Case Studies

Yuasa rebuilt its extendable weather camera poles around Contec’s BX-100n, adding internet control, compressed HD video, solar power and motion-triggered recording for remote monitoring.

Overview

Yuasa Co., Ltd., headquartered in Kita-ku, Okayama, makes weather cameras, monitoring cameras and hydraulic telescoping poles for broadcast relay vehicles, and holds 90% of the market for relay antenna poles. At scenic and historic sites, weather cameras sit on poles that extend to film and retract to hide the camera.

Challenge

Video traveled down a coaxial cable to a ground device, control signals came from the broadcaster over a separate cable, and a proprietary controller moved the pole and camera. Yuasa wanted digital content, web camera use, remote operation and status monitoring; monitoring images were still recorded to videotape. Relay truck antennas also had to point at the broadcast station quickly in a cramped vehicle.

Solution

Yuasa chose the BX-100n, a 35 mm thick (W182 × D270 mm) fanless, diskless embedded computer with LAN and analog and digital I/O, ideal for unmanned sites. The upgraded system includes:

• A compact HDTV network camera with low-delay video compression
• Internet control of the pole, rotation, elevation and video
• Contec FX-DS540 wireless LAN for cable-free image download
• Battery in the upper box charged by a solar panel, with AC100V backup
• Internet status monitoring with email alerts, plus fan and heater for outdoor conditions
• Motion-triggered recording of about 18,000 hours (750 days) to an external disk

For relay trucks, Yuasa is developing an automatic antenna positioning system on the BX-100n using GPS and gyro sensors.

Results

Teiji Yasuda, Manager, Design Section, System Equipment Division, said the BX-100n brought internet LAN, analog and digital I/O, compact size and energy savings together in one unit. Yuasa now uses it to extend weather cameras into remote monitoring and plans embedded computers at both ends of the pole for full remote operation.

Contec products used

• BX-100n embedded BOX-PC with multi-signal I/O
• FLEXLAN wireless LAN

Originally published by Contec Co., Ltd. at contec.com.