Camera Car Build

[eric220]

P.S. The camera is a Looxcie 2:

http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine/showthread.php?148445-Video-of-Layout-with-Very-Nice-Scenery&p=900967#post900967

Still not a fan of the optics.  The near field focus is poor, to be polite.  The exposure correction is kind of nice, in that there's nothing too dim, but it's distracting moving from light to dark, and it badly overexposed the image at several points.  After reading about all the potential earlier in this thread and then seeing the results, I'm still happy with my TC-9.

[eric220]

Now that I'm back from vacation and have a little time, I got some more work in on this project.  I finally committed to solder and superglue and got the TC-9 into the BF-16.



(Appologies for the crappy iPhone camera under incandescent light photo.)

She's made several successful laps of the upper level, and I'm really enjoying the view.  The wheelbase of this engine seems to mitigate the outside swing on curves.  It's present, but it's much less than it was with the test car.

On the flip side, there's definitely some tweaking to do.  The flexibility of the floor and internal cables seem to be creating a springy effect on the shell, so if it hits a bump, it bounces around quite a bit.  The back of the shell seems to like to ride up a bit, and I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do about that.  She's a little light, but that's easy enough to fix.  Her wheels are also a bit stiff, so I need to get in there and lube them so she's a little more free-rolling.  It's also quite apparent that I will need more lighting.  That's always been the plan since having the track lighting installed, but it seems that I've finally got a reason to dig into that project.

[eric220]

Oh, Peteski, question.  The instructions for the TC-9 recommend removing the battery when not in use.  It's kind of a pain to disassemble the whole dang thing and pop the battery out.  Do you remove the battery?

[peteski]

Oh, Peteski, question.  The instructions for the TC-9 recommend removing the battery when not in use.  It's kind of a pain to disassemble the whole dang thing and pop the battery out.  Do you remove the battery?

No, If you look at the writeups I pointed you to you'll notice that I installed a switch in line with the battery.  That way all I have to do is turn the switch off.  I just spliced  the switch into one of the battery leads.

[eric220]

I was thinking about doing that. Time to go find a slide switch.

[Philip H]

I was thinking about doing that. Time to go find a slide switch.

Lee should have some spare about now . . . .

[eric220]

Well, I finally got brave enough to shoot a quick video.  I had to borrow a couple of track lights from other parts of the room, and I have yet to get a new antenna, so there are still some improvements to be made.

[peteski]

Looks good but as you say, you need more light. In time, scenery will make the trip more interesting. 

[CodyO]

Just imagine your on the great plains in the 1800s and its cloudy out!

[DKS]

So with all of this talk of the superior optics of the TC-9, I purchased one and ran some tests. Although the depth of field was indeed much better, I was alarmed to see a tremendous amount of signal interference, and nothing I could do eliminated it; I could only reduce it slightly by keeping the receiver within several feet of the camera--not especially convenient. I was also displeased with the general appearance of the image with respect to color rendition and resolution--the colors were washed out, the overall effect of the image was grainy, and there was a tendency for room lights to cause lens flare and blooming. I thought at first I was doing something wrong, but then I played Eric's short test video, and saw the same interference issues. I plan to prepare a side-by-side comparison video with both cameras in order to decide which is less desirable: the lack of depth of field of the Looxcie, or the video noise and generally poor video quality of the TC-9. To be honest, I think the TC-9 may wind up the loser, as to me video interference is more distracting than the depth of field is pleasing.

Here's my TC-9 rig, by the way. I used a Kato loco chassis for heft to keep the "jiggles" down, and it has a steering device out front so the camera turns into curves.

[Philip H]

@DKS - another "slaps head and exclaims" moment.  The use of a loco chassis is a great idea.  Not only do you get heft, but you get milled out voids to hold batteries and switches.

@Eric - to quote an infamous California pop culture . . . figure . . . even in low light, your track is the shizzle!

[rogergperkins]

David, nice design. Please share some videos with us from this PC-9.  Thanks.

[John]

Eric .. impressed with how smooth your track work is ...

[eric220]

DKS - Peteski can probably offer more insight on the washout issue, but my understanding is that the TC-9 is very sensitive to IR light. The washout is probably being caused by the IR from the layout lighting. I got mine directly from Japan with an IR filter built in.

Phillip & John - Anything looks smooth at 20 SMPH. 

[DKS]

DKS - Peteski can probably offer more insight on the washout issue, but my understanding is that the TC-9 is very sensitive to IR light. The washout is probably being caused by the IR from the layout lighting. I got mine directly from Japan with an IR filter built in.

I tracked the washout problem down to lens flare; when I placed a hood over the camera body, most of it went away. There shouldn't be a whole lot of IR light on that layout anyway--the lighting is all fluorescent. I tried the camera at home under a variety of lighting conditions, and the color rendition is just plain poor. Not sure if it's my specific camera, but I suspect that's the way these are, based on other videos I've seen using the TC-9.

Edit: Noticed I had the privacy lock set on the comparison video. It's fixed now.

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