Radar triggering

Support for an external Radar device is available in software release v2.5.1 and newer.

Pocket Radar Measurement System Module

Radar based camera triggering is possible using the Pocket Radar™ MSM Measurement System Module radar.

• Pocket Radar documentation

Usage

When you connect a Pocket Radar MSM to your edgertronic camera using a USB cable, the camera will automatically start the software daemon that reads a configuration file, updates camera notes and overlay settings, monitors radar events, and then triggers the camera when the radar reports a detected speed above the configuration file specified trigger threshold. Put simply, you plug in the USB cable to connect the Pocket Radar MSM to the edgertronic and it just works.

Connection

I found a simple smartphone holder and a fancy 1/4" male to 1/4" male camera screw allowed the Pocket Radar MSM radar to be physically attached to the camera's side tripod mount. The USB cable that came with the Pocket Radar MSM connects the Pocket Radar MSM to the camera. The camera powers the Pocket Radar MSM so you don't need to worry about batteries going dead.

Operation

The camera is triggered each time the radar detects a speed higher than the configured trigger speed.

Configuration

Put the Pocket Radar MSM into continuous capture mode by pressing and holding the MODE/RECALL button until the display started blinking Con.

Status

The system status LED reports status an normal.

The camera status LED is used to report radar related information.

System LED Color	Meaning
white	Displayed for 3 seconds to indicate radar connected

The Pocket Radar MSM provides the detected speed to the camera. If the speed is over the trigger speed, then the camera is triggered and the detected speed, in the format XX MPH is passed in as the user parameter. The user parameter gets saved in the metadata file and can be overlayed on each video frame by including the two characters &u in the notes string.

Trigger delay

There is a deal between the time the radar detects the speed event and the camera triggers. The delay is around XXX milliseconds. You can easily ``remove`` the delay by adjusting the camera settings. For example, in Easy mode, simply increase the pretrigger percentage. In Pro mode, simply increase the pretrigger duration.

Configuration

For normal usage, just plug in the Pocket Radar MSM and start capturing radar based trigger events. The default configuration file should meet your needs.

The camera does support a user provided configuration file, formatted in the standard Windows ini file format. The default configuration file is showed below:

[pocket-radar]
trigger-speed = 40
address = 127.0.0.1
radar-parameter-1 = 61986
radar-parameter-2 = 0
radar-parameter-3 = 0

The following table describes each supported configuration file key / value pairs:

Key	Type	Default	Notes
trigger-speed	integer (miles per hour)	40	Radar detected speed which causes the camera to trigger.
address	hostname or IP address	127.0.0.1	IP address or DNS name. Used for camera testing.
port	integer	6471	TCP port number. Used for camera testing.
radar-parameter-*	decimal values		Allows adjustment to radar detection algorithm. Contact Pocket Radar if your camera is false triggering.

CAMAPI

The get_accessory_list() CAMAPI method returns the list of attached accessories. When the radar is attached, the string includes Pocket Radar MSM.