Specifically those that shoot the videos from car or locomotive mounted cameras.
What type camera/system do you use?
Is it battery or track powered?
Was it easy to install?
How reliable is it?
Thanks,
Jarrell
This is my Subway Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQ5OvZtI-QU&feature=channel
I used a camera from SJT Enterprises:
http://www.wirelessmicrocolorcam.com/estore/index.php
I bought it about 6 years ago, so the technology might be a bit better now. I also bought the DCC track power unit so I wouldn’t have to deal with batteries. The camera and power supply are mounted inside a subway car. This is HO, by the way. Other than a couple of missing windows and no interior lights in that end of the car, it’s hard to tell it’s there. I removed both the windows and the light bulb (there’s still one on the other end) because these CCD cameras are heat-sensitive, and with the windows and light still there, the picture got really bad after running for a little while. Even now, if I want serious video I only run it for a few minutes, then let it cool down a bit.
Because I did put this into the car, there were a lot of installation issues. Nothing worse than installing a sound decoder in an engine that wasn’t designed for it, but it was a challenge. The camera itself comes with a plug, and then there’s a corresponding jack and a short wire to a 9-volt battery clip. The DCC power supply is a replacement for the battery. So, to use the whole thing you need the camera, which plugs into the battery connector, which then plugs into the DCC power supply. That’s a lot of overhead.
At this point, though, SJT came through. For a nominal fee ($15, as I recall) they rewired the whole thing to my specifications, and paid the return postage. The plug that comes out of the camera actually has a small circuit board in it, so you can’t just clip the wires and splice them. And, for my space requirements, I needed to have the large capacitor on the power
Mr. B, thank you for your excellent reply. The main reason for my question is that the modular club I’m in has a permanently mounted camera in an older E unit and we’ve, or rather the member that did the installation, has had nothing but problems with it. It’s down far more than it is operational. Right now the problem seems to be coming from the RF unit itself. Now, I haven’t dealt with it very much, only watching him try to pick up a signal by adjusting the knob on the front of the unit and raising and lower the antenna in a futile attempt to get a picture. We tried it on my layout the other night, using a digital flat screen tv in the room. We got a picture for one brief second then the picture went away never to come back again, so I was very interested in the part of your reply relating to the ‘tuner’ box and an analog tv set.
I’ll talk this over with him tomorrow night at our meeting.
Thanks again,
Jarrell
[quote user=“MisterBeasley”]
This is my Subway Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQ5OvZtI-QU&feature=channel
I used a camera from SJT Enterprises:
http://www.wirelessmicrocolorcam.com/estore/index.php
I bought it about 6 years ago, so the technology might be a bit better now. I also bought the DCC track power unit so I wouldn’t have to deal with batteries. The camera and power supply are mounted inside a subway car. This is HO, by the way. Other than a couple of missing windows and no interior lights in that end of the car, it’s hard to tell it’s there. I removed both the windows and the light bulb (there’s still one on the other end) because these CCD cameras are heat-sensitive, and with the windows and light still there, the picture got really bad after running for a little while.
Hi Jarrell
I used one of those el-cheapo mini spycams bought off of Ebay. Here’s the high-tech custom mounting I made for it:
The video it recorded looks like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRvHSVCHdY4&feature=player_detailpage
It has an internal microphone that I dubbed over for the video. Obviously, more light is much much better than less for these cams.
Interestingly, I got the camera all hooked up last week to play with some more after it sat unused for several months. It gave me a few moments of a fuzzy black-and-white image then went dark. Now it’s dead as a doornail, even with the camera hooked up to an AC adapter instead of the battery. Methinks the receiver went bad. Oh well, did I mention it was really cheap?
Jim
I use the Flycam2, it is made for model airplane use but works well for train rides as well. It is very slow on the down loading but it takes decent pics.
Jim, I think you’ve hit on the optimum setup to make videos of your layout.
Jarrell, I guess the modular club is a good enough reason to embed the camera into a real locomotive. This is what mine looks like inside the subway car. First, the original equipment, as purchased. The cable with battery clip is not shown, since I didn’t use it at all.
Here’s what the car looks like with the camera installed and the shell removed:
This is the front view of the subway car. You can see the red eye of the camera lens peeking through the porthole on the door. I drilled out the original headlights and replaced them with larger LEDs, because I wanted a lot more light. Even with two bright LED headlights, there is still only minimal ligthing for making good videos in the tunnels. I’ve also added end gates to these subway cars, making the camera installation even less obtrusive.
These subway cars are ideal for this kind of installation. First, it is perfectly natural to run them at the front of a train, even if they’re not the powered car. I put the powered car at the back of the train, and run it in “push” mode almost all the time. Next, there is plenty of space inside these unpowered cars. I did have to modify the gear tower on the front truck, but that didn’t matter because there are no gears. Finally, the car already draws power from the track for the lighting, so I didn’t need to add metal wheels and wipers to get pickup.
Thank you all for the replies to this, they’ve answered a lot of questions. Thanks Mr. B for the pictures of your installation. You may have hit on the answer to the problem we’ve been having when you mentioned having to use the older type analog TV instead of a digital version. When I can get the clubs loco with the embedded camera in it over to my layout I’ll test that out.
Jarrell
Thanks for the pictures Jim! Love the Lego blocks!! [8D]
Hey… whatever works!
Jarrell