Several months ago, I've found this piece of camera/camcorder in a trash.
What interested me was that two gyroscopes were attached to the lens assembly. Digging in the trash didn't bring more stuff that could give more indication about the brand/model number from which this assembly was from.
At first, the typical numbering of the components let me believe it was made by Sony but one board has a connector that is found only on JVC equipment.
I've been trying to look at JVC's products but so far, I've not been able to identify the source of this interesting object.
Ultimately, there are two interesting and reusable things in this assembly:
- The lens assembly. It has three motors that are most likely used for the zoom, the iris control and the autofocus. The zoom motor is a DC motor and the lens are connected to a linear potentiometer that can be used for position feedback like in a servo. The iris control is probably not a real motor like in most of the camcorder/camera devices. I can't really identify the CCD chip used and even if I could, it would be difficult to drive it without buying some specific ICs. I'd rather attach either a CMOS sensor with direct digital output, a camera with composite video output or even a Gameboy camera that I would like to use for robotic vision.
- The gyroscopic assembly. It has two Murata Gyrostar ENC-05S piezoelectric gyroscopes. They are arranged 90 degrees of each-other to be able to detect up-down and left-right movements. The gyroscopes are attached to a plastic support and a board that does some analog processing that was connected to the rest of the camcorder using a 6-pin flex cable that I unsoldered.
A quick look at the board indicates that the signals on the connector are power, ground (multiple) and two analog output that are probably a reconditioned version of the gyroscope's output. The two gyroscopes are Murata Gyrostar ENC-05S. I couldn't manage to find a full datasheet on the web but I've found the following characteristics:
The IC used on this board is a L2902 which is a clone of the LM324 that contains 4 operational amplifiers. I'm guessing that these operational amplifiers are used to subtract the reference from the signal and probably amplify it such that it can be processed later-on.
This is a neat board that can easily be used in a robotic project since it can probably be interfaced to an ADC with little external components.
I will edit this blog when I have reverse-engineered the various pinouts and when I will have implemented something using these parts.
Ultimately, there are two interesting and reusable things in this assembly:
- The lens assembly. It has three motors that are most likely used for the zoom, the iris control and the autofocus. The zoom motor is a DC motor and the lens are connected to a linear potentiometer that can be used for position feedback like in a servo. The iris control is probably not a real motor like in most of the camcorder/camera devices. I can't really identify the CCD chip used and even if I could, it would be difficult to drive it without buying some specific ICs. I'd rather attach either a CMOS sensor with direct digital output, a camera with composite video output or even a Gameboy camera that I would like to use for robotic vision.
- The gyroscopic assembly. It has two Murata Gyrostar ENC-05S piezoelectric gyroscopes. They are arranged 90 degrees of each-other to be able to detect up-down and left-right movements. The gyroscopes are attached to a plastic support and a board that does some analog processing that was connected to the rest of the camcorder using a 6-pin flex cable that I unsoldered.
A quick look at the board indicates that the signals on the connector are power, ground (multiple) and two analog output that are probably a reconditioned version of the gyroscope's output. The two gyroscopes are Murata Gyrostar ENC-05S. I couldn't manage to find a full datasheet on the web but I've found the following characteristics:- Range: +/-90 DEG/s
- Sensitivity: 0.3 mV/DEG/s
- Power supply: 5V DC
The IC used on this board is a L2902 which is a clone of the LM324 that contains 4 operational amplifiers. I'm guessing that these operational amplifiers are used to subtract the reference from the signal and probably amplify it such that it can be processed later-on.
This is a neat board that can easily be used in a robotic project since it can probably be interfaced to an ADC with little external components.
I will edit this blog when I have reverse-engineered the various pinouts and when I will have implemented something using these parts.
