Power babby, POWER!
hey again. Im on my second camera, the first one got lost and never had a chance to retrieve the video from the rocket. I striped down my second camera, and this time, mounted inside the body tube, instead od duck taping it on the out side. But after 3 lunches, and -*test*-('") with the new camera. I never were able to record any thing. I came up with the conclusion, that either the G-Forces from lunches, parachute deploying, or impact of landing were compressing the springs in the battery department and losing electrical contact. One solution i came up with was to wedge in some copper sheet metal. Second solution is to use a few big capacitors, and solder them on the battery case. So that if the camera loses power for a second or two, the capacitors can power the camera. I like the sound of this solution, but i don't know enough about the camera, to determine the size and type of capacitors i would need. Any thoughts? also i was wonder if there was any to have the camera dump the recording into the non violtor memory, so that when power is lost the video will not be. Last question has any one played with different types of batteries? I want to switch to Li-on to lighten the payload. Also what is the max Voltage any one has tried? Do you think 3.7 - 4 V is to much? Is the power from the USB directly connect to the same circuit that the powers the camera from the 3v battery?

Sounds like typical contact bounce. I'm sure a 2200uF capacitor will be plenty. Don't know about the li-ion. Never hurts to try!

People have used lithium batteries on the camera with success. The USB line will take in 5v but the battery connector doesn't like more than 3 or 4 volts (1.5v AA isn't 1.5 brand new. As for the "lost" videos. They're still on the camera but the end of the file wasn't written...so the video isn't recognized by the camera. As long as you don't try and record anything else to the camera you can forumer.com/viewtopic.php?p=46092#46092>recover them.

ok the battery I'm thinking about is from a cell phone. It is a Lithium Ion 3.7V 1000mAh. It is a good size and best yet a good weight. Plus i could easily make a battery holder from an old cell phone. After charging the battery, my multi meter reads 4.15 V. So would that work? would you run it on the USB power side or the battery? I'm afraid of bricking the camera. I know you post that does not like more the 4, but what happens after 4, does it just hang and not work well, or does magic green smoke come out. thanks for the link on recovery, i will try that out.

Diodes have a voltage drop of about half a volt depending on the load. You can try 2 or 3 in series.

thanks for tip with the diodes. Sounds good. My brother went ahead and made a custom case for 3V li-on camera battery. ( i think it is called a 123) I personally like the idea of the cell phone battery since they are easy available and easily recharge able. as for the capacitors idea, I went down to pick one up. But i decided not to after seeing the size of it. It was huge. after this project is finshed, i will love to share some pics.

Any low voltage electrolytic capacitor can get very small. 220uF might even be enough and they can be about the size of a corn kernel at 6 volts. But if you are soldering the battery in there, you won't have to worry about contact bounce!

hmm maybe i was looking at the wrong thing http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2103621&cp=2032058.2032230.2032267&fbx=0&allCount=111&fbn=Price%2F%244.00+-+%245.99&fbc=1&fr=StorePrice%2FRSK%2F00000400%2F00000599&parentPage=family i see that 35V, from my understanding that is the max Voltage. and cant solder the battery in since, it needs to be removable, to change batteries.

You could use a supercapacitor. You can salvage one out of a "free after extrabucks" or "free after rebate" blood glucose meter.

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Here is some Pics of the Camera, and the Batteries holder http://www.flickr.com/photos/nblracer/tags/cvs/ And the video of our first launch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MC5OOGgam5o&feature=user