Mini Cams

[[email protected]]

A new member at our club had a small video camera, almost like a bullet
cam, but just slightly bigger. Al it takes is an SD card, he had a 1
gig card for this camera. He just clips it to his hat.
I did not get the name of this camera. But I think this member stated
that a famous skateboarder indorses them. Anyone have an idea which
camera this is? Sure beats the hell out of my JVC video camera.

Carl

[Wayne Paul]

> wrote in message
oups.com...
> A new member at our club had a small video camera, almost like a bullet
> cam, but just slightly bigger. Al it takes is an SD card, he had a 1
> gig card for this camera. He just clips it to his hat.
> I did not get the name of this camera. But I think this member stated
> that a famous skateboarder indorses them. Anyone have an idea which
> camera this is? Sure beats the hell out of my JVC video camera.
>
> Carl
>

Is this what you are talking about?
http://www.viosport.com/store/customer/ourgear.php?page=hawk_overview

Wayne
HP-14 "6F"
http://www.soaridaho.com/

[[email protected]]

Wayne Paul wrote:
> > wrote in message
> oups.com...
> > A new member at our club had a small video camera, almost like a bullet
> > cam, but just slightly bigger. Al it takes is an SD card, he had a 1
> > gig card for this camera. He just clips it to his hat.
> > I did not get the name of this camera. But I think this member stated
> > that a famous skateboarder indorses them. Anyone have an idea which
> > camera this is? Sure beats the hell out of my JVC video camera.
> >
> > Carl
> >
>
> Is this what you are talking about?
> http://www.viosport.com/store/customer/ourgear.php?page=hawk_overview
>
> Wayne
> HP-14 "6F"
> http://www.soaridaho.com/

Hi Wayne,

Yea, that's it. I did some checking though, and see they mention it's
not recommended for
TV/DVD quality.

Carl
Standard Cirrus N8915

[RON]

On 5 Mar 2006 09:13:54 -0800, wrote:

>A new member at our club had a small video camera, almost like a bullet
>cam, but just slightly bigger. Al it takes is an SD card, he had a 1
>gig card for this camera. He just clips it to his hat.
>I did not get the name of this camera. But I think this member stated
>that a famous skateboarder indorses them. Anyone have an idea which
>camera this is? Sure beats the hell out of my JVC video camera.
>
>Carl
The Tony Hawk bullet cam is a toy. Forget that. I have made myself a
nice unit that I use for skiing, and I will be experimenting with
various shots from my glider this season. Here's the shopping list.
An ARCHOS AV-500 video recorder, which produces on a 30 gig HD almost
8 continuous hours of 640 x 480 line resolution video in MP4 format.
This unit is about 1/2" x 3.5" x 5". Tiny. Similar to the IPOD Video
idea with the exception that this unit can record analog video
DIRECTLY INTO the unit, much to the chagrin of the Motion Picture
Industry :) Although the AV-500 is self contained, you'll need a
6v. external power supply for the recorder for long periods of time.
I made the power supply from a 4 cell AA battery holder from Radio
Shack and used the biggest and baddest 2500 mah rechargable NIMH
batteries I could buy. Next, you'll need a bulletcam, suction mount,
and an exension cable, all available on EBay, or a website called
VIOSPORT.COM. Viosport had the best accessory selection, but the
bulletcams can be had less expensively from other places. I found a
great 520 line color bullet cam package for $180 on EBay, brand new.
Make sure your bullet cam has the SONY chip, and that it is not a CMOS
unit. You'll have to educate yourself there. The cam and microphone
(included with the bulletcam package) need their OWN 12v power supply,
which I made with an 8 AA cell holder, again using 2500mah NIMH
batteries. Instead of creating losses with a power converter to step
12v to 6v, I just used 2 separate power supplies. I was able to
squeeze the entire assembly, including a hand-cut foam protector for
the video recorder, and a DPDT rocker switch to activate both power
supplies together, into a hinged Plano fishing lure box measuring 8 x
5.5 x 1.25". SMALL :)
Another way to get hi quality bullet cam video is to use a 480 or
520 line bullet cam with a VHS, HI-8, Mini DV, or Mini DVD camcorder.
The camcorder MUST BE ABLE TO ACCOMODATE ANALOG
VIDEO/AUDIO INPUTS. Very important. Almost all older VHS, and Hi-8
camcorders had analog RCA jack video/audio inputs. Be careful, as
relatively few of the newer Mini DV or mini DVD camcorders accomodate
analog inputs.
You'll get great video results with a camcorder/bullet combination,
but you'll get a maximum of 30 minutes out of a Mini DVD disc, or an
hour of Mini DV tape, if you use the high resolution settings. You
also have narrow time limits for powering the camcorder. However the
biggest problem is that of playing P.I.C./ cameraman / director
:)..... starting, stopping the recording, horsing around with
play/pause, etc etc. With the ARCHOS video recorder idea, you can set
it up while on the ground, forget it, and fly all day without
exhausting either power or HD space. You'll need video editing
software to extract the few nuggets of great footage buried in 8 hours
of recording. I use Pinnacle Studio 10 for editing. Works well for
me.
I'd really enjoy hearing from pilots who have produced inflight
video, or fabricated various mounts. I'm new to the inflight aspect,
and would like any ideas I could get. RON W

