I never really got around to doing an official build thread on my Cineroc clone, though these pics are in the big gum cam thread. After a question or two, I thought I'd whip a build thread up real quick.

After doing a complete scratch build with Cineroc Clone #1 including turning my own nosecone and transition, this project was super easy in comparison. The first clone used a heavy video downlink, this one uses the cheap gum cam that Rocketflite turned us on to.

I used SEMROC parts:

Nosecone BC-1834
Transition BR-60-18
Body tube ST-18

I used Mike Jerauld's scale Cineroc drawing to cut the correct length of body tube and for correct camera hood placement. The hood was made with scrap bits of balsa. Since the gum cam sensor is fairly large, the hood is slightly over sized, but is shaped in the spirit of the original. I painted in cold weather and I'm not happy with the black finish, but I decided not to redo it. The original Cineroc's black plastic wasn't exactly pretty, so I'm probably just a bit ahead of the game in comparison. I masked off yellow painted stripes on clone #1, but this time I decided to make it like the original Cineroc, so I'm using yellow electrical tape cut to width.






Once the hood was in place, I started working on the gum cam. The camera I'm using has the CCD attached by ribbon cable and is stuck down to the board with sticky gunk. I pried it off and glued a chunk of balsa down to mount the CCD. I shaped the balsa so that it would easily fit into the camera hood, and added a small notch that engages the body tube and holds it in place. Once I got everything shaped correctly, I soaked the balsa with CA so it won't split.

My gum cam was severely out of focus when I received it, so I had to break the glue loose and adjust the focus. After getting the focus as good as I could, I glued the threads again to make it permanent. You can see some glue residue on the edge of the focus ring, along with some roughness where I sanded the whole unit to fit in the camera hood. BTW, I taped over the lens to prevent damage and contamination while sanding, fitting, etc.

If you notice, I angled the camera just a few degrees out from aligning parallel to the body. This was a bit of trial and error to get the plenty of ground view while still having a bit of the Omega booster in frame. Some people have half the frame wasted on an out-of-focus airframe and I just didn't want to do that.




As I said above, the gum cam CCD slips into the hood and the balsa notch catches the body tube to hold it in place. I notched the transition section to firmly hold the other end of the camera in place. I decided not to glue the nosecone and transition section. I'm using the tape to secure them to the payload section. This is mainly due to starting and stopping the camera. I didn't want to fish around in holes in the payload section. This way I can turn the camera on, slip it in and tape the transition section to the payload section. It takes just a few seconds and holds well.

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I love sanding.

Great job!

And the finished assembly looks great on that Omega booster.

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John
YORF #003
SAM #004

Looks like my booster photo is out of focus. I might have to reshoot that one.

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I love sanding.

I pray you have a better launch this time!

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NAR # 91740SR
C.R.A.S.H. - NAR Section #482
SAM Member #0153

"I said Lunch, not Launch!"

- Far Out Space Nuts

Looks good -

Going to have to pick up a cam when I have a couple spare nickels, need a Cineroc clone to sit on my vintage Omega booster ( sold the vintage Cineroc a couple years back, too hard to mess with film and all ) .

Keep the info coming. ( and video clips ?

~ AL

No video clips from it at this point. The weather, wind, and free time hasn't lined up where I could take it out for a D to D flight yet.

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I love sanding.

That's cool... Looks REAL sharp!

Are most of the gum cams equipped with the ribbon cable connections or are the camera sensors hard-wired to the PCB?? Just wondering because if not you'd have to use the mirror. Better without the mirror as the picture is not 'reversed' if the sensor is actually outside the rocket!

I agree that too many of the camera rockets have too much of the booster in the frame-- like adjusting mirrors on a car or truck, you only want a tiny 'sliver' of the side of the vehicle visible at the edge of the mirror view for reference-- most of the view should be of the surroundings, not the side of the car! (or rocket as the case may be!)

How did you arrive at that angle?? Shoot a vid and upload to see the results and tweak it til you liked it, or does it have a webcam mode you can use to do it in realtime?? (I guess the same question applies to the focusing problem you mentioned...)

Thanks for any info... I need to get one of these once the financing for the 'space program' comes through... emergency appropriations for truck repairs and furnace repairs in the house have interrupted the budgeting process...

Later! OL JR

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The X-87B Cruise Basselope-- THE Ultimate Weapon in the arsenal of Homeland Security and only $52 million per round!

No mirror, and no mod's. My plan is to go with a big beak. IOW, use an oversized fairing so that the camera can stick out un-modified. Judging from the pics, Tim did a good job of hacking his, but I would rather leave mine unaltered and instead just have a bigger nose on it Think David Brenner or Cyrano de Bergerac

Doug

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YORF member #11

And that need not be done flying. A quick video shot while the rocket is stationary should show all you need to determine if too much rocket is in the frame.

Doug

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YORF member #11

This flight used an Astrocam mirror hood which is at about a 48 degree angle. Just enough of the rocket showing to make it interesting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9euw9wLEBs

Where as this one (Jim's flight) had the camera look straight back. Considering the booster it was worth seeing a lot of it in the frame, but you see it dominates the field of view:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXgxQOa_C5o&NR=1

Tim, did you cut a hatch in the back to access the camera's controls?

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Scott

NAR #32070