Numskull

Here is a link that I just tracked down that may help a bit. It is realated more to Ham, but it still has good info.
http://www.transmitvideo.com/don_article.html

I don't want to push the fact on you guys, I just hate to see anyone loose a plane.

bruce_lee

just do a range test before flying.. it prob is not a true 2wat it's maybe a little bit less, i dont know i aint tested mine on a plane yet either..

i tried it on my rc car, it was ok... but everytime i drove my rc car past my real car it set the alarm off? lol must have been interfereing

Numskull

Does anyone know if that is 2 watts power consumption or 2 watts power output??

JettPilot

My Feedback: (6)

I run a 5 watt transmitter in my RC Plane, and interference has been a problem. I put the transmitter 4 feet away from the receiver and antenna, and it works but the range of the RC control is still reduced. I have tried different recievers, and that makes a huge difference. But either way, it does reduce the range depending on the reciever. My best receiver (FMA dual conversion) goes just over a mile while another RC recieiver was so bad that it was going into failsafe in the pattern [X(]

You will just have to test it and see, but be careful, watch for signs of losing control as you get further until you know what to expect. Attached is a picture of my plane, the 5 watt 2.4 GHZ transmitter it on the wingtip to reduce the interference I knew I would have running that much power. Attached is a picture.

critterhunter

What the heck is this??? Seems we all wanted the "best" highest power camera transmitter we could find...and we found it at a GREAT price, and now nobody is doing anything with it! I'm about ready to start hacking it together for my completed Extreme. Few questions....Need a good CHEAP CCD camera with audio if anybody has a link. Also, since I think most CCD cameras run off 5V I'm guessing I'll need a 5V regulator. Really don't want to run it off the TX regulator or power in any way as it looks like the regulator in the TX is stressed as it is. I'd put a bigger heat sink on that thing or expose it to good air flow to keep it from burning up. Haven't looked closer yet at the TX. Is the output 12V outlet on the back passing straight battery power or is it being run through the TX first? Would like to find a camera that will run on 9V as I have a few good regulators laying around here. Will post pictures as I make progress.

Skycam41

That is so funny but true!! Take a look at this [link=http://www.dimensionengineering.com/AnyVoltMini.htm]product[/link] it can step voltage up or down and will be just the thing you need.

I don't know why but decided to use a 1W set up from Microtek and not use this cheap 2W deal....don't ask why!

Mike

bruce_lee

yes, seems too cheap to be true, i swaped mine for a ccd cam the other day, lol

critterhunter

You guys are really letting me down. [&o] I need Randall to step in here and talk this unit up, as I think he said he's used the unit a year or two ago and has had very good long range results with it. Randall????

bruce_lee

im looking for a better ccd camera also..

critterhunter

Alright, so just about all CCD cameras are 5V now. That leaves me with a few options to power the camera. The TX will just feed off my plane's 3 cell lipo or a 7 cell nimh that I use as the plane's power source (electric). I'm guessing I won't have to use a regulator between the TX and battery as the TX already has one inside it. Regulators are great at cleaning up interference. I do have some 9V chip regulators laying around but will try to let the TX regulator handle that aspect first. Next is powering the CCD camera. I could have sworn an ESC passes a voltage to the RX in the 3 to 6V range? If so, perhaps I could run the camera right off one of the servo plugs on the RX. Not sure if the camera will draw too many amps than the RX can handle, though? Next option would be to run the camera off the regulator that's on the TX board. While I haven't tested it yet with a volt meter, didn't you guys say it was taking a 9 to 12V input voltage and regulating it down to 5V? Not talking about the second power plug on the TX as I'm pretty sure that is just passing straight battery voltage through it. Only problem with running the camera off the TX regulator on the board is the concerns I have with this regulator getting hot. It would seem the thing is taxed to it's limits as it is with the messages in this thread about it getting very hot. Even if I don't run the camera off it I will be installing a larger heat sink to that thing to keep the temp down. My final option to power the camera will be off a seperate 5V regulator. Don't have any laying around and that only increases the complexity and weight (slightly) of the unit so I'd like to avoid that. Then again, wonder if any of these CCD board cams have an onboard regulator that will allow a 9 to 12 input? Or, I could just rip the CMOS camera off my 1.2ghz 800mw transmitter and use that with this TX. That CMOS camera will take a 9 to 12V input voltage and would make things a lot easier. It's picture quality aint too bad either.