[[email protected]]

Hi Ron,

I have played with some bullet cams around the house for security using
a video capture card and multible video cams
hooked up to my Hunt video switcher. All of my soaring video's though
have been shot from two place gliders so one pilot can fly while I shot
video from my
JVC Mini DV DVL300u.

I'll research some of your equipment listed above.
Thanks for your post.

Carl
Standard Cirrus N8915

[[email protected]]

RON wrote:
> On 5 Mar 2006 09:13:54 -0800, wrote:
>
> >A new member at our club had a small video camera, almost like a bullet
> >cam, but just slightly bigger. Al it takes is an SD card, he had a 1
> >gig card for this camera. He just clips it to his hat.
> >I did not get the name of this camera. But I think this member stated
> >that a famous skateboarder indorses them. Anyone have an idea which
> >camera this is? Sure beats the hell out of my JVC video camera.
> >
> >Carl
> The Tony Hawk bullet cam is a toy. Forget that. I have made myself a
> nice unit that I use for skiing, and I will be experimenting with
> various shots from my glider this season. Here's the shopping list.
> An ARCHOS AV-500 video recorder, which produces on a 30 gig HD almost
> 8 continuous hours of 640 x 480 line resolution video in MP4 format.
> This unit is about 1/2" x 3.5" x 5". Tiny. Similar to the IPOD Video
> idea with the exception that this unit can record analog video
> DIRECTLY INTO the unit, much to the chagrin of the Motion Picture
> Industry :) Although the AV-500 is self contained, you'll need a
> 6v. external power supply for the recorder for long periods of time.
> I made the power supply from a 4 cell AA battery holder from Radio
> Shack and used the biggest and baddest 2500 mah rechargable NIMH
> batteries I could buy. Next, you'll need a bulletcam, suction mount,
> and an exension cable, all available on EBay, or a website called
> VIOSPORT.COM. Viosport had the best accessory selection, but the
> bulletcams can be had less expensively from other places. I found a
> great 520 line color bullet cam package for $180 on EBay, brand new.
> Make sure your bullet cam has the SONY chip, and that it is not a CMOS
> unit. You'll have to educate yourself there. The cam and microphone
> (included with the bulletcam package) need their OWN 12v power supply,
> which I made with an 8 AA cell holder, again using 2500mah NIMH
> batteries. Instead of creating losses with a power converter to step
> 12v to 6v, I just used 2 separate power supplies. I was able to
> squeeze the entire assembly, including a hand-cut foam protector for
> the video recorder, and a DPDT rocker switch to activate both power
> supplies together, into a hinged Plano fishing lure box measuring 8 x
> 5.5 x 1.25". SMALL :)
> Another way to get hi quality bullet cam video is to use a 480 or
> 520 line bullet cam with a VHS, HI-8, Mini DV, or Mini DVD camcorder.
> The camcorder MUST BE ABLE TO ACCOMODATE ANALOG
> VIDEO/AUDIO INPUTS. Very important. Almost all older VHS, and Hi-8
> camcorders had analog RCA jack video/audio inputs. Be careful, as
> relatively few of the newer Mini DV or mini DVD camcorders accomodate
> analog inputs.

[Snip]

You can buy the whole setup for $869 from http://www.skullcamz.com/

Tom

[Frank Whiteley]

The type of HDD used in this system has an altitude operating limit of
nominally 9840ft(3000m). A few operate just over 10K feet, but not by
much. A pressurized case will be needed to for any video system using
HDD's in the US west and many mountainous regions. At 3000m,
atmospheric pressure is about .67 of sea level. At 5000m, it's about
..50 of sea level. The air pressure is needed to float the heads above
the media. Going above the rated altitude leads to a potential head
crash into the media. Not good.

Now the question is the amount of heat dissipation needed to operate
this equipment safely. That will drive the size of the case and case
material or need for heat sinks along with the pressure differential.
Interesting problem.

Frank Whiteley

[Bill Daniels]

I'm under the impression that all hard drives made in the last 30 years are
Winchester-type units with hermetrically sealed cases. I dismantled a
crashed drive and it was very well sealed in a case that could easily
withstand a hard vacuum. I know there's a 3000 meter operations limit in
the spec's - why? Cooling? Maybe it's just an artifact from the
pre-winchester era. I know there are plenty of HDD based MP3 players used
by hang glider pilots that work fine up to 18K feet.

