Make your race game more interesting by adding a First-Person-View (FPV) camera or Third-Person-View (3PV) camera to your RC car. Or both, and switch between them via software or hardware.
And receive the video signal on a notebook, FPV Googles, or some other screen that has a USB.
This camera can be powered with 2.9V to 5V. In the pictures below I’m using a 5V BUCK converter to step down from the 7.4V the Li-Po battery. Then provide 5V to power both cameras and the other boards.
Buy the necessary parts
- RC Car Wltoys K989 ……………………….… Amazon/ Banggood / AliExpress / Shopee
- FPV Receiver 5.8G 150CH OTG Receiver UVC Video …….… Amazon/ Banggood / AliExpress / Shopee
- FPV Camera RunCam Phoenix 2 SE …….… Amazon/ Banggood / AliExpress / Shopee
Disclosure: These are affiliate links. I earn a little comission if you use my links to buy the parts.
Please use them to help me continue building cool projects.
3D Print the parts
If you got the same car and camera as i do, you can just download and print the parts to attatch it to your car.
Otherwise you’ll have to design apartto fit your car. If you do, please let me know so i can link it here.
You’ll need tocut the car body to fit these parts. I used abox cutter for that.
Use the same screws on the frame to attach the prints. You’ll need 2 small screws for the 3PV camera attachment.
See the camera live on a browser
Plug in the USB FPV Receiver 5.8Ghz
Plug in the usb, and you can also attach to the notebook with velcro so it’s not dangling around. Fixed is better.
The receiver is recognized as a USB Camera. Works on windows and linux.
Then you’ll need to open a browser window with this demo below to see the live video.
Then click “allow” for the browser to be able to access the usb device and display the video.
To be able to use WebRTC over a network you need a secure SSL connection (https://).
But you can work around this problem by having a local web server on the client machine and have an unsecure video stream on your local machine. I had to do this, because i couldn’t figure out how to secure the MQTT connection, so everything will run on “http://”.
So, if you want to see the camera on your local machine without internet, you’ll need to download the demo files below and you’ll also need to install a secure local webserver like Nginx. See how to do it here.
Switching between cameras
Method 1: Hardware
I made a simple on/off switch to turn ON one camera or another (to save battery).
That way you can choose between FPV and 3PV before the start of the race.
Method 2: Software
You could use a relay instead and make it able to switch between the cameras via software, but it has a delay between turning one camera off and the other on. So i don’t see it as a good option to use during the race.
You can also have 2 cameras ON at all times in 2 different frequencies, and use 2 receivers on the notebook.
That way is possible to change between cameras with a button push.
Very usefull if you want to switch between FPV and 3PV or even better, a REAR facing Camera.
more details soon…
have fun 😉