Tips for DIY target cam?

[juststarting]

...but really, a wise bearded weirdo once said there's is no kill like overkill

[juststarting]

http://www.busywww.com/cameraremote.aspx bet you have old mobiles not sure of the range you could look at this sort of thing

Conceptually, the same thing. But having it run on a dedicated computer gives a bit more flexibility with what can be done in terms of taking photos or videos. How it's streamed and most important, wifi range.

That said, this is what I had around the house... Minus camera module, I did buy that specifically for this project. Rest is just recycled old projects. If I had old phones and could power a wifi router for long enough with a small battery, I'd probably use that...

[juststarting]

Alright, so everyone is sleeping and it's time to get back to it... Granted I am sitting right next to the antenna, but hardware, router and programatic camera control part is done.



Tomorrow will go for a walk with a rangefinder and see how far the signal will stretch...


*router, i.e. making it run as a WiFi access point, so I can connect and control it from my phone.

Random thought, since this is a router after all, I could even add a second WiFi dongle and then a cheap 4G hotspot, to upload images somewhere in real time. Arghhhh must resist the urge to over engineer already over engineered

[juststarting]

...aaaaand some digging through my draw of hardware I refuse to throwout... Hoping the panel antenna will do it.

[juststarting]

My toys arrived today and I quickly hooked everything up, to see if it arrived alive.

I've tried a couple of different setups. I am not sure, I think someone mentioned bluetooth - this is out immediately, range is in meters (normally)...
WiFi - same deal.

What you want is to stream to a device like a phone, to take photos and record... And range...

Another requirement, the transmitter has to be cheap! So you don't cry if it comes home with a hole from a bullet or most likely hit by fragments.

I purchased 2 FPV cameras (what you use on a drone). One has an inbuilt transmitter and the other is just a camera and I hooked it up to a transmitter. the camera and transmitter separately is actually a smaller unit than the one in the photo (all in one). I like all in one because you can have a spare. The camera with transmitter was $40.55 (second camera and separate transmitter I got were actually a lot cheaper) - all from Bangood.



I don't have the time right now, I need to build some jig (like a breadboard or something) to experiment with it. I want to avoid soldering until I am done with everything. When I get around to it, I will set it up in a housing in front of a target and see how it looks in good light.

Next, the receiver. Receiver and cameras have to function independently. I got this one:

($21.24)

You can see that this one connects directly to an Android tablet or phone and streams to screen. I can now take screenshots or record video. It is powered by the device, but I am going to give it auxiliary power when I am done. I think the next model can be used with an iPhone (if you are disabled or something).

Range on this thing at a very minimum would be 500m. However, given enough power, you can crank up transmission power (little turn thing on camera).

This is how the entire rig looks:

(Housing for 18650 - $3.23; 8 x 18650 - $16.99)

Currently it's running of one 18650, but I will wire 4 - 2 in serial x 2 parallel.

When I get time, I'll hook it all up a little more sturdy, grab my range finder and test the distance.

BONUS:
If you miss and hit the unit, specifically the battery, boom So you know, if you destroy it, it's still fun.

I'll test it with day lite and paper... If it works, great. I think it will.

I am confident I can comfortably get 1km out of this.

Plan B:
If I am not happy with image quality, I will change the camera unit only. I will either try to use a HD camera from Raspberry Pi (will need to see if i can wire that in) or more likely, order a clone of GoPro with AV out. It will have it's own power and I will power the transmitter separately. I also want an action cam, so there's that.

Anyway, that's about it. I am happy that all components work. Will write a full how to when it's all done.


PART 2, because there's no kill like an overkill (--Bentaz)
Because images comes through on the device, image can be parsed... So you could have hole identification/highlight/circle and all that (in theory). This will be part part 2 when I am done with hardware side.

[Stix]

Fantastic JS...!

[juststarting]

Looking Forward to seeing your working model. Also get the run down on it. I was a electronics geek and back in the day I would have been all over this. I have to say I have lost a lot of that passion. I just look on now with appreciation of those that do.

Ohhh I am very, very, very far from an electronics geeks. I'd really like to understand it a lot better, but I am far from it.

I have seen the wifi aerials that will do the 1000yrd plus at work. The Hexta system ues them a long rectangular about 25 cm they actually point at the low power device at each end the computer and the transmitter at the target. They have enough power and signal pattern out the side and back to make the distance between the target and computer.

Correcto, a panel antenna with line of sight and a car battery to power it. It's certainly possible to do this. It's just not possible for this use case, where I want to have a portable unit I could 'just drop in'.

Someone (million times better at this than me) suggested I look at a different approach, using XBees. Which would work very well. And in some way it's the most elegant and the best solution (maybe version 2 later). They are small transmitters used in industrial control systems (think activating a water pump over 10km away over RF). They are very cheap and would definitely work over 10s of km's, but it's the path of the most resistance to do with custom software setup... Also, images received would be either of low quality or transmission would be very slow, but high quality images would be retrieved directly form the transmitter after shooting, I suppose. Definitely doable, just chose not to if I can achieve this quicker with very common and cheap components.

As for the bullseye camera system, I like them. Cost is very prohibitive though, especially for their top model (which is really the only reasonable model and generally for what it is). I had a look inside the box they come in - it's a camera, router and a battery. They are all pretty large too, few minuses there. I am guessing you are paying for the software and niche market. Ignoring software, I thought, hrmmm, I can do this in my head now, so this is where I am (I will think about image editing later).

[Eddie]

I have built a system from cheap banggood stuff as well. Eachine inexpensive TX and rx and used and old video camera. I use one of those ray gun shaped directional antenna for the rx. I have had it working at 900m. I need a better monitor. How did you use your tablet as Monitor?
Thanks Eddie

[Eddie]

Sorry, read back and saw the Lieber unit for the av to tablet signal. The rx and TX i use are 5.8ghz 200m.
I see Matlab has some image processing features. I just don't know how to use it.
More surfing needed.
Eddie

[Diddums]

You could use a drone if you have one. Set it up stationary near the target and just stream the feed to you phone or tablet.
My DJI Mavic has a 7km range for 720p footage.

[juststarting]

Drones use FPV cameras and rf transmitters... What I posted above, just minus the motors lol Surrounded by tech giants here lol

[juststarting]

The AV equipment on the drone would be the same I recon. The drone is a different story.

[TassieTiger]

This is quite interesting - has it progressed at all?

I’m toying with the idea myself - was considering cabling the distance and using a jay car door entrance cam powered by 12v inverted to 240v.

Either that or use an old work ubiquitous microwave dish to link a cheap sports action camera - daylight shooting could be powered from 200w solar panel / battery. Heck, up battery capacity and drop in some leds for night time target shooting practice at distance and watch hits in real time on tablet or laptop.
Which way to go - Bunnings often runs 250m 1.9mm dual elec cable for $70-$80...but I unscrupulous devil and cable might be dead. Hmmm...
Has anyone else done something similar ??