TREX600 and JVC Video Cam

[Randallhurd]

From the last message that I posted in the Main Forum,
I finally figured out what happened with the JVC 30 Gig HD Cam Corder failure.
Everio 30 gig.
I put the TREX600 back together and Zip tied the CAM back on. Rather that go for altitutude, my goal was to do some low level flying, Half Stick to figure out what happened on the Cams maiden flight.
On the first flight the Cam was waiting in the ground in recovery mode with no Video,

Todays flight, "No Crash". I looked at the Cam and it was in recovery mode again. The Video on the CAM stopped recording and went fetal after the Lipo was plugged up. I think the vibration on the TREX600, as smooth as mine is, was just to much for the Hard Drive. I going to opt for the Memmory module cam on the next flight.

Also. When the Cam is on the Heli is pretty twitchy for the first 30 seconds. I think the Spectum RX/TX on the cam was screwing with the DX7. I beleive the twitching was the RX on the Heli rapidly switching channels,,, But that's just my guess. When the CAM is not mounted. there are no more twitchy jerks. :bawl

[j_kookboy]

What are you using for a downlink ?

[Randallhurd]

I am not using anything for a Downlink.
The camera has remote capabilities and the DX7,, I also noticed was triggering the remote setting on the Cam before flight, and i would have to manually shut it down. It was pretty much an experiment that didnt work.
I don't really know how to fix that one, '

[Windbreaker]

Hard drives won't tolerate much vibration.

I used a hard drive recorder on a small shoulder-mounted high-definition camera while shooting aerials in a Hughes 500 and it failed. The vibrations caused all sorts of faults with the hard drive. Since then I quit using the hard drive recorder and switched over to the camera's solid-state media.

There was also a report of that same hard drive recorder failing while shooting a rock concert. The hard-driven speakers were enough to foul up some of the recorders.

The heads of any hard drive float over the platter with an extremely small gap of air between the head and the platter. Some ruggedized drives are designed to sense excess movement and stop the record/read process by quickly retracting the head until the coast is clear. So while a hard drive recorder might work when in calm conditions, or even with normal hand motions, it's not going to work when subjected to high-frequency vibrations or sudden shocks.

I doubt there will be a way to get the JVC to work with any RC helicopter unless its absolutely isolated. And that might end up weighing way too much.

You might consider a camera with a solid-state recording system. Panasonic and Sony have come out with some that look pretty good and are quite compact.

I recently looked at the Panasonic AG-HSC1U (http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/516724-REG/Panasonic_HSC1TRANSFER_AG_HSC1U_AVCHD_3CCD_High.ht ml) and was impressed by what I saw.

[Randallhurd]

Yeah, that's probably what I need to make this work,,
It only weighs less than a Pound..
The one that I've been trying to get working weighs approximately 2 lbs.
I had to adjust the elevation a little, One of the draw backs to a heavy Cam.
I have a friend who told me he had the Cam you pointed out, If I could just convince him to let me bolt it up to the Heli,,, Which by the way,,,, Might not work,
I'll give it a test fly and see what happens,, If it works out, I'll let you know what happens, Try before you buy, type of thing,,
Maybe I tell him that theres a party at my house, bring the Cam,,, You never know,,
:YeaBaby:

[Windbreaker]

Also. When the Cam is on the Heli is pretty twitchy for the first 30 seconds. I think the Spectum RX/TX on the cam was screwing with the DX7. I beleive the twitching was the RX on the Heli rapidly switching channels,,, But that's just my guess. When the CAM is not mounted. there are no more twitchy jerks. :bawl

I wonder if the camera is spewing some RF that interferes with the RC receiver?

Another problem I encountered with an HDD recorder was noise that was picked up by my wireless mic system. I was using an Audio Technica setup in the 600 mHz band and the HD recorder would foul up the signal unless it was at least 2 feet away. The noise got worse when it was in record mode.

I later discovered that even a desktop Firewire LaCie hard drive radiated considerable noise that a wireless mic receiver could pick up right through two layers of drywall.

The hard drive in the camcorder might be a problem with the RC system's range if the interference it generates is bad enough.

[Randallhurd]

I'm not sure exactly what caused it, after I took the JVC cam on the Heli, All the twitching has gone away. Keep in mind, when the Heli shut down I was at about 300 feet.
Had to do an Auto Rotate. The pitch for 50% stick responded too late and caused a hard enough landing to crack the Skidds,,I got very lucky,,Didn't crack the blades or bend the boom.

I would also add that the Battery didn't flop out like they normally do with that kind of Impact. I insulated the bottom of the Lipo with some Military 5 ton floor padding and Zip Tied the battery to the rack, rather than use the flimsy straps that Align has. Not a Scratch on the Battery. The padding consist of a medium grade hardend foam that is rubber insulated.

Today to see if the problem was the Cam, I flew approximately 300 - 400 to regain trust in the heli, I did some figure 8's at that approximate altitude also, for a sustained 5 Minutes,, No problems, I feel pretty comfortable that it was the Cam..
That caused the receiver to fail.I put the Cam back on for a 6 foot hover and it started twitching again. Donno,,:smokin: