PACRAT
(PASSCAL a la Carte Roving Aironet-linked Television)

The PACRAT system utilizes ancient equipment.  It is entirely self contained until the battery dies.  Below is a photograph of the entire system.  An alternate power source is recommended if the system is to be operated for more than two hours at a time.

Below is a photograph of the system located in the back of the PASSCAL Instrument Center warehouse, far from any power outlet or Ethernet connection.

The imaging camera is a vintage Connectix Color QuickCam 2.  The Connectix company was bought out by Logitech, and the most current incarnation of the camera is the Logitech QuickCam Pro 3000, which must be a better camera since the name is so much longer, and since 3000 is so much greater than 2.  The QC2 is capable of 640x480 resolution, and millions of colors.

The imaging camera is connected to a Sony VAIO PCG-F430 laptop computer running WindowsME via the parallel port.  The PS2 port is used for camera power.  The more modern imagers, such as the 3000, use the Universal Serial Bus connection.

The acquisition system uses the popular Webcam32 software package.  Webcam32 can be set to capture an image every n seconds, and then ftp it to an ftp server of your choice as a JPEG image.  The software can be configured to place the caption of your choice on the image.  If accurate time information is required there are several small programs that will periodically synchronize the laptop time to the Internet, and then the current date and time information can be printed on the image.

The final link in the chain is the Aironet 4800 series, 11 Mbps ethernet link PCMCIA (PC card) interface.  That's its antenna mounted to the side of the mobile support vehicle.

The results.

2006-Jul-30