Key Ring Video Cameras... Cheap Fun!

[Burgerman]

http://www.wheelchairdriver.com/temp/camtest.wmv

Right click and choose save target as or whatever... Save to desktop.

This is one of those key ring chain cameras from ebay for £5.00

Bargain or what. Stuck to the rear of the plane with "bluetak"... The camera and the whole tail boom of the glider shake about under power so you dont get a good picture until the power is off. Next time I will put the camera on the wing or the main fusalage instead...

Attached to my model plane. Actually its a powered glider. It doesent like all the wind we were having and it was nearly dark and overcast / dull so not ideal conditions.

This is the local college car park about 400 yards from my house. You can see me and my van parked there several times. And the Humber estuary at times.

Max height was about only 200 feet ish. Usually on a calm summer evening I just climb to about 1000 feet or so (a dot) and glide for 40 mins at a time looking for thermals. But here its way too windy.

Camera is excellent! Designed as a hidden key ring cam and about 1 inch x 1 x 1/4 and includes lipo battery and charger and usb lead...

[Ashley G]

That was outstanding ! That camera focus seems quite impressive, especially as you say it's one of those cheapo keyring thingies.

Nice landing too

[TwoTeasChris]

(It's a 118Mb download folks.)

That's amazing. I wonder if they will let me fly one of those. I am 3/4 mile south of Gatwick runway.
What is the law re. height etc?
Considering it was overcast the quality was very good.
Gonna get me a camera. Link please.

[Lord Chatterley]

Gonna get me a plane too - link please, Burgerman - that was fantastic!!

[2senile]

Very nice!

I would like one of those, I could "bluetack" it to .... urgh? .... uhm? ..... my head ?

Be nice if you could live stream the video but I suppose weight & cost rules out that.

[Burgerman]

The camera has no focus its a pinhole camera. Everything is always sort of in focus.

Blue tack is like sticky plasticene if that helps...

http://shop.ebay.co.uk/i.html?_nkw=artf ... m270.l1313
Hundreds of ready to go pre built powered gliders etc here http://shop.ebay.co.uk/i.html?_nkw=artf ... m270.l1313

Cam here loads http://shop.ebay.co.uk/i.html?_nkw=key+ ... m270.l1313

Specifically mine http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Spy-Camera-Key-Ch ... 1c15cdf441


His res HD one double the price http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Key-chain-Mini-DV ... 20b30212c5

[Burgerman]

The vids that come out are AVI and a bit big but better quality than the one I posted. But I shrunk it down to 100 mb or so...

[Burgerman]

The plane is a basic 2 channel glider. With lithium power for 14 mins climb time. And typical dead air flights of 45 mins. 1800mah 3 cell throttled back to 50 percent power.

Its too floaty for wind and lacks ailerons so is useless on windy days. But also fragile and easy to damage. For a first plane you want a all foam one thats cheap and bounces! The key ring camera is stuck to the tail. Small black thing...

Transmitter is the same one I use for helis etc and powerchairs...

http://www.wheelchairdriver.com/trex-500.htm

[Burgerman]

I think the rules say not over 1000 feet. But how the hell you can say how high you are exactly is anyones guess. I have had one a lot bigger and more serious than this at 3000 feet before as logged with an altimeter digital watch! But at that height even with a much bigger plane its hard to see whats happening. As for video downlink there are lots of people doing this and flying 6 to 8 miles away.

[Lord Chatterley]

I would like to buy one of these powered gliders for my nephew's birthday.
He is only 11 but mentally gifted - he easily beats me on the Xbox.
I am looking to pay under 150 ukp including transmitter - needs to arrive by 9th October.

Anyone got any recommendations?

[Burgerman]

There are loads cheap on ebay but 11 without experience will end in tears!

Most are ready to fly (complete) or artf (almost ready to fly) and need either just your transmitter, or batteries, (lipo) or servos or whatever.Its all cheap now. But lipo batteries and an 11 year oid spells burned down houses... You need to use some caution with those. Set the charger wrong or assume its correct or forget something and you need a new house.

But I was flying these things at 11. Not electric but internal combustion. I have the fingers to prove it!

Delivered cheap from china is unlikely to happen in time.

