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Radio Controlled Model cameras
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If you're interested in fixing a wireless camera kit to you RC model then this may be of some help to you. For this job I recommend the 800mW transmitter kit with colour camera. This kit contains everything you need to complete a conversion to your model. The first thing you might notice about this kit is the size of the loom. The loom is the wire with all the connections for the transmitter and camera. I will cover by-passing the loom so you can make a direct connection between the camera, transmitter and battery. Doing this you can lose a lot of valuable weight and space which is essential for flying models.
WARNING: Remember that cutting the wires of your kit in the same way that we have done here or indeed any other way will void its warranty.
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| Only attempt this if you are confident in your wiring and soldering skills. You'll notice that the colour camera supplied with this kit is equipped with a microphone, I chopped mine off to save space as this transmitter and the receiver does not operate with sound. Units with sound are also available.. |
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Now you have cut the connectors off the wires and successfully voided the warranty it is time to get out the soldering iron and electrical tape. You might find you need to extend the wires now they're not long enough to reach.
What do the wires do? I here you ask. It's quite simple.
The black wire is common ground. So, from the camera and transmitter you need to conect them both to the negative terminal of your battery.
The yellow wire is video out from the camera and video in on the transmitter. Connect these two together.
Finally, the red wire is the 8 to 9v positive input. Connect both red wires to the positive terminal of the battery. The white cable from the camera is discarded on this installation as we're not going to be using sound. If you have a transmitter and receiver with sound then connect the white wire from camera to the white on transmitter. |
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Fitting to an RC Car
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My car (above left) is stable and very rarely rolls over unless you're really hammering it. The nitro stampede on the other hand is rear wheel drive and flips out at every given opportunity. This is why I wanted to show you both models. I'm happy mounting my camera on the outer shell but my friend wanted a bit more protection.
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I like to use hot glue guns for alot of different projects, it provides good enough strength for holding light objects and its not as permanant as a solvent based adhesive.
Note where my camera will sit when the shell is back on the car, if I roll the thing it'll probably destroy the camera. You will find that it much easier to locate and secure the camera with it switched on looking at the image. You don't want to glue it in place with it facing too high or low. |
One way of mounting the transmitter and battery would be to simply glue it to the under edge of the shell, I've got plenty of room on there so I can leave the loom in place. Drill a small hole if necessary for the antenna to poke up through. Glue the transmitter and battery in place and then cover with gaffer tape to protect from oil and glow fuel.
For the truck we wanted a more permanant and protected installation, so by locating the camera at the front, behind the bumper and under the main shell we gained a lot of protection. You can use blue-tac to temporarily hold the camera in position before it is glued more permanantly. |
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This one worked out quite nicely, we needed to run an extension wire to the back of the car for the power, that's the red and black twisted cable you can see in the picture.
If you now might be considering the posibility of interferance between the two receivers being so close but we've had none so far with any of this kit. Remember these cameras broadcast between 900 and 1200 mhz which is at the other end of the frequency scale compared to the 30-46 mhz used by rc controller and receivers. |
| Using zip ties again to secure the battery and you're ready to go. The sky is the limit. If you wanted to leave a rechargeable battery in the car then why not solder a switch and a charging point somewhere. |
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Buy wireless camera kits
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