sxates

I have been inspired by you guys! I've only had my ABX for a couple weeks and I've already bought an Aiptek DV camera and have been working on mounting it tonight. Thought I'd share my plans with you all at this point. I've seen several around these forums attaching cameras to ABX's, so I'd appreciate any input from those of you with more experience with these things. If I have overlooked something, let me know soon, I'm itching to get the camera in the air.

I've basically mounted the camera to the micro-tripod, and then banded that to the wing. It's surprisingly stable. I'll be rigging up something to secure the angle of the camera, and I have cut up the carrying sleve that came with the camera so that I can record while in the case--hopefully that'll give me some level of protection should I have a hard landing or other mishap.

What do you guys think? I'm stoked by the possibilities

Here's a photo. You can see the rest of them at the flickr set I've set up.
http://flickr.com/photos/sxates/sets/1758643/

Quacker

I like the padded "crash suit!"

sxates

Well, made an attempt this morning, but the wind was too strong, so I just crashed. Did discover a problem in the process though, which is that the little piece I put under the camera to keep it from angling up too high puts enough pressure on the bottom to pop out the SD card from the camera on landing (even with the little rubber cover over the card), resulting in a corrupt video file which is unreadable. So I didn't even get any good crash footage from it. I'll have to come up with something to address that problem before I try again--would hate to have an awesome flight and then have it all erased on landing.

sxates

Well, I finally got it off the ground with the camera running, and the camera didn't randomly turn off in the middle corrupting the file Just a quick little flight around the field. I ended up mounting the camera inside the fuselage, with the canopy open and it all just rubber banded together. Mounting it on top didn't work very well, was simply too top heavy I think.

Here's the resulting video. I'll get a photo of the camera mount soon.

http://www.youtube.com/?v=AYBbyZbECuE

slagburn

The ISDV will shut down with the screen closed. I used to use a zip tie between the screen and body to keep it running until I noticed you can flip the screen over.

sxates

Are you sure it's just the screen being closed? It seems inconsistent you know--I mean, the screen was closed for 3-4 minutes while this one was being made, and it didn't shut down. I have had problems with the SD card popping out and that messing it up. Maybe it's a combination of the two.

sxates

This is the mounting solution I ended up with. Just crammed it in on top of the battery and strapped it in. Made it a little nose heavy--wasn't as eager to climb--but overall pretty easy to fly. My only concern is with the battery getting a bit warm, but I've never pulled the battery out and had it more than just a little warm to the touch, so I think it'll be ok. For these pictures I didn't put the battery in, so the camera is angled a little lower than it would be otherwise.

Okisub

Nice video, thats really cool.
Just LOVE the sound when that thing lands! LOL

sxates

I have a paper clip on the tail of the plane bent into a U so that the tail drags on that instead of the screws. I think that's the source of the crunching sound on landing

sxates

Got another chance this morning while the wind was calm. Went down to the lake park near my house--this one's a bit more interesting than the other I think

http://www.youtube.com/?v=u4e9c4bC-ZQ

randall1959

My Feedback: (11)

Those were pretty good videos I have a plane that uses an AE wing and it really flies well.

eyeper

I like your style, Sxates! I have been flying my Xtreme for over a year now and love it. Being an "audience member" (to your great videos), I have a request.... it looks like in the last one you almost made it through some loops.... does it not want to do it because of the added weight. But here's the actual request: It would look cool if you dive the plane at yourself, a buzz or two to show off the cameraman...!

Keep up the great work....

sxates

Glad you enjoyed them Eyeper. I did attempt a couple of loops in that video, and it just couldn't quite make them with the extra weight in the nose. It'd get to about vertical, then just stall and roll over.

I'll see what I can do about a flyby next time

critterhunter

I've got an Extreme that I've converted over to standard electronics (the stock stuff doesn't survive very long) using control rods. Check the Park Flyers forum for a thread called "Installing Standard Electronics In An Extreme". I've also got an Aiptek 5100M digital camcorder that I have YET to strap onto it. Was planning to this past summer but other things and the electronics conversion took more time than I thought. I'm still playing with ideas for camera mounting. On top of the wing it'd be top heavy, not to mention be catching a bunch of air flow. Not only that, but I would hate to think what will happen to the camera if the plane flips over on landing. After long debate I've decided the safest place would be under the right wing against the body. The wing/body would help protect it in a crash, and mounting it on the right side will counter the engine torque's left pull on launches...Maybe too much as the plane might want to roll over on it's right side when I try it. My next choice would be in the nose like you did. I might use a lipo battery to fly it. This will create much more room in the battery chamber for the camera as well as subtract a TON of weight from the nose. My third choice would be under the body at the COG spot. Only trouble with this is the camera is just a tad too tall to clear the ground with the landing gear on. I could either put bigger landing gear and/or wheels on to increase the height, or I might just lay the camera on it's side. Of course, then you'll have to lay the TV sideways to watch the video upright or use some kind of computer software to flip it.

sxates

Critter:

Have you tried it with standard electronics yet? I've heard that it seems to fly much better, that maybe the stock controller wasn't putting as much power to the motor or something.

