PTZ Controls v0.15.4

[wilderf353]

We have been using PTZ Controls since last summer. On Sunday we had some problems with PTZ Controls: All the presets for a camera would turn light grey (they seemed to be disabled) and then a few minutes later, they would work again.

I tried :
- restarting OBS multiple times
- restarting the computer.
- reinstalling PTZ Controls.
- unplugging the external power to the PTZ camera, counting to 10, then plugging them back in.

After trying on or more of the above a few times, everything would be working fine, then a minute later the presets would be disabled, so I would try something else. In the end I had to start our church service and just use the remote control. But during the service, it seemed if I waited for a few minutes, they would be working again for a short while then go grey again.

This enable/disable loop affected both USB cameras. Otherwise, they seemed to be working fine: I could select a scene with the camera and see the live video feed, and use the RF remote control that came with the camera to select a preset.

At one point I tried adding a new camera with the same settings as one of the disabled cameras. It worked for a while, then it would go grey too.

Question: I think this may be either a camera hardware issue, a Windows driver issue or an OBS issue. Looking through the PTZ Controls source code, it looks like the presetListView frame is only enabled for a specific camera when the camera is in an active scene. It has nothing to do with communication to the camera over VISCA. Can anyone confirm this? The next time I go into our church, I am going to unplug our serial->RS 232 adapter and see if I can duplicate the problem. FYI: I checked to forums and found a few post about cameras randomly deactivating, maybe this is happing to us too?

(I did a quick look at the log files on Sunday, but nothing jumped out at me. I am going by either tonight or tomorrow night to look at the OBS logs again.)

 

[toplachi]

We have been using PTZ Controls since last summer. On Sunday we had some problems with PTZ Controls: All the presets for a camera would turn light grey (they seemed to be disabled) and then a few minutes later, they would work again.

I tried :
- restarting OBS multiple times
- restarting the computer.
- reinstalling PTZ Controls.
- unplugging the external power to the PTZ camera, counting to 10, then plugging them back in.

After trying on or more of the above a few times, everything would be working fine, then a minute later the presets would be disabled, so I would try something else. In the end I had to start our church service and just use the remote control. But during the service, it seemed if I waited for a few minutes, they would be working again for a short while then go grey again.

This enable/disable loop affected both USB cameras. Otherwise, they seemed to be working fine: I could select a scene with the camera and see the live video feed, and use the RF remote control that came with the camera to select a preset.

At one point I tried adding a new camera with the same settings as one of the disabled cameras. It worked for a while, then it would go grey too.

Question: I think this may be either a camera hardware issue, a Windows driver issue or an OBS issue. Looking through the PTZ Controls source code, it looks like the presetListView frame is only enabled for a specific camera when the camera is in an active scene. It has nothing to do with communication to the camera over VISCA. Can anyone confirm this? The next time I go into our church, I am going to unplug our serial->RS 232 adapter and see if I can duplicate the problem. FYI: I checked to forums and found a few post about cameras randomly deactivating, maybe this is happing to us too?

(I did a quick look at the log files on Sunday, but nothing jumped out at me. I am going by either tonight or tomorrow night to look at the OBS logs again.)

There might be a possibility that your controls are disabled because of the "lock" feature, can you check if its enable on your PTZ control settings?

 

[Tab12590]

Hello, Looking for some help, if anyone has an idea.

I am trying to hook up an ip ptz camera. i can see the video feed, but the ptz will not control. (PTZ control works fine in the web browser)
my media source input is (See video)

my ptz setting are

I have tried to change the Bind to IP

I have also deleted all the setting and re downloaded the file(all files are in the 64 folder).

here are the setting of the web gui

 

[wrf_pastor]

Hello, Looking for some help, if anyone has an idea.

I am trying to hook up an ip ptz camera. i can see the video feed, but the ptz will not control. (PTZ control works fine in the web browser)
my media source input is (See video)
View attachment 83144

my ptz setting are

View attachment 83145

I have tried to change the Bind to IP
View attachment 83146
I have also deleted all the setting and re downloaded the file(all files are in the 64 folder).

here are the setting of the web gui
View attachment 83147
View attachment 83148

Looks like you are using a PTZOptics camera, which we also are. I've gotten PTZ Controls to work with a PT20X-SDI Gen2 model, but yours is probably a different model. Regardless, I /think/ the issue is that you have an RTSP URL in the "IP host" field in the PTZ Controls settings dialog. IIRC, all you want there is the IP address of the camera, i.e., 192.168.1.88. Note that the port number at the end of the URL you are using, 554, is instead specified in the "TCP port" field.

