Here’s the video from the Initiator rocket with my strap-on video cam….
It launched on a smoky Aerotech G38-4FJ motor, but the asymmetric weight and drag was a bit much for this small rocket and so it went into a corkscrew as it left the pad and headed over to the parking lot, landing about 25 ft. from my car.
I’ll post more frame grabs from the video below…
Great video! that is very, very quick….
What camera are you using, if I may ask? I’ve been testing various analog video cameras between $15 and $170 (cameras with a Sony 1/3" CCD HAD or similar are quite good, best one so far was the Pixim chip with wide dynamic range like the DX201) for aerial video from R/C planes and helicopters. From the video though I assume you’re recording on board vs. on the ground through wireless.
I just got a Sony ‘Webbie" MHS-CM1 which records really nice HD video up to 1080p, but it doesn’t like vibrations very much (I think it is lacking a proper shutter, so the image warps). Yours however seems to be doing quite well considering the launch speed.
obskura – it’s the ATC-2K from Oregon Scientific. The cylinder takes a plastic Easter Egg for a nosecone, and so it’s an easy strap-on camera. I think it lacks a shutter too, and you can see raster blur in other photos. Here’s an extreme warping of the horizon line from a rapid spin:
Yes, recording on board. Tried some directional wifi, but did not like the signal quality.
Do you know if the cameras you tested will have a readable video file on the flash memory if the power is interrupted mid-recording? That is one of my top requests given how often I end up destroying the camera…. =)
For the big airframes, I am using a DV tape drive….’cause you can almost always rescue the tape…
Thanks 🙂 I didn’t notice the warp before.
Other than the warp I’m quite happy with the Sony MHS-CM1 (120g, pretty small, great video quality). It’s only a problem on helicopters due to the vibration.
About cutting power in mid recording – I just popped out the battery while it was recording, and the file didn’t show up in the "play" preview on the device. There may of course be traces of the video on the flash card – it might be possible to use flash card recovery software to puzzle-piece it back together.
Up to now we mostly used wireless links and recording off-board (which has the added benefit of having a cockpit view on our video glasses… with the EagleTree on-screen display (OSD) there’s also an overlay giving you airspeed, GPS speed, altitude, your location, battery status and a few more things.
In terms of video quality the transmitter/receiver combination makes a big difference. The usual electronics store variety is mostly not so good. There are a couple of places that sell video systems for "FPV" flying (first person view), where one can buy 900Mhz, 2.4 Ghz or 5.8 Ghz systems with up to 1000mW power. From my experience a 25mW transmitter (Airwave module, from http://www.dpcav.com will give a fairly good picture over 400-500 meters, with occasional drop-outs caused by multi-path reflections. That can be fixed with directional antennas and a diversity switcher (i.e. Oracle). A 100mW transmitter, and a 2-receiver diversity system with 40 degree patch antennas produces close to perfect video quality over 500-600m, and usable video for over a kilometer.
Btw. the Sony Webbie has a video output, which makes it possible to have both onboard recording and live video via wireless (with offboard recording) With rockets the live video aspect probably doesn’t quite have the same appeal, but obviously it’s great fun with airplanes (the pilot gets a great view from up there, and visitors can watch as well on spare goggles or a screen).
Jurvetson, good stuff. Did the camera weight on top of the rocket contribute to the instability in flight?
Obskura, like the aerial stuff. I have also been experimenting quite a bit with taking pictures and video from the air but with kites. Mostly using the CHDK hack on Canon cameras.
See a few here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wind-watcher/sets/
Wind Watcher – Yes. This has not been a problem for many other flights with larger motors. Weight forward is a good thing for stability… The asymmetric drag can be overcome with more thrust.
obskura – I have tried the image recovery software and there is nothing there. Just a 1kb stub file. I suspect that what happens is that the camera records to a high speed buffer memory during recording, and burns it to flash only after the recording is done. If anyone finds a small camera that records nicely up to a power interruption, I’d be real interested…. =)
P.S. Here is a rocketcam shot from Orvis’ rocket, showing the crowd gathering like ants to the sugar…
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