[LASS Soaring] Want a Video/still camera that works on your Sailplane?

[GordySoar at aol.com]

Tony came across this article in RC Groups, 
It shows how to modify a $29 video camera from Walgreens to work directly  
plugged into a servo port.
I'll likely get one to modify and try.
Gordy
 
_http://www.walgreens.com/store/product.jsp?CATID=100380&navAction=jump&navCou
nt=1&id=prod1362915_ 
(http://www.walgreens.com/store/product.jsp?CATID=100380&navAction=jump&navCount=1&id=prod1362915) 
 
I took a pic of the camera when  it was apart (in a mirror) and annotated it 
with numbers... Please the last few  posts I made to get additional back 
ground. Also, besides a soldering iron, you  should have a multimeter or ohm meter 
too.

Here are the key mods to the  camera:
[1] the white wire is soldered to the  non-ground side of the swtich. In my 
cam it was the side closer to the outside.  The other side of the switch was 
verified to be connected to ground [7] my using  the ohm meter.

[2] this is the connector for the switch

[3] this  is the connector for +5V the other end is soldered to top-most pin 
coming out of  the usb socket [4] though it's obscured by [5], the flash 
memory board. How do I  know it's the flash memory board? I unplugged it to get 
access to the usb area  and then later powered up the cam with it still 
unplugged. The video capture  worked, but the stills didn't! Luckily, I didn't 
permanently damage anything.   

If you look at the mini usb pin out, one extreme is ground the other  extreme 
+5V, like this:

= +5 V
= signal?
= signal?
=  gnd

I checked with the ohm meter which side was ground, the other was  +5V. On 
the mini pen cam it's the pin closest to the swtich.

[6] is the  ground wire. It's soldered to the same place [7], the ground wire 
coming off the  battery holder is soldered.

[8] is the + lead off the battery holder.  It's not the same as +5V off the 
USB, as you may have figured. You *don't* want  to connect the power to this.

So that's it for the camera side. Three wires coming out of  it:
+5V
ground
switch

To close the switch (take a pic) simply  connect it momentarily to the ground 
wire. That's what the relay on the control  module does. I'll have to save 
that for another post
 
 (http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=24677) 
This is a pic of area 4: the +5V pin on the usb socket (red  arrow).
The wire appears white, but is really the red wire from the color pic  in the 
last post. I've marked it with a red squiggly line.

Circled, is  where the flash memory card was plugged in, just be slow and 
gently when taking  it out. Line up *all* the pins when plugging it back.
 (http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=24680)  
(http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=24681) 
I could have used a 3 lead servo connector here, but i had a 4  lead one from 
an old computer that I adapted
 (http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=24682) 
this is how it looked after i fit it all together. this was  *not* easy!
In retrospect, I think trying to have a connector exit from the  side of the 
cam, would be better. Just like the USB does, but only on the other  side. A 
small three conductor mini headphone plug might be the way to go. I'll  let 
someone else do that research.
BTW, if you do this, I think you can  forget about your warranty...
 (http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=24685) 
with the batteries in.
(see the very first picture that I  posted for how the it looks with the 
control module plugged in)
 (http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=24686) 
 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://localhost.localdomain/pipermail/soaring/attachments/20061113/e8be5572/attachment.htm