Re: Look no further! [TANKS]

[Joe Sommer <anvilus9-at-adelphia.net>]

Chris,

At 12:27 PM 1/8/2006 +1030, "chris barthelson" <barthelson88-at-hotmail.com> 
wrote:
>No one is seeing the good points and advantages of this system. You will 
>now be able to sight the gun with out being right behind the turret 
>(stealthy flanking runs!). The lcd is very small and easy to incorporate 
>into a paintball mask, you could just cut the rest of the glasses off and 
>glue the screen to the inside of the mask. It's only the left part of the 
>glasses that has the image right?
>I believe it will eventually set the standard when the price is in the 
>$100 range and they are reliable, I'm not sure how much vibration or shock 
>those things can take. I guess some one has to test it.

I have driven vehicles using both low-end and high-end camera
systems.  I heartily encourage everyone to experiment also.


LOW-END

a)  X-10 camera mounted in Hetzer #T010 behind driver's periscope
with hand-held 3x4 inch LCD

+ great fun in the backyard
+ could hit static targets at short range 10-20 yards

- must protect camera from paint balls
- must turn vehicle or turret to view target
- automatic intensity adjustment often causes washout
- very short radio range less than 40 yards
- camera died during first Battle in the Badlands
http://www.rctankcombat.com/battle-reports/BattleInTheBadlands/

b) mini wireless camera (same mount and LCD)

+ hit moving target at intermission of Bon Voyage Battle
http://www.rctankcombat.com/battle-reports/BonVoyage/

- wide-angle fixed focal length lens can barely see 36 inch long tanks at 
medium range
- would require a referee to judge hits
- 30Hz video rate and resolution cannot see paint balls flying down range
http://www.rctankcombat.com/video/index.html#BonVoyage


HIGH-END

head-aimed military vision system mounted on Hetzer and 20 mph UGV
http://www.chattenassociates.com/

+ much easier to drive and acquire target
+ 1 mile radio range

- wide-angle fixed focal length lens can barely see 36 inch long tanks at 
medium range
- automatic intensity adjustment often causes washout
- 30Hz video rate and resolution cannot see paint balls flying down range


Even with a high-end system, the great challenge for our tanks is that
cameras cannot see paint balls flying down range for fire control.  We
would need -

a)  either two cameras (wide-angle for target acquisition and telephoto
for fire control) or one camera with zoom, and

b)  a method to measure range and calibrate gun elevation for fire control
because the camera cannot see paint balls that miss.

I bought an 8X monocular scope ($15) and mounted it in front of my mini
wireless camera.  I will try to collect some 8X gun camera video footage
after the snow melts.

Alternately, with a cheap turret-mounted wide-angle camera, you could
close to 10 feet range and spew paint wildly like tanks from southern MD
often do.

Joe


**********************************************
Joe Sommer, Anvilus Machine Works
2378 Nantucket Circle, State College, PA 16803
814.234.4773     anvilus9-at-adelphia.net
http://www.anvilus.com