Cheap HD In-Car Cam Setup

[bmwpowere36m3]

After a lot reading, researching, and thinking I have set out to build a budget cam setup to record in car footage.

My Recording Setup

• Cam - Aiptek A-HD+ 1080P $ ~150.00 (bestbuy.com)
• Memory - Transcend SDHC 4GB Card $ ~20.00 (amazon.com)
• Wide-Angle Lens: Sunpak CAM-2110 MagMount 0.5x Wide-Angle Conversion Lens (Large) $ ~35.00
• Mount - 1x1" Aluminum Tubing, 2x U-Bolts, and Cheap Cam Ball Mount $ ~20.00
• *NEW* Mic - External Powered Mic Setup

Having read and seen the reviews of the Aiptek A-HD+ camera it was an easy sell... it was most importantly very cheap, "easy" to modify, and recorded HD video quality. It's only shortcoming was its microphone, which every review and owner can attest to.

I started with the cam and modified it to accept the wide angle lens, basically taping it on as I wasn't fond of the "magnetic rings" they come with. I also placed a little weatherstripping foam tape inside the battery compartment to keep the battery steady and prevent it from turning off the cam (a known issue with high vibration environment).







Next was to build a "cage" the steady the cam in its mount since the cam comes is rather tall and the threaded adapter doesn't give it much lateral support (it tends to swing back and forth due to its height and small mounting area). Thanks to Nobot's setup, I did a straight copy using some 1.25x1.25" angle iron, bolts, and some foam to hold the cam tight and a rubber band for added insurance.





Finally I had to mount in inside the car, I looked at mounting it to the front headrests (didn't give me the desired view angle) and finally settled on the rear headrests, which works even better. It's not close to your head, is affected by moving your seat around and gives a great view.

I used some 1x1" square tubing (33" long) I picked up at sears and some u-bolts. I just cut it to length, marked the headrests positions and drilled the appropriate holes for the u-bolts. I put some fuel hose over the headrest post, for some added damping and then just bolted it up. I used an old, cheap ball-mount from a camcorder tripod and just adapted it to work.







So far, so good. Camera's view angle is great and the video quality is great as well. Now I needed to work on reducing wind noise, first I stuffed the microphone area with some open-cell foam and it helped... but you could still hear it. So I tried just putting some painters tape right over the area, but it kills a lot of sound period...



I also tried out a little trick from Nobot, placing some 20% tint film on the upper lens surface to prevent the camera from over exposing the "outside" view and under exposing the interior.



Here's some footage shot with the cam, first are just some "outside" shots and than an in-car one:

[ame]http://www.vimeo.com/3035822[/ame]
^^^HD Version (Vimeo)

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40ckB_ZKHlE[/ame]

After applying tint and foam to the mic:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-r8LUjjhpQw[/ame]

Track footage taken w/ above setup:

[ame]http://www.vimeo.com/2315579[/ame]
^^^HD Version (Vimeo)

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgI3_puZ6Xg&feature=related[/ame]

In both the in-car scenes you can hear the wind noise really overpowering the cam's mic. So the solution was to build an external mic that would offer better sound quality and be able to be placed *anywhere desired.

External Mic Setup:

First things first, you need to add-on some sort of input to allow usage of an external mic, I chose to wire-in a 1/8" audio jack that still allows use of the internal mic and "bypasses" it when plugging in an external one. I used a cheapo Radio-Shack audio jack and followed these directions: http://forums.steves-digicams.com/fo...88&forum_id=92 tells you exactly how to wire it in and if you search around, there's a DIY how to open the cam up.

Here's the cam with the jack glued and wired in:



On to the actual mic setup, which consists of a simple condenser mic element, resistor, capacitor, and 9V battery forming a circuit that powers the mic. The components I used are (I was ordering from this place anyways, RS probably be cheaper):

• Condenser Mic Element
• 10k Ohm Resistor (1/8W or 1/4W)
• 1uF Film Capacitor
• 9V Battery
• Any Misc Wire & Stereo or Mono Connector for Audio Jack

The circuit is really simple and I followed this guide for it: http://webpages.charter.net/tidmarsh/binmic/ (you're just building one-channel/mono)



Here's the finished mic:




^^^ I chose to build the circuit on a "breadboard"

First footage taken w/ New DIY Mic (mic placement on rear bumper):

[ame]http://www.vimeo.com/2122985[/ame]
^^^HD Version (Vimeo)

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lmY_MQuxZ0[/ame]

So you can see, a huge improvement in sound quality and wind-noise reduction. I post this as a guide to help others, however at the same time their might be user's looking for a setup similar to this and either aren't comfortable doing the modifications or have the resources...

Thus if any users would like their camera modified to accept the external jack and an external mic setup built, PM me and we can discuss the details. You won't be the first

So as I said, "You wont be the first"... Edwin (aka edwin814) had contacted me regarding making this setup for him and I was happy to help a fellow enthusiast. I built Edwin basically what is seen above, except I took the mic "circuit" one step further and "potted" it to prevent vibrations causing any loose connections.

Since this was my second build and using a camera (A-HD+, but with a different firmware) we ran into a few snags, but eventually got everything worked out. This is Edwin's Review.

*edit* Here are examples of mic's sent out to fellow members, same original design but better components and layout (minus battery and wrapping):

[JETninja]

Nice! Only gear I ever have probs with (maybe once in every 500 shifts) is 3rd too!

Looks like a solid mount, though I saw a sim setup using wood and the front headrests at an auto-x a few weeks back, very nice POV from it.

