I try about $350,000 worth of cameras a year, give or take. They have individual prices sampled from the manufacturer varying from free to ~$4000ea. Believe me - when I find a killer camera for this application, yall will hear about it, and I'll do my darndest to stock enough of 'em to cover M-W.

[robokoi]

... you'll have to be careful walking through these threads, as there really are only a handful of people who've built a working (or even almost working) mech, and many more who've posted (at times) ridiculous things that did not pan out or work in the least.


exactly why I was thinking about a wiki or other page with the information and stats of what had been done in various areas. I haven't built a working mech yet, but do get lost in some of the thread postings on what worked and what didn't.

[robokoi]

I try about $350,000 worth of cameras a year, give or take. They have individual prices sampled from the manufacturer varying from free to ~$4000ea. Believe me - when I find a killer camera for this application, yall will hear about it, and I'll do my darndest to stock enough of 'em to cover M-W.


wow, I knew you did video professionally, but you still take time to eval the cheap stuff? thanks! Just hope that *best* camera isn't one of the $4k ones! ;)

[Tyberius]

exactly why I was thinking about a wiki or other page with the information and stats of what had been done in various areas. I haven't built a working mech yet, but do get lost in some of the thread postings on what worked and what didn't.

Probably a very good idea tbh, there is a lot of information sort of thrown into pages of discussion. We could even keep it pretty minimalist at first and just add in the 'must knows'.

[Adrenalynn]

wow, I knew you did video professionally, but you still take time to eval the cheap stuff? thanks! Just hope that *best* camera isn't one of the $4k ones! ;)


If you follow the link in my signature link, you'll understand. ;)

[muc]

How did the spectrum look at 915MHz and 1250MHz @ the games? Would there be any way to use analog video equipment at these frequencies? What frequencies were tried besides 2.4 and 5.8GHz?

Also, there are some new baby monitors out that say they are FHSS. Has anyone looked at these? I'm planning to test some wireless encoder/decoder sets soon. This way you could use any analog camera and output to PC or analog monitor.

Are there any rules against multiple cameras? Forward/side/rear looking

[Tyberius]

Are there any rules against multiple cameras? Forward/side/rear looking

Mostly just the rules of gravity. Multiple cameras = more weight. Also, respect for other competitors should be factored in here; if you show up with a multi-camera system (sitting on 5 grand+ worth of servos, of course) and your system causes interference with other competitors, you'll be asked to limit it to one camera for the sake of the competition.

[tuzzer]

Hi

Thank you for the pictures and weight measurement.
Is it possible to also post the dimension of the boards as well?
I couldn't really tell the dimensions from that calliper and some dimensions are missing.



Matthew

[gdubb2]

My camera is all mounted, but here are some rough measurements.

Main board is about 85mm X 63mm. The camera board mounts to the main board, but is spaced out about 5mm from the front of the main board. The power supply board is about 60mm wide X 45mm deep. As you can tell from the pictures on page 1 of this thread, the camera board is odd shaped but it basically must mount to the main board. The power supply could be relocated, but the pins are not friendly.

I just removed mine from the case to save weight and made new mounts from styrene.

Comment: To avoid confusion, I started with the Airlink camera but changed to the Trendnet. These measurements are for the Trendnet.

Good luck
Gary

[praelian]

So I finally got the camera to hook up, but I'm not sure how you got the power to it. Reading through the post looks like people may have went two routes, 1- use the barrel plug with the breakout board or 2-used a different cable connector from digi-key without the breakout board. Thoughts, techniques used?

So far the path of least resistance for me is to use the barrel plug.

[gdubb2]

I used a barrel plug. That way for bench testing, I can use a power supply, when on the floor walking around, 6 volt battery pack.

Gary

[lnxfergy]

Same, I made up a little Receiver-Pack-Plug to Barrel converter, I plug my 6.0V battery right in.

-Fergs

[Adrenalynn]

I have pigtails with barrel plugs on my site, male and female, for like $1.50 or something...

Search PT-3 and PT-4

[lnxfergy]

Radio Shack may actually have the barrel plug you need... mine did.

