[ANSWERED] PTZ CAM control via TCP/IP

[ben]

Dear All,

we are currently working with the PTZOptics 12x 3G-SDI (GEN 2) camera and the thread below and especially @jandraka ’s user actors have helped us a lot to understand how to control the ptz over ethernet using the TCP/IP command lines.

https://community.troikatronix.com/topic/6729/answered-ptz-cam-and-isadora

However we are facing a few issues now and we are hoping that you can help us solve them.

The main issue is that even though @jandraka ’s user actors have a speed setting, it doesn't work to recall the preset position in the desired speed with the camera we are using. As far as we understand it: speed is simply not part of the CAM_Memory recall command line. 

Therefore our idea would be to use Isadora to store and recall presets using the following Pan-tiltPosInq and the AbsolutePosition Command Line (from the manual of the camera that can be found here https://bit.ly/3kBfcBG ): 

As mentioned before, the difference (and in our case the advantage) of the AbsolutePosition command line is that you can also define the speed (VV WW) in which the camera is moving towards the assigned position. Furthermore, the idea to save and recall the exact position of the camera out of isadora (instead of using a preset saved in the PTZCamera) would be very welcome as well.

So our approach would be to find a position manually, then do an Inquiry Command Pan-tiltPosInq, then somehow store the wwww & zzzz values in isadora and “translate” them to the AbsolutePosition Comand lines' yyyy & zzzz values to be able to recall the stored values later if the preset is needed.

So what does not work with this approach so far:

we are not able to parse the code in isadora:

TCP Send Data Actor sends  (Pan-tiltPosInq) —>  81 09 06 12 FF  

The monitor shows, that we actually get back the information we asked for from the camera. So we set the

TCP In Watcher - to —> msg:string={00-FF} 

But if we trigger TCP Send Data —> Isadora crashes. 

As far as we understand: the msg:string={00-FF} would be the way to get the HEX Number Inquiry Packet (Pan-tiltPosInq) as a string into Isadora. But this doesn't work. 

Do you have a clue why? or are we doing something wrong? we use isadora 3.0.7 on our macbook pros vrom 2015 with os 10.11.6 and 10.14.6

The other issue would be how to “translate” the values wwww & zzzz from the Pan-tiltPosInq to the yyyy & zzzz values of the AbsolutePosition command . This is something we didn't touch so far, but we were already able to use the params of TCP Send Data Actor as variables vv ww & yyyy to trigger speed and pan with this command line:

81 01 06 02 P1:C P1:C 00 P2:C P3:C P4:C 00 00 00 00 FF

param1 (P1) is the speed vv and ww from range 01 - 18 (all possible velocities)

param2 - 4  (P2-P4) are yyyy values for Pan Position ranging from +0990 to -0990 (all possible pan positions)

we do not know yet how to use this further but as we are not able to parse the Pan-tiltPosInq, we are not able to test the "translation" any further.

Does anyone know what we are doing wrong?

Thanks for any advise or hint in advance,

best Phillip and Benjamin

[jandraka]

@ben

Sorry, I forgot that the preset recall had given me problems. I contacted the PTZOptics service and solved it. So I created the user actors. Basically the preset speed is a command that is not supported by some firmware. I had to update the firmware of the camera and then everything worked perfectly. I am attaching a file with the support ticket thread.
I hope that helps.
Best

Javi

[DusX]

I am looking into the issue.
Can you please create a support ticket so that we can get into the reported crash?
I have a quick test User Actor that I will share once you create the support ticket (I am having trouble attaching it here at the moment).

If the firmware approach works, I would still like to know if you have TCP-IP crashes.

[ben]

@jandraka

thanks a lot for your quick reply and the detailed file, we'll defintely look into it - even if it's not so easy for us to just update the firmware of the camera as it belongs to a theater and is also used in other shows. therefore we look for the workaroung we explained, especially because this would give us a potentially unlimited number of presets without blocking (or overwriting) any preset position inside the camera. anyway we appreciate your help!

[ben]

@DusX

thank you for your answere - we just filed a support ticket with the project file and crash reports.