DIY video transmitter

hoarp001

hoarp001

Veteran
Hi,

I decided to make myself a video transmitter for my steadicam set up, so the director/DoP can see what I am filming and I wont have someone running behind me trying to see my monitor. I had a look at the blackbox video setups but I thought I would have a go at making my own. It works very nicely, I have made the receiver but its not in a case yet but I can still test it. The transmitter is in a cast aluminum case. Heres a picture:

http://www.peter-hoare.co.uk/transmitter.jpg

Just so you know what the connections are:

On the top is the on light, on switch and 2.1mm barrel plug power input. On the back is a 4 pin XLR socket so I can power it off my steadicam sled without any extra batteries.

On the side is the antenna (obviously) then a video phono and BNC. These can be both inputs and outputs. My camera has a phono composite output which I plug into the phono input on the transmitter. I then plug the BNC plug on the transmitter into my steadicam sled for the video monitor. If the camera uses a BNC ouput, you plug that into the BNC with a T splitter for the on board monitor. This built in adapter feature works weather the transmitter is powered on or not.

The transmitter can be powered by the XLR socket, but if you arnt using it on the steadicam you can power it from any voltage up to 35v through the 2.1mm barrel socket. It has an internal voltage regulator that takes the input at whatever voltage and takes it down to 9v.

I might replace the silver screws for black countersunk at some point, but other than that Im pretty pleased with it.

Any opinions would be nice.

Thanks.
 
Wow man, that is slick. More pics would be great. So a diy project like this probably isn't for your average joe...? Seems like it would be complex. If it is doable, I would like to see a how to. Seriously impressed with this.
 
Mmm depends on your level of electronics. You could always buy a ready made video transmitter and just re-home it in a swanky case.... It cost me about £60 for the transmitter and receiver, although I havn't started on the receiver yet...
 
WOW. I'm thoroughly impressed. Well done. :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

I see you got your XLR connector. :) RS was fast!


- Mikko ... up to his neck in optocouples working on a project of his own.
 
Yeah RS deliver next day free of charge aslong as you order up to **8.30** at night :grin:

I love RS

Just doing the reciever as we speak....
 
Yeah, they are nice, I have some parts on order from them too - though the local dealer (who I bought through) won't place the order untill tommorrow morning, but I should have them in hand on Thursday :)

- Mikko
 
They could place the order during dinner and you would still have them tomorrow morning...

The monitor I use needed some modification... Had to crack it open and install another input as the normal input is some stupid manufacture specific plug...
 
Its about 50m line of sight, would be further if 2.4ghz wasnt such a common frequency. It gets interfered very easily, the other day the receiver picked up video signal from a CCTV camera in a recording studio :-D
 
hoarp001 said:
Its about 50m line of sight, would be further if 2.4ghz wasnt such a common frequency. It gets interfered very easily, the other day the receiver picked up video signal from a CCTV camera in a recording studio :-D
Click to expand...

Hehe.. I told you, my friend :) 2.4 GHz devices sucks.
 
Yeah but I knew it would be crap before I did it, Im not expecting some broadcast standard microwave link that will work from the moon, the director is usually 20 feet away anyway :-D
 
Your transmitter looks really cool. I'm wanting some video transmitter and I'm not really sure what to do. How does your transmitter compare to the downlink systems for R/C planes and helicopters? I found a place selling a 5.8 GHZ 100mW TX/RX system for $300 US and the 1 Watt system for $550 US. Should I be concerned about video quality on these systems? Although it is just for monitoring, clients (if I ever get any) don't like to see garbage video. Is this system similar to what you made?
 
hoarp001 said:
Its about 50m line of sight, would be further if 2.4ghz wasnt such a common frequency. It gets interfered very easily, the other day the receiver picked up video signal from a CCTV camera in a recording studio :-D
Click to expand...
Can we see the Receiver Please? How did you design the printed circuit boards, and get them manufactured? Could you show us the circuit diagrams you designed.
 
wow great transmitter, I'm needing one myself for a low budget feature film I'm making, could you tell me how to do it? Could you use HD 1080p as well or just SD?

And instead of using 2.4ghz couldn't you change it to something else so you dont have so many problems?

thx
 
Haha, nice idea MiniMan, but im not strapping that to my steadicam. It would probably make you sterile anyway.
 
Shenton said:
The only problem using a High Gain Antenna, is that they are DIRECTIONAL !

In order to use a system from Steadicam to Director, you have to use an Omnidirectional Antenna.
Click to expand...

... or have someone(s) pointing the antenna(s). This is actually quite common at sporting events.


Some high-end (broadcast) wireless camera systems actually have miniturized auto-tracking directional antennas inside a little dome, mounted on the back of the camera. Very cool to watch them tracking back and forth as the camera ops moves around. - Normally the recivers are manually aimed through.

- Mikko
 
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