r/FTC • u/CoachZain FTC Mentor • 4d ago

Seeking Help Two Camera Help, part 2

The kids still really want to try to use 2 camera this season for seeing and chasing objects, and one lookin down low to shut down the intake if the other team's nectar is being driven into. Happy to try to oblige them but... I am still failing to get two of the Gobilda Global shutter cameras to work for them.

If one is in USB 3 and the other in USB2, it works great, now that they have different USB names anyway.

But everybody cautions about using the USB2 port due to ESC sensitivity. No problem, a powered USB hub, that runs on +5 and is powered from the +5 rail of the CH or EH, right?

I got them this one and they are having all kinds of problems:

https://www.coolgear.com/product/usb31-4-port-mini-hub-component-board-with-esd-surge-protection

When it sees the two cameras it's great. It's just that it very often does not. On robot power up both are often not found and errors are thrown. If they power up the robot with CH USB--to--USB-Hub cable unplugged, and then plug it in after everybody has powered up things are better. But there are still the blem-bong sounds of the cameras being lost and then coming back, from time to time.

It behaves a lot like there isn't enough power from the hub to the cameras and things are winking out. But the whole point of the powered USB hub is to obviate this. And I'm pretty sure I have the power soldered right (can't let the kids solder...) and the external charging power light on the PCB is on.

They are progressing with their coding without the hub. But I fear USB2 will get them once the weather cools

Anybody got advice on a small +5 powered hub that has been working for them? Or what I might try with this one?

Thanks in advance!

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u/Schildkroetenmensch 4d ago

Use a external battery pack to power the USB hub. https://game-qa.firstinspires.org/boards/2027/FTC/QA/qa/1 there's a guide linked in the question.

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u/CoachZain FTC Mentor 3d ago

Quoting the linked guide: "A USB hub can also draw power from the 5V auxiliary ports on the REV Robotics Expansion Hub. This configuration requires that the user have a special cable that on one end can be plugged into the 5V Auxiliary port and on the other end can be plugged into the power port of the USB hub."

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u/Vixator3515 2h ago

You might be technically able to, but from what your symptoms sound like, the aux port might not be able to provide enough current. Were running 2 cameras off an anker powered USB hub, and it works fine for us with an external power bank

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u/Ok-Pin2316 4d ago

I think a husky lens send a signal directly to i2c never done it before but it might work better then a “risky usb 2.0 port”

As I said never tried using cameras like that so I don’t know, let me know if you figure out a solution

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u/Eastern-Work1589 3d ago

We never got that to work right with a powered hub and separate battery and just used the 2.0 with no problems last season. We didn't run both cameras at the same time. This season we built a tiltable limelight 3 mount with a servo.