From: DMeriman@aol.com
Sent: Monday, July 30, 2007 1:20 PM
To: undisclosed-recipients:
Subject: My On-Board Video System as Employed Aboard R/C Submarines --
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Attachments: 008_DSCN0061.jpg; 009_DSCN0072.jpg; 010_DSCN0056.jpg
My On-Board Video System
as Employed Aboard R/C Submarines -- Shameless Advertising
A Report to the Cabal:
We've all given thought
to the idea of sticking a video camera and transmitter within one of our r/c
submarines, gaining a fish-eyes look at the environment our model is
poking around in. There have been attempts in the past to do this, with varied
success; some total failures, some so-so, and some very stunning
achievements (I hate you, Greg Gullikson!).
I became involved in the
activity tangentially a number of years ago as my friend, Kevin Rimrodt,
attempted to install one of the (then) small black and white
SuperCircuits 'security' video cameras aboard a 1/72 STURGEON class boat.
The problem that doomed that effort was the need to tune and align the
kit-built TV transmitter purchased from the same source. What a nightmare.
A mutual friend of ours,
Mark Fitchett, assembled the transmitter -- no small feat either: There
were a lot of 'surface mounted' items to deal with and Mark was compelled to
also hand wind some of the coils!. Kevin managed to get the video
camera and transmitter working, but the range was awful; without the
appropriate gear (a signal generator and oscilloscope were unavailable to us)
or finding anyone in town who knew how to align the transmitter, the
project was dead in the water.
In the years since that
effort guys like Matt Munger and Greg Gullikson (who's knowledge and practical
experience with things electronic is simply amazing!) have had good luck
adapting the little Swann and equivalent video camera-transmitter systems to
underwater work.
About three years ago
Matt sent me a VHS of his recent u/w video camera looking through the ports
(more than one camera aboard!) of his little DELTA model (a Norbert Bruggen product)
-- that hooked me, but good! I think he'll have it in the water again at this
upcoming SubRegatta.
Last year I examined
what Greg had done to get a small camera-transmitter to not only work
underwater, but to also pick up a clear image from a model periscope. And
Greg's achievement was not confined to that, he also built into that system the
ability to rotate the scope a full 360 by command ... and if that was not
enough, he had transducers and sensors aboard that, through an image generator,
transmitted written information to the bottom of the scene seen in the
monitor screen: relative bearing of the cross-hairs (yes, a classic periscope
cross-hair is in image!), magnetic heading and (if I remember right) depth and
other on-board perimeters.
Attention: Homeland
Security, call your office! ...
So, standing on the
shoulders of these pioneers I've developed a simple little WTC that houses the
Swann type video camera-transmitter unit. Equipping the container with an
antenna extension permits you to mount the WTC on the back of your model r/c
submarine and to transmit real-time video back to you where you can watch
the action either through a standard TV monitor or through a pair of virtual
goggles.
OK, enough words. How
about a long video of the system? The following is ripped off the Caswell Inc.
site. You'll see various types of WTC housed video shots aboard model
submarines, as well as footage taken from a video WTC held underwater and aimed
with a broom-stick at a passing model submarine -- thanks to Steve Neill for
that neat idea: http://www.caswellplating.com/models/images/camera.mov
Anyway, I wanted you all
to be up to speed on what I've done with the video system to date. I'll have
several video WTC systems working at this years SubRegatta, some of which will
be available for inspection and/or purchase from the Caswell Inc. table
there. We offer the system as either a basic kit (you provide the camera and
virtual goggles), or as a full-up turnkey system -- just buy the thing,
rubber-band the WTC onto your boat, done
receiver-battery-controller-utility belt, slip on the virtual goggles and go
play.
See of you at
Carmel in a few weeks ...
... I'll be the fat
geek, waterside holding a transmitter, looking through funky looking virtual
goggles, mouth agape, with drool running down my chin.
You can read more about
my system at: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=339195
The video WTC system at
work: Here is a modified video WTC within the sail of a Wallace 1/16 KAIRYU
model I built for a client a few years ago. though the monitor is
black-and-white, the transmitted image is in color. Image quality is 380 lines,
that's equivalent to VHS quality, Not bad from a camera-transmitter the size of
a fat sugar-cube! The camera-transmitter antenna runs up the periscope -- as
long as the head of the periscope projects above the surface I get an image,
out to a range of over 300 feet!
A second KAIRYU kit
(this model is MINE!) featured pretty much the same system employed
in the first. Here's a look at the small 1.25" diameter Acrylic cylinder
used, its access after bulkhead, antenna extension (a piece of 1/8"
coaxil cable), and power leads that run to a nine-Volt battery housed in the
main WTC. Note the brass mounting bracket that interfaces between the video WTC
and sail. The bracket permits me to aim the housing in yaw and pitch.
The KAIRYU at last years
SubRegatta. It was side-lines with ESC problems (God Damned SC-10!). But, I did
get in some camera runs before the speed controller fried.
The FLYING SUBMARINE
model in background can also be equipped with the video WTC. That highly
maneuverable boat is a near perfect platform, what with its ability to
hover and turn.
A turnkey video WTC
system. The utility belt has the video receiver, battery, switch harness and a
holster for the virtual goggles.
To the right of the belt
is the standard WTC itself -- just rubber-band it to the deck of your r/c
model submarine, and go sail. The outfitted WTC displaces its own weight of
water so presents no trim changes to your submarine once submerged. The antenna
extension is long enough to enable the unit to get a signal to your shore
station while the model submarine is running at or near periscope depth.
"To the Bat-Cave,
Robin!"
Geek with transmitter. A
real fashion-statement here, boys and girls!
At the lake, with the
model bobbing around on the surface, you can actually get sea-sick. I've almost
puked wearing these glasses while the boat plows through rough water. Fun!
In the Navy I was know
as a, 'power puker' -- in anything over a state-three sea people stayed clear
of me, I can assure you.
A special video WTC
being test fit aboard a Revell 1/72 GATO kit. No problem hiding this thing
under the fairwater at all!
Production work. Getting
some video WTC kits together for the Caswell Inc. table. Most of these will
form kits, the rest will be built up as turnkey units.
Contents of the video
WTC kit: Instructions, WTC, coaxial cable, antenna fairing, and platform.
The most challenging
aspect of getting the little camera-transmitter into the WTC is the elimination
of the bulky jacks and rubber coating that encapsulates the voltage
regulator. The voltage regulator, between the camera-transmitter power
leads and nine-Volt battery, must be retained in the circuit for proper camera
operation. This particular camera-transmitter has this style jacks and
voltage regulator potting ...
... and this style
camera-video system has this type of jack and voltage regulator encapsulation.
There are differences between manufactures of this camera-transmitter system of
how the wires and jacks are arranged, but all have the voltage regulator in
common.
And that voltage
regulator has to be preserved and inserted between the camera-transmitter
and nine-Volt battery. The output of the voltage regulator is about five Volts.
If you run the system at a full nine-Volt you will likely encounter problems
with the cameras ability to self-regulate brightness through its artificial
aperture control.
Here's a close-up of a
typically (formerly) encapsulated voltage regulator.
I want to thank Kevin
McLeod for pointing out the fact that the voltage regulator is there, encased
within the rubber foundation of the wiring harness -- I did not know that when
I got my first video camera-transmitter system up and running.
I was wondering why my
cameras worked fine indoors, but when taken outside suffered from 'white-out'.
These cameras, Kevin informed me, are designed for five, not nine Volt
operation!
Thanks, Kevin!
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