Rocketry Planet

For years, video has been transmitted from rockets to receiving stations on the ground. The advent of small camcorders offers the ability to store video on the rocket itself. This eliminates the problem of 'signal dropout' that causes transmitted video to be momentarily lost as the rocket spins.

Camcorders, however, can be rather costly. They are also somewhat difficult to modify and secure within a rocket.

This is changing, however, with the advent of 'sports' camcorders. Small, lightweight, and unobtrusive, they are 100% solid-state devices, with no tapes or disks that make up the bulkiest part of the camera. As such, they are quite suited for mounting on rockets. Some are limited by the amount of memory they have available, or the size of the batteries they use. As always, it is up to the person wanting to fly them to make the tradeoffs they are happy with.

This article focuses on a camcorder from Samsung - the SportsCam SC-300X. I chose this one because it is equipped with an external 'pod' camera that can be mounted on a helmet or armband. This makes it uniquely suited for mounting in a rocket, because the main camera does not have to be modified at all. As such, I will not describe the camera itself - just the modifications to the external camera module.

The photo above shows the external camera assembly. The small pendant in the middle of the cable is for on/off and recording start/stop control. You will notice that it only has one button - the system is set up so that you press the button for more than 2 seconds to turn the camera on or off, and a press of about one second starts and stops the recording. This makes the modifications for external control quite straightforward.

The first step is to remove the control electronics from the casing of the pendant. Two small screws on the back of the casing are all that holds it together. You will find a circuit board with a few small integrated circuit chips, a switch, and a pair of LED lamps. At the top and bottom of the board are two connectors that bridge the two cables. For my system, the smallest connector is loosened for removal and replacement, but you don't have to do this.

Also, I was unable to make an external LED work with this system, so you should keep this in mind when you set up your mounting - it's useful to have the pendants visible, so that you can check the status with the LEDs. (Blue indicates the camera is "on", red indicates "recording.")

The relay wires are soldered to the small tabs on either side of the pushbutton switch - you don't have to take this switch apart, as you do with a film or digital camera. You do, however, have to be careful to avoid getting solder on the metal body of the switch, as this can cause short-circuits that will prevent proper functioning.

Once you have the wires soldered into place, you have the option of re-mounting the circuit-board in the pendant casing. Should you decide to do this, you will have to widen the opening to allow the wire to pass through with the other cable. A sharp hobby knife is sufficient to do this.

Once everything is back together, simply plug the module into the appropriate port, and test that everything works. When you confirm that the camera works as you expect it to, all that's left is to adapt your control circuit to suit, build a suitable mounting system, and launch it.

Len Lekx is a high power rocketeer who resides in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and in addition to flying high power rockets also enjoys photography and electronics. For Len's contribution of this article, he will receive a free Rocketry Planet T-shirt. This sponsorship is made possible by our friends at Graphix & Stuff, producers of high quality hobby apparel and vinyl signage. Want your own free gifts? Read the program details page for complete information.

Reader comments:

#1 Re: CAM101: How to Modify a Camera to Fly in Your Rockets

Historical Correction:

The first commercially available rocket camera was the black and white CAMROC in 1965. It was sold and experimented on from that year until it was discontinued in 1975. The Astrocam 110 came out in 1979 and was phased out around 2007 when 110 film (along with other types of 35 mm film) started to disappear from the market.

Astrosaint

Astrosaint on 08-16-2009 08:18 AM

#2 Re: CAM101: How to Modify a Camera to Fly in Your Rockets

Quote:

Historical Correction:

Thanks for that... I sometimes get the names and dates mixed up.

Len_Lekx on 08-16-2009 09:04 AM

#3 Re: CAM101: How to Modify a Camera to Fly in Your Rockets

If you're following this series, I haven't finished my article on camcorders yet. It'll be posted as soon as I can finish documenting the modifications. (Rather hard to take 'in-progress' photos when the job is already completed... )

Len_Lekx on 10-10-2009 08:06 PM

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