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| StyleCam Snap Hack |
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I bought a very cheap digital camera from Maplin (website: www.maplin.co.uk) for only £9.99 and hacked it such that I can control it with a PICmicro (see www.microchip.com).
This could be incorporated into the robot to take pictures at a regular interval or in communication with the rangefinder could photograph objects it encounters. I could also mount it on a water rocket to try and take a video clip or series of photos while in flight or even strap it to my brothers airhog (link: www.paramountzone.com/airhog.htm) but I think the plane flies too fast for the little camera, which can take blurry images with a slightly jittery hand. |
| The hack comprised of running wires from the two buttons (power/mode and trigger) to an opto-isolator (a photo-transistor paired with a LED). A PIC micro-controller is wired to the opto-isolator and can now control the camera. The camera runs off one AAA battery so directly connecting the PIC (running at 5volts) to the camera would have been a bad idea. |
  (click on image for larger, annotated image)  (click on image for larger, annotated image) |
 The cameras original mount was connected to a servo to give panning capabilities.  View of the back shows the dual opto-isolator.  Better view of the back of the camera. |