I'll be interested to see what you work out for a camera mount

foreverNight

I have an ABX and a ISDV cam. I have a question... I've made a video but, its about 5 min long and about 70 megs! Is there a way to compact it? I've seen so many arial videos using this camera that are about a long as mine but people dont seem to have problems uploading them to sites. Is there someting you do to them to make them smaller? I really want to shoe my vid! BTW i mounted mine on top of the wing but, i got too much sky.. I'm going to try your method!

Sky High

I think that maybe the shutdown issue of the ISDV is not caused by closing the screen but because there was no activity during a preset time and it went into sleep mode. This was an issue with DV cameras in their last generation but was resolved in the latest generation of many brands by allowing the user to switch that on or off. Before there was an option, the camera would go into sleep mode to save the battery and record heads after 5 minutes of no activity. Maybe there is a menu setting to defeat that feature or maybe he never exceeded a no activity period and therefore it didn't shut down on him.

_______________________________________

Yep. I just read the specs and it does have an auto power saver timer. It will shut down after 60 seconds of no activity. Scroll down to Power Save in the specs at the link below.

http://www.aiptek.com/Merchant2/merc...&Store_Code=AS

sxates

Forevernight:

The second video I posted is about 6 minutes, and about 54MB as a 1500k WMV file. I think it was about 90 as the raw mpeg-4 off the camera. I just used the video editing program that came with the camera to trim off the unnecessary parts of the video (like me mounting the camera) and then reencoding it as a smaller WMV. It's still a good size video file though--probably took about 20 minutes to upload to YouTube with my cable modem.

Sky High:

I didn't have any problems with the camera the other day. I had set the auto-off to 3 minutes, but it was turning off in <20 seconds with the screen closed. I flipped the screen around open the last time, and turned the auto off off as well, and didn't have any further problems.

critterhunter

Due to the original control rod setup not working properly I've only had the Extreme with standard electronics up a few minutes thus far. However, I can tell you that the motor will produce more power as the stock ESC is not very efficient (mainly, the FET gets hot and wastes a lot of energy). The 50 amp standard ESC I put in the unit also came with a few capacitors and a shotzky (sp?) diode. While this is mostly to cancel engine nose, the diode is said to also improve engine efficiency. Haven't had the chance to fly it yet as I live in Cleveland and the weather this time of year changes from one minute to the next. I've had other things taking my time as well such as hunting, work, and modding other planes. Soon, I hope.

foreverNight

how do you reencode?

sxates

Well, with the CyberPower software that came with it, you save or export the video into a format of your choosing, and it will reencode the video into that format. Easiest is probably WMV, and 768k is a respectable quality that will be a more reasonable file size.

foreverNight

Alright thanks for the info i finally figured it out.. Anyway heres my vid. My cam is mounted on top of the wing so its mostly sky [:@] plus i fly aggresively so it looks squirrely. Next time im going to mount the cam under the plane with the landing gear on and fly relaxed.

http://www.youtube.com/?v=3cmsu2LYdxQ

sxates

Nice. I think I just saw a "black hole sun"

GAGE308

My Feedback: (4)

cool vids...I also have an ISDV I once mounted the cam up top like that. Just found that it really made it wobble from having the extra weight up top of the c of g...I also mounted it in the cockpit area Especially since I have most recently Built an xtreme up from Nothing but the stock bare fuselage to a Brushless MONSTER. also with control Rods instead of the lines..with 3cell lipios that I actually mounted Back over top the servos. It flys so unbelievebly FAST Its near ripping the wings off...But thats not what I do most of the time. My Main choice for the brushles conversion was longer Fly times. But its also nice to be able to slam the throttle and fly verticle if need be....I have found in ALL of my success and failure in using the xtreme as an AP Platform...That Seriously Beefing up the landing gear and mounting the Camera Smack dab under the center of gravity in the middle Under the plane. Ive Tried The method that Critterhunter suggested(on right side of fuse under wing)./...I had No luck...It really Jogs it off to that side...so If you try it...BE prepared to counter control to the opposite side....Here is a pic of my old aerobird conversion...I didnt have brushless or control rods in here but I did mount a universal Camera bracket under neath a SLIGHTLY Beefed up landing gear( just bigger wheels). The aiptek alsop fit on that bracket....But I like that cam for taking still Photos.

GAGE308

My Feedback: (4)

actually here is the link to my abx brushless conversion if anyone wants to ckeck it out.
[link]http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_3655738/anchors_3655738/mpage_1/key_abx%252Cbrushless/anchor/tm.htm#3655738[/link]