The First 802.11g Wireless Robotic Network Camera

May 24, 2004 at 03:15 PM in

Eagletron is proud to announce the world's first 802.11g wireless network camera, which provides streaming video wirelessly at 54Mbps. Eagletron won't win any design awards with this product, all they've really managed to do is modify the firmware on the Compex NP26G-USB router so that it provides dedicated support for their base Trackerpod product. What this product lacks in aesthetics, though, is more than made up for in ingenuity. If you happen to already own a Compex NP26G-USB (who doesn't, we've got a dozen easy), Eagletron is providing the firmware modification to the router for free so that you can make your TrackerPod a wireless system at no cost.

We'd love to make this modification to our TrackerPod, but one of the motors started dragging so that now our camera just ends up pointing to the far left, no matter what we try. Up until that point, though, the TrackerPod was the best webcam product we'd put our hands on.

Trackerpod Pan/Tilt 802.11g Wireless Robotic Camera

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Current Rating: 1.00 by 5 readers (1="This Sucks, 5="Coolest Thing Ever")

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Reader Comments

Ira Nee @ May 26, 2004 03:41 PM

I wonder if they have a cooperative agreement Compex to distribute firmware. It must have been a struggle to get access to the firmware. Most companies don't like this type of "unintended" use of products. Eagletron has been notoriously secretive with it's own firmware and USB communication protocol and refuses to support an open-source Linux driver for their product.
See: http://cnslab.mb.jhu.edu/~derrick/trackerpoddev/index.cgi

Eagletron Company Rep @ May 27, 2004 02:47 AM

At Eagletron we respect Copyrights and Intellectual Property Rights. The
firmware upgrades to the Compex NP26G-USB are completely intentional and
supported by Compex, the firmware designers.

View their compatibility list:

http://www.cpx.com/Chart/Compatibility%20Chart.pdf

Here is our joint press release:

http://www.trackercam.com/TCamWeb/press/WirelessTrackerCam.pdf

lunacy8m @ May 27, 2004 03:17 PM

Hey Eagletron, that's great. Thanks you for sharing the 411 with us. While I've got your ear, can you shed any light on the status of helping the Linux community with developing drivers for the Trackerpod, or at least opening your interface so that the Linux community can develop drivers themselves?

Also, when I originally emailed support about my Trackerpod problem, I never received a response back. Can you help explain why my Trackerpod has a slow drag to the left, which results in the camera pointing to the left no matter what is tried? Anything I can do to troubleshoot or fix this?

Thanks!