Homebuilt ROVs Forum

Just been looking at a secondary camera and everyone and their dog seems to use GoPros. They just seemed to me to be a tad bit on the expensive side. I mean if you happen to have one laying around that's awesome

So in looking into alternatives I stumbled across the HackHD which from some of what I have read seems quite comparable and much more project friendly, smaller, more open to fiddling, half the price etc. From the looks of it it seems like it would be fairly simple to control with a minimal script running on something like an Arduino or a RasPi. Of course half the reason I went with the Pi was because I could get the Pi and the impending PiCamera module for less than (roughly half) the price of the HackHD. A pattern emerges

Anyhow I just figured I'd check and see if anyone had any real world experience with them.

You might want to look into underwater fishing cameras on ebay. They come fully contained with LED lighting and a tether. The cost is less and you don't have to deal with making your camera waterproof. You then use a video capture to your laptop and you are off to the races.

ErieWreckDiver

I have been looking at the ebay Chinese fishing cameras for a while.

Has anyone here actually used one of these camera?
Some claim to go to 165 ft, has anyone tried them at these depths?
How reliable are the cameras and tethers?
How easy are they to use?

Mine has a 100' tether and works just fine.

I don't see why an additional 50' or so would make a difference. The video signal would degrade at some point....but I don't know what that distance is.

I have used it by simply plugging it into my HDTV. I plan to use it; using a USB Video Capture device into my laptop when I have it on the boat. So far so good.


ErieWreckDiver

I'm personally using a "Replay-xd 1080p" the one I got is about $299 compared to the $399 I've found the go-pro for!
and has really amaizing video quality and they are simple to use!

http://www.replayxd.com