Wow!

As me Finder is clapped out (again), I am at my local maker space 3D printing something.

To kill time I poked around their electronics lab. Poking around the electronics lab I found a treasure!

A FRACKING reflow oven!

Oh well.

Where I am with the IP camera for the manual PnP machine(s) is dire.

I found the best IP camera streaming hack to run on the XIAO ESP32S3 Sense setup was here. That code seemed to come up and run, without drop-outs I had seen with code from other sources.

I have now run that code against the OV2640 that came with. I have now also vetted the code against both the 160^o 850nm “night vision” camera for my fruit rat hunting experiment, and the long ribboned 66^o camera I was planning to use on the PnP machine(s).

A problem arose, however, since I need to set the 66^o permanently in place, and that may limit the locations I can do that. I got the long ribbon to allow me to mount the camers essentially vertically, over the location the PnP picker will work. The issue, with a fixed focal length, you need to adjust the camera distance from the mount board to focus.

It occurred, therefore, I should have grabbed an autofocus camera. Hence, an OV5640 50MM Auto Focus FOV 65^o is now on its way.

Also wik. I can get the ESP32S3 serving MJPEG to:

• my Chrome browser on me HP Spectre,
• an instance of motioneye running on me home server, from me HP Spectre and
• in the Firefox browser running on my ACER Aspire ONE, which is running Debian 8 etc.

But, I did give up trying to connect VisualPlace to the IP camera from both my HP Scectre and me ACER Aspire ONE, since VisualPlace would not connect at all to the camera served by the ESP32S3 on either hosts. Of note, VisualPlace would also not connect to an IP Camera app running on my android phone.

I’ve also bought a VGA to RCA converter to see if I can use an old portable DVD player as my second screan for the ACER Aspire ONE. If not, I appear to be able to get a 7″ LCD with VGA input from Aliexpress for UAS$70. But, the preference is the get use out of the old DVD player. I may event rip the DVD out of it an see if I can build a lipo into to it, since it still needs a power pack.

I SEE RED …

… NO I DON’T

Got me a 160 degree “nigh vision” OV2640. Seems to work but not “night vision” unless, DOH, I need IR led illumination. So, back to the drawing board.

More doodling

I have been SO LAZY!

I need sort my workshop/laboratory(mwahahaha)/Office to get it tidy and then I can comfortably sit down for another sprint on the Prusa Bear clone build.

So, I did what I would normally do, …

…, I procrastinated.

To mark that occasion, I did make a new animation.

Wanna see?

Based upon me new character.

So, I worked through a problem I’ve seen with this character as well as the other so far unnamed monkey.

Sloppy head.

When you suck these non-human characters up into Mixamo or actorcore, you occasionally will get sloppy head.

The other so far unnamed monkey got sloppy head, for sure, at actorcore, but not at Mixamo.

Rusty got it at Mixamo.

So, can’t help it, you have to go into the “weight paint” mode and adjust the bone influences. I had to watch out for the neck especially, as it contorted the bottom of the head. The contortion was worse when there was gross rotation of the head and neck.

Head vertex group

Neck vertex group

Amended

The pain, it subsides?

Yeah, so no joy really trying to get a camera server running on the ye olde Acer Aspire ONE, the process has been so Painful!

But!

Then I came across the Seeed Studio XIAO ESP32S3 Sense at core-electronics.

So I’ve ordered me one of those suckers.

You can serve the camera on the XIAO as if an IP camera. So, I should be able to mount that tiny module onto either or both my manual PnP machines. Once mounted, the XIAO will pump the picker viewpoint to the VisualPlace instance running on the Aspire ONE.

Instead of this

Now, ahead of the game, I have ordered a longer OV2640 camera, than the one that comes with the XIAO.

So two of these, one for each manual PnP

So, I also thought a couple of IR cameras would be handy, since I am battling with fruit rats stealing me citrus fruit. So, I want to build a system to chase them away, so need to “see” them at night.