CCD camera with a transmitter liberated from a CMOS wireless camera

[James 0]

I'm having some problems with my misumi CCD snake camera which I'm wiring up to a 20mW transmitter which I've taken from a factory made CMOS wireless camera unit. When I use the camera wired directly into the transmitter I get odd horizontal lines on the picture, which are similar to problems I've had in the past when I've got the voltage wrong, however I know that it is correct at the moment because the camera works when wired straight into the TV, and most significantly, when I power the camera and transmitter separately (using different batteries) the image quality is significantly better (though not perfect). So something is being transmitted through the power to cause this drop in image quality, is this some sort of power transmission, or is it an intermittent power drain or something like that (in which case what sort of capacitor would work, if one would work?). I'm running my system from 2S lipoly batteries, either 180 or 90mAh, depending on what I'm trying to do.

J

[Kilrah 2]

Are you sure the voltage is right? Usually CCD cams require 12V (apart from a few 5V exceptions) and small transmitters use 5V. Could you give more details about the components and your power supply circuitry?

"Odd lines" can be what happens when a 12V CCD cam is supplied to low voltage. Those will usually run on 2S for a few minutes while the battery voltage is still high and they start failing one it comes closer to nominal value. The additional consumption of a TX can be enough to draw the voltage lower from the start.

I suggest a thorough check of the component specs.

[eickst 0]

Are you sure the voltage is right? Usually CCD cams require 12V (apart from a few 5V exceptions) and small transmitters use 5V. Could you give more details about the components and your power supply circuitry?

"Odd lines" can be what happens when a 12V CCD cam is supplied to low voltage. Those will usually run on 2S for a few minutes while the battery voltage is still high and they start failing one it comes closer to nominal value. The additional consumption of a TX can be enough to draw the voltage lower from the start.

I suggest a thorough check of the component specs.

I agree, the misumi cameras are kind of weird. Some of them take 12V only and some will accept ranges like 9-12v or even 5-12v (those that have onboard regulators most likely).

Check the camera specs, it may require 12v only.

[James 0]

The voltage is definitely fine, I can run the cameras using the supplied component leads directly into a TV using either a 2S or a 3S li-poly, both of which give a perfect picture.

The set up I have is a transmitter with 5V voltage regulator, and the CCD camera, powered by a 2S li-poly, the power for the camera does not go through the voltage regulator! Which other details would be useful? I am a biologist not an engineer!

[Terry 5]

Hard to say without seeing it, is there any chance of a video clip or picture ?

Terry

[James 0]

Here you go:

[Kilrah 2]

The voltage is definitely fine, I can run the cameras using the supplied component leads directly into a TV using either a 2S or a 3S li-poly, both of which give a perfect picture.

Try powering the cam with a 3s pack. As I said the additional current draw from the TX can lower the voltage of the 2s pack enough to get under the camera's tolerance.

We still haven't seen the camera's specs. But as I said it's very unlikely the cam is actually meant to run on 2s. I don't know of any CCD in the category we use that works on another voltage than 5V or 12V. It seems it's not 5V as you'd have most likely fried it when powering it with 3s if it was, and 12V cams won't work well on 2s.

Edited June 12, 2008 by Kilrah