However, my camcorder can use SD cards instead of tape and a 2GB card will
store 6 hours of DV so maybe concerns abour HDD's are moot anyway.

Bill Daniels


"Frank Whiteley" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> The type of HDD used in this system has an altitude operating limit of
> nominally 9840ft(3000m). A few operate just over 10K feet, but not by
> much. A pressurized case will be needed to for any video system using
> HDD's in the US west and many mountainous regions. At 3000m,
> atmospheric pressure is about .67 of sea level. At 5000m, it's about
> .50 of sea level. The air pressure is needed to float the heads above
> the media. Going above the rated altitude leads to a potential head
> crash into the media. Not good.
>
> Now the question is the amount of heat dissipation needed to operate
> this equipment safely. That will drive the size of the case and case
> material or need for heat sinks along with the pressure differential.
> Interesting problem.
>
> Frank Whiteley
>

[Frank Whiteley]

hdd's are not sealed, the have air filters to exclude debris.
http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/op/packAir-c.html

iPods and other media players with hdd's have operating limits.
Doesn't mean they won't work above their rating, but it's risky and may
depend somewhat on the latitude.

My DV recorder also will take SD cards and tapes and has AVI inputs,
but I like the fly and forget method described above. The AV-500 now
comes with 100GB drive.

Frank

[Ricardo Rocha]

> My DV recorder also will take SD cards and tapes and has AVI inputs,
> but I like the fly and forget method described above. The AV-500 now
> comes with 100GB drive.

I was also impressed by the description, so the result was the order is made and
the stuff is paid. Now you come with the possible drawbacks... :)

3000m in a nice wave... do i continue and possibly break the thing or do i
consider 3000 already good enough and call it a day? As if there were not enough
decisions to be made already...

:)

Ricardo

PS: Of course, it's not really an option. If it brakes, it will brake!!

[Frank Whiteley]

I just ordered the AV700 model which is slightly larger with 40GB drive
and 7-inch diagonal screen. There is a $100 rebate (yuck) through 3/31
which means it's cheaper than the AV500 with the 4-inch screen. It
appears otherwise technically identical. It'd better have the AV input
ports though or it's a return item. Will mean a larger case though.

Frank Whiteley

[Frank Whiteley]

Couldn't tell from literature nor web site, but (as I suspected) the
AV700 docking station has the AV sockets and a power extender, so a
longer pressurization case will be needed for the AV700. The docking
station is The AV500 is a decidedly more compact unit overall if
that's of primary concern. Still awaiting the camera. The HD230CWX
camera is now called the HD230C.

Frank Whiteley

[Frank Whiteley]

Docking station is essentially a 4" disk, 1" thick.

Frank

[Go]

Frank,
If you mount the camera inside the cockpit, what do you do to eliminate
canopy reflections? I understand a polarizing lens will do this but if
the cam is mounted on your head the polarization will change as you pan
around and/or turn the glider, and/or as the sun's azimuth changes
during the day right?

[Frank Whiteley]

Well, not sure the camera is going in the cockpit much of the time.
The camera arrived recently along with an additional 25' AV extension
cable, which added $14 to the cost, so it was hard to pass up.
Otherwise I plan also use my second Ram-Mount as a camera mount inside
the cockpit and occassionally through the slider window.
http://www.ram-mount.com/ has a lot of attachment gadgetry, including
standard camera mounts.

For some specialized video, I'm looking a some external mount points.
The camera has digital pan/tilt/3X zoom, but I haven't tested that yet.

There is a difference in the input voltage between the Archos V500 and
the V700. The V500 requires 5V which 4 * NiMH 1.2V 2500mAH cells
provide. The V700 requires 6V input which means building up a custom
holder. I'm ordering a 10-cell AA holder to modify into a 6V 2.5AH
supply for the recorder. Want to keep it self contained for use in a
variety of gliders also.

Wish the taxes were done;^(

Frank

[Frank Whiteley]

Canopy reflection elimination may be a challenge. I've taken many
images through canopies and most work, some don't. Taking them through
the slider is often better. Other pilots have made great photos by
holding the camera outside on a stick.

Frank

[David Kinsell]

Robert Hart wrote:
> Frank Whiteley wrote:
>> Well, not sure the camera is going in the cockpit much of the time.
>> The camera arrived recently along with an additional 25' AV extension
>> cable, which added $14 to the cost, so it was hard to pass up.
>> Otherwise I plan also use my second Ram-Mount as a camera mount inside
>> the cockpit and occassionally through the slider window.
>> http://www.ram-mount.com/ has a lot of attachment gadgetry, including
>> standard camera mounts.
>
> How are you going to secure the camera (well the hard disk) against low
> pressure (going above 10,000)? I've been looking around and can't find
> anything and have been contemplating how one might contstruct such a box.
>
> Ideas?
>
> Robert


?????

