Camera Car

[KenS]

Seems this is the camera set in question.. A bit pricey, but still quite interesting :)

 

http://www.dcctrain.com/shop/item.asp?itemid=4335

 

Note that that's the PAL version (for Europe). Those of us in the States would need to use the NTSC version:

 

http://www.dcctrain.com/shop/item.asp?itemid=1793

 

From the text on the site, this seems to be a preorder rather than an in-stock item, and the photos match some of those on Tony's Trains for the RF Systems camera (including the receiver, which is RF's "Morse type S" model), which makes me wonder how likely it is to show up.  It's interesting that it is illustrated with a Japanese EMU in some of the photos.

 

And just to confuse things, it's listed as "In Stock" on this page.

 

Does anyone have experience with DCC Trains as a merchant?  Are they likely to list something as in-stock if it isn't?

 

If real, that's the same camera that received many very good reviews a few years ago. But I thought they'd stopped making it, and I can't find any mention on RF's English or Japanese web sites beyond a historical note that they made a "train camera" once.

[cteno4]

rfamerica looks to be the oversea site for the japanese rf labs were we got our cams from a few years back. they usually do medical systems. they did have the trains cams on their site for maybe 6 months then pulled and did not see them anymore. perhaps they are just doing some custom small runs for the other sites that have them. the dcc cam one looks just like the rf lab system and same feature sets.

 

btw dcc trains price is twice what we paid for it from japan thru rflabs.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[clem24]

There has been a camera car thread over at the other forum, and I think the definitive post has been made. Check out the prototype this camera is mounted in.

 

http://n-spoor.nl/bouwtips/videowagen/traincam-flyer.pdf

 

 

 

This looks exactly like the one I saw in the ad in RM Models.

[Guest ___]

I know I'll get a royal bitch slap for suggesting this, but I'd rather the camera be off centered to give a more appropriate angle that better resembles what the motorman sees. I have never operated any train, or tram, OR rode in any such where the motorman, or engineer, fireman sat top dead center of the gauge.

[cteno4]

OK next time your down the guys in the club can bitch slap you around for the comment! remind us a the next lunch or cherry blossom festival.

 

would be doable, just not completely hidden in a train shell. unless you can find one of the ultra mini cameras and hook it into the system. even thought he lens and ccd on some of these looks to be pretty tiny, most are built onto the center of a small circuit board, thus hard to mount off center. you could do it on a car with proper counter balancing, hanging out over the edge.

 

for a recording camera the little flash video camera i have might fit over on the drivers side. problem is right now the thin direction is the wrong orientation for this. i have not torn this one open yet to see if it could be rotated 90 degrees easily. wont get the live feed...

 

given time these will be better, smaller, cheaper!

 

cheers

 

jeff

 

I know I'll get a royal bitch slap for suggesting this, but I'd rather the camera be off centered to give a more appropriate angle that better resembles what the motorman sees. I have never operated any train, or tram, OR rode in any such where the motorman, or engineer, fireman sat top dead center of the gauge.

[Guest ___]

Well, they can make a camera small enough to fit up a man urethra, i cant see why one can't shift a camera over 5mm to the left for perspective control.

[cteno4]

true, but they are really expensive! RF systems has a bunch of tiny cameras for endoscopes and to put in capsules to do full digestive track trips! they even have ones that can reorient and crawl upstream when needed from external control as well as take a couple of tiny biopsies!

 

better and cheaper will eventually rule here!

 

jeff

[cteno4]

ok i tested the cigarette lighter cam and unfortunately the flat side is the horizon (meant to lay on the table to use as a spy cam) so would not work up against the side of a train. i then decided to tear it open the ccd is actually tiny, a cube about 3mm square! its attached to the mother board via a very short flexible pc connector, but unfortunately its a very short one. its about a 20 pin connector. there is a small plug for it, but not sure how this sucker comes apart and finding the equivalent one may be tough.

 

oh well it was worth opening up to see.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[cteno4]

sorry must have hiccuped here...

[clem24]

I know I'll get a royal bitch slap for suggesting this, but I'd rather the camera be off centered to give a more appropriate angle that better resembles what the motorman sees. I have never operated any train, or tram, OR rode in any such where the motorman, or engineer, fireman sat top dead center of the gauge.

 

Well LOL dude you could always project the image onto a huge 100" screen and then just stand off to the side... That would be the right solution...

[cteno4]

Well LOL dude you could always project the image onto a huge 100" screen and then just stand off to the side... That would be the right solution...

 

Clem then he will want to side cameras and two 42" screens to the left and right to get full view VR!

 

jeff

[Guest ___]

as the beaver said to the lumber jack, "dam straight."

[clem24]

 

Clem then he will want to side cameras and two 42" screens to the left and right to get full view VR!

 

You know, this is the stupidest idea ever until I thought of the fact that this would work fantastic in HO scale!!! I mean the gap in the screen would even look like the break in the middle of a prototypical windscreen! LOL I love it!

 

Except for one problem - the cameras will each see a different perspective and when put side by side, would probably give you a big headache due to parallax issues hahaha but dude you're on the right track! Or heck, you know, putting 2 cameras side by side means the potential to drive in 3D LOL

[Guest Closed Account 1]

Still waiting on my Bic Cameras.  Going to have fun with this one.

 

Now just how can you watch through your iPhone/iPad?

[cteno4]

well live that would take some work as you would need to feed the video into a streaming video setup to then watch on your iphone, ipad, etc live.

 

the little recorder cameras spit out avi files that you can read with transfer and then move to your mobile devices.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[keitaro]

i wonder if these things will be getting smaller anytime soon.

