Sony EVI-D70 Camera Control

[rmrichesjr]

Please help me to understand.

I'm thinking that if the RM-BR300 controller is connected to the cameras only via T+, T-, etc., and not a ground, and if the cable is a really long run, wouldn't that induce noise into the system and the ground connection's purpose be used to suppress the noise?

...

Provided the equipment design and wiring is correct, a long run of RS-422 should not induce any noise. The transmitter on each end should be truly symmetrical in the voltage waveform it puts out, so that if you looked at the sum of T+ and T- (or R+ and R-) there would be NO signal voltage present. The wiring should be done so that T+ and T- are on one twisted pair, and R+ and R- are on another twisted pair. The receiver should present the same impedance to its + and - input lines to avoid breaking the symmetry of the voltage and current waveforms.

If a transmitter outputs an asymmetrical voltage waveform, if a receiver presents mismatched impedance to create an asymmetrical current waveform, or if the wiring puts T+ and T- on different pairs (or R+ and R- on different pairs), then a long run could induce noise. In that case, the noise is the fault of a flawed piece of equipment or wiring.

Telephone landlines are an example of a system with long wiring runs and extremely little noise crossover. With proper symmetrical voltages and currents on carefully paired wiring, 90V ring voltage on some pairs does not leak to other pairs with sub-volt talk signals.

[russellhltn]

The controller had #5 contact (GND) connected to solid green of the CAT5, The 1st camera also had contact #5 (GND) connected. Camera #2 did NOT have contact #5 GND (solid green) connected. Camera #3 was connected to contact #5 GND.

Picture degration was fixed when I connected camera #2's contact #5 (GND) to the other cameras. In order to do this with one cable, I swapped out the UPT (from Cam1 to Cam2 to Cam3) with STP (from Cam1 to Cam2 to Cam3). UTP was used from controller to Cam1.

I'm still not getting a clear picture. When you say "solid green" is that the shield, or the "mostly green with white strip" wire? (At least that's what I usually see in CAT 5).

And I take it that this is a "bus" topology, where the layout is Controller -> Cam 1 -> Cam 2 -> Cam 3 and not "home run" were each camera has it's own line back to the controller?

And which cameras did you have the degradation on? Just Cam 2 or all of them?

[trbaxter]

I am just getting ready to do our first stake conference webcast. We are doing our camera control of video balun from the link below.
http://www.amazon.com/Control-Video-Pow ... -d70+balun

All I needed was a cat5 run from the camera to the satellite cabinet. With this balun , you plug in power at the cabinet and it feeds video and camera control to you. I have a laptop with this sofware that I found on the wiki
https://tech.lds.org/forum/showthread.p ... l+software

http://www.cwshop.com/LDSSoftware
Connect the usb connection to the laptop. Video out to the webcast communicator. Power, video and camera control all in one package.

The software allows you to have 6 preset camera positions and 4 lines of text you can add on screen.

[Gutknecht]

I use an IR extender and it works well!

[Mikerowaved]

I use an IR extender and it works well!

Yes, the one thing that disappointed me in my experience of using a borrowed EVI-D70 was the dismal IR range of (if I recall) about 10'-15'. Can you elaborate on which IR extender you used? I know some are definitely better than others. Did you experience any additional lag time while using it?

[Aczlan]

Yes, the one thing that disappointed me in my experience of using a borrowed EVI-D70 was the dismal IR range of (if I recall) about 10'-15'. Can you elaborate on which IR extender you used? I know some are definitely better than others. Did you experience any additional lag time while using it?

Different situation here, but we used a S-Video/IR extender system from Knoll Systems (someone in the stake does commercial AV installations and he recommended them). We have a US-SVID in the camera box, that runs through a CAT6 cable to a UR-SVID in the "control room" (Stake Clerks Office). That feeds a 1x4 S-Video splitter which goes into another US-SVID that runs through a CAT6 cable to a UR-SVID in the library that ties into the building CCTV system.


Aaron Z

[Gutknecht]

Yes, the one thing that disappointed me in my experience of using a borrowed EVI-D70 was the dismal IR range of (if I recall) about 10'-15'. Can you elaborate on which IR extender you used? I know some are definitely better than others. Did you experience any additional lag time while using it?

Here is a link to the Terk IR Extender we are using, there may be cheaper suppliers, this is just to help you see the device we are using.

http://www.buy.com/prod/audiovox-terk-l ... 05352.html

[KeithWilson]

I worked with Lewis, the author of the link above

Following these instructions, for $18 bucks, and CAT5 from your camera to your PC, you are controlling your EVI-D70 with a laptop with USB. It works great. We literally finished the documentation last week. I can verify it works.

[Ponts]

Hi,
I want to control Sony EVID70 from RS422. for this purpose I am using USB to RS 485/422 converter ( http://www.usconverters.com/index.php?m ... cts_id=280)
but it is not working. Can anyone suggest me a way.

[rmrichesjr]

More detail about what doesn't work would be helpful. What are the symptoms? Does it appear that there is simply no communication? Or, does it do something but not what it should?

Finding the root cause of the problem will require some debugging effort. Here are some simple suggestions that might get you started:

First, are you sure the wiring is connected correctly? If the transmitters are talking to each other and the receivers are listening to each other, there will be no communication. If the polarities are reversed, plus vs. minus, on either or both pairs, there might be odd symptoms or no communication.

Second, are you sure you have the converter in the right mode? IIRC, RS-485 uses a protocol to control access to the shared bus, while RS-422 is full duplex with no need for collision avoidance. Do you have the baud rate, number of bits, number of stop bits, and such set correctly? (Serial communication is not as simple as plug and talk.)

Third, does the software give you any indication of what is or is not happening?

Fourth, is there enough documentation on the camera's over-the-wire language that you could use a terminal emulator program to see if there are bytes going back and forth?

Fifth, if you have access to any RS-422 debugging tools, what does it show happening on the line? Are bits going in one or both directions? If you have an oscilloscope, that can be used to see whether the wires are wiggling. With a bit of care and maybe a few resistors, a stereo audio line input could be used to check for wiggles if you have a program that displays a view similar to an oscilloscope. Look for the wires in a differential pair to trade voltages. If you need, I have a very simple oscilloscope program that runs on Linux; you could use a Live-CD to run it.