It came to me in a dream.. but is it possible?

Kissker · Post by **Kissker** » Sat Dec 15, 2007 7:43 pm

Alright.. lets just get right to it, I don't know if it was the chili-cheese dog before bed, or my imagination gone nuts.. but heres what went on.

In my dream I had my NDSl (nintendo DS lite in case you didn't know) and I used it to control a camera set up in my house, the D pad moved the camera up/down left/right etc, and the R trigger took a picture and saved to the microSD inside my M3Real, the "live footage" was not stored or saved, just displayed on the top screen, while the bottom (touch screen) had all the controls....

Can it be done? What would it take? is there a way to homebrew the motorized movement of a cam- to take say a cheapo wireless webcam or a micro cam used a lot in RC helicopter flights (the heli cam was in my dream) and somehow link it to the wifi of the DS, and make your own motor structure to move it....

I wouldn't even know where to begin.. another idea came with lego motorized parts and robo-creation kits.. thinking maybe they could be used.. but yea.. anyway.. give me feedback, ideas.. and if anyone has more knowledge on if/how this could be done - I am 100% interested in trying to get it to work.. I can think of 101 uses for it. lol.

HazmatB · Post by **HazmatB** » Sat Dec 15, 2007 7:51 pm

Yeah, it is possible. I mean the webcam/helicam wifi set up would be pretty difficult to get rigged up, but not too impossible (you would have to write some code

). That lego robotics set up would be easier than starting from scratch.

As for the DS Wifi thing, if you got the thing running another OS, then it wouldn't be that hard to get it to communicate with the PC controlling the webcam.

nightwheel · Post by **nightwheel** » Sat Dec 15, 2007 8:04 pm

This sound like a cool idea. It will be hard to do it like HazmatB said and explained. But if you get this to work. Make sure to let us see it first and of course you friends too. And make a how to so we can do it too.

Kissker · Post by **Kissker** » Sat Dec 15, 2007 8:09 pm

I figured it was probably possible.. however how "affordable" or "probable" was a factor...

first idea for use is just to use it as a door monitor- seal it ina weatherproof case, hang it outside my door, and when someone rings the bell I can just take out my DS, see who it is, if its some stranger, take a picture of them (in case bad things happen like pranks) and voila.. I didn't have to get out of the bathroom. lol.

well first things first.. I need to learn how to code for what I want it to do... and set it all up and all that.. and yea... Hopefully someone will post and be like "hey.. I can help ya.." cuz honestly.. this is the start.. and until I can learn code and the like.. this is all its going to be for a LONG while.. lol. But hey, anyone willin to make this, just que me in on the progress and Iam happy, they can take all the credit for the work.

HazmatB · Post by **HazmatB** » Sat Dec 15, 2007 8:25 pm

Cost wise, you could do this on the cheap! Like sub-100 dollars.

The first step would be to get some motors, and the webcam, and rig the motors to be controlled via computers. Here is a UK site that has a great motor - pc rig up:
http://www.quasarelectronics.com/3113.htm

It took me 5 seconds to find this, I am sure you could find a US site for this too.

Then get a cheap ass PC, the cheaper the better. A 386 would probably work! load up the software, write a bit of code yourself (I could help you if it gets this far), and get the webcam computer controlled!

Update: Some googling revealed this:
http://blogs.msdn.com/coding4fun/archiv ... 48155.aspx

Haven't looked into it thoroughly but it is a start.

nightwheel · Post by **nightwheel** » Sat Dec 15, 2007 8:40 pm

HazmatB wrote:Then get a cheap ass PC, the cheaper the better.

I have a old Windows 95 PC. Pay me $5 and pay for the shipping and it yours if you want

HazmatB · Post by **HazmatB** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 2:47 pm

Okay, I have done a bit of research on this now...

You will want to get yourself between 2 and 4 Stepper motors,

I can conceive of a design utilizing 2, but extras don't hurt..

Here is a lot of 4 on eBay

http://cgi.ebay.ca/Miniature-Stepper-Mo ... dZViewItem

You can see how cheaply you can get them!

I can't do too much testing because I don't have a PC on hand, nor do I have a stepper motor.

All the interaction with the motor will be done via a printer cable (i.e. parallel port). I think it can be done with 1 port, but I will have to look into it a bit further!

This sounds like a fun little project which you should definitely do!

Edit:

Note that you don't really need another PC for this, but it will be taking up the parallel port on your computer, so having a dedicated PC would be great. I would try and get a smaller computer... so that it could take up less space in your foyer.

One more thing... Also get some: ULN2003s. get about as many as you get motors, as always a couple extra are good for accidentally messing up

. http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dl ... category0=