Note: All pictures that follow are
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A lil' history ... As fun as R/C flying is, I seldom get bored. During those few times of
boredom, I roam around my workshop (the Mad Scientist Lab" as some call it) and will occasionally come up with a neat idea. One of
these ideas was wireless aerial video. I've messed around with wireless
cameras and such in the past (home automation, security, etc...) but really
never thought about putting a video transmitter in or on an R/C airplane. A few
years back, wireless video systems dramatically came down in price due to
improved technologies, imports from China and Hong Kong and Ebay certainly helped in sales too.
The size and weight of these systems have certainly made it possible to now add
one to an R/C airplane, even small, lighter foam airplanes. A couple of
years back, I acquired one of these imports and messed around with it a bit. To be
honest, the CMOS cameras that usually come with these systems are junk (good for
testing but that's about it). Bottom line, plan to invest in a better CCD color camera
($50-100) if you want good quality video. As for the transmitter and receiver, these are
amazingly high
quality. Also, be sure you get a 900MHz or 2.4GHz model and not a 1.2GHz
version as these are supposedly illegal to use in the USA (US avionics freq.
band?).
Design Criteria Summary:
1) Design wireless video system to fit on R/C airplane
2) Design mounting method to attach camera, transmitter to airplane wing
3) Design pannable mounting system such to allow 2-axis panning of color video
camera
4) Transmit live video from R/C airplane to ground receiver
5) Record live video onto tape for playback
6) Continuous video link, up to at least 1000 feet distance (line-of-sight from
transmitter to receiver)
As fun as R/C flying is, I seldom get bored. During those few times of
boredom, I roam around my workshop (the Mad Scientist Lab" as some call it) and will occasionally come up with a neat idea. One of
these ideas was wireless aerial video. I've messed around with wireless
cameras and such in the past (home automation, security, etc...) but really
never thought about putting a video transmitter in or on an R/C airplane. A few
years back, wireless video systems dramatically came down in price due to
improved technologies, imports from China and Hong Kong and Ebay certainly helped in sales too.
The size and weight of these systems have certainly made it possible to now add
one to an R/C airplane, even small, lighter foam airplanes. A couple of
years back, I acquired one of these imports and messed around with it a bit. To be
honest, the CMOS cameras that usually come with these systems are junk (good for
testing but that's about it). Bottom line, plan to invest in a better CCD color camera
($50-100) if you want good quality video. As for the transmitter and receiver, these are
amazingly high
quality. Also, be sure you get a 900MHz or 2.4GHz model and not a 1.2GHz
version as these are supposedly illegal to use in the USA (US avionics freq.
band?).
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