fiestaturbo.com

[heeman10]

Please click this to download the video from yousendit.com
This is a DivX file, so you will need the usual codecs to view it. If it doesn't play properly (video screen freezes) scroll back a bit (not RIGHT back to the beginning or it still won't play) and hopefully it'll sort itself out.


Mirror hosting thanks to Max M4X WW:
http://williamsfam.co.uk/Lightcam%20video.avi

Since I bought my camcorder to allow others to experience the fun I have in my car (easy now), I've been getting a bit bored of the limitations in terms of viewpoints. I have a fixed mount that supports the camera to the left of my head, but haven't trusted exterior (sucker) mounts enough to use them with a £300 piece of electrotrickery. To a car programme, £300 isn't much to replace if the mount falls off and the camera's wrecked, but to me, £300 represents a lot of parts I could've bought for the car.

So, I wanted a better viewpoint to film from...but the camera's juuuust too tall to be mounted securely in one of the bumper light recesses in the bumper. As a result, I decided to go to the next-best option - the headlight.

Looking at it, I decided it would be easier to mount the camcorder inside a dismantled headlight, as opposed to making a mount that secured to the chassis, then mounting the camera to that. So, today, I picked up two headlights from the scrappy and some perspex (600mm x 300mm just in case!) with the aim of taking the glass out of the light, modifying it to take the camera, then making a perspex front to (a) protect the camera from stones and flies and (b) cut out the wind roar caused by wind blowing directly into the microphone.

Time for some pics!

I expected to have to smash the glass off the light, but some careful screwdriver tweaking saw it come off in one piece:



Checking to see how the light needed modifying to allow the camera to sit far enough back for the perspex not to come into contact with it, and to prevent having a vertical wall of perspex that would be noisy, and non-aerodynamic (pressing the perspex more than necessary, I wasn't concerned about slowing the car or increasing fuel consumption):



The back of the light carcass now sawn out to accommodate the battery pack, and allow the whole camera to be shunted back a couple of inches:



Sawing a perspex sheet to size (roughly), note the headlight moulding on the left protrudes a little, so to keep things simple, I cut the sheet shorter so it wouldn't interfere. The white colour is just from the two protective films:



A test-bend of an offcut. It's over five years since I worked with perspex, so I wanted to see how well it would bend using a heat gun and the vice as opposed to the correct tools. All went well



And the primary bend of the true lense:





A couple of tweaks to bring it into better contact with the top and bottom headlight edges so it can be fixed better:



And some shots of it back on the car (lense just taped in place for now, and camera bolted to the headlight shell):










The camera is very secure, though I'll use two small velcro squares to help even more. There may be quite a lot of vibration, and I'll need to tape over the open gaps at the sides of the lense, but I'll aim to take it out tomorrow for a test run. All the work in this thread took just over an hour, despite the number of photo's! Not too big a job at all, and I think it'll look quite good!

[Sphinx]

Cool

[ant pittaway]

absolutely wicked project, cant wait to see if it works

[XRMike]

How cool, i once tryed to take a headlight apart,and ended up with cuts everywhere .Whats the secret to it ?

[Raymondo]

That looks pretty funky Would it not have been better on the drivers side though to get a more central view of the road?

Fancy selling your old camera mount

[festa-1.3]

If you do test run tomorrow, will you have video of it 2moro. Be nice to see how it turns out.

[paradox]

love to see an mot testers face if you turned up with that headlamp


nice mini project though mate i expect to see loads of video downloads available soon

[rich_frst]

nice project, cant wait for the video's hopefully they work my end this time

[Jay]

Looks good mate!!

I've got a similar thing with a camera mounted in my foglight.. you may of seen it at Ford Fair...



Works pretty well with my carputer although obviously the frame rate and picture quality is not as good being a webcam.... it runs really smoothly when not using the standard logitech software though

[RS_Rawli]

If i was rawli, idve done the clever thing

what would that be?

id take the glass off, moutn the camera and then put the light back


durrrr, then thers a big gap for flies and wind,

how nice it would be to find a perfectly moulded perspex panel to cover the light apperture


rewind eyeball

[Andi]

I would have just bought a bulletcam and plugged that into the camera

[chris-fiesta]

very smart James, look forward to see how the vids come out

[heeman10]

XRMike - Erm, care? Just prising bits up around the edges with a flat blade screwdriver

Raymondo - A couple of reasons for me sticking it in the nearside light: I'd rather retain the driver's headlight out of the two, just in case, as it marks the side of the car nearest oncoming traffic, and putting it on the left will bring it nearer the side of the road...something else that will give a more realistic idea of speed. And no, I won't be selling my other mount!

festa-1.3 - Yup, I'll stick footage up as soon as I get it, though it's raining today

paradox - Mm I don't think it'd pass really! My dad's saying similar things... "That's a bit obvious isn't it?", but I don't intend on filming drives on normal main roads, that's just boring. The type of roads I tend to film are in the middle of nowhere and have never had a police car down them. I wouldn't want to film at a time of day when headlights are necessary anyway.

rich - I don't want to know what works your end!

