This is my very first post
I like fishing and engineering and I have combined both to make underwater cameras so I can view what is going on down on the ocean floor
I did this using PoE IP camera in a water proof housing and I could pan the housing around with a 12 volt DC motor it worked really good until water worked its way past the seals and destroyed the motor
My next project I would like to enclose the PoE camera and two 12 volt DC motors for Pan and Tilt all within the one waterproof housing
My Question to you all is
Is it possible to control and receive video from the POE camera to the laptop in the boat PLUS control two DC motors via the one Ethernet cable to an Arduino Ethernet board with PoE and a Spark fun monster motor shield
Well, do not confuse video with Arduinos. Your Ethernet cable will need a switch unit to split between the IP camera and the Arduino with the Ethernet board; they are entirely separate Ethernet interfaces.
You will have to figure out how you might distribute the PoE to both.
Ideally I would love to have one cable going to the camera unit
So if I have one Ethernet cable going to th IP camera and wire cable going to the Arduino to control the motors all from the surface that might work more easily
I have used a PoE PTZ in a waterproof housing and it has worked good
However with the camera always moving quality of video is lost
So now I want to build my own larger Pan Tilt stationary unit that can be a platform for bullet cameras
Coolhand99:
So if I have one Ethernet cable going to the IP camera and wire cable going to the Arduino to control the motors all from the surface that might work more easily
Well of course, the advantage of a single cable is that you only need one sealing gland; you cannot run two cables through the same seal.
Correct me if I am wrong, but an Ethernet connection uses 4 wires (2 pairs), an Ethernet cable has 8 wires (4 pairs) in it. With a little creative cable termination two Ethernet 'connections' could be carried on one cable.
Just an extra point...
The control shouldn't be a big deal - other than the mechanical project of routing and sealing the cable... use outdoor (gel filled) stranded Cat 5/6 cable, otherwise you'll have other problems to deal with later!
You may also be better off looking for a high-flexibility silicon sheathed cable, as most CatX cables have very limited flex life.
The main issue will be getting your video back over the 'ethernet', which means you'll need to encode it within the submerged enclosure. That will probably require a dedicated module, or a fast DSP/FPGA based 'encoder' to MPEGx or whatever codec/container you prefer.
To send the raw 'baseband' video back, will either severely limit your cable length, or introduce other overheads we haven't discussed yet.
