First things first. Get a big towel and spread it out over your work surface. Why you say? Well if you've ever been down on your hands and knees with a flashlight looking for an impossibly microscopic screw or other part, it's obvious.
For the uninitiated, the screw hits the towel and stays put. No more carpet safaris.
Let's get started.
Since the build is going to require me to handle the cameras a lot, they need to be protected.
If you recall the programming vid (See the end of this post for the video.), this is how I kept it secured. A thousand and 2 ways to use the extra hands rig.
Here's the camera housing laid out. You'll need a 0 and 00 Phillips to assemble this.
This step is something the little flyer that comes with it doesn't bother to tell you about.
You have to remove the lens housing, referred to as the barrel, off the board.
This shot also give you a good look at where all the magic takes place. That's a Sony HAD CCD pickup. The green tinted filter laying over the pickup is the IR cut filter.
In this case it's just a film stuck to the edges of the pickup. If you remove that the low light sensitivity goes way up but in the light of day, the color detail suffers.
Next is to loosen the knurl nut up buy turning it counter clockwise. Then remove the lens from barrel. Take the barrel and the screws, put them in a baggies and put them up.
Next shot here is the extra trim that comes from the factory to facilitate installing in different housings. In this case that has to be removed.
It's not complicated to do proving you have the right tool. The corners are already perfed so just grab at the perf with a blunt nosed plier and give it a slight bend.
Go all the way around giving it a slight bend. Turn it over and bend in the other direction to get it to finally let go. Note: don't get on the wrong side of the perf. You can break the board. It's just simple fiberglass.
Also note that a famous RC model reviewer suggests using wire cutters to snip it off. Don't! if you get in the wrong place or it slips while squeezing down you can cut the wrong part and kill the camera.
In the shot above you notice after snapping off the extra you still have rough edges in the corners. Believe it or not that little bit keeps it from fitting in the case.
I just took a Exacto knife and trimmed most of it off.
Lay the board in and secure with the right two screws. Upper left and lower right. When you lay the back on you'll see why.
Lay the back on and run down the two long screws. At this point you should have three short screws left.
Attach the mounting bracket. Should have one screw left by the way.
And finally screw the lens in. Go ahead and just snug down the knurl nut. You'll need to power up the camera and set the focus. Then you tighten it down.
There's two flat spots on the knurl nut for a open end wrench like an ignition wrench.
Now you get to find out what the last screw is for. It goes in the side of the barrel to hold the lens in place. I'll use the knurl nut, thank you. If the screw is run down too far it can bugger up the threads and push the lens tube out of round.
Back in the extra hands rig and pointed at something. Connected to power and the pocket DVR and it's time to focus the camera once again. Note to self: Quit mucking about and get a 8 or 10 inch monitor for doing this stuff.
And back in service.
Programming video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqvASmLBzDo
I strapped the camera with a 1.7mm lens to the leg of my hex and with a pocket DVR recording what the camera saw, I got this neat video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjDUVG44rJQ
For the uninitiated, the screw hits the towel and stays put. No more carpet safaris.
Let's get started.
Since the build is going to require me to handle the cameras a lot, they need to be protected.
If you recall the programming vid (See the end of this post for the video.), this is how I kept it secured. A thousand and 2 ways to use the extra hands rig.
Here's the camera housing laid out. You'll need a 0 and 00 Phillips to assemble this.
This step is something the little flyer that comes with it doesn't bother to tell you about.
You have to remove the lens housing, referred to as the barrel, off the board.
This shot also give you a good look at where all the magic takes place. That's a Sony HAD CCD pickup. The green tinted filter laying over the pickup is the IR cut filter.
In this case it's just a film stuck to the edges of the pickup. If you remove that the low light sensitivity goes way up but in the light of day, the color detail suffers.
Next is to loosen the knurl nut up buy turning it counter clockwise. Then remove the lens from barrel. Take the barrel and the screws, put them in a baggies and put them up.
Next shot here is the extra trim that comes from the factory to facilitate installing in different housings. In this case that has to be removed.
It's not complicated to do proving you have the right tool. The corners are already perfed so just grab at the perf with a blunt nosed plier and give it a slight bend.
Go all the way around giving it a slight bend. Turn it over and bend in the other direction to get it to finally let go. Note: don't get on the wrong side of the perf. You can break the board. It's just simple fiberglass.
Also note that a famous RC model reviewer suggests using wire cutters to snip it off. Don't! if you get in the wrong place or it slips while squeezing down you can cut the wrong part and kill the camera.
In the shot above you notice after snapping off the extra you still have rough edges in the corners. Believe it or not that little bit keeps it from fitting in the case.
I just took a Exacto knife and trimmed most of it off.
Lay the board in and secure with the right two screws. Upper left and lower right. When you lay the back on you'll see why.
Lay the back on and run down the two long screws. At this point you should have three short screws left.
Attach the mounting bracket. Should have one screw left by the way.
And finally screw the lens in. Go ahead and just snug down the knurl nut. You'll need to power up the camera and set the focus. Then you tighten it down.
There's two flat spots on the knurl nut for a open end wrench like an ignition wrench.
Now you get to find out what the last screw is for. It goes in the side of the barrel to hold the lens in place. I'll use the knurl nut, thank you. If the screw is run down too far it can bugger up the threads and push the lens tube out of round.
Back in the extra hands rig and pointed at something. Connected to power and the pocket DVR and it's time to focus the camera once again. Note to self: Quit mucking about and get a 8 or 10 inch monitor for doing this stuff.
And back in service.
Programming video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqvASmLBzDo
I strapped the camera with a 1.7mm lens to the leg of my hex and with a pocket DVR recording what the camera saw, I got this neat video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjDUVG44rJQ
