Inexpensive solid state in Car Video System

[Neal]

I've put together a video system that I'm installing in my car. In another car I used a camcorder mounted to the roll bar. After much thrashing it finally failed. I began looking at lipstick cameras and other recording media and came up with the following setup.

Sony CCD 480 line resolution camera - $90
Neuros MPEG4 recorder - $150
BNC to RCA adapter allowing input into the recorder - $5
High gain microphone - $15
1GB Compact Flash Card - $20
Simple voltage divider circuit (12v for camera/mic, 5V for recorder) ~$5

Total cost - $285

The Neuros player is a compact flash-based digital video recorder. (No moving parts.) I looked at personal video players, like the Sony PSP, but most did not have video input capability. Those that did were in the $500 to $700 range. The down side to using the Neuros player is that you don't have a monitor to view the menuing. This proved not to be a problem as it has a remote. When you press the record button it automatically begins recording and a red LED is active until you press the record again. The file is stored directly to the Compact Flash card and can be downloaded to a PC in MPEG-4 format. a 1GB flash car has 200-500 minute record capability depending on the video quality setting.

This player is about the size of a DVD case.

I made a voltage divider circuit and run the camera and mic at 12V and the recorder at 5V. You would buy an off-the-shelf voltage reducer for $20 if soldering irons scare you.

When researching cameras I found those with the Sony chipset have better resolution and adjust to light more effectively. These are commonly available at security system supply houses. I mounted the camera and mic on the cockpit firewall. The camera is weatherproof so you could mount it outside the car.

I'll post some video when the weather clears. All-in-all the picture is quite good and similar to a low to mid-range camcorder at half the price. Best of all there are no moving parts.

 

[Gary Gibbs]

Hi Neal. Great low cost idea. Would it be possible to e-mail me a short clip in the highest resolution and I will try to sync it with my Race Technology data logger to see if this is a possible integrated solution. The subject matter does not have to be anything special. Thanks.

 

[Gary Gibbs]

Also which camera did you go with? Where did you buy it?

Thanks again,

 

[Ron Earp]

Neal, these things are being disucssed a lot on the Spec Miata and Improved Touring sites, good to see somone messing with them here. Does it handle SD cards? All my electronic goodies, laptop, cameras, video camera, are SD so I'd like to have a recorder that handles SD.

Thanks, going to check those bits out on Ebay for prices! I'm sort of keen to get one since I destroyed one video camera mounting in the race car and Julie isn't letting the replacement back to the track.

Gary, there are some examples of various ones on the sites I mentioned if you want to go there and search. All in all, I think they are perfect to teaching and learning at the track, but they might not be perfect for making home movies.

R

 

[Neal]

Gary, I'll capture something this week and email it. I picked up the camera locally. They are available online. I saw a number on ebay. Also here: http://www.buy.com/prod/Swann_SW_P_BCC_Color_Bullet_Camera_with_Audio/q/loc/111/90132347.html

Ron, Yes SD memory sticks are supported.
The player also supports a number of microdrives. The tech specs are here: http://www.neurostechnology.com

 

[Ian Anderson]

Neal

How about one that records to a USB memory stick

Instant unplug and fairly easy to move to any computer system

Also the price of those is so good now you could take a handful of them for a track day

Ian

 

[Sandy]

Neil -

That is a very cool device. I think the next version (the development board v3) has USB after polking around on the site bu not sure how that will be used. The big problem is the quality of the camera. I would be very curious to see how well the low cost Swann one works out, it would be a really nice low cost package if it does.

One thing that is good about the old video camera is the lens and audio. Might be a good way to go, an el-cheepo (or last years model) minidv video camera for the cockpit cam and just use it for its video/audio outputs. Many new cameras have the SD/Memorystick built in, but not sure if you can record to them (mostly for pictures but not sure). The video cam also has some other things that the lipstick cams don't, much better dynamic range, usually better resolution, image stabalizer as well as a shutter.

How about 3 of these, one for the Dash/foot cam, one for front windsheild cam, and one for a back window or fender cam, edit them up with split screen and that would be a nice video as well as helpful from the learning side of things. Use the remote to start them all at the same time. Would be a very nice small package.

Neil, post a link if you can of the sample file I would love to see how it looks as well.

Sandy

 

[J. Salmon]

Thanks!

I have been loking for a solution, and this is great. Cheap, and can go almost anywhere. I am also looking for something that will work on a mountain bike, and this is perfect!

 

[Sandy]

Finally got some time to figure out the in car cam stuff. Found out from various folks about the Neuros recorders that they are a pain in the a$$ to deal with since they have no hand controls and you must use the remote, and it is difficult to tell if actually recording.

The other problem is that they often DOA in the automotive environment (like my dead camcorder).

Finally got one of these -

ChaseCam Solid State Video Recorders

It records in MPEG2 format (DVD) which is not as highly compressed as the DivX (MPEG4 - Neuros), and seems to be of very high quaity. It cost about 3x more then Neuros (mid 400's), but has built in batt, external batt, nice LCD, and tons of little cool features and more coming. They also have a PIP processor to support multi-camera. I can finally have the Foot Cam

Also found this, which if you do have some telemetry you can do pro looking videos with not too much work. Note that the PDR will likely be able to do some of the data display directly if you have one of the supported ECU/Data collection systems.

Apex Visualizations - TrackVision Desktop Documentation

Cool sofware, not crazy priced either.

Sandy

 

[Ron Earp]

Good topic. I destroyed one 8mm DVR on the track, wife said no more after that. This has been discussed on our race site as well, some cheap stuff out there as you folks have found that works great.

Cheap bullet-cam/DVR setup - IT.com Forums

 

[Sandy]

Ron, yep, got the same heat for breaking the family Camcorder.

