“where s my spycamera! where s my spycamera”

[betty.k]

HERE S your stupid spycamera!!!!!!

this is sooo much fun!! i can do a lap of the house now from the comfort of my armchair! no more standing in the cold for me!:8ball:

[PandaBear]

Haha, nice!

I went thru too many 9V batteries, before I tried
a 6xAA cell holder (like the one at TFTR).

Those smaller cameras are a bit fragile too, bit
around where the wire comes out. Mine started
getting a bit dodgy after Velodrome and needed
a bit of glue to reinforce.

Then I moved to their ‘new’ style with the larger
body and the power plug inbuilt (used @ TFTR).
They seem to be a lot more robust.

[betty.k]

cool, thanks for the tips, i was hoping you’d drag your experience with these over here!:smiley2:
i’m sure this is fragile, it’s just a cheapy so i knew it would be poorer quality than a more reputable brand. but it works surprisingly well, i’m able to drive out the back door, down the driveway and to the front door with only a little signal loss in known radio dead spots. and the tank moves slow enough for it to be easy to drive by screen. more pics here http://community.webshots.com/album/138036297rgTmjE:8ball:

[jamiekulhanek]

i’d put one of those on my tank……but it’s a digi q and is not much bigger anyway:8ball:

[PandaBear]

Quote:

…it’s just a cheapy so i knew it would be poorer quality than a more reputable brand.

Surprisingly no… any “dearer” ones are more expensive just
because of markup, I think they all come from the same one
China factory… :p

I’m still twiddling as to whether one could boost the transmission
power… hmm, someone who’s tech-aware should have a shot at it.

(if you open the camera, the imaging part is on 1 PCB and the
transmitter is on another PCB stuck to the back of the case)

[betty.k]

sounds interesting! i’m sure ph2t will have a looksee, find out how this thing ticks:8ball:

[trash]

I have a box for of these micro transmitters that I got from china when I was working there.
You’d be horrified to know they cost about $60 aus if I buy the cheap models direct from the factory.
You best bet is to use a stack of small NiMH batteries to power the camera. Or do what I did with a BCG clone tank. Rip the chassis off and the RC board and just umbilical power/control it.
No RC, but the cable help recover the tank from drain pipes.
http://community.webshots.com/photo/92988241/92997318LePiHa

Edited by – trash on 28 April 2004 17:19:27

[PandaBear]

The camera sucks about 100-150mA @ 8V.

It kills 9V batteries quite quickly, about 1/2 hr.
Methinking a 7-cell pack of 1/3 AAAs might be nice,
or a twinpack of Nokia phone LiIon batteries.

The base unit needs 8-9V, approx 200-250mA.
But I think it can run off 12V too from the
looks of the circuit inside, might try that.

[merc-blue]

how much these fellas sey u back.. would love to get my hands on one

[betty.k]

i paid $81 aud shipped off ebay.
http://stores.ebay.com.au/RevolutionShop_W0QQsspagenameZl2QQtZkm:8ball:

[betty.k]

ok, gotta question. when i run the camera and reciever off 9V batteries, everything’s cool. but when i use a plugpack transformer to power the reciever as i’d like to, the picture is terrible, fat white bands across the screen. what can i do to fix this? my first guess with my limited knowledge is to have the aerial mounted away from the rx unit, am i on the right track? or is it more likely the fact that i’m using a standard multi volt transformer? (digitor, output 500ma):8ball:

[PandaBear]

Receiver aerial should always be same angle as the Transmitter’s aerial, no exceptions.

Most likely its that your plugpack is not properly
voltage regulated, its sending a choppy rectified
voltage and not true DC. (Its very common with the
voltage-selectable wall-leeches.)

You might be able to get by with adding a few
capacitors to the power line, say several 3000uA
electrolytics. These will filter & buffer the V.

In a real bad case, might have to think about
installing a TO220 v-regulator like a LM78xx.
And the bank of caps.