My current mounting method for the TX is probably going to be just strapped to the top of the wing on my Extreme. I'll probably wrap the board in battery heat shrink since it won't have it's metal casing for weight savings. I'm also curious as to a better way to hitch the camera to the jacks rather than using RCA plugs. I could just solder the wires to the jacks on the TX board.

bruce_lee

I would just have a separate 5v reg, it wont hurt anything.. and just solder the wires to the board, it should be fine

lupy

My Feedback: (3)

bruce: You mentioned a 700yd walk with good results, did you see any of the dropouts that are common with most 2.4ghz stuff? I would think that ground range would be much less than air range, due to all the crap in the way.

Looks like a real deal on a good unit. Want to see a test flight.
Ken

JettPilot

My Feedback: (6)

Altitude has a HUGE effect on range. If you get 700 yeards on the ground the range in the air should be much more... Im wondering how this thing will do in the air, is the transmitter clean or will it put out a bunch of garbage that will interfere with the reciever to the point of being unusable ?? When is this thing going to fly, the first post about this thing was almost 5 months ago and still no flights yet, geeezzzzz..... With all the time you are wasting on this thing, you would have been better off just to work some overtime and buy a good system from Black Widow that you know will work well.

critterhunter

I haven't wasted any time with it. It's been sitting on the shelf waiting for my attention. I've been using these winter months to build or re-build three planes. Now that that's just about done I've got other projects to look at...Building a hot wire cutter and a few foamies with it....and hacking this 2000mw camera TX to my Extreme. Some time in the future, before spring arrives, I'll have this sucker modded and ready to strap on the bird. Whenever I get around to that I'll post more info and maybe some video.

qtip67t

All
Has anyone had experience with this model of camera?
http://www.helihobby.com/html/eyetop.html
PART#HH6008

I picked up another model from Helihobby for $105 and it seems to be having video issues. It is getting horizontal lines like it is having intermittent signal lost and the picture is not the greatest. It there something I can do or check to see if I can resolve this?
Any suggestions for a camera wireless system under 2 bills?

Thanks
John

JettPilot

My Feedback: (6)

Cool, im anxious to see your videos and hear about your results with the system

lupy

My Feedback: (3)

Jett pilot: not to sidetrack this thread, but your reciever antenna caught my eye, is it a custom job? and if so, any chance we could get the dims to duplicate it?

Anyone who has one of these cheap 2.4ghz sets: what is the length, overall of the xmitter antenna? I have a seamaster, and want to put the antenna inside the balsa fuse, pointed down. I can move the RC reciever to the back of the fuse if it gets hit.

bruce_lee

i would tell you m8 , if i still had it....

Skycam41

Complete unit length is 4 3/4"

Width is 2 3/8"

Height is 1 5/16"

Antenna height is 6 1/8" and sticks up 5 5/8" above the top of the unit

lupy

My Feedback: (3)

Hey thanks!. it will just fit inside the fuse. Have you checked the current draw on the xmitter? I am guessing 1.3-1.5A if it is really a 2watt xmitter.
Ken

critterhunter

Welp, due to finding out I owe the tax man a lot more than I thought I'm selling my 2000mw tx/rx. It's never been used and is still unhacked or touched in any way...other than I took the tx case off but that only involves a few screws and I'll put it back together before shipping. I've got a 800mw tx/rx that I'll try to solve interference issues with and get by with for now. Also have a Aiptek 5100M digital camcorder that I plan to play with on my planes as well. Well, I might be selling that unit too pretty soon if mony dictates. Just hope I don't have to start selling off my radio and planes. PM me if interested in the tx/rx and make an offer below what it sells for on Ebay.

critterhunter

It's been a while since I visited this thread but figured I'd revive it. I've always seemed to find an excuse not to strap this transmitter, my pocket digital camcorder, or my 800mw 1.2ghz system onto one of my planes. Mainly, I don't trust throwing one of these three onto one of my planes as a hack job. So, I have finally hotwired out a plane that will be used exclusively for aerial video. It's mainly being built to house my pocket camcorder inside the thick foam fuse right at the COG so the plane will fly right with or without the camera in while doing test flights. However, I'm planning to also use this transmitter and a CMOS camera I have laying around in the plane as well. That will fit into the camcorder compartment easy enough after I remove it. So, I was just wondering if anybody actually got around to strapping this transmitter to a plane yet and if so what kind of range are you getting? I'll post a few photos of my AP plane when it's complete...within a week or so.

