Have you seen this?

http://www.thesentrygun.com/

Pretty much exactly what you are trying to do, except with a BB gun instead of water. May offer a starting point.

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LCDGallery

 

Pretty cool! 8)

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PIC programmer software, and PIC Tutorials at:
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thanks for that

DAMMIT!!!!!!
plagiarizing copying little punks

i want those on every corner of my property

yeah, i'm just about to start work on this project again

so far i've almost finished the motion detection part in python
just finalizing how i'm sending the co ordinates feed
thats really the only connection of the robot the computer other than the webcam

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The stepper need not be forced against a stop, but against a limit switch where the controller can stop driving the rotation before it forces it. Actually a positioning pot sensor is still possible, though they can be hard to fit and not very long life (but then this project is unlikely to run for months or years on its own).

Actually the only problem that comes to mind is the elevation issue. A water stream is fairly slow thus drops more with distance, but the video sensor doesn't give you distance unless you implement stereo vision. One could look for motion low in the camera or a smaller distance between the highest and lowest moving fields and assume the distance is further. Even without elevation compensation, I'm sure it will be impressive whether it hits your face or feet.

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I thought what I'd do was I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes.

 

Just try to launch the water out at the highest velocety posible.The faster it goes the les elevation it will lose on the same distance.

Meaby an air compresor preshurising an water tank and an vale to let the water in the nozle.

Just make shurse evrything is tight becose if a hose comes off becose of the preshure you are gona have water evryware.

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Il give you shocking experience.

 

Any progress? I'm working towards something similar, currently based on ZoneMinder (www.zoneminder.com) running the cameras. The latest version has a new feature described as follows:

"When motion is detected the centre of the region of motion is written to shared memory, where is can be used for tracking. This can now optionally be a simple median of the motion extents or (in blob mode) a weighted centre for better location of irregularly shaped events."

My plan is to use two cameras and a "mesh" of the terrain topography to triangulate positions.

I haven't actually experimented with this yet, as I haven't updated to the latest ZoneMinder version (1.22) and I'm still working on pan/tilt mounts for the cameras... and other things...


- james