Re: Video and RS 232 switcher

[Richard Malcolm-Smith <rich@xxxxxxx>]

Anthony Umann wrote:

> ok, the control anything link is pretty cool, but a little hackish.
looking
> for something more finished, in a box, he has a box, but it's 99.00,
ouch..
>
> the other thing i really need is a way to control 4 cameras (one way
RS-232
> communication) through a single serial port.
>
> shameless plug www.iomojo.com/camdemo/

If the camera is happy with 0-5v RS232 you could use the RTS and DTR
lines to gate the SD line to one of 4 outputs - you would need a 2 to 4
decoder (Do these exist?) and some and gates.

alternativly if you are just sending ascii you could program a PIC up to
listen for a particualar control char and then pass it thru to the
camera, and not pass it otherwise, however doing serial on a pic means
messing around with xtal oscilators usually as the inbuilt RC one is
hopelessly inaccurate.

> thanks for any info, also people should check out bt-848/878 cards for
video
> capture, the haupage wintv is the way to go if you need a tuner.
>
> the brooke tree (now conexant) stuff is the least expensive highest
> performance solution for video cap, and they are totally compatable
across
> all OS's win95/98/nt/linux/beos even..

No 2000 support for my dynalink one :(