Chief Delphi - Connecting 7.2V (directly) to camera

Quote:

Originally Posted by mechanicalbrain

Just curious, I'm remembering our accelerometers from last year and wondering if red = power and white = signal or reversed. Has anyone tried to plug the camera into the RC, pull out their handy dandy multimeter, and get some readings? Also pwm (Im assuming the camera works on the same voltage) output 5 volts 7.2 may be too much. If I were to power it directly, and I'm still not sure why I you need to or are willing to risk expensive hardware to do it, I would use a reliable power source like my handy dandy (I like that term) PC power supply as apposed to a chemical battery.

AFAIK, the pwm's center pin is postitive.. this way there's no possible way for someone to screw it up, and give it power on the signal pin. I'm pretty sure the PWM's output 7.2 volts, and according to the camera's specs here it takes anywhere from 5.2 to 8.6 volts.. so a direct connection to the battery should be fine. 5 volts seems a bit low, as I've heard the camera starts not seeing stuff as well at lower voltages.

Also, regarding how hot it gets.. Chances are you have it on a lot longer then it normally would be.. (5 mins max, for an entire match?) and we keep it on for a lot longer.. so I wouldn't really worry about the heat