Expert: Ray Wilkinson - 1/5/2009

Question
Hi, my name is Inna.
I'm a student in the Technion (Israeli institute of technology).
on one of my courses, my group has to design the installation of a camera on a model airplane.
We are required to consider the mechanical aspects of the electronics installed.
Is there a website that can help us to start the design or give us some guidelines?

Thank you very much,
Inna

Answer
Hi Inna. I don't know of any websites off-hand, but it's easy enough to Google for them. I can give you a little advice, though. Choose a model that will be stable and easy to fly, such as a trainer. You will need a suitable hole in the structure, assuming you're mounting it inside, and the location should be clear of the exhaust, or you will suffer from contamination of the lens.
The maximum acceleration of the aircraft is likely to be less than 5g, so design your mounting structure to take at least five times the weight of the camera and electronics. However, a major issue may be vibration, which will make your images fuzzy. There are several solutions you might look at. One way is to make the structure as stiff (strong) as possible, so the camera doesn't shake around. However, the structure it's attached to will vibrate, so this might not work. The alternative is to do the opposite - soft-mount the camera, using a platform with soft rubber mounts onto the airframe. This will remove high-frequency vibration but may cause the camera to wobble around, giving you problems with camera shake. There's no definite answer to this - you have to try it and see. Changing the stiffness of the mountings (for instance by changing the size and tension on rubber bands) can make a lot of difference.
If you are using separate electronics (e.g. for a wireless transmitter), I would always hard-mount onto the airframe. The same goes for the batteries. Putting the whole thing close to the centre of gravity will minimise effects of the plane's handling, and is usually where there is most room anyway. Good luck with the project. Regards, Ray.