Target Cam

[mikegideon]

Excuse the crummy pics. Introducing the OkeyCam 7000

This is a home made wireless target cam for long range shooting. It runs off a motorcycle or car battery. It uses a plain old camcorder camera, and a 2.4 Ghz wireless digital link. The goal was to design something that has at least a 1000 yard range with good battery life. The transmitter puts out less than a watt, and runs on 12 volts. The camera runs on 7 volts, so there's an on-board voltage regulator. The system draws a little less than an amp, so battery life estimate is simply the amp hour rating of the battery. Everything was done to permit fairly rough handling, but it's obviously not bullet proof. It will last until somebody puts a 6mm hole in it .

Back at the shack, there's a high gain receive antenna, the receiver, and a wall mounted flat TV. Since the transmitter is fairly low power, we needed lots of antenna gain. I think the guys are going to test it today. we cobbled the system together and tested it at 100 yards before the conversion to DC power. It had lots of headroom, and should perform well without adding any more antenna gain. Last time I was out there, the antenna wasn't dead on the berms. I wanted to go out for the tests, but am in ammo hell right now.

Anyway... that's my story. We'll see how it works.

Edited December 10, 2011 by mikegideon

[MacGyver]

That's pretty sweet!

[mikegideon]

It's working at 600 and 700. They need to tweak the antenna, and today ain't the day. Cold and windy. In fact, too windy to shoot past 600.

[Guest Lester Weevils]

That is a neat project!

I suppose the other option for 1000 yards might look something like this--

[mikegideon]

I'm thinking there's too much crap in the air, even without mirage. I have a 60x spotting scope, but it's a HUGE pain in the butt. You can see the bullet impacts on a whte steel target through the scope. Just not enough contrast for paper.

[Guest Lester Weevils]

I'm thinking there's too much crap in the air, even without mirage. I have a 60x spotting scope, but it's a HUGE pain in the butt. You can see the bullet impacts on a whte steel target through the scope. Just not enough contrast for paper.

I agree, unsteady air would make it annoying to use if workable at all, under high magnification.

They make various inexpensive and expensive video cams that fit in standard 1.25" eyepiece holders. Some people make them by adapting cheap computer screen cams. Most typically USB connection nowadays. If a telescope would work, it wouldn't be expensive to view it on a video monitor. A scope with adequate contrast would probably be do-able, but unsteady air would be a problem.

Edited December 10, 2011 by Lester Weevils

[mikegideon]

The problem with the air is more of a dust/moisture content thing. I havent seen the video screen yet. Hopefully, Okey will take a picture or two. When I talked to him earlier, he mentoned burning the targets . Like I said, it's pretty windy out there.

[mikegideon]

One more thing... we have less than $300 in this rig. The camera and TV were scrounged. Not sure you could get much of a spotting scope for that anyway. That's one reason why we did an NTSC video link instead of a Wifi setup.

[Guest Lester Weevils]

The problem with the air is more of a dust/moisture content thing. I havent seen the video screen yet. Hopefully, Okey will take a picture or two. When I talked to him earlier, he mentoned burning the targets . Like I said, it's pretty windy out there.

Once you get the kinks worked out on your radio system, it may sell good to long range shooters? Heck, perhaps there are people who would find it a nice convenience even for 100 yards.

[mikegideon]

Once you get the kinks worked out on your radio system, it may sell good to long range shooters? Heck, perhaps there are people who would find it a nice convenience even for 100 yards.

They're available, just not on a country boy budget.

[mikegideon]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7B9NkQldeu0

[Okey]

This thing works great.

Have a few pics. Gotta go clean a rifle and then will post some pictures.

[Dolomite_supafly]

That is cool. I was talking to Okey about it and it definitely beats running out and checking targets. I did something similar. I bought a wireless security camera for like $25 off of EBay. It runs off of AC or a 9 volt and has a range of about 100-150 yards. It is one of the small, quarter sized ones with no external lights. I didn't use it for targets though. I mounted the camera in a box and put a QD attachment for mounting it to rails. I could mount it to a rifle or pistol and have the image beamed to a receiver that had standard A/V jacks. This was about 6-7 years ago before all the small cameras hit the market. I was actualy doing it as a proof of concept for having a camera on LE weapons for when they are not on the car's camera. The same thing could be done for cheap for 100 yard targets. The 9 volt lasted about 8 hours when on continuously.

Dolomite

This is the camera I used:

http://www.amazon.com/Mini-Wireless-Color-Camera-Microphone/dp/B000YM2OIK

Again not as high speed as the OP but worked great out to about 100-150 yards.

Edited December 11, 2011 by Dolomite_supafly

[Okey]

Got it loaded up, hooked up, turned on and ready for a drive. Was on the phone with my buddy that was watching the monitor in the shooting shack. Drove to the 600, 700 and 880 yard targets. He said there wasn't a change in signal until the 880. It was still working but an antenna adjustment as per Mike's instruction will probably sharpen the picture.

Set up at 600 yards

Inside the shack with TV monitor.

My best 5 shot group. Don't ask me where the 5th one is. The rest looked like they were hit with buckshot.

Not sure if the heater or the Target Cam was my favorite today.

Never pass up a chance to show off a sweet Bolt Handle.

[mikegideon]

That looks better than I expected. BTW... your windage was off a little

[Okey]

That looks better than I expected. BTW... your windage was off a little

Hey!!!! That was the GOOD target.

[Dolomite_supafly]

Never pass up a chance to show off a sweet Bolt Handle.

I guess I need to get to work on making it even prettier

Dolomite

[mikegideon]

Hey!!!! That was the GOOD target.

We need to try this thing at night. Since there's lots of capacity left over in a car sized battery, it would be pretty easy to rig some kind of bright LED light.

[Okey]

We need to try this thing at night. Since there's lots of capacity left over in a car sized battery, it would be pretty easy to rig some kind of bright LED light.

I was wanting to try it at night but I was cold and tired. Took it down when it was getting to dark to see thru scope and still looked good on the screen.

A small LED flashlight on the target should be all we need for night shooting.

[mikegideon]

I was wanting to try it at night but I was cold and tired. Took it down when it was getting to dark to see thru scope and still looked good on the screen.

A small LED flashlight on the target should be all we need for night shooting.

Great! That's gonna be the most fun you can have with your clothes on.

[reed1285]

just so you know, I envy your shooting shack and that you have the ability to shoot long range. im pretty sure the only long range here in chattanooga is at the chattanooga rifle club, and im not a member. looks like you have a nice setup there with the shack and all. plus, nice work on the camera!

[mikegideon]

Just heard from Okey. They tweaked the antenna, and it's solid out to 1000 yards now. Success!

[Dolomite_supafly]

That is great.

I mailed a present for Okey off this morning. Have him show it to you once he has it installed. If it works as well as I think it will it should be a nice improvement over his current setup.

Dolomite

[mikegideon]

That is great.

I mailed a present for Okey off this morning. Have him show it to you once he has it installed. If it works as well as I think it will it should be a nice improvement over his current setup.

Dolomite

He said you were working on something for him. I have lots of faith in you, but it would HAVE to be an improvement over what he has.

BTW... now that the camera works at 1000 yards, we're probably gonna have to pop for a wide angle lens

[Dolomite_supafly]

He said you were working on something for him. I have lots of faith in you, but it would HAVE to be an improvement over what he has.

BTW... now that the camera works at 1000 yards, we're probably gonna have to pop for a wide angle lens

LOL.

From what I saw you are doing pretty good. I know I wouldn't be able to do as well, at least not with my current setup.

Dolomite