Here are a two photos taken from a digital camera phone set on 30 seconds self timer mounted to the front of the Eco 8. The camera is only 1.3 mp but you get to see a pilots eye view! These were my first attempts where I had 30 seconds to get the heli into position. This was the starting point for another use of the helicopter.

The next step was to use a good quality 2mp camera phone and to operate the shutter with a servo.

The pictures were better but after taking the shot you had to wait 5 seconds for the file to be written to memory, the phone would then show you that photo on the screen untill you pressed the shutter button again via CH7. This would set the camera ready to take the next picture. Not the best way while you're also trying to fly the helicopter !!! So a trip to the local discount store to find a small digital camera, I chose the Fuji A500 5mp @130gm without batteries. I built a 3 volt BEC to power the camera from the flight battery, this saved 50gm (2 AA batteries) and I also built a timer circuit that would turn Ch7 on for one second every 7 seconds so once I was in position I could turn the timer on and just fly knowing every 7 seconds I would have a photo taken for me.

The 3 volt power supply for the camera.

NE 555 timer IC that powers the little white relay every 7 seconds was made up on Vero board. The unit is activated with an extra switch (top right of the Tx) and the relay is wired across CH7 sprung loaded switch so I can still manualy take a photo if needed.

Here you can see the gimble used to keep the camera level, I used very soft foam to dampen any wobble.

After 20 mins flight at my model railway club I had 125 photos, over 30 were usable as the two above show. I still need to work on vibration and hovering while flying high but so far pleased with the results.

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