SpeedDome - software. By Lee Davison.

SpeedDome cameras talk to the outside world in RS422 serial using a byte oriented protocol that has an address byte, data byte(s) and a checksum byte. The only document I found on this protocol is called "RS-422 protocol.pdf" but it's for later models of SpeedDome cameras so this one does not respond to all the commands.

The first tests were done using HyperTerm which is one of the communication tools that come with Windows 95/98. By carefull choice of camera address the command sequence and checksum could, with some difficulty, be entered directly from the keyboard. This at least proved that the camera would listen to the outside world and respond.The novelty soon wore off however so a short QuickBASIC program was written to do the job a little better.

The program is fairly simple. At startup it asks you the camera address, this is the number shown on the two thumbwheel switches on the controller top PCB and is viewed edge on with the switches uppermost. There is no other configuration to do.

To initiate a movement a key is pressed. To stop the movement either the same key is pressed or the all stop key, which is the space bar, is pressed. If you keep a key pressed for any length of time it will eventually start to repeat and the camera will continually stop/start whatever movement you have pressed the key for.

The keys are

Cursor keys			-	Pan and tilt			F1	-	toggle port bit 1
Z	-	zoom in		X	-	zoom out	F2	-	toggle port bit 2
A	-	focus far		S	-	focus near	F3	-	toggle port bit 3
Q	-	iris open		W	-	iris close	F4	-	toggle port bit 4
Space can be used to halt all movement							[ALT-Q] to quit

If you have a SpeedDome Ultra IV or an AD DeltaDome camera then F10 should get you into the camera's configuration menu but the SpeedDome I have responded to the command but failed to display a menu. I assume this model doesn't support that function.

View v1.00 or download the v1.00 source

Download the v1.00 DOS executable

Last page update: 28th January, 2005.

e-mail me