-Fergs

[praelian]

I just stripped off the end of the adapter and was going to get the correct connectors at the rc shop to plug it in (I assume that is safe, I'm a EE n00b) to a 6v source. I'm getting ready to convert my power source over to LiPo so either I'll have a working bot or a pile of melted scraps!

[Adrenalynn]

I'd resist the urge to plug the camera into 6v. That regulator is pretty touchy - I suspect one side may be unregulated and it's expecting the 5v from the adapter to be regulated. [shrug] I've offed one camera that way...

[jes1510]

I'll agree with Adrenalynn. I used a castle creations BEC. It ouputs 5.1v out of the box so it doesn't need to be programmed. Plus it can source like a bazillion Amps.

[gdubb2]

I should agree with the 6 volt thing.. But I have been running mine from a 6 volt NiMH pack since I got it. I do use 5 volts for a bench supply. With a LiPo, I believe that a regulator would be required, since you have 7.4 to start with. Perhaps I'll fry mine, perhaps not.. hasn't yet.

Gary

[webgeek]

Java code To view the real-time video feed
I don't know if this is of use to many people or not, but it took me some time to track down and some experimentation to make sure it worked so I figured I'd post it. The code linked in this specific post will work out of the gate with the Trendnet IP110w camera. It appears to support HTTP authentication as well if that's needed (mine was disabled). Here is the link:
http://forums.sun.com/thread.jspa?messageID=4042430#4042430

Specifically, the MJPEGBean and MJPEGParser code is of interest. To use this code, just null out the username/password field and point the code at your MJPEG URL for the camera. The format (also something I had to track down) is this:
http://<camera IP>:<camera port>/cgi/mjpg/mjpeg.cgi

I've got it up and running now and it seems pretty solid. At the highest quality video, 640x480 frame rate hovers right around 29-31 and the lag is pretty low (wired into local network which is CAT 6 with a gig-e switch in the basement so I basically assume minimal network latency between machines). I didn't bother checking bandwidth usage, I'm sure it takes a stupid amount - MJPEG isn't know for being very efficient. As best I can tell, the camera occasionally puts out glitchy JPG headers (like two start of image headers in a row) which will make the code grumble but it will simply ignore that frame and continue with the next. I've only seen it do this once though so I'm not sure how much to read into it. If I see it happen more often I'll put together a patch to clean the header out.

I'll be tweaking the code as I go over time and if I run into anything major I'll let people know. It's not the prettiest code, but considering it works out of the gate it's a good starting point. Have fun!

-Mike

P.S. All credit goes to the original authors, Carl Gould and David E. Mireles on the Sun forums - I didn't write any of this!

[Upgrayd]

Amazon is offering a 30 dollar rebate on the TRENDnet TV-IP110W camera at the moment for those looking to get one. the item also applies for free shipping.

[Adrenalynn]

>> frame rate hovers right around 29-31

The imager only delivers 30fps to the compression engine on the camera internally, so it's physically impossible for the camera to deliver 31fps. Your frame counter is playing games with you, or it's fetching the same frame more than once.

[webgeek]

The imager only delivers 30fps to the compression engine on the camera internally, so it's physically impossible for the camera to deliver 31fps. Your frame counter is playing games with you, or it's fetching the same frame more than once. I didn't actually write the frame counter - it's in the code I linked. I wouldn't be surprised if he has some inaccuracy with the timer combined with some rounding to make the frame rate incorrect.

[Adrenalynn]

Nod. Just pointing out the inaccuracy.

[FlowbotX]

Hey guys,

I have looked at the Java code posted earlier for connecting to the camera...but I'm not a java progrrammer so I was wondering:

Does anyone have any C#.net of vb.net code to connect to the camera webserver, grab the mpeg video stream, parse it, and display the results in a picture/imagebox? If so, I would really appreciate some help.

Thanks.

[mannyr7]

just add a c# or vb webBrowser control to your form and point it to http://XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX/view2.cgi?profile=5. Replace the xx's with your camera's IP. This will load just the video stream into your webBrowser control, minus the Trendnet GUI controls.