On Board Cameras

[Anonymous]

Can anyone help with recommending on-board color wireless video
cameras? Primarily I would use it for HO scale, but would also include
it in my Garden Railway as well.

I've come across the Model "Cam10-Mace Mini 2.4GHZ Color Camera and
Receiver." Anybody familiar with this rascal? Camera is 4"X3/4"x3/4".

Would like some advice and additional recommendations of other models
out there.

FT545

[ndbprr]

I think you are pushing the envelope on this one. I know Lionel offerd some FA's years ago that had a small lens in the nose door and played it on a TV monitor. I haven't seen anything since. To me the ultimate would be to combine forward and rear looking cameras in the engineers windows with a pair of virtual reality goggles so you could run the engine by the virtual reality controls and have the sound be in your head through earphones not the room.

[lupo]

http://www.marklin.nl/model.html?nr=22

this is from marklin had it in 1999 try to find it in english for you, but that would not work

[Big_Boy_4005]

We had a discussion about this over on the CTT board last month, check it out.
http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=10847

[cacole]

The old Lionel camera was lousy -- the picture was transmitted through the track to the receiver, and was black and white only, which was state-of-the-art when Lionel put it on the market. As soon as you crossed out of the block you had the receiver connected to, you lost the picture and had to stop and move the receiver. The least little speck of dirt caused a flicker or loss of picture, and it ate 9-Volt batteries like mad.

A new wireless on-board color camera and microwave transmitter being sold by RF System Lab of Japan on the Web at http://www.ghz-link.com seems to be an improvement, but using microwave frequencies means that your range would be restricted to direct line-of-sight. I believe this company has a video on their Web site that you can view and see how the camera performs.

[Anonymous]

Contact, a member of the central Ohio S gaugers @ www.cosg.org they had train cames at a show it gave a great scale speed view of the world in S.

Carpenter Matt

[Big_Boy_4005]

QUOTE: Originally posted by cacole

The old Lionel camera was lousy -- the picture was transmitted through the track to the receiver, and was black and white only, which was state-of-the-art when Lionel put it on the market. As soon as you crossed out of the block you had the receiver connected to, you lost the picture and had to stop and move the receiver. The least little speck of dirt caused a flicker or loss of picture, and it ate 9-Volt batteries like mad.

A new wireless on-board color camera and microwave transmitter being sold by RF System Lab of Japan on the Web at http://www.ghz-link.com seems to be an improvement, but using microwave frequencies means that your range would be restricted to direct line-of-sight. I believe this company has a video on their Web site that you can view and see how the camera performs.

We discused all of those issues, and went on to and went on to the latest low cost color minature wireless cameras. I ended up buying one on eBay, for $44 including shipping. The one I have is not line of sight, It was able to receive a signal through the floor, or wall, but those obstructions do start to add up, and as you increase your distance from the receiver it does become more noticable.

The ones on eBay come from China, but if you are considering getting one watch out on the shipping. The one I bought came from a source already in the US, and the shipping was lower, but the product cost was higher.

The one I bought could easily be mounted in an HO gondola. At first I thought the dimensions you listed were large, particularly the 4", but with the wire and the battery, that sounds close.

[Anonymous]

How much have you got to spend? I picked up a tiny camera last weekend, about 40mm x 40mm x 35mm. $50CDN plus receiver at $70CDN The X10 wireless cam is way cheaper but a bit large and the picture isn't as good;


I have some vid for you non-dialuppers a couple of small ones that might be the incentive you need to avoid wasting time on the big ones.

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click for 35 meg download - Highballin' Diesel

I think mpg works on a mac and windows but I have neither.
click on the above links at your peril!