CAMERA TRAIN
This project started off with a search for the right camera that would fit inside a Z scale
car. I found the camera TC-9 which was at a reasonable cost for its size.
I wanted the camera to have a large depth of focus and work well at low light too, so I
machined a housing and got some lenses from edmunnds and replaced the original
lens, it worked great, almost like night vision.
After some time I got a little ambitious and decided to install three cameras so I could
essentially have a complete view all around from inside the train. So I built a
snowplough loco to hide the cameras inside.
The electronics and the battery of the TC-9 was a little big and the current draw was
too high during charging and the electronics would not drive three cameras. So I
decided to build my own circuit. After many protypes selected the one that worked the
best. The issue with SMD devices is if one were to prototype it you will have to make a
PCB build and test, unlike breadboards.
Here is a comparison of the board that came with the camera
This circuit will also replace the Gold Mini power one board and can be used on
regular decoders. The plan is to make it smaller once I have access to making multi
layer PCB's
