This idea isn't dead, just on pause, having a hard time getting my hands on camera stuff.
Hey Pete, what system did you use for your locomotive cameras? I'm thinking the only way to get this done anytime soon is to buy something like you used, and try to remove the camera portion from the housing and go from there....
There really isn't anything you can remove. The 0.4" X 0.4" x 0.6" cube is pretty much the camera and the integrated 2.4GHz transmitter. Most of that cube is a a hollow chamber. The rear third of the cube contains 2 circuit boards. One holds the image sensor and some additional circuitry and right behind it is the 2nd board housing more camera circuitry and the RF transmitter. Everything is pretty much integrated. After all, this camera is over 10 years old. Back in its day it was a revolutionary (and incredibly small) design.
Well, it is still a very small camera/transmitter easily hidden in N scale model.
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But the real treasure here is the power supply for it. The camera/transmitter need a 5V power supply. The supply provided with that setup is to me alone worth the price of the unit. It is a very advanced switching power supply. The power supply is a separate unit (much larger than the camera/transmitter). It takes a wide range of AC/DC/DCC voltages and converts them to regulated 5V the camera needs. But there is more. It also takes the input voltage and charges a 1/3 AAA 1.2V NiCad rechargeable battery. Then when the input voltage drops or goes below certain voltage it seamlessly switches to battery power. But since the battery is only 1.2V, there must be a DC/DC converter in the supply which converts 1/2V to 5V. The whole circuit works like a miniature UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply).
