anyone running a camera system on the race bike

Please help us!

Is anyone running a camera system on there race bike? I am in the middle of exploring this and ran into a snag. We have a twenty20 camera system hooked up to a RCA Lyra audio/video mp3 player. The camera system consists of a camera, regulator and microphone and the Lyra has a 20 gb hard drive and automatically records in mp3 format. Everything is golden while the bike is not moving but the second we start to go the Lyra freezes and stops recording. We ran several tests and made sure the Lyra is secured very well in the tail section.

We were thinking it could be several things,

1. the input is too much while riding for the Lyra to handle and it freezes.
2. the vibration causes the Lyra to freeze (eventhough we ran the bike on the stand for 10-15 minutes and it was fine)
3. maybe there is some kind of issue with the PC commander.

Has anyone had any luck, if so what was used?


Thanks

Aaron

 

try kovzr6...did some video just recently at grattan and posted it on here...

or of course try markb....

 

Or Puresports Design

He is running a digital video recorder with a lipstick cam.

 

talk to the guy that owns this site, he knows all about waht systems work, he has great vids too

deadzonevideo.com

 

Try checking that the olive-spluntle is flush with the lock-out valve.



...seriously, I have no idea how to solve it....

 

Thanks for the suggestions, I will check them all out.


Aaron

 

im using a bullet cam from http://www.helmetcamera.com and a sony DRCHC30 in the tail section. i lined my "trunk" area with foam and the sony cam get sandwiched in it. no skips in the recording at all, even going over the hump/jump at grattan it didnt skip


are you running everything off batteries? or is it hardwired to your bike battery? if it is, its possible the bike is drawing too much power not allowing the cam/recorder to function?

 

My team mate and I run lipstick cameras from www.helmetcam.com and JVC's camcorders we hard wired the power to the battery and use the tape rather than the digi video. we have the cameras mounted infront of the fairing stay.

 

KovzR6j

We are running the regulator off the bike battery but the Lyra is running off an internal battery.

 

I tried using a very similar setup to record directly to a DVR like yours. After having the exact same problems I contacted the manufacturer and was told that the DVRs these days are all harddrive based and any type of significant vibration will cause the buffer to not write to the harddrive. After trying unsuccessfully to eliminate the vibration with tons of foam, I sold the DVR and went back to using a camcorder as my recording device. There are a couple of companies coming out with flash-based DVRs rather than harddrive based, but they arent supposed to be on the market for a couple of months.

 

I just tried out my solidstate PVR..it's a Mustek PVR-A1 on the street last night...seems to look pretty good, but haven't watched it on the TV yet. It takes a SD/MMC memory card. I'm hoping to have it setup for my race next weekend. I bought the PVR from some place online for $95 and the bullet cam was from Ebay for $135.

 

Just a point of interest. When Melandri crashed Saturday in T10 at LS, his bike had a camera on it. It was mounted beside the chain and was aimed at his shifter/foot.
One of his crew came back later and retrieved almost every piece that had broken off his bike, including the custom camera mount.

 

I have the exact same setup and exactly the same problem.
Here's how it was mounted.




I talked to Marc Barros from Twenty20 and both of us agreed that it was the vibration that was causing the problems. I ran it unsuccessfully two times at the track. I had several short clips that were OK while the bike was idling in the garage, but the video broke up when I accelerated several times.

I mounted the camera to my street bike and recorded successfully with the Lyra attached to my belt in the carrying case, so I know it works now, but I don't want to carry the Lyra while racing, so here's what I am gonna try:

I have added rubber grommets on the mounting plate you can see in this photo:


Next, I glued foam to a thin piece of plywood and mounted that with more rubber grommets:


Finally, I used a velcro strip on the back of the Lyra and the velcro strap you can see here wrapped around the Lyra:


I will test this at the next race in August. I will let you know how it works.

Email me off list for any questions you have
[email protected]

 

CamCool

Thanks for the update and suggestions. Yea, we also believe it is something to do with the vibrations. Last weekend we had a successful run around the block with the Lyra in a fanny pack so we think beafing up the padding and insulating the wires etc will help. Let us know if you get yours to work and we will do the same.

Thanks again,

Aaron