[clustermonkey]

Post your vids to vimeo.com, they do proper support of HD content. For example, see my race video:


I run a similar setup: Aiptek A-HD + 0.45x wide angle lens on the ioport camera mount attached to my car's roll cage. The open ioport mount allows me to run with the LCD sticking out, so I can turn the cam on/off while I'm sitting on grid waiting to go out.

I did the "tape the wide angle lens on" mod after it popped off on that video, and the "pad the battery" fix after it shut down short on that vid Next up is making the mic not suck as badly.

[Car54]

What are you doing for control and turning it on and off (when the power button is inside the view screen)? Looks real clever otherwise....you need to make a sticker for the bar and market!

[bmwpowere36m3]

Added some pics of the "foam" to reducing mic noise and "tint trick" to help with video exposure.

[txse46m3]

If it has an external mic plug, you can get one for 20 bones and stick it in the trunk. Gets the exhaust noise and reduces the wind noise a lot.

[bmwpowere36m3]

If it has an external mic plug, you can get one for 20 bones and stick it in the trunk. Gets the exhaust noise and reduces the wind noise a lot.

Yea, on this cam if you plug in an external mic, you have to also use an external camera... I also added a vid of the "tint trick", really helps keep the video from being "washed-out".

[M13]

Nicely done. If you're still playing around with mounting points, you might want to chk this video out:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhWiuLA--NA[/ame]

Fast forward to about 56 seconds. That's how I will eventually have my set up. It's not passenger friendly though.

[bmwpowere36m3]

Nicely done. If you're still playing around with mounting points, you might want to chk this video out:


Fast forward to about 56 seconds. That's how I will eventually have my set up. It's not passenger friendly though.

While that's a cool setup, I still need the passenger-side seat... so that wont work.

[huggybear]

I call that the wide angle option video setup. for drifting it's awesome especially when they run tandem.

[txse46m3]

yea, on this cam if you plug in an external mic, you have to also use an external camera...

lol

[AMFTime]

Mike, great job! Where did you score the tint tape?

[bmwpowere36m3]

Mike, great job! Where did you score the tint tape?

Just went to a local tint shop and asked for some scrap material, they gave me a huge piece for free.

[9kFever]

nice!

[ronpapworth]

Ok, Im stuck on the ball mount. Where did you get yours? I'm leaning towards using this, (using just the head with a bolt through the alum bar):
http://cgi.ebay.com/Mount-Bracket-for-CCD-CCTV-Security-Video-Camera-c48_W0QQitemZ180264546082QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item1 80264546082&_trksid=p3286.m14.l1318
but would welcome suggestions. Every tripod head I come across doesn't seem to have female threads for a bolt or male threads coming off the head (to go through the alum bar)

[bmwpowere36m3]

Ok, Im stuck on the ball mount. Where did you get yours? I'm leaning towards using this, (using just the head with a bolt through the alum bar):
http://cgi.ebay.com/Mount-Bracket-for-CCD-CCTV-Security-Video-Camera-c48_W0QQitemZ180264546082QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item1 80264546082&_trksid=p3286.m14.l1318
but would welcome suggestions. Every tripod head I come across doesn't seem to have female threads for a bolt or male threads coming off the head (to go through the alum bar)

Yea, I just used that cheap one laying around the house. I had to modify it to work, drilling it out, etc...

[Robbie13]

Ok, Im stuck on the ball mount. Where did you get yours? I'm leaning towards using this, (using just the head with a bolt through the alum bar):
http://cgi.ebay.com/Mount-Bracket-for-CCD-CCTV-Security-Video-Camera-c48_W0QQitemZ180264546082QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item1 80264546082&_trksid=p3286.m14.l1318
but would welcome suggestions. Every tripod head I come across doesn't seem to have female threads for a bolt or male threads coming off the head (to go through the alum bar)

The cheepee ball mounts will probably vibrate so just a bolt through a bar with some foam or rubber between the camera an bar will give the most solid mount.

[TestShoot]

Post your vids to vimeo.com, they do proper support of HD content. For example, see my race video:

VIMEO FTW!

Guys this is info I have been waiting for! Thanks guys, been looking for something like this, thought about the aiptek, but now looks good to me!

Only issues are how jerky it seems.

[Jeremy Lucas]

For example, see my race video:

What mode was that video taken in? 30fps? or 60fps?

[raydoc]

I bought the Aiptek and for the money it is great. The only question is my .mov movies don't play smoothly in windows using the Apple viewer. What is everyone using to view their movies?

[Car54]

Quicktime for playback....some pc's don't have the uumph. Try uploading them to www.Vimeo.com and watching them that way.

[bmwpowere36m3]

Yea I'm running the stuff on my Macbook Pro, it works great.

[TestShoot]

Quicktime for playback....some pc's don't have the uumph. Try uploading them to www.Vimeo.com and watching them that way.

On Vimeo there is an Aiptek group, you can look and see samples in HD http://vimeo.com/groups/aiptek

The problem is rolling shutter, thought the images are really sharp, th motion areas are very jerky. Luckily the car is going to be vibrating badly as well, but I would not use one for my personal stuff.

Buyer's note: You MUST look at the site to break down what camera is best for you. Only one has autofocus, and some have digital only zoom, so buyer beware. Get one from CraigsList in your area, it is a cheap camera, but I still feel a little overpriced for the quality it produces.

[bmwpowere36m3]

Finally got some DE footage, this is from a recent DE w/ BMWCCA-NJ @ Summit Point, enjoy (cam set to 60fps):

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgI3_puZ6Xg[/ame]

[Car54]

Where's the VIMEO??? Much better for quality.