(ps I’m just an untrained power hacker; if only I had stayed awake in Eng class blackeye: )

[merc-blue]

what sorta range do you get outtta one of these

[betty.k]

range quoted is 100m. i’ve never driven it further than about 30 – 40 m before, but that’s with the cam in the yard and the rx in the lounge room and i’ve had very little signal loss with fresh batts.
panda, i think you’re right on the money with the regulated voltage idea. i’ve had a word with ph2t about it and he’s gonna sort something out eventually.:8ball:

[PandaBear]

I should mount one inside the 1/10 shell peering
through the windscreen, but (mental note to self)
I gotta stop tinting the window to do that.

Might even try extending the TX aerial… bit of
Cat5 wire like a BCG, you think? 🙂

[trash]

The bars are caused by the AC power supply.
Get yourself a nice 7809 voltage regulator or at very least a big fat arse capacitor to try smooth out the power supply.

A good power supply with have the transforer, bridge rectifier, big arse capacitor and a voltage regulator. (and a handfull of other small components to make it look complex)
🙂

Extending the antenna’s will only do more harm than good !
You’re dealing with microwavs here. Yes, you can send TV pictures on the stuff that cooks you food !
If you have a 1GHz system, then the antennas should no be longer than 6cm ! For 2GHz systems they need to be 3cm !
There are certain lengths that work better than others…
1/4, 1/2 and 5/8ths of a wavelength are the magic numbers.
(I used 1/4 wave as my example)

To work out the wavelength… WL= (3×10^8) / Frequency (Hz)

example 104.9MHz
104.9MHz = 104,900,000 Hz
300,000,000 / 104,900,000 Hz = 2.86 metres (wavelength)

Edited by – trash on 29 April 2004 19:24:04

[betty.k]

well i’m using a bigarse nicad pack for the rx when i need portability and ph2t’s made me a fancy voltage regulator and filter which i’ll be trying tomorrow. thanks for the info gang, and thanks trash! you saved me from farting about with the aerial, i’ll leave it alone now!:smiley2::8ball:

[betty.k]

i’ve been strapping that cam to anything that moves! a friend of mine, chook lent me his old (15 years old!!) nikko buggy for a while so i’ve been giving it hell around the yard from the comfort of my bedroom! really handy for checking to see if the mail’s arrived and chasing the cats around!!

and here’s the ol’ apple monitor i dragged out to use with this system, just like night vision!!

more stuff here http://www.geocities.com/bettyk3332003/galleryrccam.html

so far i’m getting an hour out of the camera with fresh batts as it only draws about 70ma, it’s the rx that seems to drain the batts quicker. but now i’ve got the regulator set up it’s fine. i’ll get some sort of rechargable batt for the cam. either a 9v or a bunch of 1/4 AAA’s.
all in all, a great toy. one of the best rc accesories i’ve bought so far!!!:8ball:

Edited by – betty.k on 02 May 2004 22:43:48

[Aaron]

*ndos* a guy here at work got one real cheap off e-bay 😉 Gave him quite a few hours of entertainment driving around the office with his 1/10 😉

A.

--
Site Owner Guy.

[betty.k]

:evil:i discovered a nifty feature of this camera that triples it’s cool factor.
it picks up infra red!!:8ball:

[PandaBear]

Well… the camera chip is exactly the same as
their other model, the one with IR LEDs all around
the camera for nighttime illumination… 🙂

Grab a TV remotecontrol, check out its output. 😀

Supposedly the “new” ones (like the one I used
at TFTR on meet day) are down to 1lux, the older
ones are 3lux. But I compared the 2 side by side
and darned if I can tell the difference. :blush:

[Pork_Hunt]

Who suggested it’d pick up IR, bet-ster???:smiley16::blush:

[betty.k]

yeah, alright porky! you da man!! i was yakking with ph when he mentioned ir lights. so i grabbed the remote and there she was, flickering away!
my one is rated to 3 lux, it sorta dies a bit before my eyesight :8ball:

Edited by – betty.k on 05 May 2004 23:32:54

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