As captured by a Walkera 4#3B high above ground with the key chain camera;





I guess some of you already have this camera and used it on your micro helis for recording video flight. I got mine a couple of days ago and decided to mount it on a 4#3B with attempts on making it lightweight. This camera has a higher frame rate (30fps) and resolution (720x480) as compared to the pen cam i initially got;



Obviously first one to go would be the casing and its lipo battery;

after removing the unecessary parts and adding the power connector, here is its total weight;



but wait, that USB connector seems to be un-needed as the micro sd card is removable and can be connected to a PC by just using a card reader. This means we can also do away with this metallic connector;



With the dremel kit, i decided to trim it out so that desoldering it from the board would be easy;

here is her new weight;



and as mounted on the 4#3B;

and here is a few test spin;

indoor - nice frame rate as compared to the pen cam;

* Pardon the shaky flight, it is pretty much windy when i did this test.

Walkera 4#3B Onboard Video flight using Keychain 30FPS Spy Camera - indoor (2 min 14 sec)

Outdoor 1 - (sorry for the dangling wire);

* check out the contrast, camera automatically adjusts and you can see the clouds as it blends with the blue sky

Walkera 4#3B Onboard Video flight using Keychain 30FPS Spy Camera (3 min 40 sec)

Outdoor 2 -

Walkera 4#3B Onboard Video flight using Keychain 30FPS Spy Camera - Outdoor 1 (3 min 15 sec)

And my favorite - low light flight. One thing i like with this camera, it automatically adjusts the sensor sensitivity and still retains the frame rate of 29 to 30 fps;

Walkera 4#3B Onboard Video flight using Keychain 30FPS Spy Camera - Low light (3 min 23 sec)

Thanks for these informations and pics! This is exactly the camera that should be in my post any day now! I´m going to strap it under my CB100 though as it´s a bit more stable than the 4#3B.
Juergen

yes, it is a little shaky when simply hovering as small changes on hovering angle translates to large movements on the video frame. However if you do forward flights, frame shake should be significantly less.


Here is another single frame capture from the camera with the heli high above ground;

punching it higher above ground;

Key Chain Spy Camera - Horizon 1 (2 min 20 sec)

Very cool

I am ordering 2, one for use on my 450 sized helis, I figure I can leave it in it's hard case and make a mount to mount it on a canopy or a frame mount.

the other I will try to use in a hat cam....

thanks for sharing your work, very cool

order in, now I need 2 8gb micro SDs.

Very nice Mon,

Since you do not need to fly by viewing through the video image would a gimbal arrangement help with steadying the video? If built correctly the gimbal would self level the video making your footage less roller coaster ish. Maybe the gimbal could hold the cam and the Lipo, using the Lipo's weight as the under slung balance? Just an idea.

I may have to give this a go - once again i'm inspired by your work.


Flash

Very nice. It is always useful to see a step-by-step account of the breakdown process. Thanks!

And it is good to see that they seem to be making the cameras with imagers that allow the camera to be mounted flat. Based on what I have read, some of the early ones had to be held sideways, which is a pain for mounting them on a helicopter.

yup. That is one of my critical issue with the pen cam type, i had to 'stretch' out a little the ribbon connector on to the camera module to reposition the camera.

Originally Posted by CQE Flash

Very nice Mon,

Since you do not need to fly by viewing through the video image would a gimbal arrangement help with steadying the video? If built correctly the gimbal would self level the video making your footage less roller coaster ish. Maybe the gimbal could hold the cam and the Lipo, using the Lipo's weight as the under slung balance? Just an idea.

I may have to give this a go - once again i'm inspired by your work.


Flash

Hmm. That gimbal idea is awesome. Would it be possible to use a mechanical gyro to stabilize the gimbal platfrom ? A possible option would be a rotating disc mounted on the main gear.. Just thinking out wild here.

Originally Posted by ewoodcox

Very cool

I am ordering 2, one for use on my 450 sized helis, I figure I can leave it in it's hard case and make a mount to mount it on a canopy or a frame mount.

the other I will try to use in a hat cam....

thanks for sharing your work, very cool

Hat Cam ... hmmm, good idea. That is where my spare cam will go