Unfortunately I'm not sitting at a machine where I can verify these settings, so if those changes don't work, I /think/ PTZ Controls allows you to use VISCA over UDP instead. If your camera model supports UDP, the port number is probably going to be 1259, unless you've changed it in the camera's web interface.

HTH.

 

[Paul74]

The plugin is working well to control the cameras and the presets.
HOWEVER, each time OBS closes and then re-opens, the PTZ controls is not docked and have to redo the View->Docks->PTZ controls.
When it does then dock, all the renames of the presets has been lost.

I had the same experience on PTZ not showing up. I found out that if PTZ is floating it doesn't remain on next obs start, but if you dock it first and the restart obs, it does remain there.

 

[Doug-in-MN]

The feature of auto selecting the PTZ Device when using transition stopped work for one on my PTZO camera's. It worked for a while but my fast finger changes probably interrupted a change, so how do I get it to work again? Or how to reload PTZ Controls v0.10.4 into my PC?

 

[johnkeats101]

One issue I found with Pelco D on this camera. When you zoom either way, it doesn't stop zooming when you "release" the button in the dialog. You have to click on another control to stop the movement. Using a Honeywell UltraTouch works OK on the same camera so I guess they must send a "stop" code or something. Sadly the obvious workaround of using VISCA is ruled out because the Honeywell doesn't speak VISCA so we're stuck with Pelco D.

 

[Security_Live]

I recently bought a PTZ - usb - webcam (OBSBOT Tiny Camera).... in OBS, in the properties, I can change all the PTZ settings... do you think your plugin will work to control the PTZ of this webcam ??
I'm a rookie here... in which folder do I have to copy the plugin files or folder for it to show up in OBS ??
Thanks for your help!

I wrote a program to control the OBSBOT Tiny PTZ using DirectShow IAMCameraControl, there are undocumented properties that allow for fast PTZ of OBSBot cameras. The github is here: https://github.com/johnebgood/the-one-camera-controller

 

[Paul74]

Is there a way to save the speed slider position? On next OBS restart it resets to the center default state. Thanks.

 

[evergailing]

I wrote a program to control the OBSBOT Tiny PTZ using DirectShow IAMCameraControl, there are undocumented properties that allow for fast PTZ of OBSBot cameras. The github is here: https://github.com/johnebgood/the-one-camera-controller

May I ask how to use your program?

 

[evergailing]

There are a number of NDI PTZ cameras on Amazon at the moment about 1/2 price and appear to be PTZOptics knock-offs. Whether those items are 'legal' or not, I'm not sure. Certainly appears unethical copying ... but maybe not. However, the primary one I looked at has a gmail support address. These are fly-by-night operations, with (very) poor English translations, and bugs, and not certainty of getting future firmware updates (ex updated NDI versions).... so, as much as I'm sorely tempted for a 2nd NDI PTZ at our non-profit, I'm not sure 1/2 now represents good value.... As for finding used, last year this time there were wait times for the cameras. So, I wouldn't expect much savings on used (but I haven't researched that deeply). Then again, a serial PTZ might well be available for lower price, but then you have to consider the overall price (as you then will need both the serial cable, as well power, and SDI, HDMI, or ?? cabling, and a capture card, etc... why we went NDI).
If buying used, my approach would be to buy form a Tier 1 vendor, where you can get support (and possibly repairs) if need be
If the streaming PC and a single camera are close to each other and no plan to expend to multi-camera, I'd be inclined to a USB PTZ camera for simplicity

Can you give some examples on Tier 1 vendor?

 

[Lawrence_SoCal]

Can you give some examples on Tier 1 vendor?

