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...the project cost about $250 + the cost of the donor car, which really is not a donor car, because it can be used as a regular d'nano and has, in itself, no modifications other than a strip of Velcro. Also, I can continue to use the Cam-car as a fully functional camcorder; I'll just be holding a car instead of a camcorder body, which somewhat disturbs my wife when I use it to film family functions.
I did not take build photos, as I kept changing the design; but basically it is stripped-down Sony hand-held, with Li-ion battery and a slot for a SD memory card. The other mod involved adding Velcro to lens enclosure to adjust the camera angle and a wide-angle lens.
The most challenging part of the project was not the electronics, but rather keeping the weight down and carefully removing the casing parts, disassembling the camcorder, dremelling in spots, and then designing the mount so that the camera sits as low as possible on the car, essential with the d'nano.
The camera will also fit on a Mini-Z too. I will be taking some more video with it as soon as the Porta-Trax is back from testing. The only negative, is that the d'nano will flip easily if you corner too fast, even with the adjustable weights I've added. The Mini-Z does not have that problem.
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The next stage of the project is the most exciting ...adding an FPV transmitter (first person view) and then piloting with FPV goggles, as the R/C aircraft guys do. Two cars racing in FPV, would be ultra-realistic, which is my goal. The technology not only exists to do this, its not overly expensive (around $600).
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