Homebuilt ROVs Forum

I am in need of some information regarding cameras and video feeds.
I am wanting to keep the camera cable in my tether and I would like to keep it cheap, I originally wanted to look at a USB Active Repeater and webcam but for a 25m cable it would cost £50.00 ($100.00) which is too expensive for what it is worth (as in just for a single cable).

Could someone please explain to me what sort of connections I would need on the camera and what else I would need to connect it to a computer that has only:
VCA, USB and Ethernet ports.
I have looked through the forum and people are talking about Baluns e.t.c.
What are these and how would I use them?

At the moment I have an old video camera with AV input (so AV to RCA).
Could I use Baluns and connect that to ethernet, and then would I connect the ethernet directly to the computer?

Video Baluns are the easiest way to transmit your video siganl from the ROV to the surface. The security camera industry has been using this technology for years.

Many of the baluns on the market have BNC connectors on them, so you may need an RCA to BNC adapter. Look at Radio Shack or on E-bay.
The video baluns are connected to each other with one pair of twisted cat 5 wire.

On the surface you can connect the composite video signal to you computer by using a video to USB adapter. You can buy the video to usb adapter on amazon.com, tiger direct.com, or eBay for approx $20.

Lastley you will need video capture software. An easy to use software program you can try is AMCAP.EXE

Goggle ADCAP.exe for the free version. The companies website is: http://amcap.en.softonic.com/

Jim

Thank you, couldn't of been explained better!
I have seen AMCap before... kept on getting graph errors e.t.c. but I shall try it agian.

I found a Bird Camera with an RCA cable of my desired length, so I shall only need the EasyCap video recorder bit.

Your welcome. I have used the balums, Amcap and the Video to USB adapter on a 220 foot tether with no loss in video signal.

Good luck.

Jim