James Hammett
EF3
I've been working on a "holy grail" roofcam off and on for the past 7 years and thought I'd post my progress on the final chapter here. First a little background on the project.
I usually chase solo and wanted a foolproof way to get the highest quality video without having to exit the car and set up a tripod. 360 degree zoomable video whether stopped or moving that wouldn't have wipers sweeping by. A clear acrylic dome wasn't going to cut it because of the glare, scratches, and rain getting in the way. So I set out to design and build a roofcam with a fixed hydrophobic lens that is kept clear with a stream of compressed air. Rather than only the camera turning inside the whole enclosure turns. So I call it the TurretCam:
Bench testing/tuning (lens cap on) - 2014
TurretCam saw its first field testing midway through the 2014 chase season. I anticipated a plague of gremlins to work out and boy did it deliver. Torsional resonance in the mount causing severe vibration. Radio frequency interference killing USB comms.
Field testing - 2015 western Kansas
I have most of the bugs worked out so I'm now working on the final piece: the compressed air blaster for rain mitigation. I've got a 12 volt "horn blaster" style air compressor wired up:
Compressor and 1 gallon tank is mounted in the trunk with 1/4" tubing that I'll route to the roof:
The airflow will be switched with a solenoid valve controlled by the Arduino inside the TurretCam. I have some parts on order and I'll have more to post once those come in. Some additional upgrades I'll be working on:
I usually chase solo and wanted a foolproof way to get the highest quality video without having to exit the car and set up a tripod. 360 degree zoomable video whether stopped or moving that wouldn't have wipers sweeping by. A clear acrylic dome wasn't going to cut it because of the glare, scratches, and rain getting in the way. So I set out to design and build a roofcam with a fixed hydrophobic lens that is kept clear with a stream of compressed air. Rather than only the camera turning inside the whole enclosure turns. So I call it the TurretCam:
Bench testing/tuning (lens cap on) - 2014
TurretCam saw its first field testing midway through the 2014 chase season. I anticipated a plague of gremlins to work out and boy did it deliver. Torsional resonance in the mount causing severe vibration. Radio frequency interference killing USB comms.
Field testing - 2015 western Kansas
I have most of the bugs worked out so I'm now working on the final piece: the compressed air blaster for rain mitigation. I've got a 12 volt "horn blaster" style air compressor wired up:
Compressor and 1 gallon tank is mounted in the trunk with 1/4" tubing that I'll route to the roof:
The airflow will be switched with a solenoid valve controlled by the Arduino inside the TurretCam. I have some parts on order and I'll have more to post once those come in. Some additional upgrades I'll be working on:
- Replacing the white acrylic dome with white polycarbonate. The acrylic already has a crack on the flange from some 1.25" hail last year
- Adding a 2nd camera inside for simultaneous wide-angle and zoom views
