Starfire Camcorder

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Starfire has provisions for carrying a camcorder in the lower electronics bay that is positioned just above the motor in the booster section.

This shows the Starfire booster section as built and before it was painted. The camcorder view hole can be seen in the booster coupler.

The main body tube slides over this coupler and has a mirror mounted that allows the camcorder to look down the side of the rocket during launch.

Link to mirror hood on body tube

At apogee the body tube separates from the booster and so the camcorder can then look straight out to view the horizon and surrounding scenery during descent on parachute.

A camcorder mounting plate was cut from a sheet of 0.125" thick G-10 fiberglass.

The mounting plate was designed with large opening in the edges that allow it to easily pass by the nuts and washers on the threaded rods in the electronics bay. Once past these nuts and washers, the plate can be rotated counterclockwise and the threaded rods enter the narrow slots in the plate. Nuts on the rods are then tightened to secure the plate. (This may all become a little more clear by looking at some of the photos below.)

There are two different camcorders that are flown in Starfire. One is a digital HD video camcorder that does not use tape but records directly to a secure digital memory card. The other camcorder is an older style mini-DV tape based digital camcorder. Each one has a different setup on the mounting plate. The newer version will be described first.

This camcorder is the Sanyo HD1 Xacti. (Model VPC-HD1) The beauty of this camcorder is that it does not use tape. It records directly to a Secure Digital Memory card. This is much more tolerant of acceleration and high vibration than a tape based camcorder. This particular model can also record in HD video! (1280x720 pixels)

One side of the mounting structure was built out of a clear Lexan polycarbonate so that the view screen on that side of the Sanyo Xacti camcorder could be seen after the camera is mounted. This allows for final settings and adjustments to be made after mounting the whole thing inside Starfire. The other side of the vertical mounting structure was simply cut from a sheet of 0.125" thick G-10 fiberglass.

Another view of the camcorder mounting structure. Aluminum angle pieces with small screws and nuts were used to secure the vertical structure to the mounting plate.

The underside shows a small white piece of plastic that was cut at an angle to allow a bolt to go into the tripod socket on the bottom of the camcorder to hold it securely to the plate. There is a corresponding white piece of plastic on the top side of the plate that is sloped in an equal but opposite direction so that the camera is held at just the right angle.

The clear panel can be easily removed by unscrewing two small wing nuts on bottom and one larger wing nut on the side of the clear piece. This allows the camcorder to be installed.

Sanyo camcorder installed into the holder. A couple of strips of white foam provide a little bit of cushion between the camera body and the vertical supports.

The two vertical threaded shafts behind the camera are not associated with the camera. They are used to hold the battery pack for the air start timer electronics that shares the same electronics bay with the camcorder.

Front view of the camera mount.

The bolt that goes across the top of the camcorder holds the two vertical panels together and pinches the white foam strips against the sides of the camera body. The exposed threads on the bolt are covered with a short section of clear PVC tubing to prevent scratching up the top of the camcorder. Click on the photo to get a better look at it.

The thin piece of red material under the camcorder is a piece of rubber mat cut to fit.

Another view of the camcorder ready to be installed into the Starfire electronics bay.

This is looking straight down into the Starfire booster coupler electronics bay. The camera mounting plate has been rotated into final position and the nuts on the threaded rods have been tightened to secure the plate. The camera lens is at exactly the right level to look out through the hole in the side of the coupler.

The older version of the camcorder mount was much simpler! All it really needed was a small wood block mounted in just the right spot to prevent the camcorder from rotating on the mounting plate.

This shows the old mini-DV style camcorder mounted to the plate. It is held in place by a small bolt that screws into the standard tripod mounting hole on the bottom of the camcorder. The wood block was fastened to the plate so that it touches the side of the camcorder to keep it pointing straight ahead.

Side view of the camcorder on the mounting plate.

This is an old JVC GR-DVL300 Mini-DV camcorder that worked quite well in Starfire for many flights. However, it would occasionally fail to maintain proper recording on the tape under conditions of extreme acceleration, shock and vibration so it was eventually replaced with the all digital model above.

Another view looking straight down into the Starfire booster coupler electronics bay. Starfire is large enough that it can accommodate this type of full sized camcorder.