|
Remote
Observation Station
Have
you ever wondered what the birds, deer, or bears were doing
in your backyard when you weren’t around? With the Remote
Observation Station, you can watch wildlife on your TV in
the comfort of your living room. The station includes a camera
and transmitter that sends a picture to a TV, which can be
up to a mile or two away. The station gets its power from
a PV solar panel and a rechargeable battery, which rely on
the system’s control board for direction. The control board
also produces battery state information, which it overlays
on the picture sent to your TV. So, while you’re watching
the wildlife, you can also monitor the status of your battery.
The
unit integrates six electronic devices, including a CCD video
camera, PV solar panel, rechargeable battery, temperature
sensor, RF video transmitter, and the system control board
(PVCC). The control board is based on the Motorola 68HC908QY4
microcontroller. The board sits at the center of the system,
providing a PV charge controller, two high-efficiency voltage
regulators, a video sync separator, and an RS-232 serial interface
for system configuration.
The
PVCC control board provides a simple on/off battery charger
using the PV solar panel as a power source. The primary job
of the charge controller is to prevent the battery from being
overcharged. The control board also adds battery state information
in the form of a text overlay (on-screen display, or OSD)
to the video signal generated by the CCD camera before it
reaches the video transmitter. Additionally, a PC can be connected
to the control board via the DB9 connector.
The
system has three operating modes: Configuration mode allows
you to control user settings with your PC; Charge Control
mode with OSD sends the battery’s voltage and temperature
to the video signal; and Charge Control mode without OSD is
used when you don’t need the diagnostic display. The PVCC
configuration utility communicates with the PVCC board while
in Configuration mode. With this utility, you can set a variety
of options, including the full-charge set point (the off set
point) and the PV reconnect set point (the on set point).
You can also choose to enable the transmission of an Amateur
Radio call sign if a ham frequency is being used.
Richard
Dreher
U.S.
rich@dwave.net
|
|
