Gents,
I work for an helicopter company doing inspections of oil and gas systems flying an Robinson 44. We are looking into replacing the current video system, as this is quite old and not user friendly at all.
As the combined knowledge in these forums are substantial, I do have to ask about my solution.
The problem can be divided into different sections:
- Capturing the video
- Insert OSD
- Store video with OSD overlay
- Power
Capturing the video
Capture of the video should be in full HD, color. It is not necessary with IR or anything fancy. Just plain normal HD. We do need to use some zoom, as we are flying approx. 600 to 900 feet above ground. Could be a normal camcorder, or a block camera like these https://pro.sony.com/bbsc/ssr/cat-industrialcameras/cat-block/?navId=4294966461
Insert OSD
Somehow we do need to have an OSD containing various GPS data. Position, date and time are the minimum data to be added. It would be nice to be able to add free text, but that is no absolute requirement. I am a bit blank on what system to use for this.
Store video with OSD overlay
We need to store the video somehow. I have looked at this unit: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/858661-REG/ATOMOS_ATOMNJA002_Ninja_2.html
This will cover both viewing screen and recording.
Power
We are able to get 12V power from the helicopter to use, but we prefer to use equipment with built in power sources. In case some of the equipment do have an fatal malfunction of some sort, it will not affect the helicopters performance, only the mission. We are of course not able to use LiPo batteries due to the fire hazard.
Any good ideas or solutions for our problems?
Replies
Hi all.
The company went out of bussiness in late 2013, so this discussion is sort of dead in the water :-(
But we ended up using software (type MotionX on iPhone) to record GPS location, and a gopro to record video. Then we mated the two in some software which I cannot remember the name of. And we got a nice looking video with GPS, date, time etc.