I have a HO shelf layout. DCC and Sound. I know there have been many threads in the past on diffrent cams and hook ups but since then, is there anything new?? Cheaper? easier to hook up?? I know Tonys Train Exchange has a cam and all the hook ups for $169. Does anybody have this one and how does it work? Are there any cheaper ones? I am now ready to give this cam thing a try. I think it would be wild running a train from the TV set as the engineer sees it.
Thanks for your help, DON
Don–
Don’t have one, though I’ve been thinking about it. MicroMark has a set-up that I think is certainly cheaper than $170, but what kind of turns me off about it is running the hookup clear from the garage into the house into my already crowded VCR connections. At least from what I read from the instructions they show.
But if I can figure out the electronics involved, I might bite for the MicroMark.
Tom
There are cheaper non model railroad cam setups out there. I bought one a few years ago for around $35.00, others report getting them on eBay even cheaper. Do a search on eBay for miniature TV cameras and such.
I’ve got an older one from SJT Enterprises, the “Ride Inside Your Train” guys who advertise in MR. I went to some expense and trouble to permanently mount the unit inside a subway car, along with the DCC power supply so I would be independent of batteries.
The camera is still working fine, but I discovered that our glorious new big-screen HDTV isn’t happy with the signal. It won’t lock on, or even show noise on the screen. I can still drag the receiver upstairs and verify that it’s working, but something about the new TVs is no longer happy with the unit. One of these days, I’m going to see if I can hook the receiver to our video camcorder, so I can at least record my videos and play them back later.
Beez…
Your new TV is probably picking up a digital signal. Maybe hooking up to the analog antenna input will solve the problem.
You might want to try looking at some spy gadget stores too.
http://www.dynaspy.com/?gclid=CN-x8-2Ky5UCFQFqxwodUERSjA
I would recommend not using one that runs off track power.
while not being a very quality picture a depressed center flatcar and the video camera on your mobile phone is a neat trick, worked for me
Thanks for the advise guys! Will check out everything! One question, why is battery power better than track power?
and TOM I looked at your lay out pics! Absolutly incredible layout!!! Love the bridges!! and the Yard. Did a beautiful job!
DON
I was going to post a rebuttal. I think I may be the only one on the forum who does use track power for his train cam. Before I did that, I ran on batteries. I see no difference in performance. I run DCC, and I could see where the variable-voltage problem of running DC would be an issue, but it’s fine with DCC. Of course, you need to make sure you’ve got good trackwork, good electrical connectivity and clean contacts. I use full 8-wheel pickup in the subway car.
This is my video taken early in subway construction:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g82i9arQMyw
I did enough experiments to conclude that the frequent signal dropouts you see with these things are not from power loss, but rather interruptions in the radio signal between the camera/transmitter and the receiver.
I have that $59.95 nanny cam shown in the ad and it works Just fine. Has sound too! Here is my Mini TV Cam used for a visiting engineer, its a real blast during an operation session.
I have one of the cams that Micro-Mark has on their site. Works very well and has a very good/excellent picture.
Kevin
I bought a wireless cam setup from Walthers, and while it works OK through the VCR, I can’t get my PC to process the signal. It’s essentially a wireless spy/nanny cam about the size of a quarter, and can run on battery (about 4 hours) or AC power from a wall wart adapter. The reciever runs on AC ppower from a wall wart.
I upgraded to a USB 2.0 card, but still the signal won’t work. My RAM is maxed out at 1GB and my video card is a few years old (128mb).
The wireless has plenty of range to run it from the garage to anywhere on my property, but I can only use analog VCR inputs to record. I’ll have to run an old VCR just for train cam use.
To interface with the PC it has to run through some sort of capture device. I’m using a USB 2.0 A/V DVD Maker adapter which just doesn’t seem to have enough speed capability to process the signal, I can’t even make still pics this way.
I was hoping that this could function as a monitoring device for hidden trackage (helix, staging, etc.). An extra TV and VCR setup in the layout room takes up a fair amount of space, however.
The cost was around $90, plus I bought the capture device and later a USB 2.0 card, but apparently neither of these are necessary (or functional in this instance).
Performance seems decent, but the picture is a bit dark, and low light video is not very good.
The prices being thrown out seem pretty salty. I picked up al El Cheapo nanny cam off of Ebay. I think I got it for 99 cents (plus $15 ripoff shipping, but the overall price was still good).
and took this video with it. The cam has an internal microphone that wasn’t hooked up at the time, but it does work. The more light you can throw on the layout the better with this little guy. But it’s good enough for my purposes.
Donfla:
Thank you for those VERY kind words, sir! Much appreciated. That’s one of the reasons I want to get a Train Cam, just to see if my HO scale passengers get as dizzy as I think they might, LOL!
Tom [:D]
I too tried a USB capture device and found it would not do the job. I have a PCI video surveillance DVR card that I picked up for around $30 shipped from eBay that works just fine and accepts up to four cameras. I can capture stills or video from my wireless pinhole camera without issue. [2c]
Thanks for the info guys. One other question? Track power vs Battery power. I have DCC. how do you hook up one that draws from track power???
Thanks, DON
The main reason I bought my camera from SJT was the availability of the DCC power supply for it. The supply is roughly the size of the 9-volt battery it replaces. This is what it looked like when I got it, along with the subway car I wanted to put it in.
(Click on the pictures for a larger view.)
Unfortunately, I didn’t have room in the subway car for all the components as delivered, so I sent the camera and supply back to SJT. For the very reasonable fee of $15, including return shipping, they reconfigured the wiring and power supply board, so I was able to install it all on board the train:
Important note: If your camera looks like mine, be aware that the big lumpy power plug is more than just a big lumpy power plug. There is actually a small circuit board embedded in the plug. So, you can’t just clip the wires.
The camera unit is sensitive to heat. I had to remove the interior lighting from the front end of the subway car, and blow out the adjacent windows. Even so, after a while it warms up a bit too much, and the image deteriorates until I shut it off and let it cool down again. By the way, I installed a toggle switch on the bottom of the car to cut power to the camera when it’s not in use.
Now, though, let’s talk philosophy. How do you plan to use this? Back when I had the old TV and could see the picture, I would occasionally run it to show it off. It’s a cool gadget, after all, but, like watching reruns of The A-Team, it’s basically the same story every time around. You can, like I did, mount it in the front of a dummy unit which can be at the front of the train. (A dummy F-unit would be perfect, be
What a ride! [:O] I felt like I actually went somewhere. I’d love to see the track schematic and learn how you interwove all that track to create such a long tour. Excellent!
The thing that always annoyed me was the fact the camera would always be pointed to the outside of a curve and not looking up the line.
To solve that problem, I used the chassis from an old Bachmann passenger car that had the pivoting coupler pockets linked to the trucks. Using just the chassis of the car, I mounted the camera on the top of the coupler pivot.
Now as my car enters a curve, the camera rotates so it’s always looking down the track !
Mark.
Again when hooked up to track power, how does it pick up power from the tracks???
DON