Wingtip Camera

On Apr 8, 10:30*am, Jim White wrote:
I doubt it Noel. The heads do ride on air but for sterility reasons in a
sealed air capsule which was sealed in a clean room. The most likely
problem is that the air tight capsule which is sealed with a sticky label
will be compromised. This will ultimately lead to contamination and disk
failure. The smallest mite of dust etc will cause a head crash.

Jim

At 08:02 08 April 2009, noel.wade wrote:

Just a quick FYI:

Hard-drive based Camcorders are a bad idea, as most of them are not
qualified for use above 10,000' MSL (thanks to Kempton Izuno for
pointing this out and saving me some $$)... *The problem is the
cushion of air that the hard drive read/write heads float on, above/
beside the platters... as air density goes down these things become
more susceptible to striking the spinning hard drive platters - not a
good thing!

--Noel



Nope. That is a common misunderstanding. Most hard drive units are not
sealed and are vented via a very fine filter. The reduction in air
density and head flight height is the reason those hard drives have an
altitude limit. Some people with hard disk drive based iPods trying to
use them in gliders found out the hard way. While you might get lucky
for a long time I would worry about the vendor's max altitude specs.
Some specialist drives are pressure sealed, not likely the ones you'll
find in consumer equipment.

Darryl

Not a problem in the cloudy little UK, where we dream of getting above
4000ft AMSL due to our generally low cloudbases!

Thanks for pointing this issue out though. So I guess it's Mini DV, Mini
DVD or SD card camcorders. Any known problems with these?

One other issue we have found with exterior mounted cameras at high
altitudes, or on cold days, is that the cold affects the battery
performance. Make sure that the batteries are fully charged up before you
start, and don't expect them to last for too long.

Derek C

At 08:02 08 April 2009, noel.wade wrote:
Just a quick FYI:

Hard-drive based Camcorders are a bad idea, as most of them are not
qualified for use above 10,000' MSL (thanks to Kempton Izuno for
pointing this out and saving me some $$)... The problem is the
cushion of air that the hard drive read/write heads float on, above/
beside the platters... as air density goes down these things become
more susceptible to striking the spinning hard drive platters - not a
good thing!

--Noel

On Thu, 02 Apr 2009 16:42:28 -0700, NG wrote:

Anybody have a recommendation for a small thin digital camera with
decent quality that might be suitable for taping to a winglet for
inflight down-the-wing shots, with a connection for an rf remote? Have
not been able to find a small camera with remote option. Thanks...

It might be worth looking at the FlyCamOne, which was developed to take
pictures from RC models. It is small, light (37g), records to an SD card
and can be remotely tripped via an el-Cheapo RC set or configured to take
a shot every few seconds. The resolution looks to be adequate and the
cost is pretty reasonable.

http://zoogz/reference/reference/misc_photo.html#fco



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

On Apr 9, 8:34*am, Martin Gregorie
wrote:
On Thu, 02 Apr 2009 16:42:28 -0700, NG wrote:
Anybody have a recommendation for a small thin digital camera with
decent quality that might be suitable for taping to a winglet for
inflight down-the-wing shots, with a connection for an rf remote? Have
not been able to find a small camera with remote option. Thanks...

It might be worth looking at the FlyCamOne, which was developed to take
pictures from RC models. It is small, light (37g), records to an SD card
and can be remotely tripped via an el-Cheapo RC set or configured to take
a shot every few seconds. *The resolution looks to be adequate and the
cost is pretty reasonable.

http://zoogz/reference/reference/misc_photo.html#fco

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

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showa...mentid=1377552

Not bad for what it is.

It might be worth looking at the FlyCamOne, which was developed to take
pictures from RC models. It is small, light (37g), records to an SD
card and can be remotely tripped via an el-Cheapo RC set or configured
to take a shot every few seconds. Â*The resolution looks to be adequate
and the cost is pretty reasonable.

http://zoogz/reference/reference/misc_photo.html#fco

Sorry - that should have been:
http://www.flycamone2.com/

or

http://www.blip.com.au/item.aspx?itemid=49

which shows prices and another video. BTW, anybody fancy a small, light
backup logger?

http://www.blip.com.au/item.aspx?itemID=62


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