The Camera Control Unit is purpose-designed to work with a specific inspection camera. The control unit provides control of four miniature motors which manipulate pan and tilt
motion and lens aperture and focus. The control unit also provides control of LED lighting and has a temperature alarm to monitor camera health.
The Camera Control Unit (CCU) is designed to control and monitor the remote inspection camera over long cable lengths. One multicore camera cable carries the video signal as well as the motor and LED feeds. In order to keep the video signal as clean as possible, care is taken to keep the power-carrying cores free of switching noise or oscillations.
Because the camera cable is long and prone to breakage, the control unit is equipped with monitors to show correct operation. Each motor circuit is equipped with two LEDs which illuminate to show when forward or reverse current is flowing. The LED lighting has more sophisticated monitoring with panel meters displaying the current in each bank of LEDs.
A panel meter displays the camera temperature and an audible warning sounds if a preset temperature is exceeded. The control unit monitors the camera pan angle and makes this information available on a set of front panel LEDS and by means of a USB interface to a PC.