Hit this year, the old X-10 camera car

I thought I would post a picture of the X-10 tv camera car.

Real simple, just mount camera with one bolt to a flat car.  I use rubber bands or pig tail cloth wrapped rubber bands to hold on the battery pack with 8 AA re-chargable batteries. 

This is a really neat car and provides many hours of entertainment for all.

Charlie

I bought one 3 years ago at York from the vendor in the Purple Hall that sells them.  Something like $110 - captured both color and sound and transmitted it to whatever TV the receiver was attached to.

About 75% of the time it transmitted a loud cracking buzz and ziggley lines - too annoying to watch, let alone enjoy.  I worked with the vendor on several occasions trying every suggestion that he offered - nothing worked.  I took it outside, I mounted the receiver on the ceiling in the middle of the same room as the camera, tried using the camera in different rooms in the house, hooked up the receiver to a different TV in a different room, etc. 

I finally recorded a 20 minute session and sent it to the vendor - he admitted that he never saw anything like what was happening with mine.  He had no further suggestions

Too bad - it was a toy that I wanted for a long time and was REALLY looking forward to having a LOT of fun with it.  I was so looking forward to controlling my layout (using DCS) from my recliner in the game room by watching where the train was on my TV.  I finally gave up and he refunded my money.  Sad day.

- walt

Hi,

How long does the battery pack last?  Have you ever thought of using a flat car with a pick-up and a rectifier with a 12 V voltage regular?

Alan

It will run in excess of an hour with fresh charges NiMH batteries of which I have another set or two.  They are used in many radios, digital camera, cassette players, etc.

An hour has been enough for open houses and sessions with the grand kids. 

If I made a battery eliminator I would still use the batteries to eliminate skipping problems from pickups and electric noise from ac to dc conversions.

Charlie

Looks like a great item for a layout that sees a lot of guests. Then again, do I really want people seeing the inside of my tunnel?

I've picked up a couple of the really small wireless cameras and the picture is better than the X-10.  Longer battery life, and a lot easier to mount on a train too.  I've put one in the cab of a low-nosed Geep dummy looking over the hood.  I might put the other in a caboose cupola.  The price on these cameras has really come down.

John

We've been running a homemade camera car, much like the others pictured, behind Thomas at the TTOS mall display here in the San Francisco bay area.

The kids love Thomas (we've already worn out two, with one of them being on it's third motor) and they really love seeing themselves and the layout on TV.

It's really a hit.

Its been another hit for 2012 open house. 

To see the inside of my long behind the background tunnel I had to install as string of clear Christmas mini lights to provide enough light to see anything. 

I needed the lights to illuminate a picture of a 2035 loco on a swing piece of card stock to stage a head on collision with the TV camera car. 

Lots of fun.

Charlie