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Archive for the ‘Tilt’ Category

It wasn’t long ago that faced with a controller project, you might shop for something with just the right features and try to minimize the cost. These days, if you are just doing a one-off, it might be just as easy to throw commodity hardware at it. After all, a Raspberry Pi costs less than a nice meal and it is more powerful than a full PC would have been not long ago.

When [Joe Coburn] wanted to make a pan and tilt webcam he didn’t try to find a minimal configuration. He just threw a Raspberry Pi in for interfacing to the Internet and an Arduino in to control two RC servo motors. A zip tie holds the servos together and potentially the web cam, too.

You can see the result in the video below. It is a simple matter to set up the camera with the Pi, send some commands to the Arduino and hook up to the Internet.

The serial protocol for the Arduino is simple: The Pi sends a numeric position followed by a P (for pan) or T (for tilt) at 9600 baud. A web server and some Python handle the interface to the Internet and the human.

We’ve certainly seen our share of similar projects. Some of them have been a bit larger.


Filed under: Arduino Hacks, Raspberry Pi


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