bullet camera questions (atc2k oregon scientific)

[zeroice]

no trackday... I'd like to but don't have the vacation days...

Essentially I'll leave friday at noon and get there late, probably around 1am. hope the gates stay open...

Do the MW & HW practice, GTO, GTU races (as practice) and maybe I'll get lucky and win (hehe). Sunday do the TC and then pack up and hit the road ASAP. Gonna get to work monday at noon. It will be rough but do-able

[zeroice]

What a crazy bummer weekend it was at BHF. I crashed in all 3 of my races... But everyone was super helpful in getting me back on the track, so thanks a lot guys!


Ok, so I tested out the camera in BHF this past weekend. I had one mounted on the front and rear. I got most of the footage from the GTU and GTO but it didn't record the entire length of the TC.

I was running in the TC for about 1.25 hrs before I crashed. I installed new batteries 10 minutes before the race in both front and rear cameras.

Rear camera recorded only 38 minutes then got cut short. Wierd...

Front camera didn't record at all, although I remember looking at it while pitting in for gas and saw that the display was still counting up, so I knew it was on. Today I checked the card out on my card reader. It has 2 avi files. I don't see any hidden files ("show hidden files" is enabled). I checked the properties of the "drive" and it says that 703mb are used and 1.2gb are free. But the 2 avi files that are on the card only add up to 260mb.... What happened to the other 340mb? any thoughts?

[DavidV]

My guess is that during the TC, the memory card ejected and thus ...........you lost all video it had taken of THAT race.

Maybe the stuff you are seeing on the card (front camera), is left over from the GTO and GTU?
Rear camera may have run out of batteries or space (was the card filled up?)

Remember to screw that cap on TIGHT.  I found that I have to reformat the card everytime I want to clean it. Simply cutting and pasting from it does NOT remove the data on there. You really need to reformat each time, I learned the hard way.

[DavidV]

By the way, did the camera record the crashes? Do post!

[gixxer188]

http://www.29dreamsracing.com/videos.htm

Where do you have the camera mounted on the bike?
What compression are you using on the finished video?

[DavidV]

It's actually not my website, that is Ryan Nelson. He mounts his to his fairing though with zip ties

I use the small or medium compression settings myself. Really a great camera if you are aware of it's faults.

[zeroice]

I used the 320x240 @ 15fps to capture the duration of the Solo challenge

For all the races, GTO, GTU and Solo Challenge, the rear camera was mounted on the tail section, right on top, ziptied to the fiberglass. the tail section did bounce a bit.

The front camera was mounted in the nose for the GTU. I cut a hole out and screwed on cut piece of safety glasses as a shield.
But for the Solo challenge, since I didnt run with bodywork, I ziptied the front camera to the forks between the top and bottom triple clamp.


David:
I didn't do a cut and past or delete from the computer. I always deleted "all" files using the camera. So the front camera still had recordings from the GTU and the short test recording before the GTU. But it didn't capture solo...

I have too check all the footage of the front camera and see if it captured my GTU T1 crash...

BTW, I did screw it on TIGHT. And the batteries were fresh out of a new package that had an expiration date in 2010. The front camera card was not full. The 2GB card has 2 files totaling to 200something MB but the used space info reads that 700mb is used... where is the rest of the 400MB?

I'll definitly post the footage later!!!

But if any of you have an idea on salvaging or recovering the missing footage, please do let me know!!!

thanks

[DavidV]

hmm, you formatted the card with FAT16?   I have had similar problems.  I had a 1gig card in with only 200meg used. The batteries were new. I pulled in after a practice session and it was off (meaning everything was lost from the last session!)

I think you really need to reformat the card after EVERY recording (Regardless of available space). This is the route I went and no problems so far.

I lost video of a GTU race and was kicking myself since then. I almost broke the camera because I wanted to break it. This camera is really picky.

Use fresh batteries
Format with FAT16
Reformat and change batteries after EVERY race

pain in the ass I know, but it's a great camera for $80. If you can, use multiple SD cards or bring a laptop to the track so you can download the vids after every session.

[PaulV]

I have an ATC2K as well and have had all of the same issues metioned here...as well as the missing video...
My take is that there is also a power issue which develops over time where due to vibration the batteries may lose contact and power is momentarilyy lost...causing the video to stop and the file becomes incomplete (corrupt) and unaccessable. You may see and ERR message in the LCD scrn or it may just go blank depending on how much time passes between the err and your recovery attempt. 
Haven't tried to address this issue yet, but the foam/tight cap solution may help.

Paul
Polar-Optics
MW Ex 79

[zeroice]

Maybe increase the spring force on the batteries? Say, put some foam between the leaf spring and its base?

[DavidV]

Paul,
I think the vibration causes the SD card to eject. There is not much room for the batteries to move around.  If you look in your cap, the hard foam will be in there. Screw the cap on tight, then remove the cap and look at it. There should be an indentation in it, indicating that the memory card is snug against the foam.

The vibrating battery thing is something I have never heard of, but it's not impossible for it to be happening. I have had good luck though with my above methods.   I use two zip ties to mount my camera, I'm assuming everyone else uses the mount that came with it? (the one it "slides" into)

I have the camera mounted on my fork leg, video is very stable

[PaulV]

Hey David,

Thanks, I'll check the foam and make sure there is proper indentation.
More than likely you are right on the SD card.  I have been mounting on top of the tripple clamp with the std. mount and zip ties, on top of a rubber mount fashioned from an old r6 cush drive piece..:).


Paul
Polar-Optics
MW Ex 79