PDPeople,
I'm looking at the specs for a Sony PTZ cam which uses Sony's ViSCA protocol. The manual gives the commands for communicating with the cam, but I'm not sure if it would work with an existing Pd external or not. The control machine will be running OSX so a USB-RS232 adapter would figure into the equation. I know very little about serial port programming and need a little help determining if the cam is an option or not.
Cam manual (pp 19-37): http://bssc.sel.sony.com/BroadcastandBusiness/docs/manuals/evihd1_tm.pdf
There is also an open source libVISCA for dealing with this, but I would rather make abstractions around existing externals than code up a new one.
Thanks Chris
chris clepper wrote:
I'm looking at the specs for a Sony PTZ cam which uses Sony's ViSCA protocol. The manual gives the commands for communicating with the cam, but I'm not sure if it would work with an existing Pd external or not. The control machine will be running OSX so a USB-RS232 adapter would figure into the equation. I know very little about serial port programming and need a little help determining if the cam is an option or not.
Cam manual (pp 19-37): http://bssc.sel.sony.com/BroadcastandBusiness/docs/manuals/evihd1_tm.pdf
I've worked with a VISCA cam a few years ago. It just uses 9600 baud RS232 serial, so [comport] can handle it. The harder part is parsing incoming messages.
Martin
I and a few other media artists use the "elmo" PTC100, its cheaper than the canon's I was looking at the time.
With Canon you had to agree to a licence to even get the protocol, elmo just leaves it out there. They are a pretty good company also (meaning they have not pissed me off like others).
You can't do a slow pan with these cameras (despite the protocol sheet).
They also say the life is about 10,000 movements, but I've done probably a 1,000,000 and still going strong.
I have an abstraction in the CVS for controlling it (uses comport and py to do the parsing/communications) Works with the USB-rs232 adapter I used.
If you end up getting the Sony it would be great to add an object to the ptz-camera collection. The infrastructure is there to give any command, and get back messages from any of 4 in a daisy chain, just not ll the details are implemented.
anyhow just letting you know.
B.
Martin Peach wrote:
chris clepper wrote:
I'm looking at the specs for a Sony PTZ cam which uses Sony's ViSCA protocol. The manual gives the commands for communicating with the cam, but I'm not sure if it would work with an existing Pd external or not. The control machine will be running OSX so a USB-RS232 adapter would figure into the equation. I know very little about serial port programming and need a little help determining if the cam is an option or not.
Cam manual (pp 19-37): http://bssc.sel.sony.com/BroadcastandBusiness/docs/manuals/evihd1_tm.pdf
I've worked with a VISCA cam a few years ago. It just uses 9600 baud RS232 serial, so [comport] can handle it. The harder part is parsing incoming messages.
Martin
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On Jan 25, 2008 12:13 PM, B. Bogart ben@ekran.org wrote:
I and a few other media artists use the "elmo" PTC100, its cheaper than the canon's I was looking at the time.
The Sony is HD with a handy HD-SDI connector for long cable runs. I don't particularly like Sony or their products, but this seems to be the only option in the prices range (JVC and Panny have some that are up to 10x the cost).
I have an abstraction in the CVS for controlling it (uses comport and py to do the parsing/communications) Works with the USB-rs232 adapter I used.
If you end up getting the Sony it would be great to add an object to the ptz-camera collection. The infrastructure is there to give any command, and get back messages from any of 4 in a daisy chain, just not ll the details are implemented.
I would like to just make some abstractions for the control. I will take a look at your abstraction.
Thanks Chris
On Jan 25, 2008 12:00 PM, Martin Peach martin.peach@sympatico.ca wrote:
http://bssc.sel.sony.com/BroadcastandBusiness/docs/manuals/evihd1_tm.pdfI've worked with a VISCA cam a few years ago. It just uses 9600 baud RS232 serial, so [comport] can handle it. The harder part is parsing incoming messages.
Good to know it is possible. What incoming messages need to be handled? I was thinking that Pd would just send messages to move the cam around and not really need to know if the they are successful or not.
chris clepper wrote:
On Jan 25, 2008 12:00 PM, Martin Peach martin.peach@sympatico.ca wrote:
http://bssc.sel.sony.com/BroadcastandBusiness/docs/manuals/evihd1_tm.pdfI've
worked with a VISCA cam a few years ago. It just uses 9600 baud RS232 serial, so [comport] can handle it. The harder part is parsing incoming messages.
Good to know it is possible. What incoming messages need to be handled?
I was thinking that Pd would just send messages to move the cam around and not really need to know if the they are successful or not.
You don't need to listen to it unless you want to know what state it is in before you start, and when it's completed the commands you sent. If you just send it a reset at the beginning and allow enough time for the commands to execute, it should be OK.
Martin
The elmo just says "Ack, ERR or Complete" but since multiple cameras can be diasychained then it gets more complex, which camera threw which error.
Another thing to look into is the pan/tilt heads, I was looking at these as they are much more flexible, you can put any camera on em, but I did not look very far. (zoom is obviously trouble)
have fun!
.b.
chris clepper wrote:
On Jan 25, 2008 12:00 PM, Martin Peach <martin.peach@sympatico.ca mailto:martin.peach@sympatico.ca> wrote:
<http://bssc.sel.sony.com/BroadcastandBusiness/docs/manuals/evihd1_tm.pdf>I've worked with a VISCA cam a few years ago. It just uses 9600 baud RS232 serial, so [comport] can handle it. The harder part is parsing incoming messages.Good to know it is possible. What incoming messages need to be handled? I was thinking that Pd would just send messages to move the cam around and not really need to know if the they are successful or not.
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Martin Peach