Monotheist

Been getting interested in the FPV (First Person View) aspect of the hobby that seems to be big with the plane and helli guys where a camera is mounted onto the vehicle and is controlled by you via a wireless video transmitter/receiver by a monitor or a pair of video goggles. If you want to get even more sophisticated you can also install what is known as a 'head tracking' device which can pan/tilt the camera by turning your head left and right or up and down. You can even buy heads up display's which tell you your speed,altitude battery power etc. Pretty amazing stuff.

Having just installed this into my King Tiger really gives you an appreciation of just how difficult tanks must really be to drive with you limited vision. Makes maneuvering in tight spaces a nightmare not being able to see where the corners of your tank are but at the same time is pretty fun too!

No decent vids yet as I still need to buy a recording device of some kind but heres a few pics and a short video showing the tilt/pan action.









[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3upbIwAUfuA[/youtube]

yellowshaker

My Feedback: (1)

As always, top notch work!!! That is awesome brother!

diabolic-mind

ive been considering doing this myself. although mine would be a much less advanced version of that. but the same concept.

Pah co chu puk

This sounds very cool, keep us posted on your progress.  Can you add night vision too?

Monotheist

Camera has built in night vision.

Heres a link to the camera I used.

http://www.foxtechfpv.com/fh25hd-550...ion-p-184.html

Pah co chu puk

ForlornFoundry

have you guys seenmech-warfare.comforums.trossenrobotics.com/forumdisplay.phpit mostly 2 and 4 legged robots with wifi cams armed with airsoft guns butthis year there is abeginners class thatallows tanks.

FF

RodgerB

Nice job. Now you need one in the turret and you would be deadly on the Battlefield!

thecommander

Hi Monotheist,

Your system looks very intriguing and expensive too. I can't wait to see some video of it in action. I love the video perspective from the tank, just a few inches off the ground. My personal favorite is from the commander's hatch. This way I can see 360 degrees and keep track of the main guns position. That is going to be a little bit of a challange for your setup. Even more so when backing up since you can't look "over your shoulder" with the turret in the way. You have done a fine job of shoe-horning that full movement system into the KT. I have driven police robots with this type of interactive HUD system. They are very unique and can be a little disorienting. When we used them we always had to be seated. Some guys even seemd to loose their balance when turning too fast of going over bumpy terrain. You are going to have way too much fun with this. I would love to see this in action at Danville or on some other battlefield in a IR tank battle. Please post some more video as you progress with this. I started using the mini cams a few years ago atop my first old Tiger I. Your system makes mine look like a Kodak "Brownie"....LOL I did an entire tank battle via wireless camera in Danville a while back with my Panther. I won the battle against Jim in his M26 by the skin of my teeth. At one point on the video we both fire simutaneously and cancel out each others IR shot. If you look carefully you can see me in the right corner of the field using the TV instead of watching the field. It was a challange but great fun. I have also used mini monitors atop the transmitter. Those goggles look sweet. Here is a link to that video. http://www.youtube.com/user/thecomma.../2/ivDNOPrNXUE

SgtPearce

anyone know of a "cheap"camera with a wifi and i can hook up to my laptop to control it with?and possibly mount ontop of my turret lol

Monotheist

Thanks commander had seen your vids in the past which was part of my inspiration. I was originally planning on mounting the camera to the commanders hatch but found it much more difficult to drive from way up there as I could not see the front of the tank even when looking down making maneuvering very, very hard. Problem is this tank does real damage when it hits an object due to its weight and tractive force so needed a position as close to the front as possible. Eventually though I will put another cam up there and use a remote switcher so I can choose a view on the fly depending on what I want to see.

Another really good location I have seen (although useless for driving) is to rotate the turret 90 degrees and mount a cam on the muzzle facing the tank. This gives you a side view of the tank while driving and is great for watching the suspension and tracks tearing up the ground.

thecommander

Sounds very intersting Mono.... If there is anything I can do to further your camera tests let me know. I'm flattered to have been "inspirational". Yours takes it to the next level of realism.

siam

Hello Monotheist,
Your 1/8 tank is big enough tobe installed 2 cameras for 2 guys working together as a team certainly. Let's try this way, the 1st. cam. is exacty at the driver hatch as it is now and the 2nd. cam is on the turret and in line with the barrel.
The guy who looks via the 1st.cam. is as a tank driver and another guy looks arround as a tank commandervia the 2 cam. byusingpan&tilt mechanism and when he wanna fire ...just set the cam. in line with the barrel hence he could be a tank gunner too.
The important thing is the camera type must be wired type not wireless and we needAVmultichannel TXs/RXs for playing many tanks in a same time without any signal terference problem.
In japan they do FPV.Tank Battle and each tank there are 2 guys playing together as a team like the real tank crews do.
In the clip below , 2 guys control 1 tank as I said but the camera setting up is different from above mentioned.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lfz9Hr6RIWk[/youtube]

Ern

No WIFI, but these work pretty well, and with the digital transition I'm sure you can pick up an old portable TV for cheap to connect it to.

http://cgi.ebay.com/6-LED-Wireless-I...ht_5560wt_1141

SgtPearce

o cool, and like does it have a cord couse i dont really want a long cord running from the back of my tank lol

Ern

No, if you were asking me. The camera has a female end plug attached, and you can connect a power cord to plug in if using the camera in a stationary position somewhere, or plug in a 9 volt battery connector for our use or if you want to conceal it. I just place the 9 volt on top of the turret, place the camera on the mount that came with it and place it in the commander's copula. I've thought of building an ammo crate or something the size of the battery to conceal it a bit.

I don't have this one, but one just like it without the IR lights for night/low light. When I got mine the night cameras did not have audio. If you don't care about using in no/low light you can get them even cheaper. The quality is pretty good, and has a range of about 100 yards and through walls. I've connected mine to the TV in my house and ran the tank down the sidewalk outside. Fun watching the looks people give because they don't see anyone outside! My fear though that someone will stop their car and steal it!!



I just looked at it again ~ it looks like the mount of this one is part of the camera and it swivels. A bit different than mine but I'm sure you could make something to attach it to the top or in the copula. Mine is similar to this one...

http://cgi.ebay.com/Wireless-Mini-CC...#ht_4621wt_907

Here's mine...