On board camera anyone tried it?

[phil_sutters]

Railway Modeller has a review of 00 and N r-t-r camera wagons this month. £22 each from BigTrainSounds.co.uk

Edited May 15, 2021 by phil_sutters

[ITG]

3 hours ago, phil_sutters said:

Railway Modeller has a review of 00 and N r-t-r camera wagons this month. £22 each from BigTrainSounds.co.uk

Saw that. The day after mine arrived. Doh!

[HLT 0109]

SQ13 is a cube (29mm) - has sound and 1080p - also woeks with an app.  Mine cost about £24 including delivery.  I havent used it yet on the layout but did use it on my ebike alongside a GoPro.  If it is of interest, i will provide a link but it is not railway related (and lasts about 25 minutes!).

 

i looked up the details of your circular camera, ITG, and saw that people were having trouble getting it to record at 1080p - I understand the instructions are not clear.  If you do work it out it should give much improved detail - on the other hand, perhaps the claim is false.

 

I think one of the attractions of an onboard video is that it shows up the shortcomings of one's modelling - and shames one into improving it!

 

Harold.

Edited May 15, 2021 by HLT 0109
added last paragraph.

[Dagworth]

Has anyone had any success in getting a clear and non-corrupted image from a camera on a moving train to transmit to a laptop in real time?

 

Andi 

[melmerby]

1 hour ago, HLT 0109 said:

SQ13 is a cube (29mm) - has sound and 1080p - also woeks with an app.  Mine cost about £24 including delivery.  I havent used it yet on the layout but did use it on my ebike alongside a GoPro.  If it is of interest, i will provide a link but it is not railway related (and lasts about 25 minutes!).

 

i looked up the details of your circular camera, ITG, and saw that people were having trouble getting it to record at 1080p - I understand the instructions are not clear.  If you do work it out it should give much improved detail - on the other hand, perhaps the claim is false.

 

I think one of the attractions of an onboard video is that it shows up the shortcomings of one's modelling - and shames one into improving it!

 

Harold.

There is also a SQ11 which is slightly smaller but records to a microSD card, the instructions are very clear.

It does not have sound.

 

Amazon are selling some fake ones that don't have the full HD spec claimed. The IR leds are dummies as well!

[ITG]

16 hours ago, Dagworth said:

Has anyone had any success in getting a clear and non-corrupted image from a camera on a moving train to transmit to a laptop in real time?

 

Andi 

My attached file earlier in this thread shows a real time WiFi transmission to an app, on iOS for me, but instructions also include android. I used the iPhone recording facility. Judge for yourself if it is as clear as you would wish. Still to see if I can adjust resolution.

[PeterStiles]

On 15/05/2021 at 23:08, melmerby said:

There is also a SQ11 which is slightly smaller but records to a microSD card, the instructions are very clear.

It does not have sound.

My SQ11 just turned up... I cannot agree with the comment that the instructions are very clear...

 

I quote:

 

Quote

Click ON OFF button to boot boot blue light normally ON click ON the switch machine under the blue lights flash 3 out of 720 p video.

 

 

Not quote got to the bottom of how this works yet...

 

p[

 

 

[John M Upton]

On a recommendation I purchased a cheap little camera and whilst it looks the part, mine too comes with instructions so badly translated from the original Chinese that it has effectively rendered it unusable!!

[melmerby]

You might find this interesting:

 

[Kris]

That is a very impressive bit of kit. 

 

[melmerby]

If you haven't spotted it, this is the how to make pdf:

https://www.pilentum-television.com/en/media/camera-dolly-for-model-railways-by-jens-krogsgaard.pdf

 

It is powered by a PP3 and uses wi-fi to control the mount.

 

I can see a DCC powered version in my mind, using a small MCU as a DCC decoder to operate the motor

Edited May 28, 2021 by melmerby

[Mick38]

I had a shot at this many years ago, using a “spy” fountain pen, mounted on a wagon chassis and as the lens points sideways, I fixed a mirror at 45 degrees so that it could “see” forwards. The recordings were downloaded and reversed left - to - right, and suitably edited. The quality wasn’t great and it was a tedious business to constantly re- position a back scene, but showed what could be done. Search YouTube for: MMR0 Original Ambledean Railway. Incidentally, it did highlight some dodgy sections of track!

[Mick38]

And a second far superior video of the improved layout is at : https://youtu.be/DTxi9M0drxg or search for MMR0 Ambledean Drivers View.

Thanks

[ITG]

 As the camera mounted on a flatbed wagon sat slightly above loading height, it did cause a problem with a climbing line under an upper board, at just one cross brace. So I did buy a Bachmann well wagon, and it provided the solution. The circular nature of the camera itself fitted nicely, supported by bluetac, into the well, at one end. This dropped the height of the camera just enough to clear the overhead obstruction. The lens is sufficiently high enough for the ‘line of sight ‘ to clear the wagon platform.

[locomad2]

This is mine part of my 21st century "Battle space" railway models, it's a small drone fitted with a camera both video and pic

 

 

 

Not fully competent to fly it over the layout yet, but my 6 year old grandson part of the play station controller generation, does land it in areas where I just can't get access to for use as a camera 

 

Good value at £5, purchased new off a market without a playstation type controller you can use your phones wifi, and can use some playstation type wireless controller as well. Without the props used as a mobile CCTV camera,  pictures on phone as yet not worked out how to transfer into gallery 

 

[Darius43]

I have been using this “cube” camera that I spotted on Amazon.  It cost £27 and fits nicely on a modified Dapol wagon chassis.  It records sound as well as video and sends the stream like to a tablet or smartphone with the camera app installed.  You can record the stream as it arrives.