Disk drives come in a real nice metal case, it's just that the stupid
manufacturers aren't smart enough to seal them up real good. You've
got a O2 tank, don't you? 'Nuff said.

[Bill Daniels]

Wouldn't it just be easier to use a flash drive?

"Frank Whiteley" > wrote in message
oups.com...
>I plan to build a sealed case. This leads to temperature and sealing
> concerns. As the field elevation at my club is 5500msl, we clearly
> spend most of a good soaring day well above 10,000msl, above the rated
> spec of most small HDDs. There are some drives rated to 10000m, but
> I'm not sure they'd work in this device, so I'm not going there at this
> point.
>
> I plan on visiting a local aluminum vendor. They have a huge selection
> as they are an outlet for Lockheed/Martin Marietta scrap. At least one
> side of the case will be an aluminum heat sink for the case as I think
> heat buildup is an issue with spinning a small HDD for several hours.
> Could be a sandwich style with aluminun on either side of an acrylic
> frame would give the most rigidity and cooling. The PSI load will get
> relatively large, so latching the case shut will be the key to an
> effective seal. The V500 is looking more attractive due to it's more
> compact size and simple power requirements and stowage.
>
> I'd add a small pressure gauge of appropriate scale and a strip
> aquarium thermometer. Probably install a small screw valve and blow a
> little pressure into the case. I envision that at our altitude, I'd
> pressurize it to 1-2psi above ambient field air pressure to get a
> positive indication on the pressure gauge, for confidence in the seal.
> It could simply be closed at ambient pressure also. Since any small
> pressure gauge is going to register a relative increase in pressure,
> near sea level sites to maybe 5000msl with the expectation of going
> above 10000msl, sealing might be enough as the gauge would indicate
> positive pressure during climb. I think I'd consider the effects of
> density altitude also, since on a hot, relatively humid day, airfield
> density altitude is getting close to the operational limits of the HDD.
>
> The HDDs have a low pressure limit, but they also have a high pressure
> limit of about -1000ft/-300m msl which is 15.23psi, so real care with
> positive pressurization is warranted.
>
> Frank
>

[David Kinsell]

The engineering's already been done. Just found this great web site
on exactly this topic:

http://i_fly_5000k.home.comcast.net/disk_fix/





Frank Whiteley wrote:
> I plan to build a sealed case. This leads to temperature and sealing
> concerns. As the field elevation at my club is 5500msl, we clearly
> spend most of a good soaring day well above 10,000msl, above the rated
> spec of most small HDDs. There are some drives rated to 10000m, but
> I'm not sure they'd work in this device, so I'm not going there at this
> point.
>
> I plan on visiting a local aluminum vendor. They have a huge selection
> as they are an outlet for Lockheed/Martin Marietta scrap. At least one
> side of the case will be an aluminum heat sink for the case as I think
> heat buildup is an issue with spinning a small HDD for several hours.
> Could be a sandwich style with aluminun on either side of an acrylic
> frame would give the most rigidity and cooling. The PSI load will get
> relatively large, so latching the case shut will be the key to an
> effective seal. The V500 is looking more attractive due to it's more
> compact size and simple power requirements and stowage.
>
> I'd add a small pressure gauge of appropriate scale and a strip
> aquarium thermometer. Probably install a small screw valve and blow a
> little pressure into the case. I envision that at our altitude, I'd
> pressurize it to 1-2psi above ambient field air pressure to get a
> positive indication on the pressure gauge, for confidence in the seal.
> It could simply be closed at ambient pressure also. Since any small
> pressure gauge is going to register a relative increase in pressure,
> near sea level sites to maybe 5000msl with the expectation of going
> above 10000msl, sealing might be enough as the gauge would indicate
> positive pressure during climb. I think I'd consider the effects of
> density altitude also, since on a hot, relatively humid day, airfield
> density altitude is getting close to the operational limits of the HDD.
>
> The HDDs have a low pressure limit, but they also have a high pressure
> limit of about -1000ft/-300m msl which is 15.23psi, so real care with
> positive pressurization is warranted.
>
> Frank
>

[Mike C 17]

LOL - Great line!

"Use dining room table to backstop the drilling, to eliminate burrs."

[Frank Whiteley]

hahahahahaha

thanks Dave

Frank

[Martin Gregorie]

David Kinsell wrote:
> The engineering's already been done. Just found this great web site
> on exactly this topic:
>
> http://i_fly_5000k.home.comcast.net/disk_fix/
>
Good advice! Now you just need to defrag your newly pressurized disk.
Dr. Narton has published an illustrated guide:

http://www.datadocktorn.nu/us_frag1.php


--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org |