cromptonnut Posted September 9, 2014 Share Posted September 9, 2014 We, well I, now have a rail mounted camera for those 'drivers eye views' along the layout for when we finally get to arranging a meet. I've been looking at them on Ebay ever since I started looking at some of the videos on Youtube of Freemo meets and the ready made ones were about £100. I've now assembled one that cost me about £30 if you don't buy a new wagon to put it on/in. I was browsing on Ebay and found this very cheap miniature camera for £12.50 shipped from China, which needed a micro SD memory card (I picked up the largest it will accept seperately, a 32gb one for less than a tenner but any size will do really, just the bigger the card, the more you can get on it). The camera itself is 32x32x27mm and fits well within UK loading gauge, the outer casing of the camera being flush with the sides of the donor wagon. I had a spare Bachmann 12 ton box van which was rather the worse for wear, cut half an inch off the end (back to the first upright) and a chunk of the underframe to make a space for the USB cable to fit. However any donor vehicle, as long as it runs smoothly, should do the job. It installs as a flash drive so you just connect it to the computer to charge it, then drag the files off of it to your hard drive then edit using any video software - Windows movie maker is perfectly adequate. I expect the capacity of the 32gb card to far exceed the battery capacity (which I haven't yet tested). At the moment the camera is mounted with a bit of blu-tak but I plan to come up with a more permanent solution once I've painted the wagon (I'll paint it yellow and slap some Network Rail transfers on it just for the hell of it). As the wagon has NEM pockets I plan to remove the coupling and use one of the spare "coupling bars" that come with Bachmann coaches to connect to the loco propelling it which will reduce juddering. The result so far? This is the output - it's a bit noisy so I might try and do something to dampen the sound caused by the wheels. It's not DVD quality but what do you expect for something about the size of a strawberry? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QPK-OtT9Cs Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Ramblin Rich Posted September 9, 2014 RMweb Gold Share Posted September 9, 2014 I had no idea it was so noisy inside model trains! Definitely could do with some dampening, although it's pretty good as a proof of concept Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cromptonnut Posted September 10, 2014 Author Share Posted September 10, 2014 The wagon has metal wheels, which may not help - I'll try some plastic ones in there and see if that makes any difference. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Stubby47 Posted September 10, 2014 RMweb Gold Share Posted September 10, 2014 If you can, try mounting the camera on some foam ( kitchen pan scrubber, sliced) to help absorb the noise and and shakes. But it looks really good - I guess the next stage is to have one mounted half out of the side of a wagon/ carriage, looking forwards to the loco... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cromptonnut Posted September 10, 2014 Author Share Posted September 10, 2014 I'm going to try it with a DCC sound fitted loco tonight, as I made no effort with the sound settings on the recording. It may be that I can turn down the volume enough to get the loco sound without the wheel sound within the editing process. It could also be that the empty body is acting like a sound chamber and amplifying the rail noise so I'll also try ramming that with some cotton wool or something and see what happens. As for the 'side mount', I assume you are referring to a "window hanging" type view... that shouldn't be a problem except for things coming the other way, but I do have an idea how to get round that Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cromptonnut Posted September 10, 2014 Author Share Posted September 10, 2014 Stubby, Haven't yet cracked the noise issue but I think I'm getting somewhere. However, I thought you might be interested in this attempt at "window hanging" I just tried. As long as there's nothing coming the other way, or any narrow bridges to pass, it does work so it may be something I can "splice in" to the main movie clip as necessary. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAnoWs2fRfw Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
peter220950 Posted September 10, 2014 Share Posted September 10, 2014 The quality is pretty damn good considering the size of the camera, and will probably suit 7mm even better as you can kill the noise transmission better. Isolation of the camera is likely to be the best solution, as noted earlier, with foam rubber mounting. The second vid could have the sound turned down further and still be o.k. Thanks for the info, it's amazing what is available for very little money nowadays.. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Stubby47 Posted September 10, 2014 RMweb Gold Share Posted September 10, 2014 Stubby, Haven't yet cracked the noise issue but I think I'm getting somewhere. However, I thought you might be interested in this attempt at "window hanging" I just tried. As long as there's nothing coming the other way, or any narrow bridges to pass, it does work so it may be something I can "splice in" to the main movie clip as necessary. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAnoWs2fRfw Looks really good. Just needs a 'goggle mask' and some dead flies / soot in front of the lens !! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cromptonnut Posted September 10, 2014 Author Share Posted September 10, 2014 I've tried filming without the body on so it's just the chassis, and I'm still getting the noise from the wheels so tomorrow will be "hack the pan cleaner" evening and see if that makes any progress. Of course, I could just mute the sound completely but if you're running with DCC sound fitted stock it seems a waste not to enjoy the sounds produced. Another image to give you an idea of the size of the camera. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Stubby47 Posted September 10, 2014 RMweb Gold Share Posted September 10, 2014 Thinking more about this, you probably want the camera wagon to be as heavy as possibly, to further reduce judder. May be a larger lump of sponge between loco and wagon, too, might help ? That really is a little camera - how much of the 32Mb does each pass up your line take ? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cromptonnut Posted September 10, 2014 Author Share Posted September 10, 2014 It's a 32GB card. Recording seems to be about 50 meg a minute. But remember I only have one working module at the moment so it's only got 4ft to run on - minus the length of the 47 that's pushing it. Tests this morning show that it stops recording at 30 minutes and starts a new file - and it recorded about 2 hours before the battery died so it should be more than enough for a few laps of any of the modular layouts we're likely to erect for some time but of course it's easy enough to take a run, dump it to a laptop, recharge and do a few more runs during the day although I would expect that a 10 minute run will be more than enough for most people's Youtube patience. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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