Help finding Small Camera with Small Transmitter & Small Receiver

[jack_ireland]

Hi there,

I'm very new to RC so please excuse any stupid statements. I am a student taking part in a rocket project. At about 80-90km the rocket will deploy a spherical probe 45cm in diameter from the side. What we would really like to do is put a camera and wireless transmitter in the probe sending video back to the receiver in the rocket for viewing on retrieval. We would like to take video from a distance of about 1.5 up to 10 meters from the rocket. As space and weight are an issue we really need components which are as small as possible.

The smallest combination I can find at an affordable price are:
Camera:
http://www.fpvhobby.com/83-1-gram-nano-camera.html

Transmitter:
http://www.fpvhobby.com/transmitter/...ansmitter.html

Receiver:
http://www.fpvhobby.com/32-4-ghz-receiver-module.html

However, I have seen mentioned on another forum that some people have had issues with products from FPVhobby getting delayed in customs for failing to meet regulations etc... I'm not sure if this would be the case for Ireland but really can't afford the risk.
I do also have some concerns about the quality of construction/soldering/operation. Can anyone comment here?

I need components which can withstand 20g of acceleration but online info for such components seem pretty minimal, and datasheets seem to be very rare.

I've been looking around for alternatives with similar sizes but can't seem to get all 3 (camera, receiver, transmitter).
The nearest I can find are:
Camera:
http://www.nghobbies.com/cart/index....roducts_id=698

Transmitter:
http://www.nghobbies.com/cart/index....products_id=86

but the receivers are all way bigger.

I have read that it is not possible to mix and match brands of transmitters/receivers so I'm at a bit of a loss here. Can anyone recommend and alternative solution or vendor with similarly sized products to FPVHobby?

Thanks very much for your help,

Jack

[ZobZibZab]

Hey,

FPVHobby now meet regulations. I'm the guy who had problems with that. I complained til Adnan fixed it for everyone

They do ship slow sometimes apparently, but well I've had decent success lately.

For the camera, the 1gr seems fine, for the tx, at 80km I'm not sure this will be enough. You might need a bit more power and in any case a huge RX antenna :-)
The NG Hobbies camera is probably the exact same camera btw.. they always all hide where they get them from because, we could get them cheaper directly from china otherwise :P (so NGHobbies is cheaper)

Here is one TX that you may want to think about:

http://www.dpcav.com/xcart/product.p...cat=249&page=2 (its also WAY cheaper than the bulky ones using that very chip)

(and if you want to get it all from dpcav they've also the 1g camera here http://www.dpcav.com/xcart/product.p...cat=274&page=1)

Its 450mW and uses standard airwave 2.4Ghz channels. Its very light because its the TX alone without a bunch of crap on top of it. Been using them and they're really OK. I think fmkit uses them too.

You'll have to remove the regulator of the AW TX if you wanna power it all via a 1S lipo (3.7-4.2V) otherwise you'll have to add a regulator to meet the 3.3V

I suggest a good RX and a patch on the RX side at the minimum.

Finally please note that I doubt any of these component have been rated for 20G of acceleration (or any at all), so you'll have to test for yourself.

[jack_ireland]

Hi ZobZibZab,

FPVHobby now meet regulations. I'm the guy who had problems with that. I complained til Adnan fixed it for everyone

Ah, very good. I had actually been emailing him last week and he was getting back to me the same day so that's positive.

for the tx, at 80km I'm not sure this will be enough. You might need a bit more power and in any case a huge RX antenna :-)

You know I only need it to go a distance of 10m right? It will just be 80km in the air when transmitting but the Tx and Rx will only be 10m apart.

The NG Hobbies camera is probably the exact same camera btw.. they always all hide where they get them from because, we could get them cheaper directly from china otherwise :P (so NGHobbies is cheaper)

Ah right. Didn't realise that. Makes sense though.

Here is one TX that you may want to think about:

http://www.dpcav.com/xcart/product.p...cat=249&page=2 (its also WAY cheaper than the bulky ones using that very chip)

(and if you want to get it all from dpcav they've also the 1g camera here http://www.dpcav.com/xcart/product.p...cat=274&page=1)

Its 450mW and uses standard airwave 2.4Ghz channels. Its very light because its the TX alone without a bunch of crap on top of it. Been using them and they're really OK. I think fmkit uses them too.

You'll have to remove the regulator of the AW TX if you wanna power it all via a 1S lipo (3.7-4.2V) otherwise you'll have to add a regulator to meet the 3.3V

I suggest a good RX and a patch on the RX side at the minimum.

Finally please note that I doubt any of these component have been rated for 20G of acceleration (or any at all), so you'll have to test for yourself.

Wow, that's all great info. Very informative. I wasn't sure about just using a Tx chip as I thought there would be a lot of work adding the extra stuff. Hmmm.... definitely something to think about. Do you reckon it would be possible to power the Tx from a Super-capacitor for ~10 seconds after the main power is cut?

Cheers,

Jack

[ZobZibZab]

I'm not sure about the 125mW for the 10km rating (i expect you meant 10km by 10m but in theory that's possible. As usual it matters a lot on the RX side.

I don't know either how long a capacitor can supply any of those txes (depends on which), but they're kinda hungry. I'd just use a separate battery and either remove the regulator if applicable (airwave), either add one. Safer.

The tx board is quite easy to work with and it's shielded so its not a bad choice imo. if you look at the datasheet you'll see its just a matter of supplying power, antenna, and select a channel (either solder a switch or just use the default channel/solder manually a fixed channel)

To remove the regulator you've to pop the shield and put it back tho, and be careful not to damage it/that its shielded back correctly. When its not correctly shielded performances degrade