There are three servos.
One to control the turret's left and right movement (X Axis), one for the Y axis (up and down) and one to pull the trigger. Those 3 servos plug into a servo controller which is already included in the software kit.
That servo controller has a RS232 (Serial) port which is old and not found on newer computers so a RS-232 to USB converter needs to be used like this one:
if you want the pc to be more than 5ft away you will need to use an RS232 extender
The USB end of the serial to USB converter plugs into the PC or Laptop and shows up as a com port.
If you don't have a laptop the Windows version of the Acer Aspire One ($250) is what I use.
If you want to use an analog/CCTV/bullet/IR camera then you would need to use an analog to digital video converter. This is one of the only ones I could get to work right. http://www.amazon.com/EASYCAP-Audio-Video-Capture-Adapter/dp/B0019SSSMY
2.5A Power supply for servos/servo controller
There are 3 ways To build a camera sentry that I've experimented with.
1. Run the reference camera and zoom camera through a quad. The video below is an example of this method. With this method the resolution for each camera is cut down to 1/4th since the quad is used to display all of the cameras on the same screen. That is basically the big disadvantage with it.
2. Another method is to feed the reference camera to the software and use the included camera viewer app to view and record the zoom camera so that both the reference camera and the zoom camera can be recorded at full resolution. The problem with this method is you either need 2 comuters or one fast PC left on all the time. Another problem has to do with the fact that almost all cameras are interlaced instead of progressive scan. Interlaced cameras are horrible for moving targets because they use one frame to record the odd lines of the image and another to record the even lines. So when an object is moving you get the result below. Also pictured was the automatic zoom and focus setup I was using at the time.
3. The setup I'm using now is similar except a Canon SX 120 IS replaces the analog zoom camera. A servo pushes the shutter button, it uses an AC adapter instead of batteries, and a wireless Eye-Fi card sends the high res pics to the PC. It takes great pictures as long as the shutter speed is set at 1/200 or faster but it can't see at night at all. Another drawback is that you have to power cycle the camera each day. The pan/tilt kit is from servo city. The gray box is an electrical box from a hardware store. The images below show the setup and an example license plate capture from over 250ft away.
