Camera part 2

[drew]

So after PK's thread regarding small form factor cameras it hit me that the GoPro Session lines have been OOP for some time now and there must surely be some new cameras available that are very small and adapatable to our use case. Fairly quickly I found myself on HobbyKing looking at some of the FPV offerings. Then I remembered Mike P. flew a RunCam a while back and I thought they'd be worth looking at again. I was right. (thanks Mike!)

First off, it appears that a fair amount of the FPV camera manfacturers have continued with the Hero Session form factor (38mm x38mm x36mm) and made their own offerings. For instance:

Runcam 5 Orange
https://shop.runcam.com/runcam-5-orange/

Caddx Orca
https://caddxfpv.com/collections/fpv-hd-equipment/products/caddx-orca

Firefly Micro 2
Kinda a Session form factor, but slightly smaller (30mm x30mm x36mm)
https://www.fireflycameras.com/products/hawkeye-firefly-micro-2-preorder

But while I was looking at these cameras my eyes wandered to the splits. These seem borderline ideal for our use case from a "flying camera inside av bay" perspective. I don't want a bulky case around the camera and board ideally, and having the two split gives a smaller footprint when compared to all in one units. Most of the splits and FPV cameras don't write out video data to microSD. But there is a subset that does and look quite useful imo. And while some (like the RunCam Split 3) state you shouldn't run them directly off a LiPo it does work in that manner. Apparently you can put a BEC in-line between a LiPo and board and it automagically solves everything but that's something I've read, not something I know.

Anyway, here's a few of the "split" cameras with onboard HD video recording.

Runcam Split 3
https://shop.runcam.com/runcam-split-3-micro-and-split-3-nano/

Caddx Baby Turtle
https://caddxfpv.com/collections/fpv-hd-equipment/products/caddx-baby-turtle

HawkEye Firefly Split Mini 4k
https://www.fireflycameras.com/products/hawkeye-firefly-split-mini-version-4k-170-degree-hd-recording-dvr-fpv-camera-wdr-single-board-built-in-mic-low-latency-tv-output-for-rc-drone-airplane

I was thinking an epoxy conformal coating on the board would be a value add, especially on the join between the board and lens train. Any comments on that? Anyone got any experience with split cameras from a RC or rocketry perspective?

[strud]

Thanks Drew

Thinking about mini/micro cameras of this type now myself. Looks like a great couple of options there for pretty reasonable prices.

[strud]

So after Drew found these great Runcam Split versions, I went and got one myself.

I now have one mounted in my 4" av bay and started digging more into their capabilities other than just recording great video.

Turns out there is a nice serial interface protocol that allows full control of the camera AND an overlay mechanism

https://support.runcam.com/hc/en-us/articles/360014537794-RunCam-Device-Protocol

So plan is to push data from either the RocTrak or FarTrak devices I have on board. Most likely things to show on the video I can think of would be:

- Altitude
- Velocity/speed
- Bearing
- FC state
- squib status

I figure lat & long are a bit much and less relevant when watching the video. This will be logged elsewhere