This page is dedicated to the construction and buildup of my D&E Miniatures Water Tight Camera housing.

The camera itself was purchased from ebay and is manufactured by a company called Draganfly Innovations.

Camera and transmitter weight: only 9 grams!

Camera and transmitter size: 15mm x 22mm x 32mm (5/8" x 7/8" x 1 1/4")

Camera Lux: <3 @ f1.2

Camera Auto Electronic Exposure of 1/60 to 1/15000 sec. w/ Auto Gain & White Balance

Camera Signal to Noise Ratio: >48dB

365K (PAL) or 250K (NTSC) camera pixel resolution

Wireless Transmission Range: 300M (1000'), Line-Of-Sight

Transmitter RF Output Power: EC R&TTE Compliant

receiver Video Input/Output: 1Vp-p/75 ohm

March 28th, 2005: I spent most of last night tinkering with Dave's camera housing, trying to get my camera components to fit inside the confines of the 1-1/8" ID cylinder.

This first picture shows the components of the housing. The brass tubing at the bottom will house the coaxial cable that is necessary to extend the antenna above the waterline. The black wire is the 3/32" diameter coaxial cable itself. The cone-shaped object is the D&E rear housing cap, complete with pressure equalization valve. The next object is the D&E housing, with cast fairing. The last object is my first camera housing, a project that Greg Sharpe and I worked on and Greg put together in his free time. It worked very well, but is a bit bulkier than the D&E housing.

This next picture shows the camera back and front. The camera is very tiny, only 1-1/4" long and 5/8" wide. A switch has been forgone in the new case, not due to a lack of room, but because taking off the endcap is so easy, and the case should be opened after each run anyway to ensure that moisture does not ruin the sensitive electronics inside. I've CA'd the coax to the small piece of Sintra to secure it from pulling out for any reason.

These three pictures show the (mostly) completed camera housing with installed components. I needed to machine a housing for the camera itself. This was done using Sintra board, custom fit formy camera.

The biggest job in housing my system was the extension of my stock camera antenna. Dave sent the housing with a fully detailed set of instructions outlining the process, and it was a fairly straightforward, if nervewracking experience. The coaxial cable was soldered between the camera and the antenna, effectively lengthening it by over six inches.

I did run into a rather large problem in that Dave's housing is about 3/4" too short for my camera. The camera that Dave uses is a bit shorter, but wider than mine, and I have run out of enough room to press my endcap in. I will be heading out shortly to secure some additional tubing with which to lengthen the cylinder, and I do not forsee any major issues with adding the 3/4" length.

Once the tube is lengthened, I will begin wet-testing of the housing with my Nautilus.

April 14 th, 2005: I spent last night throwing the camera gear into Dave's new cylinder. A perfect fit! With some bad weather hanging around here, I'm hoping to get out within the next week for a cruise to try out the video system.