n468ac said:
http://www.checca.net/n468acVideos.htm


Video is short ... camera turned off at 10 mins :( ... also it looks as the camera picked up some type of vibration during flight, will have to work on that.
Click to expand...
Hello Allen,

That ripply stuff is something Paul Dye had trouble with too. He was thinking it was maybe from a too flexible mounting. I don't remember seeing it on his latest video, so maybe that was it. His wasn't as bad as yours.

Might be a good idea to level the camera with a level because the out-of-kilter is distracting.

I know the video was short but I think it would be better to edit out all the taxiing, it isn't really interesting.
 
(christopher_talking) Thanks for the comments ... i agree the taxing is nothing special, but left it in so i can compare the ground movment vs flying, in later videos.

The camera is about 1" round and very hard to see if it's level. I'm going to try and add a rubber mount between the camera and the frame i'm using.
 
Good first time out Christopher - better than my first couple!

A couple of rungs on the learning curve:

1) Try Lithium batteries - they have a higher voltage out of the box and when I started using them, the early camera shut-off problem went away. (I think that Alkalines are marginal, and the camera is marginal on 3.0 volts, so all it takes is one voltage sag, and you're done.)

2) Make the mount as rigid as possible to the wing. I had several layers of Velcro between the mount, a wedge, and the camera, and got the same waviness. I "firmed up" the attachment by adding some safety wire twisted nice and tight, and got much better results.

As far as leveling, I just took a little more care, stepped back to make sure it looked straight, and it was. If you can level a picture frame by eye......

Can't wait to see your future efforts!

Paul
 
Vibration

It is really hard to tell what caused the "waving" in the video. Let us know what you learn. Now, not ALL vibration is bad! I do very few commercial videos (I do videos for missionaries) but did one for the Harley Owners Group (HOG) back in 2003. I built a complicated mount that mounted a camera about 3' behind and 2' to the right of a Harley. It picked up quite a bit of the H-D engine shake and I prepared to start all over, but they LOVED it! Seems Harley riders expect it. I'm sure it saved me massive headaches trying to damp the vibes out.

Bob Kelly
 
The waveiness is the frame rate vs how the camera digitized it's image. It looks like its a pretty slow frame rate and I'll be a fairly slow scan rate. So what happens is that the vibration shifts the image on the imager before a full frame has been scanned and saved. In essence the image moves before the full frame is grabbed. Only thing to do to fix it is to take the vibration away some how or crank up the frame capture rate.
 
This is not meant to be critical or negative on your efforts, as any flight video is better than no video; which is where I'm at (until I get some fab & wiring done).

I am just going to suggest that some of the artifacts seen with this type camera (prop lines, 'waving', etc.) may be due to the cmos imaging sensor used (rolling shutter) and/or the compression algorithm used.

There I said it.. Feel free to beat up on me.

Gray (CCD imager for me and as any bits as I can afford until the last minute) Hawk :eek:
 
First thanks everyone for the comments ... I do like them both positive and negative.

Ironflight - I?d edited out the 32 mins of me trying to get the camera level and just left the last look / engine startup in the final video. The battery idea is a good one and I will have to try it.

I think I will try to point the camera at the landing gear next try and see if that makes any difference and work on adding a stiffener to the middle of the mount. My thinking is the camera will be mounted along the main spar and my have a harder contact point.
 
Hat sighting!

Forgot to tell you I saw the hat at the start of your clip, Christopher!

Made me smile :) .
 
Ironflight said:
http://www2.oregonscientific.com/shop/product.asp?cid=20&scid=77&pid=709

have fun!
Click to expand...
'Like or Want and Will Do are not always the same thing'.

I am building a -10 and want to put a cam in the vert stab in the fiberglass tip. The ATC2K looks nice but is there a cam that I can mount that can be controlled 100% remotely. I want to only run power up and a signal down (coax or RCA or ?). When I want to record, I flip the switch and hit the record on the 'equipment' in the cockpit. So no battery, or internal recording.
Does this exist at a reasonable price and good quality image?

Gary
 
Gary,

Do google search for Sony 1/3 CCD color bullet cameras. There are many. If you look at them on ebay there are a few that are 500+ lines of resolution (not to be confused with PAL, they are actually NTSC cameras). They simply require 12V and a connection for video back to your recording equipment. You can also get differing lenses. They will come with a 3.6mm which is about 60-70 degrees. you'd want something like a 2.3-2.9mm which would give you something on the order of 130-100 degrees of view.

As it relates to recording equipment, you can use a video camera that has a video input or there are many Solid State recorders that could be used. Anything that has a moving hard drive will be less than perfect for either jars and bumps, but especially Altitude. It will suffer from the same problem that the Ipods have if they have a hard drive in them and at alts of 10K and up, the air gets thin and the heads run the risk of smashing into the plattens - not good for HD's :).

Good luck and keep us informed. I'm going down this latter direction. The imagers are superior to the camera that has been discussed and the "waviness" should be non-existant.
 
You nailed it. I found one for $127 but since I have a year before I will be installing it, looks like I have a little more time. I did find a spec sheet that said to not install it in an environment that goes above 50 deg C. so it looks like the top of the tail would be out. I am sure that going to an air show and the plane sitting out in the summer sun would cook it.
Don't like the idea but I might consider mounting it under the wing near the fuselage. The wing tip is already taken with landing light and strobe and would probably still have the heat problem.

I am hearing some of the laptop vendors starting to talk about all solid state memory in some of their products. Maybe a year from now they will be available mucho gig of ram so you could record hours and then dump it to a cd/dvd when you get back home.
 
Hey Paul, which Lithium batteries?

Ironflight said:
A couple of rungs on the learning curve:

1) Try Lithium batteries - they have a higher voltage out of the box and when I started using them, the early camera shut-off problem went away. (I think that Alkalines are marginal, and the camera is marginal on 3.0 volts, so all it takes is one voltage sag, and you're done.)


Paul
Click to expand...

Just got my camera and will be mounting it under the wing soon. I talked to my hardware engineer expert here at work and asked him about the use of lithium instead of alkaline batteries. He told me that the lithium are 3 volts each, twice the voltage as the alkaline. He thought that it might not be good for the camera to be run at twice the voltage and the extra power drop from 6 volt to 3 volts for the camera would be done by making heat in the camera.

What is the brand/source for the lithium batteries that you are using and did your camera get hotter using them?

Kent
 
kentb said:
Just got my camera and will be mounting it under the wing soon. I talked to my hardware engineer expert here at work and asked him about the use of lithium instead of alkaline batteries. He told me that the lithium are 3 volts each, twice the voltage as the alkaline. He thought that it might not be good for the camera to be run at twice the voltage and the extra power drop from 6 volt to 3 volts for the camera would be done by making heat in the camera.

What is the brand/source for the lithium batteries that you are using and did your camera get hotter using them?

Kent
Click to expand...
I picked up a package of AA Lithium batteries just the other day. They are Energizers from Wal-Mart. On the package it says 1.5 V.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.