Jay - No I didn't see that! Looks extremely neat though, andyhardy did something similar with a little webcam, just a shame camcorders are so much bigger...at the moment. Did you get a fairly steady picture then? That's my main worry, that it'll just jiggle and vibrate around, though the headrest mount gives an extremely steady picture.

Rawli - Somehow I don't think you'd see anything if I'd just put the original glass back in! I'm assuming that's a joke I'll keep faffing with the perspex to get it a bit neater, but I don't want to put any bends in the line of sight of the camera or I'll get a wibbly wobbly picture

[rich_frst]

everything works my end barring my back

[RS_Rawli]

headlight protectors you nob cheese

[heeman10]

headlight protectors you nob cheese

Doesn't fit, and isn't see-through enough!

[Rich H]

Like the idea! Would have been cool if you'd managed to mount it in a light that was completely enclosed (just for neatness) but you have still done an awesome job! Surely engine noise could be an issue on recording though?

Can't wait to see results of this newho!

[MarkRS2K]

cant wait for the vid dude

[JamieFRST]

Nice work, look forward to seeing some footage.

[heeman10]

Took a video tonight 30 mins of footage taken, but I've chopped it all down to just under 5 mins, the file size is just too big otherwise Will post it tomorrow some time, am very happy with the results! It would definitely be a good way to film some fun antics on the road with a mate in another car. The overtake shots are good, as the camera's in the headlight nearest the car you're overtaking, so you get a shot down the victim's bodywork as you zip past

Engine noise wasn't a problem at all, all you really hear is the turbo spooling up, chattering, and the dump valve. You can't even hear the limiter! Chatter distorts a little over the microphone, but you can judge it for yourselves tomorrow

[festa-1.3]

Can't wait to see this.

[heeman10]

Please click this to download the video from yousendit.com
This is a DivX file, so you will need the usual codecs to view it. If it doesn't play properly (video screen freezes) scroll back a bit (not RIGHT back to the beginning or it still won't play) and hopefully it'll sort itself out.

Let me know if it doesn't work please!

[rich_frst]

its totally free to sign up yeah dude??

then i can view it yeah

[heeman10]

If you click on the "Sign up for FREE" link you should be able to register free and download it. The "FREE" is the giveaway I think Richy boy!

[xmadxmoex]

i only get sound boohoo

sounds amazing though

[heeman10]

i only get sound boohoo

sounds amazing though

You probably need to download the Codec package then:

http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Cod ... l_in_1.htm

Once installed (doesn't take long at all) it should play fine If it stutters at the beginning, let it play till about 10 seconds in, then scroll back to 2 or 3 seconds into the video, or maybe as far as 5 seconds, and it should play

[paradox]

nice video james although it does sound like flippers been smoking 40 a day in some parts


oh btw mate that virtual pic of my car is posted in my project thread now mate

[xmadxmoex]

awsome mr heeman!

thats a wicked view and amazing sound!!

cheers for the help with the codecs though

[rich_frst]

If you click on the "Sign up for FREE" link you should be able to register free and download it. The "FREE" is the giveaway I think Richy boy!

yeah ok mate, cheers for that

[XRMike]

Smart mate , i like to look at the speedo tho .But great idea.
Btw i managed to sperate some headlights now, will be posting an update soon in my thread what i did with them

[rich_frst]

cant see f**k all, and i've downloaded that other stuff

[Rich H]

Uber !!!

Got some awesome driving roads around your way by the looks of it!! Engine noise is cool!

[Max M4X WW]

Great that! Engine noise is a bit overpowering tho, cud u use an external mic as well or something?

Last few bits are good, dodgey noise!

Mirror: http://williamsfam.co.uk/Lightcam%20video.avi

[heeman10]

paradox - Flipper Will go check your gay-ass thread now

xmadxmoexlongxnamex - Glad you got there in the end!

XRMike - The bonus of footage from that position is that speed is confusing, hard to judge and not indicated anywhere. I'm sure you understand what I mean Will have to see what you do with yours...don't do fish tanks, it's been done before!

rich_frst - You are a failure Can you hear it? See it?

Rich H - There are some very good roads, that one's a bit average compared to many of them, just wanted a half-interesting route to try the camera out on! Will do a proper one some time

Max - The turbo noise is too much, yeah, the engine can hardly be heard at all, which is odd, particularly when it comes to the rev limiter. External mic mayyyy be an option, but I can't see it being placed anywhere much better than where it was. That's about as far away from the engine/turbo as possible without it being back inside the cabin, which detracts from the exterior viewpoint. I can't stand videos with mismatched sound

Thanks for the mirror!!

[chris-fiesta]

excellent vid James... gotta say tho i do prefer the in car view dnt know why!!