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The third video camera mounted on the kayak, looking backwards.
Monday, 1 March 2010
For the past few weeks I've been flat out designing and fitting two new camera systems to the kayak, bringing the total to four.
This video camera is not a new one, but in fact it's one I've always carried in the kayak as it has the function of USB streaming to my computer. This enables me to edit any video footage that I've taken on my DVCAM video camera to be uploaded to my website.
I've always had the underwater housing for this video camera so I decided to utilise it on the kayak for a different point of view. So that view is from the front of the kayak, looking back.
This should give a better aspect of the size of the waves coming up from behind, or just maybe capture the croc trying to have snack of fibreglass!
Finding the right spot for mounting the video camera was the easy part. The tricky part was how to operate the video camera from the cockpit. The best option was going to be a wired remote control back to the cockpit.
So drilling holes in the waterproof housing just didn't seen right, but had to be done for the wiring to pass through by the way of waterproof connectors. After soldering, waterproofing the wiring and the remote control, it was then into a bucket of water for testing.
The good news is it works and it's waterproof! The only problem I could see was when I simulated the kayak punching out the back of surf zone (dropping the front of the kayak onto the grass) I could see the camera flexing on the deck of the kayak.
The other concern that I had was, would a big wave rip the camera and mount of the deck of the kayak? So I decided to strengthen the deck under the camera mount, which would also take out the flex by way a brace.
Bending and shaping the aluminium brace took three attempts to get it just right before mounting it in under the deck. I then bolted it at the strongest point on the kayak, where the deck and the hull meet.
The final step was to fibreglass over it, making it part of the kayak. It not only has taken all the flex out from under the mount, but it's also added more support for the mast step. Now it's onto the fourth video system, so look out in the next few days for an update on this one. Being the smallest one of all, a lot of work has gone into the making of this video camera system.
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| The aluminium brace fiberglassed into the kayak. |
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| The bucket test . . . and it passed with flying colours! |
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| The remote control cable running back to the cockpit, to the left of my main video camera. |
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