Another short one... Loops.

www.wheelchairdriver.com/temp/loops.wmv

[Lord Chatterley]

Amazing - first hd camera I saw for sale was massive and cost £250,000 - now they are the size of a key fob and cost under a tenner postpaid!!

[Lord Chatterley]

How about an RC helicopter?
Can you recommend one for beginners capable of lifting a key fob camera?

[Burgerman]

Anything heli above say 400 size will not notice the camera. I cant really reccomend enything its a huge market. Get him to do some research to see what he wants! Helis are not easy! You need a flight sim to practice, some cheap fixed pitch ready to fly ones to get the coordination, then something like a 450 (small) 500(bigger like mine) to actually fly. But you need to understand batteries, chargers, gyros, and be able to install everything and set it all up and re do all of that every time you fly or crash it... How much do you want to spend, and how much can he do at 11? Best bet join a local club first. See what they are using and do the same so you have people around that know how to help him.

[Lord Chatterley]

Bit over budget of 150 ukp but been looking at Trex 250 SE Super Combo [215ukp ebay]- too small?

[Lord Chatterley]

Vibration might be an issue with a helicopter - I'll get a glider.

[Burgerman]

In every case you may need charger, power supply or a car, batteries? Its not so simple and never ends!

[Burgerman]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oH85TNw8 ... re=channel



http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/4-Channel-Dynam-H ... 3f03817d1e

[Lord Chatterley]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oH85TNw8F20&feature=channel



http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/4-Channel-Dynam-H ... 3f03817d1e

Thanks!!

[Burgerman]

http://www.wheelchairdriver.com/temp/night.wmv

Night flying. This was difficult! Most of this flight was in my head and I couldnt see a lot. So its low and short. £5 Camera under the wing this time... Not so good at night. Too noisy.

[pattherat]

Very cool vids. Thanks for sharing!

[Burgerman]

I have loads. But they take all my server space! And bandwidth...

[saintort]

http://www.ajoka.com/helmet_dvr.html small helmet cam
http://www.ajoka.com/helmet_dvr.html very tiny wireless cam


http://www.tachyoninc.com/rc.html and the one i have - these are sample videos

a 4 oz cam 760x480 full vga

[pattherat]

I have loads. But they take all my server space! And bandwidth...

Open a YouTube account and upload them all to their servers!
I'd love to see your MK_s in action.

BTW is there a way to imbed youtube videos on this forum?

[pattherat]

on other forums I can post this:
[YouTube]ShfBBGJCj2s[/YouTube]

instead of making an outside link like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShfBBGJCj2s

maybe it's something you have to enable on your end?

[Burgerman]

God knows. I will have a look! Its very complicated to allow things in and avoid spam...

[Ashley G]

BM - I have a keyfob camera which looks to be identical to the one you tacked onto your 'plane.

I dug it out again recently, and straightaway remembered why I boxed it ! The blessed time and date

Can you say how you removed the time and date from your display ?

My instruction leaflet, in Chinese and Spangrish, says only:

Time same time dispaly adjustment
The product video recording same time with time display funtion, canadjust the time according to their own.

Amendments as follows:First create a new txt fil by root of the srorage TF card and change the file name on "TAG" .like
then open the "TAG"right something.

For example

[date]
2009/09/09

12:00:00

And save the file before exit.time created and modifications compl;eted,when next time you start the machine,the time will be recorded time taneously."

I've tried every permutation I can think of and it makes not a jot of difference. Videos and still shots all are overprinting with a 2010 date. Your pics, however, have the date removed ....

Any clues ? Pls n ty.

[Burgerman]

Cant remember... But I found out how it was done (correct time/date) on U tube!

[TwoTeasChris]

I bought a pencam so I can make speeded up videos of my journeys.
On the CD it has a file called time.txt containing the example line:
2009.01.01 01.01.59 Y
It says to copy the file (with the correct date/time) to the root of the memory card. "Y" or "N" means do/don't display the time/date on videos.

The time/date is copied to the firmware when the pen is switched on and then the file is deleted.

[Ashley G]

Many thanks, BM and Chris.

Chris - that format didn't work for my model, but it gave me the encouragement to carry on a bit longer, ty

BM - looked again on the internet and tried some more suggestions from there, since you mentioned that's where you got the answer from. Sure enough, among the dross, I finally found a solution.