manateemedia

I'm getting a bit better at this aerial stuff, but am still having to take stills from the 2 min of
video I can get from my Aiptek. Would like to get the Cam Man project done, but am afraid
I'll probably botch it. I wonder what the best way would be to get a servo to trigger the camera
instead? Hmm...

stevennh

Nice shots. Thats pretty high for the Aerobird!

Steve

joseph77

Hello manateemedia

some nice pics, cqn you tell me what weight of av you can lift in the aerobird?

Joseph

manateemedia

Well, I think this is about the max you would want to put on the Aerobird. I put the Aiptek mini pen cam with two AAA batteries and
it flies, but take off is sluggish. It would be better if I finished the "Cam Man" project, but I'm not sure if I'll ever get around to it. Would rather someone else do it and I just pay for it

manateemedia

Thank you! I'm surprised how high I've taken it. My first Aerobird was defective, but I sent it back and they replaced it
with a brand new one. Not sure how high I had it up? The real challenge will be getting the Cam Man project done... if I dare.

AutoMike

manateemedia , Branson on the watertower??.....ah, home of the Thrown Roll Resturant
Nice photos

manateemedia

ha ha... yes, it is Branson behind Wal-Mart. Believe it or not there is a pretty nice area to fly behind wally world. I'm tempted to take
the Aerobird up even higher, but wonder if I'll lose it. I wonder if anyone makes any glasses that you could put on that would magnify your viewing area by about 2x so you could see what direction your plane is going?

SeacretsOceanCity

I have seen a set of binos on a bracket around your neck type deal,so you could look back and fourth hands free.Nice pics

ashleyhall

I have a wireless tiny camera from EBay with receiver on the ground, Aerobird handles the same, no lack of performance at all, including the camera and a 9v battery!

Here's a snippet of the aerial video...

http://www.a-hall.com/_temp/rc/Final..._processed.avi

Deltageek2

Nice job, Manatee and Ashleyhall! I wouldn't want to look towards the sun with those 2x glasses on- Your po' retinas would feel like an ant beseiged by the Magnifying Glass from Hades!

What remains to be done on your camman system? I've found that 'getting in the mood to start' is the biggest challenge sometimes... everything else is easy.

Try replacing the 9V battery with a pair of small lithium poly cells- like a 340 ma or so. Only 7.4 V instead of 9V but the duration would be 30 minutes or more. Another option is to parallel another 9 v to the power sytem if you can haul that much more iron aloft. Same voltage, twice the capacity.

Good luck, purdy pix.

manateemedia

Downloaded the video, but can only hear the audio... something must be screwed up with my software

ashleyhall

Ahhh, you'll need the XVID codec, there's an EXE in the same directory, grab that and you'll be fine (remove the filename from the filepath to view the rest of the files in the directory.)

manateemedia

It worked! Thanks... great video! How much did you pay for the camera and do you know what I would search for the get one myself?

ashleyhall

Hey dude,

Thanks! Thats just a tiny clip from a 5 minute video, would post the rest on there but they're rather large!!

Took the video via a wireless camera from EBay, search for exactly 'Wireless Camera', however don't pay more than £30 for one (including shipping), and beware of those shipping them from Hong Kong, you want one thats sourced from the UK straight to you.

A lot of them also put them on for only £20, but load it with a £24 shipping fee!! Beware of these too!

Good luck mate, post your findings here and I'll let you know whether or not its worth bidding! Also 2.4ghz is preferable to 1.2ghz as its longer range, you'll need between 200m-500m range, nothing less (as some of the wireless cams on there are only 40m!!)

Cyclic Hardover

My Feedback: (3)

I went looking on that webpage you gave out. How does this exactly work. I mean I see the camera and mount it somewhere but how is the video saved or transfered and the power source. Is it on constantly or by servo? Thanks,

ashleyhall

Hi there,

Basically, you hook a 9v to the camera, it then constantly sends a video feed to a receiver thats powered by 12v battery, I've made up a lead to power it via my car battery.

The Receiver's got Video out, I thought the best way to record was directly into my laptop, so £40 later I bought a USB2 Video Input cable for my laptop, plugged the receiver direct into that, and was able to use a Video editing application to record the feed in whatever format I wanted!!

Personally, I think thats the best way, no tapes, no DV cam to worry about, its just there straight away to watch after!!

Hope this helps!

Cyclic Hardover

My Feedback: (3)

So the camera is in the plane with a 9volt and the reciever is sitting in your car with the cigarette lighter reciever the data from the flying plane?, then you go home and hook the receiver up to your computer? Sound right?

ashleyhall

Nooooooo!!! The receiver is plugged in onsite and powered up, it is then connected to my laptop which IN REAL TIME records the flight, so at one point during recording my last aerial video, I actually flew the plane FROM THE LAPTOP SCREEN!! It was amazing, kind of like the best flight simulator EVER!

Cyclic Hardover

My Feedback: (3)

I slowly "getting it" here but now let me ask this because this is how things are for me. I don't have a laptop. Can this be done at the field, recorded and brought home and hooked up or is a laptop needed?

ashleyhall

Well yeah but you'll have to get some medium to record it!! i.e. a DV camera, or a video recorder.

typicalaimster

That's so cool. I was going to use the same cam in a plane. I'm saving up for the Black Widow cam. I put the Ebay cam in a sailboat and did exactly what you did. Sail from a laptop screen. I've tried it in my RC Car but when your going 60mph it's a bit hard to drive from inside. Stupid Depth perception!!

Here's my vids...

http://www.zwei.net/video/Sailing-030204-1.zip
http://www.zwei.net/video/Sailing-030204-2.zip
http://www.zwei.net/video/NovaCC_Par...t_Flip.avi.zip

I'm sure I'll have more ariel things when I invest in the new cam system.

--Scott Fuller

ashleyhall

Cool, can't wait for my next aerial footage, hopefully this weekend!!

Watch this space!!

typicalaimster

I had a USB Video Input device attached to a laptop. Hauppauge puts out a pretty decent one. They have a program you use to watch or record live video. If you don't have a Laptop then a standard VCR or Camcorder will work... The reciever for the Ebay cam has a standard RCA video out on it. From there you just hook it into something. As long as you have a way to input video into the device. From there you can take it home and work with it as you please..

--Scott

kji105s

I am preparing to fit my aerobird challenger with video capabilities. I have seen a lot on here about the equipment that you all have used. It seems like the cheapest and most simple is to use a pen camera, but i want to get more than 2 minutes of video. Is there a fairly decent wireless camera that anyone can recommend to me. I cant seem to find one that runs in 2.4ghz and has decent range. Thanks

ashleyhall

I personally bought a transmitter/receiver and camera set from EBay, cost around £30, I then stream the content straight onto my laptop and record as an AVI, allowing unlimited video!

Works very well, here's a clip!

http://www.a-hall.com/_temp/rc/Final..._processed.avi

You might need the XVID codec to play this...
http://www.a-hall.com/_temp/rc/XVID%...y%20Videos.exe