Camera projectile

[Moonbogg]

OK, so I have a little wireless camera for my RC helicopter that im thinking about stuffing inside a small model rocket and launching it out of my spudder. Camera would be facing downward and mounted in the body of the rocket. The rocket would have fins of course so it ought to fly straight up. I think this would be cool, anyone tried it?

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

Have a browse through this thread

[SP00K]

Yeah, my friend created one kinda like this, but it was more of a plane on a dowel rod. It would fire at about 20 psi and fly really far. The views he got from it were spectaular.

[FishBoy]

how are you planning to find the camera?

[Daltonultra]

Just paint the rest of the projectile blaze orange. You should be able to track that against the sky. Throw in a small LED so if you can't find it in the day, you can go back at night and retrieve it.

For the rest of us, electronics manufacturers are using up their stock of outdated low-resolution digital cameras by putting them in cheap-sh*t kids toys and selling them for a few bucks at WalMart and other stores. They're meant for little kids, so you know they're pretty tough. They'd be ideal for this kind of thing.

[The Engineer]

I know what most of you will think when you see this, but hear me out. Check out some of the Chinese websites. Cameras aren't to difficult to build and they sell 640x480 res cameras that are really small very cheap.

uxcell.com
chinavasion.com

[Sticky_Tape]

The g's I think would kill it but if you accelerate the projectile a little slower than the regular pneumatic with low pressure almost like a model rocket I think you would be golden. Because model rockets accelerate alot slower than the projectiles fired from a pneumatic the cammeras exsperience less ''g shock'' because the cammer doesn't have the same inertia. That is just what I think. Think about if you were fired out of a cannon would you wan't to be fired with high or low acceleration?

[Daltonultra]

booYAH! Found the perfect thing:

http://www.boostervision.com/cart/scrip ... product=77

I think these would be fine for launch out of a large spudgun. After all, they're designed to survive hitting the ground if a chute fails to deploy.

[SP00K]

For the rest of us, electronics manufacturers are using up their stock of outdated low-resolution digital cameras by putting them in cheap-sh*t kids toys and selling them for a few bucks at WalMart and other stores. They're meant for little kids, so you know they're pretty tough. They'd be ideal for this kind of thing.

O really?!!



I must invest some money into this.

[Moonbogg]

I have a little camera with battery onboard its small and all self contained so it will work. Its been lying around for ages so if I don't find it its not a big deal. As long as the video records. I figure I could put some wadding underneath it to prevent the lense from getting burned upon firing. If I am not too lazy about it, i'll actually do this and show the video. No promises though, since I can be quite lazy and might just stuff a lemon down there instrad =)

[Daltonultra]

You know what would be cool? Use a piece of plexi as a wad, so you can look through it and see the combustion in the firing chamber as it's slammed up the barrel.

[Moonbogg]

You know what would be cool? Use a piece of plexi as a wad, so you can look through it and see the combustion in the firing chamber as it's slammed up the barrel.

oh cool. Yeah thats a good idea

[jimmy101]

You know what would be cool? Use a piece of plexi as a wad, so you can look through it and see the combustion in the firing chamber as it's slammed up the barrel.

You won't see much. Probably just a single frame with a blue blur.

1. The flame brightness in a properly fueled and mixed combustion is pretty dim. Compared to light passing though the PVC the camera won't see it in daylight.
2. The combustion process is too fast for the camera. It typically takes ~50mSec from "click" to "boom" for a combustion. At typical video rates of 30 FPS (assuming a cheapo camera actually does that frame rate) you'll only get one or two frames of the ignition and combustion.
3. Since the camera isn't all that great, the shutter speed is probably pretty close to the frame rate. All you get is a blue blur.

It really shouldn't be all that hard to get this to work though.
1. Have to have an aerodynamically stable round. If it's tumbling all you'll get is a bunch of blured frames.
2. You'll have to use a fairly low powered cannon to keep from trashing the camera. Perhaps use a low chamber pressure and pretty long barrel to give decent velocity but accetpable G forces.
3. With a low power cannon the round isn't going to go all that high. You ahouldn't have much problem seeing where it lands. If needed, just add a long brightly colored ribbon to the round (which might also help with stability in flight).

[Daltonultra]

Again, if he's using the type of camera I pointed out, which is intended for model rockets and R/C planes, then I see no problem with using it in just about any pneumatic, and all but the most powerful combustions. Burst-disk guns may be pushing the point a bit.