 

http://ajoka.com/thumbcorder.htm

 

i think they would be great to do as you could you a yamanote line for example to give the feeling of a passenger looking out the side and through the driver compartment.

 

also you can edit video afterwards with out poor rf signal.

 

I saw one the other week with a twist top lens to rotate for right angle but now i can't find it :(

[cteno4]

kitaro,

 

the dvr guys are down to like 12mm in diameter in the little pen cameras for under $20. basically the same as the little lighter cam earlier in this thread

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2GB-HD-MINI-DVR-Audio-Video-Camera-Recorder-Spy-Pen-720x480-avi-1280x960-jpg-/200680084944?_trksid=p4340.m185&_trkparms=algo%3DSIC.NPJS%26its%3DI%26itu%3DUA%26otn%3D5%26pmod%3D280783496540%26ps%3D63%26clkid%3D5361933742436311277#ht_2327wt_977

 

the rf units are down to like 10mm in cross section

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/tiny-cam-Smallest-8-Channel-2-4GHz-Mini-SPY-Wireless-Hidden-Pinhole-A-V-Camera-/120837223798?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c2275b576

 

ive got this one and want to experiment more with it.

 

problem with these is mainly trying to lengthen the leads on the ccd so you could bend it 90 degrees to look out a side window. the flex cable on the rf unit or the lighter unit are not quite long enough to point it to the side w.o some modification. the lens rotation doesnt get you the side view unfortunately.

 

the rf labs system i have has the camera in a tiny box about 10mm cube so it can point sideways.

 

could probably use one of the larger rf cameras that are not small enough to fit inside a car and just mount them on a flat car with a window frame in front of the lens pointing sideways. would not look pretty but could get your video.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[keitaro]

this is interesting http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/New-808-Car-Key-Fob-Micro-16-Camera-Real-1280x720-HD-H-264-Codec-Cam-1-4-CMOS-/320816551954?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4ab2281812

 

if only it was a bit less wide if you could take the cover off and had it on its side you could maybe fit in some models?

 

you might be able to do both

[cteno4]

These are a bit too long to fit sideways. Folks have used them for forward looking cameras but they are too wide to fit w.in a car.

 

There are also pen DVD cameras that shoot out the side of the pen, but still a problem for shooting out the side as the video would be vertical.

 

More and more of these will show up!

 

After seeing the out the side YouTube video I now want to try and extend the lighter cam, they are only $9 ea

 

Jeff

[keitaro]

These are a bit too long to fit sideways. Folks have used them for forward looking cameras but they are too wide to fit w.in a car.

 

There are also pen DVD cameras that shoot out the side of the pen, but still a problem for shooting out the side as the video would be vertical.

 

More and more of these will show up!

 

After seeing the out the side YouTube video I now want to try and extend the lighter cam, they are only $9 ea

 

Jeff

 

thats what got me looking.

 

maybe that pen dvd could be modified to turn the lens on it's side?

[cteno4]

Most of these have flexible ribbon connectors between the CCDs and the main boards but they are pretty short and would be hard pressed to be able to do a 90 degree horizontal bend (90 or even 180 vertically would be no problem). See the picture earlier in this thread, every camera I've opened up has pretty much the same basic layout Will need the ribbon cable extended with sections of short wire.

 

Jeff

[Guest Closed Account 1]

Micromark has a 9v Battery eliminator: Remember a 9V battery is not affected by track power losses.

http://www.micromark.com/Battery-Eliminator-for-Micro-Camera,8370.html

 

 

This is the 5.8GHz spy camera I am looking into with a DVR:

https://www.dynaspy.com/mini-5-8ghz-wireless-color-spy-camera-new

 

10 x 10 x 30 mm (0.4 x 0.4 x 1.2 in)

[cteno4]

Need to get a circuit to take variable track power to charge 6v of rechargeable batteries. This is how the rf labs camera works so the camera keeps going when stopped a while w.o dcc.

 

Will be interesting to hear how the 5.8ghz system works with the tHe interference. The size/form factor looks the 2.8ghz ones. I tore one of those apart to try mounting inside a car, but unfortunately the pc board was a little over 1mm too wide to fit inside the car and the ccd was soldered to the back side of the pc board, so it couldn't be easily extended to get the pc board in.

 

Cheers

 

Jeff

[Martijn Meerts]

A problem with the camera's that several people seem to overlook, not notice, or maybe just don't care about, is the resolution. For example, the mentioned Thumbcorder specifies: AVI Video Format, H263 352x288 up to 15 FPS .. 352x288 at 15fps? That's terrible ;)

 

The cheap ones are nice to experiment with, but obviously the image quality won't be the best. It would be nice to fit a fairly decent 720p dvr in a train for high quality recordings, and have another car with some rf system. The rf system is a bit sensitive to interference though, so better to wait for a wifi version ;)

[clem24]

The cheap ones are nice to experiment with, but obviously the image quality won't be the best. It would be nice to fit a fairly decent 720p dvr in a train for high quality recordings, and have another car with some rf system. The rf system is a bit sensitive to interference though, so better to wait for a wifi version ;)

 

I too am waiting for something HD which is why I was so disappointed Kato decided to release, in 2011, an RF system with composite video out. I can't even remember the last time I even used a composite lead for anything.

 

My dad just bought one of these to mount to his full size RC Heli:

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150727708202

 

It's supposedly the smallest 720p spy cam out there, but it's still a bit too too big for N scale use. Would probably fit in HO rolling stock though! At $40 USD, it's cheap enough to try, though my dad said it's supposedly pretty good quality judging from people's experiences of RC forums.