Movable camera

Post by **r_255** » Sun Jun 28, 2009 10:08 am

This spy cam is remote controlled thru wifi and is moveable thru the house. Cute piece of robotics

http://custobots.com/store/index.php?ma ... 269ea5ac07

Post by **drmacchi** » Sun Jun 28, 2009 10:45 am

Great, from the makers of Roovio, here a better picture to compare its dimensions, and an estimated price (120 euro, not so much.....)
http://www.gadgetblog.it/post/7016/ces- ... a-che-spia
and here some more details about how it works
http://www.robotsrule.com/html/spyball.php
cheers, lorenzo

Post by **Jeffrey** » Mon Jun 29, 2009 9:58 am

Do you have examples of picture quality?

Does it have nightvision?

Post by **MindBender** » Mon Jun 29, 2009 10:15 am

Here's some footage from my movable camera:
ftp://delien.eu/public/mkmovies/Quirijn ... levard.m4v (~60MB)
Soon the actual camera will soon be upgraded to full HD and motion compensation will be added. And yes, it works in my living room too

Post by **drmacchi** » Mon Jun 29, 2009 2:17 pm

@MindBender : 1) do you already have the spyball? 2)how do i open .m4v file? thanks

Post by **MindBender** » Mon Jun 29, 2009 2:42 pm

No, I don't have a spyball, though it would be a nice toy for our kittens. I have a flyball

And m4v files are just Quicktime movies (yeah, I hate them too, but since I have Macs I didn't bother to convert them).

Post by **Snelvuur** » Mon Jun 29, 2009 5:35 pm

@mindbender: what thing is that?

// Erik (binkey.nl)

Post by **MindBender** » Mon Jun 29, 2009 11:01 pm

Eric: just drop me an email if you want a movie of your house; You've got my email address.

Post by **Noel** » Mon Jun 29, 2009 11:41 pm

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by MindBender
 Here's some footage from my movable camera:
ftp://delien.eu/public/mkmovies/Quirijn ... levard.m4v (~60MB)
Soon the actual camera will soon be upgraded to full HD and motion compensation will be added. And yes, it works in my living room too

<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
Time for me to get my "old school 10cc) Schluter out again (not sure if it will still fly)
What model / type did you use? Sounds like an electric one...

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Post by **MindBender** » Tue Jun 30, 2009 2:42 pm

It's not a model: It doesn't represent anything real. It's a bit similar to this one:
http://www.draganfly.com/
It can go up to 350 meters (legally) and reach velocities up to 50km/h, yet is it stable enough to pratice flying it in the living room, when my girlfriend isn't downstairs, of course. ("Honey, are you vacuum cleaning downstairs?" - "No, don't worry baby.")

Post by **Noel** » Tue Jun 30, 2009 5:13 pm

Looks nice. Is it a home build/made unit?

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Post by **drmacchi** » Tue Jun 30, 2009 7:04 pm

Draganfly is powerful, even used by special forces........... what is yours, price, webshop? Then is it an rc? battery life on duty?

Post by **MindBender** » Wed Jul 01, 2009 10:08 am

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by wifi
 Looks nice. Is it a home build/made unit?<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
Yep. Now with 4 rotors, but an 8 rotor version is under construction. This offers more lift and redundancy so I can mount a more expensive camera.

Post by **r_255** » Wed Jul 01, 2009 10:48 am

Wow, thats really awesome stuff.
I also love the shots that are made by these devices, gives you a unusual point of view.
My deep respect for people who build these things them self, and i wonder if controling is hard to learn.

Post by **MindBender** » Thu Jul 02, 2009 1:15 pm

drmacchi wrote: Draganfly is powerful, even used by special forces........... what is yours, price, webshop? Then is it an rc? battery life on duty?

On 4 rotors I can carry up to 500gr safely with enough spare power to maneuver. 700gr isn't much of a problem, but you'll pay in loss of agility. On 8 rotors these numbers double because they hardly add any extra weight.
Without payload, a 11.1V 3300mAh LiPo battery pack gives me about 20 minutes of flight time with either 4 or 8 rotors; More rotors means less consumption per rotor. But adding a payload or illumination directly affects flight time. The highest battery capacity I've seen so far is 5000mAh. Using a 14.8V pack adds a little extra capacity, but some components tend to dissipate a little more heat at that voltage. I think 30 minutes of flight time with a reasonable camera on board should be feasible.
Controlling is very easy; I'm not a modeler, I'm a software engineer. This critter has 6 accelerometers, 3 gyros, 3 compasses, an air pressure sensor and a GPS receiver on board. Yet don't expect to fly away with it immediately; It takes practice and some damage before you have mastered this device.
You can build your own for about 2000 Euro including everything you need to fly, but not including a camera. A lot of money, but still a lot cheaper and still more advanced than the DraganFlyer.
Mine uses the MikroKopter platform: http://www.mikrokopter.de But many similar alternative OpenSource projects can be found on the web. I'm not sure if I will stay with the MikroKopter platform: Their software is OpenSource, but not free (as in GPL). It's license prohibits commercial use, most information is in German only and the software is mostly targeted on stunt flying. I intend to make a commercial product, mostly targeted on stable and stand-alone flight. I had an interested customer, but these are hard times to catch a fish.
Here's an on-board movie I made: