Mini Spy Cam Recommendations (See Thread on N & Z)

[jereising]

I bought one of those Hi Def 1" cube cams, battery and memory chip on board with the idea of doing a cab ride on the Sub...

I got it to work, after a fashion.  But could not get it to do what I wanted, which was to turn it on and record images to the chip until the chip was full or the battery died.  It wanted to be on my WiFi and smart phone and their cloud (extra charge, of course).

It wanted a smart phone, and yes I read the instructions, which of course were in Chinglish. 

And I have a smart phone, and installed the software, which of course did not match what the manual showed.

Bottom line, couldn't get it to work  in this simple manner.  I even emailed their tech support (never heard back...).

Never even placed it on the car I built for it.  It is now on it's way back to Amazon.

So.  Any suggestions?  I'll go as much as $100 but would rather stay closer to $50 (the one I had was $40) - this is pretty much a one time thing, I don't see any long term advantages to it.

All suggestions appreciated, and many thanks.

[Rivet Miscounter]

If it's a one time thing, here are my thoughts...
1. Find someone that's already built one, and see if they'll loan it to you for a week or three. -OR-
2. Maybe get the TRW hounds on it, collectively design/purchase/build the 'perfect train cam', and then once you're done with it send it on to the next  .   They can pay you $8 (or whatever it costs with insurance) to ship it, and $5 back to the person who footed the bill initially, and then send it one once they're done.   Eventually, it will be paid for and funds could be designated for v2.0.    I would think a lot of people would be willing to pay $13 to have one for a few weeks.  And if you decided you wanted another spin, just put your name back on the list.
(for the record, I'm not a potential participant as I'm in Z.   But if I was still in N, I would totally be on the list.)

Anyway, just an idea.

[jereising]

Thanks, Doug!  Great idea...

I think I'll repost this to N&Z, maybe get more responses...

[peteski]

Ah, this explains the deja-vou. 

[freescopesdad]

I bought an SQ11 camera on Amazon (about $20) and filmed a cab ride on my n scale with mixed results. Mounted it on a box car with the shell removed, pushed by a loco. The SQ11 saves the video files in MP4 format to a micro sd card, so the files are easily loaded onto my desktop. It works, although the video quality is pretty poor, even at 1080p and 30fps. The focal length is about 18" so any close detail in n scale is pretty fuzzy. But it DID work.

I know this is an old thread, hope it helps someone.