How low can the V go?

[lobstermash]

Hi guys, I've been trying to figure out how low I make the Voltage supply to a '12V' ccd camera (Sony 1/3" board). I've hooked it up to a charged 2s Lipo and it works great. No loss of image quality at all. For the Hobbyking listing it says 9-12.6V, but that's clearly not accurate.

The reason I ask is that I have set up a new camera that's intended for a parkflying short range FPV setup. It'd be so much easier to plug the fpv rig into the balance plug than rig a Y cable up for the connector. I'm going to try and get away with not using an lc filter. If it's too bad, I'll use a seperate, small (350mAh) 2s battery for the fpv gear.

 

[lobstermash]

Hmm, discounted the idea of plugging it into the discharge port... The Voltage sag at full throttle (static) pulls it below the Voltage threshold. The little 2s seems to work OK and will fit in most planes.

 

[CripSkillz]

id say hook it to a adjustable voltage regulator and try it out, i have few types that were less than 3$ ea, one will boost voltage so single cell maybe,, others a step down,, im in middle of tearing apart a lynksis ip cam see if I can get 2.4 ghz cam to run at 5v and transmit directly to my laptop ,, well see soon..

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-LM2596-...286?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item20c99d37a6

http://www.ebay.com/itm/LM2587-DC-P...979?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_2&hash=item4aa99485c3

 

[lobstermash]

Cheers. Lowest bid on voltage so far is 8V, which I don't think is going to work for 2s for very long... More thinking required for the setup...

 

[lobstermash]

OK, thinking along another path, is there a way to hack the camera to make it run off 5V, which is what it converts the input voltage to anyway?

 

[Carbon]

no.
unless you want to remake the board...

 

[dezertdog]

Hmm, discounted the idea of plugging it into the discharge port... The Voltage sag at full throttle (static) pulls it below the Voltage threshold. The little 2s seems to work OK and will fit in most planes.

The FatShark system seems to get away with using a 2S to power the on-board Tx using this (though their camera runs on 5v): http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__20673__FatShark_FPV_TX_Power_Adapter.html

 

[lobstermash]

Hmm, with one of those I could hack the cable to make it power the camera. They're a bit pricey for a couple of connectors though. I'm sure I'll work something out.