This really isn't the thread for that. so I'll respond directly

 

[Bart at work]

Hi! I'm using this plugin on a Macbook Pro M1 Max, macOS 12.3.1, OBS 27.2.4. Plugin works perfectly fine with the Canon CR-N300 camera's. Great work!
One question though. In the screenshots here and on Github I see an "Enable Gamepad" feature on the Device Settings page. However in my case, I don't see that tickbox. Is that unavailable on Mac? Would be so great to have gamepad control! I've tried a Logitech F310 via USB and a Playstation 4 controller via Bluetooth. Both are recognized by my Mac, but the "Enable Gamepad" tickbox never shows in the plugin. Let me know if I'm doing something wrong.

 

[evergailing]

I wrote a program to control the OBSBOT Tiny PTZ using DirectShow IAMCameraControl, there are undocumented properties that allow for fast PTZ of OBSBot cameras. The github is here: https://github.com/johnebgood/the-one-camera-controller

Managed to use your program. It works well expect for the up and down buttons. Where can we find the undocumented properties?

 

[TheGreatPond]

Hi glickey. Just want to provide some feedback on PTZ Controls v0.10.4 with my Vaddio RoboSHOT 12 HDBT and RoboSHOT 12 USB cameras. With a single camera source in a scene, the controls work as expected under both “off” and “program” modes. When multiple active VISCA camera sources are in a scene, any PTZ command given when the mode set to “program” crashes the camera’s PTZ controller and requires a camera reboot. How does your plugin direct the VISCA commands to the active camera in a scene when multiple active cameras are in a scene? This could just be an issue with my cameras but I think it would be helpful to check for multiple active cameras and if it finds more than one in the scene then force the user to select the specific camera to steer much in the same way as the “off” mode works. Maybe just a state-based lockout of the “program” when multiple active PTZ sources are present to force “off” mode behavior. Does this makes sense? And thank you for the effort on this project. Very helpful!

Hey Smithy, did you have to do anything out of the ordinary to get your roboshot cams to work? I've been fighting this for the past couple of days but can't find if it might be that I'm on the wrong port or maybe attempting the wrong type of connection. I would appreciate any help you could give, or mybe even a screenshot of what your config window looks like for a roboshot cam. Thanks!

 

[Smithy]

Hey Smithy, did you have to do anything out of the ordinary to get your roboshot cams to work? I've been fighting this for the past couple of days but can't find if it might be that I'm on the wrong port or maybe attempting the wrong type of connection. I would appreciate any help you could give, or mybe even a screenshot of what your config window looks like for a roboshot cam. Thanks!

 

[Smithy]

Configuration is the basic default for the UDP option. UDP port is the default: 52381

 

[TheGreatPond]

Hey Smithy, did you have to do anything out of the ordinary to get your roboshot cams to work? I've been fighting this for the past couple of days but can't find if it might be that I'm on the wrong port or maybe attempting the wrong type of connection. I would appreciate any help you could give, or mybe even a screenshot of what your config window looks like for a roboshot cam. Thanks!

Was just a firmware update that was needed, turns out I was running 3.3.0 and the feature wasn't supported until 3.4.0, Thanks for the great plug in.

 

[TheGreatPond]

Before I start let me say that I'm really looking forward to using this once I get a few kinks out!

The problem I'm having is that now that I've gotten my cameras configured and they are able to be controlled through the plugin, the controls seem to be very inconsistent on whether my camera will accept them. While holding the button within the plugin my camera will start to move, then stop a short undetermined distance later (also presets are only called halfway sometimes and never reach the final destination) and sometimes it will go a couple minutes simply refusing to listen to instructions that it previously had.

Is this an experience that any others are having or is it likely a problem with Vaddio's VISCA over IP still being in beta?

 

[TheGreatPond]

Before I start let me say that I'm really looking forward to using this once I get a few kinks out!

The problem I'm having is that now that I've gotten my cameras configured and they are able to be controlled through the plugin, the controls seem to be very inconsistent on whether my camera will accept them. While holding the button within the plugin my camera will start to move, then stop a short undetermined distance later (also presets are only called halfway sometimes and never reach the final destination) and sometimes it will go a couple minutes simply refusing to listen to instructions that it previously had.

Is this an experience that any others are having or is it likely a problem with Vaddio's VISCA over IP still being in beta?

This just in I believe it is a vaddio issue, trying to use even the built in controller through a webpage is unreliable at best. We'll see what can be done