Aerial Video Cam

Joined: 10 Jan 2006 Posts: 20 Location: Central Florida

Here's a 3.4 I picked today. I sliced off the battery compartment and installed a servo plug so the camera can be powered by my plane/helicopters receiver. Works great.

Joined: 28 Dec 2005 Posts: 44

Pretty cool. I might suggest removing the camera from the case though. It's lighter that way.

Joined: 10 Jan 2006 Posts: 20 Location: Central Florida

True...but it only weighs in @ 2.65 oz. The way I fly, I need the extra protection. Smile

Joined: 30 Oct 2005 Posts: 21

I was fooling around with another pilot trying to get some good air to air shots with my Easystar. He was flying a foamy 3D profile plane. We had a mild midair, but his prop wacked my camera's case and put a pretty deep gouge in it. I'm sure it would have destroyed the camera if it wasn't in the case. The minor weight penalty is worth it to me.

Joined: 28 Dec 2005 Posts: 44

Good point Rob. I've got mine currently mounted on a 17 ounce aerobatic plane though. Even one additional ounce is costly. With the board removed from the case, and powered through the receiver, I'm still adding about 1 1/2 ounces to the total weight. And I could tell a big difference in flight performance right away. Especially in vertical power. So for me, I'm willing to make it as light as possible. If I can ever figure out how to edit these avi/mjpeg movies with Sony Vegas, I'll post a link to it. Cool stuff... loops, rolls, inverted flight, spins, etc.

Joined: 08 Dec 2005 Posts: 4

Here are some videos taken with the CVS cameras on my model jet.
Enjoy
Jetboy
www.bar-stormers.com/video.htm

Joined: 18 Aug 2005 Posts: 113 Location: Missouri

Hi Ursine,

I see only 3 wires going to the Cam, where did you hook them Up, any pix's? and did you use Optocoupllers are what?

good job, looks good

thanx

Tinhorn

Joined: 28 Dec 2005 Posts: 44

Tinhorn: I have mine hooked up the same way, so I can probably answer for him. Although if he has it set up differently, I'm sure he can correct me. Smile

There should be only two wires connecting to the camcorder... Positive 5V and Ground. The three wire connector you see is a standard wire connection between a radio control receiver and servos. The three wires are: Ground, +5V, and Signal. Signal being the voltage signal that tells the servos what to do, and this is not needed for the camera.

Receivers normally operate on a 5V source and provide this power to all the servos that are connected to it. So by connecting the camcorder to the receiver, he is powering it via the Receiver.

Thinking about it again, the Signal wire COULD actually be used to possibly trigger the record function! One could program a switch on the transmitter such that it operates the recording (eg: Turn ON Record, or Turn OFF Record). There may be additional electronics required to incorporate this function. But it's something to think about. Hmmm...... Smile

Joined: 30 Oct 2005 Posts: 21

It would be awesome to be able to trigger the record button remotely.
With higher resolution and frame rate, I only get 12 minutes of video, and for high-altitude work, 5 minutes is spent climbing and that video is useless.

Joined: 30 Oct 2005 Posts: 21

dbl post

Joined: 18 Aug 2005 Posts: 113 Location: Missouri

Thanx, I may have misunderstood,

I thought he meant he powered the cam up then hit record, using his receiver

Looking at the schematic posted awhile back, I could see no "Common" wire between the power switch and the record switch and could only see using 4 wires to do the power up/record thing

thought maybe I wasn't reading the schematic right or something

thanx guys

Tinhorn

Joined: 10 Jan 2006 Posts: 20 Location: Central Florida

The 3 wires you see are from a servo extender, I'm not using the yellow (signal) wire...just the black and orange power ones. While it'd be cool to remotely start recording, with 20 minutes of 320 x 240 and video editing software it wasn't a priority right now. If I decide to up it to 640 x 480 it might be something to thing about.
As soon as I get it on my plane I'll post a video. (both helicopters on the bench right now Sad

)

Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2006 1:56 am

I'd love to have a heli with a camera on it. I'd probably put my CVS on there and then my cheapo $30 wireless cam for a "live preview". Can't tell if yours is electric or not (I think I see the motor). Be cool to fly in a large gym!

Joined: 28 Dec 2005 Posts: 44

rob10000 wrote:

It would be awesome to be able to trigger the record button remotely.
With higher resolution and frame rate, I only get 12 minutes of video, and for high-altitude work, 5 minutes is spent climbing and that video is useless.

Triggering the record function remotely would probably be the easy part actually. The other issue to overcome, is the built in auto power-down if not used after a certain length of time. Most cameras have this function to extend battery life. It's been done before I'm sure, but I don't know how to go about doing that. I'm guessing some sort of "keep alive" signal must be maintained on the camera circuitry to keep it from powering down.

Joined: 30 Oct 2005 Posts: 21

the camera only powers down after "X amount of time AFTER the memory has been filled. Sometimes I continue flying long after my 12 minutes of recording time has passed, and the camera greets me with a black screen, but has recorded the full amount.

Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2006 4:00 am

Actually if you're running power in to the camera by the port I don't think it will shut off. People have left their cams in for hours (so have I) and they stay on. A little warm but no other ill effects. So depending on wether or not you wired your connector the the connector or the battery terminal your keep alive problem might be solved.

Joined: 28 Dec 2005 Posts: 44

In my case, I made a connector that fit the existing battery terminal. I will have to test it, but I'm pretty sure powering it on and leaving it that way will result in it shutting down after a minute or two.

Joined: 30 Oct 2005 Posts: 21

Mine is connected to the battery terminals as well, and does not shut down. Interesting. Mine's a 3.4 B3

Joined: 28 Dec 2005 Posts: 44

Hmm. Well, now you've got me second guessing myself! lol I will have to check mine again. I was pretty sure that it did power down after X amount of idle time. I'll try to check it today.

Joined: 05 Nov 2005 Posts: 29

See here for instructions on building a cheap remote switch for R/C purposes. The install is for an aiptek cam, but applies to CVS as well.

http://www.rc-cam.com/camman.htm

Joined: 28 Dec 2005 Posts: 44

Well, I verified it on my CVS camcorder (3.62) and still camera (red 6550)... Both powered down after 3 minutes of no use when powered through the battery connector.

Joined: 01 Jul 2005 Posts: 1542 Location: is everything

twinturbostang wrote:

Well, I verified it on my CVS camcorder (3.62) and still camera (red 6550)... Both powered down after 3 minutes of no use when powered through the battery connector.

No shock there - however, all models will remain stay on indefinitely if powered through the USB port. I had a PV2 that (unknown to me) had remained powered on for 3 months behind my PC. Shocked

Joined: 28 Dec 2005 Posts: 44

rob10000 said his does not shut down though, powered through the battery connections. I'm curious what's different about his.

Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2006 8:22 pm

Maybe it depends on how much voltage it's pulling. Computers will provide a constant source while batteries might drop off after a bit.

Joined: 28 Dec 2005 Posts: 44

Yeah, and I haven't tried it yet powered via my R/C receiver, which is 5V.