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Model railway FPV

Adding FPV experience to my model railway.

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Overview

Model railroading is one of the countless way of representing our world into a small space. Miniaturization is pushing it to sizes never imagined before. Everything has to shrink down: buildings, cars, semaphores and obviously trains. And this has been the trend for the past century. As cars and helicopters got some sort of live cameras, mostly easily due to the bigger dimensions and tolerances required, less has been done regarding trains. 

Getting some sort of first person control from my trains has been on my wishlist for ages, and this contest is the right time to do so. And to be even more masochistic, I'm going to do it in N scale (1:160).

Materials and equipment

N scale is small. That means getting the smallest possible camera, the smallest possible VTX and a way to power them reliably. Excluding the base wagon, the entire assembly has to fit in a space of 100x23x20mm. The power supply can't be derived from the rails, as it would suffer heavily from short interruptions and interferences. The full list of the material required is available under the components tab, but the main devices are described below.

For the camera I have chosed a RUNCAM NANO 4, featuring a decent image quality in the size of 14x14x14mm. Input voltage is 3,3-5,5V with a maximum current of 180mA. A resolution of 800TVL is sufficient enough for this application as well as light sensitivity.

The VTX is the TBS UNIFY PRO32 NANO 5G8. Is a very small device (15x13x2mm, excluding antenna) with high power (up to 500mW). My model railroad has hills and tunnels, so a good reception is important. This VTX was primarily chosed because the input voltage was indicated as 3,3V minimum, allowing for direct connection to a battery. However, after some discussion and debug with TBS, we finally found that 4,5V was now the minimum voltage required for the correct operation. So a voltage booster was now required.

Equipment needed is pretty standard and consists of:

- 3D printer;

- hot glue gun;

- soldering iron;

- hex screwdriver and pliers.

The total cost of the project is around 75€ (80USD).

For this project you also need the video receiver equipment typical of FPV(RTX, display, goggles, etc...) and a N scale wagon where you can mount the camera.

Operation

Be sure that the battery is fully charged and calculate the operating time for you battery capacity (I didn't have space for a battery protection circuit!). Be sure to avoid overdischarge. The camera will start transmitting as soon as the battery is connected. Use the microswitch to control the LED. It might be useful in dark situation, but in daylight it is not necessary.

Place the system on a compatible wagon and secure it in place. A container wagon should be big enough. I had some wheel assemblies available as spares, so I decided to print a custom wagon. The 3D file is available below.

Everything is going to heat up a bit during operation, however the temperature of the plastic housing should not reach worrying values. The maximum temperature was measured at the VTX.

I did a test run on my layout, which it is currently in construction. Please don't judge it by its current state :)

wagon.stl

[OPTIONAL] DIY wagon.

Standard Tesselated Geometry - 279.54 kB - 12/24/2022 at 09:46

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Traincam.stl

The main assembly.

Standard Tesselated Geometry - 177.63 kB - 12/24/2022 at 09:42

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  • 1 × RUNCAM NANO 4
  • 1 × TBS UNIFY PRO32 NANO 5G8 V1.1
  • 1 × 14500 Li-Ion battery 800mAh
  • 1 × DC-DC 1S booster 1A@5V output
  • 1 × 3mm white LED

View all 10 components

  • 1
    3D print

    Start by printing the body of the camera system. It is a single piece with the dimensions of 95x22x177mm, capable of holding all the components. I printed it in PLA, but considering the heat developed by both camera and VTX, ABS is strongly recommended. In the meantime, begin to solder the LED to the resistor and the microswitch.

  • 2
    LED

    Once the print is completed, begin by placing the LED assembly in the correct location. Both the LED and the switch need to be secured in place with some glue. Apply a piece of tape over the LED to avoid short-circuits with the camera.

  • 3
    Power system

    Solder the cables to the battery spring and the clip, then force the cables through the two small holes in the sides of the battery compartment. Connect the cables to the DC-DC booster (Vin+/Vin-) and prepare the cables for the output too.

View all 5 instructions

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Discussions

Todd Carney wrote 01/18/2023 at 20:12 point

A supercap and a little filtering (a few ordinary capacitors and maybe a choke) would solve the problem of intermittent and noisy track power.

  Are you sure? yes | no

al wrote 01/18/2023 at 18:59 point

Also... Aren't the new n-scale locomotives powered with a small module which gets power from the rails and also decodes an address  for control of individual locomotives on the same track...

I believe I am ancient... when track polarities and switches all had to be individually controlled...

I have only glanced at the existing technology but I assumed that this is being done now?

If so, perhaps a locomotive power module could be used to power your camera, charge a small lipo on board, and allow you to switch the camera on or off?

  Are you sure? yes | no

al wrote 01/18/2023 at 18:46 point

Why didn't you use track power?

  Are you sure? yes | no

Vassily98 wrote 01/18/2023 at 20:31 point

The track provides DCC signal (15Vp-p square wave), so I would have to use diodes, a dc-dc converter, filtering caps and a big cap for keeping the voltage stable when the wagon is not making good contact with the track. All this would take more or less the same space as the battery.

An other thing to consider is that track power is limited by the booster, in my case 1,5A. Multiple locomotives and accessories can be power hungry

  Are you sure? yes | no

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