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The HP Community is where owners of HP products, like you, volunteer to help each other find solutions.
HP Recommended

Is there a way to steer the Eagle Eye with some other controller than the wireless remote? It is extremely hard to pan or zoom smoothly using the remote.

 

 

Recorded video example:

Watch from 38:00 to 39:45 and as I try (and fail) to smoothly and slowly zoom and pan using the IR remote.

 

If possible I would like to be able to just use an dual analog-stick game controller like a Playstation Dual-Shock with the HDX and steer with that:

 

  • Use one analog thumbstick for up/down/left/right panning.
  • Use the other analog thumbstick for zooming and manual focus override
  • Use the other game controller buttons for a bunch of camera presets.

 

Is anything like this already available?

 

Obviously it would be possible to do most of this with an Arduino or Raspberry Pi hobbyist microcontroller box that the game controller plugs into, and that mimics the Polycom IR signals to the EagleEye camera, but I'm not a hardware hacker so I'm not going to be able to pull this off myself.

 

 

5 REPLIES 5
HP Recommended

There are 3 ways to interface the codec for controlling the cameras, the IR remote, the web interface and the API. 


I am not aware of any thing that would allow secondary devices like you are wanting to interface the codec.  As you pointed out you would need to emulate one of the interface ways (IR or API) for it to work.

 

Have you tried using presets as a way to move the camera around.  You can set up to 100 presets per system.

HP Recommended

One of the problems with this is the API command set for the HDX (by the book) can only accept 5 commands per second (200ms per command)..    Is 5 position updates a second fast enough/smooth enough ?

 

I could build you a little test application for it...  but as Steve points out, presets can exact position for you (with a little bit of "setup" before the recording starts.

 

Cheers,

 

Gary Miyakawa

HP Recommended

200ms is probably good enough control resolution, since the Eagle Eye is a relatively huge, high mass camera with a low torque drive. It likely cannot respond much faster than 200ms anyway, and its mass will blur/smooth any acceleration changes.

 

 

This looks interesting: a control library for Playstation 2 to Arduino

http://www.billporter.info/2010/06/05/playstation-2-controller-arduino-library-v1-0/

 

So, is the "IOIOIO" port a serial port? If yes then the Arduino could probably pump control commands through there, reading the analog sticks and outputting control commands to the serial port.

 

Apparently that PS2 control library can run the shake motors in the controller too, so it'd be possible for hitting the drive limits on the camera to send shake-feedback to the controller.

 

 

I'm not much of a hardware hacker, but with a command library it'd probably be possible to put something together. Though not likely to happen anytime soon. I'd still have to buy all the parts for microcontroller experimentation and programming.

HP Recommended

Further research on using game controllers for camera steering indicates that the Playstation 2 controller would be a nightmare to work with, as it uses a custom digital interface with the game system that is not well understood by hardware hacking reverse-engineering, and can be unreliable or just fail for unknown reasons or bad interfacing design.

 

However the Playstation 3 controller is standard USB, and the Xbox controller is standard USB, so these can be directly interfaced to Arduino via an adapter module known as a USB Host Shield.

 

 

USB Host Shield 2.0 for Arduino
http://shop.tkjelectronics.dk/product_info.php?products_id=43

 

This includes a free software library for working with a wide range of USB devices, including the Xbox and PS3 controllers, and even the Nintendo Wiimote and wireless Xbox controller, via bluetooth:

https://github.com/felis/USB_Host_Shield_2.0

 

 

 

HP Recommended

What about a simple mouse positioning on a form so, as you move the mouse, the camera follows ? 

 

As I pointed out previously, the updates would only occur 5 times per second..  

 

I'm afraid the complexity of those controllers outweigh there value for this application..

 

Just my thoughts..

 

Gary M

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