I recently completed a little side project that I’ve had on my mind for the
last few months. A hobby store I had visited had rolling stock fitted with
wireless cameras for an engineer’s-eye-view of your track layout. These were
quite expensive, even for the basic starter kit. I immediately began to look
for a more cost-effective option and figured that I might even be able to
make my own camera car for little-to-no cost.
I have a junk drawer in my office with a couple unused, obsolete cell
phones that still function fine. Each cell phone has a camera that shoots
and records video that can be transferred to a computer via USB. That got
me thinking. Would I actually be able to somehow use one of these old cell
phone cameras as a travelling cab-view camera?
The biggest challenge of using a cell phone for this task was making the
camera face forward. This is because a phone’s camera is usually located on
the back of the phone. Since the phone would need to travel on its side to
properly fit through tunnels and under bridges, the camera always naturally
faced off to either side of the track. This meant that the camera would need
to be physically removed and re-positioned to a forward-facing
position.
I played around with a couple different phones without luck as their
cameras were directly soldered to the phone’s mother board. However when I
took my old Samsung Instinct apart, I noticed that its camera was attached
via a flexible data cable, which allowed the camera itself to move
independently of the phone. I cut a hole in the back of the phone's outer
shell around the camera so the camera could pass through and be accessible
and positioned from the outside. I built an external support structure out
of styrene to hold the camera in a forward-facing position.
I sacrificed an old Bachmann GP35 engine to carry the phone camera. I
removed the engine and cab structure, only keeping the motorized base. To
allow the cell phone to pass through tunnels and under my trestle, it would
need to be located as close to the track as possible, so I positioned it
inside the engines fuel-tank structure, between the trucks. This of course
was not long enough to house the phone, so I needed to cut the tank in half
and extend it with rigid styrene extensions. The cell phone needs to sit at
an angle to clear the bottom of the trestle and the camera was adjusted and
installed to compensate for this angle. I used styrene pieces to support and
securely hold the phone to the engine structure.
The final product isn’t pretty, but it does the job. To use the camera, I
simply activate the camera and set it on video mode and place the phone into
position on the engine base. When ready, I press record, energize the track,
and let the engine travel around my layout. Once I’m done recording, I
simply remove the phone, tether it to my computer via USB, and download the
footage. I know the quality isn’t as high as the more expensive commercial
products available, but this didn’t cost me anything and the effect is
equally as amusing.
You can see the very first test run on my layout in the video
below.
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