 

 

 

 

Heres an example of what you get - taken on the “Middlemark” layout.

 

Cheers

 

Darius

 

[Sir TophamHatt]

I too have an SQ (possibly SQ11) camera.

Used it once but only paid about £10 or so (probably from AliExpress).  Records on to a mini SD card but it's a little fiddily to get it to record in 720p.  Records sound though.

Mounted it on an old truck that I cut.

 

Forget that first video - that's very old and looks like VHS?  Maybe it was the "effect" the person put on the video.

 

Will try and find the sample video I did (in 480p) and upload it.

Edited July 6, 2021 by Sir TophamHatt

[melmerby]

Amazon were selling "cheap" SQxx cameras, many were fakes without the full spec of a proper one.

e.g. no IR leds that actually work, No high resolution mode, just a very basic one. etc

 

Read the reviews.

[russ p]

On 02/07/2021 at 05:02, Darius43 said:

I have been using this “cube” camera that I spotted on Amazon.  It cost £27 and fits nicely on a modified Dapol wagon chassis.  It records sound as well as video and sends the stream like to a tablet or smartphone with the camera app installed.  You can record the stream as it arrives.

 

 

 

 

Heres an example of what you get - taken on the “Middlemark” layout.

 

Cheers

 

Darius

 

 

I think this is what I'm looking for , is it a Bluetooth link to the phone? 

 

Have you got a link please 

Edited July 6, 2021 by russ p

[Ouroborus]

59 minutes ago, russ p said:

 

I think this is what I'm looking for , is it a Bluetooth link to the phone? 

 

Have you got a link please 

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/KEAN-Wireless-Smallest-Activated-Surveillance/dp/B08DHQVFXD/ref=sr_1_5?crid=2CBNUICTPOGM1&dchild=1&keywords=q15+mini+camera&qid=1625595153&sprefix=q15+%2Caps%2C164&sr=8-5

[HLT 0109]

On 15 May, I posted about my SQ13 camera.  At that time, i had been unable to assess the sound quality of its recordings because I had only used it outdoors when inside its weatherproof casing; as one might expect, in those circumstances there is no airborne sound.  Yesterday, I created this video with the camera sitting on a flat wagon on my loft layout, within a short train pulled by Hornby's L1 2-6-4 tank engine fitted with a Loksound V4 DCC decoder.  The subtitles contain my personal comments on the result.  See what you think.

 

Harold.

 

 

[drmditch]

On 02/07/2021 at 05:02, Darius43 said:

I have been using this “cube” camera that I spotted on Amazon.  It cost £27 and fits nicely on a modified Dapol wagon chassis.  It records sound as well as video and sends the stream like to a tablet or smartphone with the camera app installed.  You can record the stream as it arrives.

 

 

 

 

Heres an example of what you get - taken on the “Middlemark” layout.

 

Cheers

 

Darius

 

 

I'm sure I have been following this thread, but seem to have missed last summer's posts.

I have an on-going project for which I purchased an NIYPS cube camera some time ago.

Only now have I advanced to the stage of fitting in an ex-NER Officer's Inspection Saloon which is taking some time to build.

Descriptions are here (on my RM layout thread)

More detail is on the LNER Forum here.

 

Please may I ask the physical size of your cube camera please?

 

I have a long way to go, and must spend more time actually working on my railway.

But these pictures show what may be possible!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[John M Upton]

On 02/07/2021 at 05:02, Darius43 said:

I have been using this “cube” camera that I spotted on Amazon.  It cost £27 and fits nicely on a modified Dapol wagon chassis.  It records sound as well as video and sends the stream like to a tablet or smartphone with the camera app installed.  You can record the stream as it arrives.

 

 

 

 

Heres an example of what you get - taken on the “Middlemark” layout.

 

Cheers

 

Darius

 

Does anyone have a link to buy one of these please? A quick search of Amazon drew a blank.

[russ p]

4 minutes ago, John M Upton said:

Does anyone have a link to buy one of these please? A quick search of Amazon drew a blank.

 

I bought one but I can't find the link unfortunately.  To be honest I find it a bit too glitchy and the lense has a very wide angle on it so picks up a lot of things outside the railway like me! 

There are some YouTube videos on my layout thread that were filmed on it 

[melmerby]

I've decided to go with a Pi Zero (when back in stock!) and the official 8Mpx Pi camera module after buying and discarding as pretty useless an Arducam/Omnivision OV5642 camera shield.

 

The OV5642 has a 5Mpx sensor with impressive specs such as 4K stills and 1080p 30fps streaming, unfortunately all picture data has to go a frame at a time via a 64Mb Ram and extracted via the serial interface to the MCU. This limits the device to slow rates of still capture and little chance of decent video.

 

I did consider those cube cams (SQxx) from Amazon but the chance of getting a genuine full spec one seems remote, the reviews people leave for the various ones for sale are on the whole dreadful. There is a high faulty/failure rate and many do not have the specification claimed.

Edited February 16, 2022 by melmerby