On-board camera system test! RC10B4

[Daddeo]

I finally got around to setting up my on-board RC camera system and got a little test footage today. Pay no mind to the date as it's wrong, forgot how to change it . Trying a couple different mounting options to get the best results. I will post videos of all options over the next few days to get your opinions of each. This one is with the camera mounted on the right rear shock tower. I think it looks okay but tell me what you think, thanks!

Video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Rhs_I7uc_g

[purpletimbo]

You probably edit a text file in the root directory to set date

[littleVETTE]

that reminds me of the guy did that to his b4 as well. he ran a heat with the body off, and the camera up top. it was funny to watch. i think he rigged a camera to his truck too. it's pretty bad ass watching how the suspension is working and how fast the servo is pushing and pulling the wheels left to right.
check it out on youtube. i think if you put in b4 and ocrc you'll get something.

[Daddeo]

purpletimbo - I do believe that's how it's done, I'm just to darn lazy this evening to be bothered with it .

littleVETTE - I've seen that video before and it is a good one!

[Erich Reichert]

Very cool Daddeo! I've been playing around with the idea of hooking up my Fat Shark system in a car for this years Vonats. The goggles get a good amount of feedback from the lighting and metal ceiling in there but I've got about 9 months to figure it out.

[Coelacanth]

That was better than I expected! I've watched lots of on-car vids and in almost every case, the video is too painfully herky-jerky to really enjoy it or see what's going on. Then again, most of the vids I've seen are cams mounted on Tamiyas with cruddy suspensions....

Amazing how a well-tuned suspension smooths out the ride.

[Daddeo]

Thanks guys! I'm still working all the kinks out as it's not near as good as I want it. Mainly doing testing with it right now to come up with the best setup.

[tim.sanderson]

I bought one of those 'key chain cams' a few months ago. There's a video of it attached to a guys 1/8 ebuggy during a race a couple of weeks back
[youtube]rpcj8Q0N7yQ[/youtube]
^ That's me in the white hat, marshalling.
You can see the camera and another video here:
http://tsanrc.blogspot.com/2010/12/fpvkey-chain-cam.html
The trick to getting good clear video is attaching it very securely to the car. I usually attach it to the roof of a car with servo tape, followed by wrapping electrical tape (or similar) very tightly around the car and camera. The video in the second link was only attached to the wing of a D8, again with servo tape and wrapped with elec tape. (that view is best, because you can see the suspension doing it's thing.
If it's a camera like this:

you can zip tie it to the shock tower nice and tight. (although it might get knocked of/broken during a roll over)
I can't be bothered to set the time on mine either. I have instructions on how to remove the time stamp from these particular cameras but haven't tried it yet. Because you mess with the firmware, it's possible to mess up the camera for good.

[Daddeo]

Nice video's Tsan and cool little camera! That's what I paid for mine and it's only a slight bit bigger than yours. Since it's raining today I'm making a aluminum mount for my shock tower that should hold it secure and provide the best view.

[tim.sanderson]

Here are the instructions on how to remove the time stamp from some of these 'gumball' cameras.
http://www.mytempfiles.info/gum/project3.html
I think mine is a candidate for this, but if you're interested in doing this to yours, do a little research to make sure yours is compatible before you try it.
I am going to try it when I order at least one more of these cameras. (apparently it's pretty easy to 'brick' the camera while modifying it) I don't want to bust the only one I have!

[Daddeo]

Thanks for the info tsan. I'm trying to do this now as it looks like my camera is the one they're working with. *crosses fingers*

[tim.sanderson]

Good luck! Let me know how easy (or hard) it is to do.

[tim.sanderson]

Amazing how a well-tuned suspension smooths out the ride.

It doesn't work out nearly as well for on road cars. Not enough suspension to soak up the bumps.

[Daddeo]

okay, I think it worked but these damn little camera's are very sensitive with regard to messing with the firmware. I'll try to get some new footage to show what else I accomplished with it.

[tim.sanderson]

What's the word? Did it work out for you?