Modeloldtimer
switcher21
First of all welcome to the forum, I bought a wireless camera from Fry's electronics. its a 2.4GHz wireless camera with a base station, runs on a 9v volt or wall adapter the camera dims. are:7/8"x7/8"x1"
Range of 328 feet line of sight with no obstructions with 380 tv lines.view angle of 60 degrees.
The company name is Swann, the cost was 89.99
The web site www.swann.com.au
All the cables are there (and 9v) for either hook up and also a stand for the camera.The base for the receiver is 3.5x2.25x5/8 inches. and is four channels.
Ive used it on gondola car w/battery and pushed it around, then i took a old loco and made room in the cab for it and push that around like the lead of a train. I dont know if its the best the color is good it has a lens to focus with. hope this helps
Glenn
FB page of my layout *new*
https://www.facebook.com/ghglines
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thread to my layout
http://www.warcrc.net/forum/showthread.php?t=10505
pics
http://s237.photobucket.com/user/rockcrawling/library/#/user/rockcrawling/library/ho%20scale%20trains?sort=3&page=1&_suid=1388183416990004180295067414064
Is there much shake and vibration transmitted through the camera when going over joins or turnouts? Does the track need to be laid perfectly? Mine is in an area subjected to heat and damp and that will always be a problem for me.
Mike
Modelling the UK in 00, and New England - MEC, B&M, D&H and Guilford - in H0
mike
im running on atlas custom turnouts and haven't noticed any shaking, and my track isn't perfect either.
glenn
I got mine from www.wirelessmicrocolorcam.com about a year ago. I also bought the DCC power adapter, so I'm not dependent on batteries. I've mounted the whole thing inside the front car of my subway train. It's a tight fit, even in a dummy car, and I had to have them do a bit of re-configuration of the hardware to fit it in. Jerry at that company provides this service for a nominal fee. The DCC supply has a big capacitor and does not seem subject to dropouts. I do notice dropouts in the RF signal from the camera to the receiver, though, and that depends highly on receiver placement.
Here is a picture of the mounting inside the subway car. Part of the power supply is also inside the gray housing in the center.
This is a short video link I took a while back. I've since added a lot more lighting. These were, of course, mostly in tunnels so they are quite dark:
http://www.youtube.com/watch.php?v=dOV9NSqrQlc
YouTube seems to be down right now (Sunday night) so you might try later.
Monday Edit: YouTube is back up. I tried looking at it from a different computer, and I had to download the latest Flash player to see it. I was really unhappy with the darkness of the video - it's much worse than I've ever seen it on my other computer (currently down.)
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
MisterBeasley...very impressive web site, enjoyed the visit.
The first track cam I seen was at a local train club. They had it mounted in a Budd RDC, the camera was mounted on a plate with a pivotin, a bell crank affair was hooked up up to the the truck. So that when the car went into a turn the camera turned more into the curve, Was a very simple setup but dont remember how they did it......John
jwar wrote: MisterBeasley...very impressive web site, enjoyed the visit. The first track cam I seen was at a local train club. They had it mounted in a Budd RDC, the camera was mounted on a plate with a pivotin, a bell crank affair was hooked up up to the the truck. So that when the car went into a turn the camera turned more into the curve, Was a very simple setup but dont remember how they did it......John
There was an article in either MRR or GR in the past few years about rigging up a lead truck to a sheet of styrene and the camera sits on a pivot on a flat car. The lead is like the pilot on a steamer. By extending the lead up to the limit of the camera's lower view, it won't be seen and will guide the lens much like one would look around the corner as one drives a car.
We had a few discussions on one of these forums about various ways to mount the camera to achieve that effect. We talked about mounting a plate on a pin that would pivot with the forward truck rotation. You could increase the effect a bit by putting the camera on an extension arm a bit further back, but still swinging with the truck.
In my case, the camera is solidly mounted inside the car, so that the casual user won't even know it's there. In this shot, you can barely see the lens looking out the front of the car, just like I used to do when I was a little boy...
Trainguyxx wrote:Oh yeh i got this $70.00 wireless color mini camera and i got it at walmart. The only problem was that it has the same frequency as my wireless g computer router.
How does the frequency interference show up? Does the video signal get messed up by the router traffic, or do you have computer problems when you're running your video camera? I think my camera runs in the 1.8 GHz band, and I'm thinking of getting a wireless router. Also, how close is your router to your layout? Same room?
Anyone know of a source of a camera small enough to fit on a N scale flatcar or gondola car? I model in N scale and would like to try a video camera track-level view of my layout.
Bob