Camera Stability - how to reduce spin/movement on descent?

Here is how I eliminated the problem on the eye in the sky.

I looped the shock cord. IE it attaches to the nose cone at TWO points on the inside of the cone so it hangs from these two points instead of one.

Now the nose cone can NOT spin under the chute. it can only spin if the CHUTE spins and this very minor spin is desired for me (it varies the shots on the way down)

I do NOT make the two mount points 180' from each other. this makes it lopsided so It angles out and down (desired) but it also means their is no NEUTRAL point. it has a definite WANT to be in a certain position because of the lopsided attachment so it will not SPIN back and forth around a neutral point like it would if it was 180' apart.

I burned a lot of black power flying my eye in the sky experimenting to get a no shaky decent to get nice clear pictures.

Good luck by all means ask questions if anything was unclear of you need more information.

I will try to get a pictures posted at some point.

Chris Taylor

Mine takes only ascent pictures, so I don't worry much about spin once the parachute deploys. Since the cameras are mounted to look down the airframe, there wouldn't be much to look at anyway. :-)

We have yet to try this method:

http://212.53.90.108/berthacam/bertahchute2.jpg Tom's mate Steve.

I'd try this method. A fellow club member has had very good results using the "sling" parachute approach while snapping pictures with a heavily modified 35mm autowinder.

Also, I'd add a spillhole to the 'chute to prevent oscillations due to the 'chute dumping air.

tah

Tom, My camera is mounted in a coupler that is between 2 body tube sections (fin section and parachute section). The coupler is screwed to each airframe section so they can't separate. The only separation point is between the rocket and the nose cone. The camera looks down at the ground, and I use dual forward deployment so the camera will not become inverted under chute. The shock cords for the chutes are mounted 180o apart in the 4" dia. rocket body tube. There is some rocket spin when descending under the drogue only, but when the main deploys there is almost no spin. If you would like more details please e-mail me. Larry Lobdell Jr.

Chris, Tod and Larry - thanks for all your input. I'll get back to the drawing board with all your notes in mind, ta.

Tom

well this was a problem for me. I did not want a repeat of a one shot per flight like the astrocam with the potluck of getting a "nice" shot.

so I came up with a way to get LOTS of nice shots every flight.

first it takes a shot every 2 seconds through entire flight up and down. on the way down the harness is rigged to reduce but NOT eliminate spin (slow it just enough to prevent blurring) and to look OUT and down at a 45' angle or so.

this means every time it takes a shot it will likely be something DIFFERENT each time. so not only do you get 10-40 shots a flight depending on motor and chute size but you get 10-40 DIFFERENT shots so you greatly increase the chances of geting COOL shots.

Nothing is worse than straight down. if it drifts the wrong way you get these kinds of shots.

Grass Grass Grass Grass Grass all the wya down. Not very fun or interesting unless it happens to pass over something cool and then you might get one interesting shot.

I wanted to make sure this did not happen. the hardest part (the part I got lucky on with this camera) is making it take more than one shot. with this camera it was easy. just hold down the button.

Mine doesn't do that, either. with the cameras I have, I get a shot every three seconds, for as long as I program the controller to take them.

After apogee, mine would be sky&parachute and nothing else. The

*interesting* shots are as the rocket goes up - diminishing landscape, changing to horizon as the rocket arcs over.

yes those are the coolest but the shortest lived. you can only get them during the burn.

I am thinking of making a RC guided G12 powered rocket for the specific purpose of getting lots of "on the way up" shots.

Why do you say that...? I get shots all the way to apogee. With a three-second motor burn, there's maybe one or two chances for pictures. Up to apogee, I get eight to ten. :-)

My way around that is I put a MAD in the NC and have it come down as two pieces. The booster deploys at motor ejection and the NC pops off at apogee as well. This camera section is obviously below the NC and seperates from the booster at apogee so I get shots on the way up and down.