PWM to RS232 (RC camera Control)

Forum 2005-2010 (read only) General Frequently-Asked Questions
1

Hello,

I am wondering if some one could help with a project of mine? I am trying to control a VK-S914 Hitachi cameras zoom function via an RC receiver. This particular cameras zoom function is controlled by RS-232c.

I have the communication specifics for the camera.

So here is my initial thoughts, keep in mind my experience is limited in microcontrollers.

  1. I understand that included in Ardurino IDE, are servo control libraries, which among other functions has a read command. So I should be able to read the position of the servo by calling read?
  2. If I am able to read the position of the servo it should not be to difficult to out put a serial command based on the specific position of the servo. I want to keep this very simple, the only function I am worried about is the Zoom function of the camera.

Here some specifics for command for the particular camera.

  1. Control commands

a) Switch the auto focus / manual focus
:RFF0E00
:WFF0EX1X0
bit 3 of X1X0 : 0-Auto 1-Manual
or
:WFCBBA8 ;Change
:WFCBBFE ;Neutral

b) Move focus to FAR in manual focus mode
:WFCBBA9 ;Start
:WFCBBFE ;Stop
c) Move focus to NEAR in manual focus mode
:WFCBBAA ;Start
:WFCBBFE ;Stop
d) Move zoom to TELE
:WFCBB99 ;Start
:WFCBBFE ;Stop
e) Move zoom to WIDE
:WFCBB9B ;Start
:WFCBBFE ;Stop

f) Select the zoom speed of optical zoom
:RFDFC00
:WFDFCX1X0 Super HIGH SPEED (1.9s) * ;

2

So I should be able to read the position of the servo by calling read?

All the read method does is return the last value you wrote to the servo.

3

There have been threads here on the forums, though, where people have discussed decoding R/C signals; so, in theory, you could decode the signal, extract the pulse timings, then convert that into a "position", then into a zoom setting - then send that on to the camera via the RS232...