A couple of the things that was a common thread on all the low cost solutions were lower resolution and pain for acquiring power, and of couse the time to make all the stuff play well.

They are coming out with a couple of other models, one that will be lower cost and not have the LCD display and a couple of features, but will as USB download and be smaller (I was told iPod like). It's a couple of guys that make them in San Diego and sell them so I also feel good about supporting them

Cool stuff.

Sandy

 

[Ron Earp]

I think that one you found is quite good. The ones on that thread I posted are hard to find nowadays. I've got to get one before the season starts but need to watch the money. Just got one of these ordered finally, I had one ordered last year but it got back ordered for months and I cancelled it:

Traqmate.com GPS Data Acquisition

These are about the best thing you can get to improve laptimes (and others like it such as the DL1, etc), people swear by them.

 

[Sandy]

That is way cool (TraqMate) it has the missing things that I would like to have and that is the poor man's data acq. I just want a couple of channels one being tach.

The software looks like the same as TrackVision, and the same price likey rebadged, but the system is not too badly priced for the starter.

Sandy

 

[Brett James-McCall]

Sandy,
Have a look at these people based here in the UK: bullet camera kits

Brett

 

[Ron Earp]

The software looks like the same as TrackVision, and the same price likey rebadged, but the system is not too badly priced for the starter.

Sandy

No, it isn't bad at all. There was a review of all of them in Sportscar and while this one doesn't have some of the big ticket items like others, it doesn't have a price >$2000 either. For $1000 it has the basics, including easy to use software and in car timer. The kicker for us was ease of use (saw demo at track) and quick switching between cars - only takes seconds.

R

 

[Sandy]

Sandy,
Have a look at these people based here in the UK: bullet camera kits

Brett

They had some interesting stuff, the cameras look to be similar to what most folks are using. I got one from Sony CCD Helmet Camera 580 tvl ex View HQ1 Bullet Cam,SD DVR and Accessories - Helmet Cameras, Bullet Cams and In Car Racing Video Systems and ChaseCam, Your source for Video At Speed lots of the same stuff. The one thing that was interesting was the video PIP/spit screen processor. I saw those at a local electronic place (Fry's) and was thinking on how to rig it up, but when you end up with all the tangle of cables and battery packs, worth a bit to get one that was made for the car. The quad camera process is pretty good, but I think it was in the 200 usd range when I saw them.

Sandy

 

[Russ Noble]

Just dragging this one up again....

I'm right out of my depth here with all this hi tech stuff.....

I have spent hours searching and going through the various links, I don't want to spend megabucks on a camera and recorder but I want something that will last the distance and be easy to operate. Good bullet cams seem to be available for well under $US200, that's OK and reasonably straight forward. But, for me, the choices of recorders, Mini DVR's, PVR's, camcorders etc is somewhat daunting, particularly when I'm not familiar with all the terminology and systems.

Can anyone outline what features I should be looking for in a DVR or camcorder etc so that it is compatible with the camera?

Also here in NZ the system we use is PAL not NTSC.

It has been suggested that solid state is the way to go. If something is digital, is it necessarily solid state? Just trying to get my head round the basics still!

Pegasus recommend this Sony camcorder but I believe it's not solid state and the advice here has been to go solid state......
"Our systems include everything you need except the actual recording device. Any device that accepts an external Audio/Video signal using standard RCA style connectors will work such as an Analog or Digital Camcorder or Personal Video Recorder. If you're looking for an economical camcorder with all the right features to work with these video systems, we recommend the Sony DCR-HC32 MiniDV Handycam (street price below $300)."

The Chasecam and Datatoys recorder solutions are a bit over the top for me. And Neuros and Mustek seem to have operational drawbacks.

Who's been through all this and come up with a user friendly, durable, relatively moderately priced system? What would be a good inexpensive camcorder or DVR. Seems ability to accept an SD card is also a basic requirement?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Cheers

 

[Sandy]

The Chase came is worth stretching for if you are going to do a bunch of track work. The camcorders do well, but might have a longevity problem, they do have nicer lenses then most of the bullet cams around but the newer ones from Chase and Datatoys are getting pretty good and are tiny. The Chasecam recorder is a really trick device. All sort of fun stuff it can do, I think they added a simple G-Force display recently. About the only thing that I don't like about the Chasecam recorder is the battery life with AA bats is not so good unless you use some expensive LiOn cells, but it can be wired to the car power or run from external cells (I did the external battery route). The Chasecam supports PAL or NTSC I think with the same device.

Solid state in terms of the recording media means that it will record to a memory card of some type instead of tape. Most do CF (compact flash) or SD (Secure Digital) and are about 50 $USD for an 4 Gig card, typically the larger cards are CF. The SD cards are more often then found in recorders that use compression to store the data, i.e. Neuros, and some of the other pocket recorders. Most pocket recorders suffer from being low resolution or are really expensive. The memory recorders are also really nice as you can just plug the card into your PC (via a memory card reader of course) and access the data. With tape, takes a bit longer to xfer the data and likely compress it.

I can't say enough good things about the Chasecam recorder, it is just another product that someone came up with that fits the bill, and they have good support. It just cost more for the recorder and memory.

Russ, with the money you saved on the Racemate should be no problem

Sandy

 

[Russ Noble]

Sandy,

Thanks for the reply. That's set me straight on a few things that were confusing me.

Maybe I should spring for the Chasecam setup.... The Chasecam PDR doesn't have a picture display though does it? How did you get on for pointing the camera?

Cheers

 

[Sandy]

Nope, you will need a mini-lcd tv to aim it. You will want one anyways so you can playback your videos at the track. I got a 5" el-cheepo from amazon that had video in.

Check out the website and forum for lots of info.

Sandy