hope this helps. I must tell you now im a NEWBIE when it comes to programing and arduinos. so any help you all can give me will be very much appreciated
"Is it possible to convert the stepper motor signal to motion using servos as drive motors to power the wheels?"
Must be a maybe. Your pictures is not useful, as one just shows it opened up, and the other a connector on a print.
It all depends on how it is made, if it is using some small switches to determine when the ptz has reached the outer points, then maybe it can work.
If the software tracks it by calculating the position to the stepper motor steps, then properly not, as it would then refuse starting the motor when it thinks the ptz reached an outer limit.
So the first thing you need to start with, it to take one of the motors off, and let it spin on the table, and check if it keeps running, or stops at some point and refuses to go any further.
bld- did alittle test and it does have a limiting switch on the pan im pretty sure it has it on the tilt also just cant get to it. what are your ideas for hooking it to the arduino?
Groove - if your going to be a smartass learn how to tell time first!
@predatorjk
To the Arduino? You didn't mention anything about that, why would you want to do that? Didn't you want to use the web server in the camera to control the wheels? My suggestion to that would just be to either modify the stepmotors to do that with a gear, or directly if possible.
It would seem to be easy to do that, but im looking to do a SKID steer type drive system... so by running the signal from the websever to the arduino a code can be written to tell the drive motors how to drive. example ... when i press the up arrow on the camera controls i want the arduino to tell all 4 servos ( 4 wheel drive) to go forward. When i tell the camera controll to pan left i want the left wheels to go foward and the right to go reverse.... does this make sense?
never heard of it ... ill look it up....... thats cool but i would have to start from scratch rewriting at websever software and program the arduino.... the webserver in the camera allows for 2 way communication and some other cool features that i want to keep..... just thought it would be cool to utilize the built in server and just program the arduino to control the wheels....
Do you understand where im going with my idea? your idea is def perfect for a future project i have in mind.... but do u think i can do my idea? is it possible?
It might be possible, but I would say it is a pretty big detour to get there, when there are things made that can do the same you want to do.
Doing it your way you would have to monitor the web server from the camera, and constantly analyze the output from it to determine what it is trying to do.
With the WiShield you tell it to do something instead.
Take bld's advice to use a wifi shield or something similar; you are going to tear your hair out and waste time, otherwise, unless that's your goal.
You likely won't get -any- info from the manufacturer, even if you manage to find out who they really are. I have a USB PTZ camera at home that works great under 'doze, but I wanted to write drivers for it under Linux. I contacted the company after a long search online; they were the same company that made the chipset in the camera and controller - they wouldn't even talk to me (I even offered to sign an NDA - no go - one would think a manufacturer of hardware would want it to work on as many platforms as possible so as to build a larger client base; one would think a chipset manufacturer would give out datasheets like nearly every other manufacturer - the whole thing was tarded).
Cut your losses, use the camera for what it was designed for, and mount it to a separate platform that can control it - whatever that may be (Arduino, PC motherboard, whatever)...
