While surfing the net I found a link to a site selling railcams, I noticed that they resemble spy-cams and did a search of ebay to see what I could find. Has any one used the wireless spy-cam system as a rail-cam? It should fit just fine. And is a lot cheaper then any rail-cams I have found.
Johnnny_reb
No reason why a pinhole camera could not be used as a rail cam. Using DCC it might even be realistic to design a circuit to power the camera without a battery on board? Just keep in mind with spy cams etc. you definately get what you pay for. CMOS cameras are not good at all IMO. 1/4 CCD cams are usually less than desireable at least for me. 1/3 sony CCD cams with a good lens are often great IMO, but the quality is reflected in the price demanded. Black and white spy cams are generally superior in image quality to comparable color cams.
Combine good quality wireless CCD cameras with multi-channel modulators and one could switch channels between loco veiws. It would be like you were riding in the cab of the individual locos. Sounds like fun. [2c]
Rather than getting into designing a camera/DCC interface and everything associated with it, just try one of the many mini cams that are available relatively cheaply, especially on eBay. I got one a while ago for about $35.00. I’ve only tried it a few times on my HO scale module and it seems to work fairly well. I mounted it on a flatcar and pushed the car in towards the roundhouse area and back out again. Worked fine, check out a 28 second video of the effort here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6Q6x6nF46E
The receiver was just across the room from the module, abou 6-7 feet away. From others that I’ve seen interference with other electrical items can be a problem, but it is usually short lived. For the price they are worth a try!