daubut

Well cruising ebay yesterday i ran into this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/2-4GHz-WIRELESS-...QQcmdZViewItem

It says 2W RF power. Is this one of the units you guys are talking about? So cheap it's hard to believe! Sounds to good to be true!

FWIW - I say buy one, remove the case and the antenna from the TX, add a 5dbi whip antenna to TX, add a couple of 8dbi patches to the RX, and plug in my digital still with ccd and tilt function. Use a monitor at the ground station for AV preview and record onboard via 2gb SD card. I might give this a try before I spend $300-400 at BWAV. I can still use the antennas with the BW setup and if it works well enough for me then no need to spend the extra cash.
I am going to go ahead and order one, if it doesn't pan out I can still use it to send some music out to the garage with some powered speakers.

I'll let you guys now how it goes. For the price ($34.89 shipped) you can't beat it! And if its junk oh well I have spent more than that on way less!

Going to go ahead and order the antenna's and the voltage regulator I need. I'll post as soon as something arrives and I begin the testing and hacking.

critterhunter

Yep, looks like the same one I got. From what I heard the antenna that comes with it is plenty good enough. Seem to remember a conversation long ago who had the 1.5 watt version of this same unit and he was doing fly-by-video at distances of something around a mile to a mile and a half. So, I would expect more range than you need unless you want to do fly-by-video at some outrageous distance of four or five miles or something.

I've almost got the AP plane done (see the other thread on homemade foamie AP build). It's mainly being built for my Aiptek 5100M pocket camcorder but also plan to plug the 2 watt TX into it for some live on ground video while flying here and there. The TX removed from the case weighs every little and, while almost the length and width of a pack of smokes, isn't all that thick. For that reason it'd probably work well to just strap it to the top of the wing in the middle on some planes which would keep COG proper. Not sure if I'll do that or hollow out another chamber in the fuse next to the camera for it. Will post photos of the board, weight, etc, and plane soon to try to revive this thread.

I wouldn't bother with the brand name systems out there when Ebay does have very cheap and good solutions. Just as with brushless motors and lipos, if you are willing to sacrafice the the bragging rights of owning a "name" you can save a ton of money. Keep us updated.

critterhunter

OK, did some toying with the 2.4ghz TX in this thread. Here are some weights, sizes, and photos for you...

With case removed. Plastic sleeve still on antenna: 2.9 ounces (81 grams). Not bad...

Removed the plastic sleeve from antenna. Just pull and twist a little. Antenna is a nice springy metal that you can bend hard and will still flex back to it's original shape. Should hold up well without the plastic sleeve on it.

Plastic sleeve weight: .1 ounces (2 grams)

TX board without antenna sleeve weight 2.8 ounces (78 grams). Better...

At the bottom of the antenna is a plastic elbow that you can see in the pictures. This elbow has a nut on the end of it for securing to the TX case. If you removed this elbow and nut you'd save a bit more weight. Only problem is you'd have to desolder the antenna from the board to get them off as far as I can see. Noted in the photos.

The TX board could easily be dropped more in weight by removing the RCA jacks for the video and left/right audio and wiring the camera directly to the board or via servo plugs. The two DC in/out jacks could also be hacked off to drop more of the weight off. If you really wanted to get picky you could cut off three or four of the four board corners where the TX case mounting screws use to go. There is a large portion of board in those areas that is part of the ground and not needed. Just make sure you don't hack off any trace lines or cut the really large ground totaly in half to break it's circuit. Not hard to do at all...plenty of room and wasted board space there to see what's up. Might be able to get rid of the RF shielding cover and use aluminum or something to cover that? Willing to bet that with all the above weight saving mods you could probably drop the TX weight down to about an ounce and a half or so, if that. Either way, if without any weight savings 2.9 ounces isn't much for such a powerful TX, and one you can't beat for that price.