"Spy" Camera

After finding how much I enjoyed using the Polaroid Cube+, this little camera on EBay looked intriguing. The lense is so small that it fit in the window of an On30 cab:

I wrapped some tape around the camera and battery and placed it over the decoder (and battery for the engine) on the tender frame. The ribbon cable that attaches to the lens is quite long so a more permanent solution could work. I would also change the battery to use the same one as the engine if it doesn't introduce too much "noise" to the signal. 

It turns out that the video is saved in an .asf format and needs to be downloaded to a PC so I will have to do this at work. My MAC just won't let me "see" the iPhone as a flash drive. (I'm sure there is a way but was impatient and gave up trying.) The software in the iPhone is pretty nice and brightness and contrast are adjustable. Some of the shots are black and white - not sure why but I must have turned this on.

The B&W shot in the staging are is interesting as I had been wondering if adding some scenery here (or other hidden locations like a helix) would add some dimension to running the engine where you would normally be looking at lights on a panel or setting up some automation. This could really make running "to the rest of the world" much more interesting.  Is how would I add a standard gage interchange here ... hmm.

I'll post some video from this on YouTube later this week or over the new year's weekend. Thanks for looking! Please share your thoughts and shots here too. 

Interesting idea ...

Fun idea!

I like that you can fit the camera into the cab, as it gives a good engineer's perspective. I set my GoPro on a flatcar and pushed it around the simple loop I set up for the family during Thanksgiving. Your setup looks more robust.

You could probably put some basic scenery in the staging area - I would be interested to see how that would change operations.

-matt

Cube+

@Joe: I agree that it would improve visibility but I didn't want to mess with my 4-4-0 and the other engines are smaller (Shays, Porters, Forneys, and Climax). The idea was to provide an alternate pov when trying to tell a story along with the iphone or Cube+. Here is the link I posted elsewhere using the Cube+ in a short sided gon and alongside the track:

GoPro

Matt:

That looks like fun! I've already been thinking about making a chainsaw layout for next Christmas. My old garden trains would be fun to see running again.

Consider posting your vid's here.

View from your router or remotely

@ Neil,

Great work with that new spy camera.  It is my understanding that from your phone you can go into settings on the camera, set it to connect to your home router, then it can be viewed from any computer/tablet/etc on your home network, and if you open the port on your router it can be viewed remotely from anywhere on the web.

This

BTW Did something similar with an older mini camera.  It connected to a receiver, then thru a RCA cable to a surveillance DVR, thence to the router and the web.  The new camera you have would make installation in a loco a snap, a the engineer's view from an F3 cab should be an easy task.

Happy Holidays and keep up the great work.

Dave