Possible on board video camera

[terryg]

This camera looks like it might have some possibilities for on board video. Monoprice is a great site for cables and other gadgets.

https://www.monoprice.com/products/...=10159&utm_campaign=april_end_special_q2_2013

 

[accpool]

that seems kind of large. i am going to order this:
https://www.bayouratrocketry.com/HD...4_MicroSD_Card_Installed/p810300_8700743.aspx

 

[sschnege]

Right. For half the cost, you can get two of the 720p keychain cameras that you can simply attach using electrical tape. Visit the R/C forums here and read up -- there are now three different variants of the #16 808 camera (one normal-ish "A" lens, one lens that's a fisheye wide-angle, and another that's ~120° with an IR coating on the lens). You can request the bigger battery when you order from a reputable dealer as well. (One advantage of buying one from Bayou Rat is that he tests his before reselling, so at least you don't have to worry about the gamble of a DOA item straight from Hong Kong.) Some of these also come with a live video feed option out of the camera (you'd need a transmitter/receiver of course) which is aimed at the R/C flyer crowd, but maybe there's some recovery value in it for us as well.

I've flown both of mine many times and they're fantastic. Feel free to check some of the sample vids on my Youtubeage for real output.

 

[sschnege]

I should qualify -- you'll also have to add a micro SD card, so it won't be exactly half "all in" -- but an 8GB MicroSD card is like $6 from Amazon now, delivered.

 

[accpool]

bayou rat comes with an 8GB card regardless of which model, and they are a faster more resistant version.

 

[sti_ffy]

If the camera presented by the OP is as good at video as the 1080p Contour camera, the quality will be much better than those keychain cameras. Size matters (at present). There are no keychain cameras that can take videos this clear. And, yes - I forgot to rotate the lens back to the proper orientation after using the camera in another application:

[video=youtube;aDigbWD9B0w]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDigbWD9B0w[/video]

 

[CCotner]

Wow, that's excellent quality for the money. Do you have pictures of the installation on the side of the rocket, measurements, etc.?

 

[accpool]

sti ffy your video quality is great. what size rocket is that mounted on? the price is significantly more, and yes you do get what you pay for.

 

[sti_ffy]

For those who are interested in duplicating my results, the camera I used is the original Contour HD 1080P. It has a 120 degree lens, unlike the Contour Roam or Roam2 which have 170 degree lenses which give a sort of "fisheye" effect. You can get secondhand Contour HD 1080P cameras on ebay, but the camera posted by terryg has the same specs so it should be almost identical and costs less.

The rocket in the video is a 4" Wildman Extreme Darkstar. If you open the video on youtube (click "YouTube" in the lower right corner) there is more information in the comments.

I mounted the camera using the Contour Universal Camera mount, which I modified by removing its bottom portion - leaving only a stud with a threaded insert and a small adjacent pin. I drilled two holes in the avbay switchband - one of them big enough to accomodate the stud and another smaller one in line with it to align the mount along the rocket's thrust axis. I put JB-weld on the underside of the mount (around the stud and pin) and on the surface of the switchband and inserted the stud and pin into their holes in the switchband. Then I put more JB-weld inside the coupler/switchband and placed a washer over the stud. Finally I threaded a bolt into the stud (same threads as standard tripod mount). Once the JB hardened I used more of it to fair the mount to the switchband. I used this same method on my 4" Rocketry Warehouse (ProLine) Broken Arrow XP. Below are some marginal photos of the empty mount.

The camera slides into the mount from its aft end - no good for high-G launches. So to secure it I drilled four very small (#2) screw holes through the mount and into the body of the camera. Four screws secure the camera to the mount.

Finally I cut some heavy cardboard stock and bent it into the shape of a fairing that is epoxied onto the side of the forward recovery bay. I filled it with 2-part foam and epoxy-coated the outside surface. It is very strong and durable.

Unlike the Contour Roam - which has a single slide-switch on the top to power the camera on and start recording, the old HD 1080P camera has a power switch on the opposite end from the lens (so this is hidden by the fairing). I drilled a small hole in the side of the fairing, through which I can insert an allen wrench and turn on the camera. Then i slide the switch on the top to start it. This power-switch thing is a pain. The Roam is much nicer - but then it has that fisheye lens. You can have the lens replaced with a 120 by "RageCams" on youtube or ebay, but the lens kit costs $100.

My HD1080P camera was destroyed in the lawn-dart termination of the final flight of "Back in Black" - my 3" Hawk Mountian Talon-3. So my next flight will be using the Roam camera. Maybe the fisheye won't be too bad. We'll see.

 

[accpool]

thanks for the details.

 

[sti_ffy]

Guys, I just received one of these cameras. I ordered it about mid-day on Friday the 24th. Monday the 27th was a holiday, and the camera arrived here on Tuesday the 28th - that's essentially one business day!

Anyway, this thing looks awesome. It has almost no "stem" like the Contour camera does. The body is a 1.5" diameter cylinder that has a small flat area projecting from the bottom that is ideal for mounting to the side of a rocket. When this flat part is placed against the side of the airframe, the body cylinder of the camera will be spaced about 1/8" away from the rocket body. This means the fairing that needs to be constructed in front of it can be fairly small.

It has multiple features that can be controlled via a utility - like the resolution of still pics (useless for rocketry), burst-photo-count and mode (also pretty much useless unless you want to take time-lapse photos), auto-power-off (I disabled this), and auto-rotation (also disabled). That last one is so that it can be mounted upside-down and it will record video right-side-up. I disabled this because when mounted to the rocket it will be facing straight down, and I don't want there to be any possible confusion.

One really nice feature is the HDMI output. This allows you to adjust the orientation of the mount before making it permanent (you can watch on your TV while you orient it).

The video it takes is very similar to my original Contour 1080HD camera - i.e. it has a 120 degree "no-fish-eye-effect" lens. That is the one feature I hate about the Contour roam. Its 170 degree lens distorts the view. The Roam had one nice feature over the 1080HD, and that was the one-button power-on and start recording feature. This Monoprice MHD Action camera also has this feature! When mounted on the rocket, you just slide the switch aft and it starts up and begins recording. It offers two of the nice features of the Contour roam (one-button record and no fish-eye), plus HDMI out that neither of my Contour cameras offered.

Plus it's waterproof to 10 meters - so you can fly in the rain, or land in a culvert and the camera will survive Or, as happened to me once, if your rocket gets stuck in some evil guy's tree for two months, the camera will be fine when you get it back.

Note that the camera does not come with the HDMI cable. Also, the auto-rotation only works for inverted (180 degrees). It does not work for any angle between 0 and 180 (or 180 and 360). This is irrelevant for down-look on a rocket, but you can't just mount it to an avbay sled and point it out sideways because you can't rotate the lens 90 degrees like you can the Contour. You would have to mount this camera on a bulkplate so that it is oriented upright or inverted when looking out the side. That or you'd have to enjoy sideways video.