Oregon Scientific ATC9K Review

[Smersh]

Jerry, thank you for the offer - I'd love to do something like that! Let me shoot you a PM with more questions - i'm an absolute newbie to this type of work, but I don't mind getting my hands dirty (well, if "dirty" applies to sketching) and reading up on stuff.

Another testament to how great and helpful this community is! :rockon:

 

[Jblk9695]

I sent you and email but thought I'd post some photo's here.
This is a camera mount and mirror extenders that I made for my V Strom--

Worked OK but still had to much bounce for video so I tried this--

Added two flanges with vibration mounts between them, still to much bouncing around with even the small video camera, Sony HC-40.
A still camera with the shutter speed over 1/1000 does a good job but it's more fun to take videos. In my opinion you have a couple of things working against good results--the mass of the camera and the high frequency vibrations of the FZ6. It's the vibs that cause a lot of the distortion in the video's as I proved to myself with the key fob camera's, one mounted in the front and one mounted in the back on the swing arm away from the engine. The back one produced good results with little or no distortion but no matter where the front was mounted it managed to pick up the engine vibs and distorted the video, it may have been electronic RF from the injector's. Only place it worked was when I mounted it on top of my helmet with Velcro:thumbup: and then the results where good.
I mounted a Minolta X-700 with cable release on the crash bars of my Honda GoldWing many years ago and had very good results with this set up. I think the low vibs from the flat 4 had something to do with it.
Keep working on different designs because I would like to find something that will work for various sizes and weights of camera gear:thumbup:

Jerry

 

[Smersh]

" and mirror extenders"

:bow:

I had to remind myself that I just got engaged to avoid going shopping for a CNC machine myself after reading that one! I have so many ideas - mirror extenders I think are another thing FZ6 could use.

Thank you for the info in the email. Let me see what software I can get - I am pretty confident I can learn fairly quickly. I have a few different ideas for vibration-dampening design, let's see if i can put them into drawings. I agree 100% - the vibration of i4 probably has a lot to do with the issues here, and weight/arm length definitely makes things worse.

 

[Jblk9695]

Mirror extenders, yep those are on my to-do list. The FZ6 ones will take a little more than just a piece of stainless or aluminum tho due to them being fairing mounted, but I do have some ideas, just need to take the time to work it out.
Stay tuned

Jerry

 

[CHEMIKER]

Actually, I really liked your suggestions and tried them - I'm just trying to come up with something similar to Bags Connection dampened mount that goes onto gascap ring and was testing Sorbothane - looks like it may not be the solution I need.
Being the usual me, I want a lot: dampened mount, ability to mount my big camera (Canon 7D) onto it as well, and have more solid camera harness (the thing that hugs the camera and has tripod mount on it), so am not afraid to expose it to the wind. I am thinking of replicating that harness using aluminum - the only problem is where to machine it. And if i find a place to machine it, i can come up with my own mount with dampening as well.

I see. Yeah, you're not going to get any large camera on the Oregon Sci mounts. As far as the security of the harness, my frame mount is exposed to the wind and I have ridden with it on for hundreds of miles like that with no problem. My is really tight around the camera to the point where I have to work to get it off and change the position of the camera. Is the ATC9K less secure?

I use a non-dampened gas cap mount and it works fine, waaaay less vibration than on the handlebars.

 

[Smersh]

I see. Yeah, you're not going to get any large camera on the Oregon Sci mounts. As far as the security of the harness, my frame mount is exposed to the wind and I have ridden with it on for hundreds of miles like that with no problem. My is really tight around the camera to the point where I have to work to get it off and change the position of the camera. Is the ATC9K less secure?

I use a non-dampened gas cap mount and it works fine, waaaay less vibration than on the handlebars.

I'm actually not worried about the piece that "hugs" the camera itself, it's the connection of that piece with the "clip" (one that clips into strap mount, and has a hole for standard tripod mount) that i'm worried about - when i tighten the nut, it skips a thread, and camera rotates around the yaw axis rather easily.

What i'd like to do is - first, make a different "holder" for the camera without yaw freedom but with a standard tripod thread receiver. Then, I can look into mounts - whether to make a gascap mount or a set of detachable mounts (a-la GoPro) with tripod threads. I have a few tripod heads around, so I could use those to handle the rotation freedoms when mounted. For example, I see having a gascap mount, on top of which i can either set the camera directly (either ATC9K, or canon 7D), or set a Manfrotto 469 RC2 head first and then the camera. It's a little modular, but I think that would give me the most flexibility.


I'm working on the design right now, should post the ideas soon.

 

[Jblk9695]

I sent more photo's via email but here's one of the camera mount in case the others get lost in cyber space--

Jerry

 

[Smersh]

I sent more photo's via email but here's one of the camera mount in case the others get lost in cyber space--

Jerry

Jerry,

Got the mount on sat- looks awesome! Unfortunately, I don't have time to write up a description and test, but I should be able to do it in the next week or so. Camera fits perfectly! Thank you for putting it together.

Tim

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

 

[rjo3491]

Oops, have a camera question. I'll start a new thread later!

 

[Jblk9695]

LOL, so that's where the experience points came from, told you I'm dense just like granite:spank:

Thanks
Jerry

Jerry,

Got the mount on sat- looks awesome! Unfortunately, I don't have time to write up a description and test, but I should be able to do it in the next week or so. Camera fits perfectly! Thank you for putting it together.

Tim

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

 

[Smersh]

LOL, so that's where the experience points came from, told you I'm dense just like granite:spank:

Thanks
Jerry

:thumbup:

 

[luisss]

Hi all,
I'm going to buy an ATC9K as well and I'd like to have one info from soemeone that has already got it.

I've seen in one of the firmware update 1.23 the following improvement:

"Offers options for photo-shooting intervals: every 10sec./ 20sec./ 30sec./ 1min./ 2min./ 5mins. / 10mins./ Off "

Can anyone confirm if that means that the camera can shoot an UNLIMITED number of photo at that interval?

For me it would be very interesting as original firmware should only allow to shoot 3 or 5 photos in continuous shooting mode.

Thanks!

Luigi

 

[Smersh]

Can anyone confirm if that means that the camera can shoot an UNLIMITED number of photo at that interval?

Luigi,

I'm testing it now - i believe it goes unlimited. Let me check back in a few hours and i'll let you know.

TS

 

[Smersh]

Just double-checked - it does go unlimited - i have 4 hours of shots taken every 10 seconds on my card. I did turn off "auto-off" feature though.

 

[luisss]

Just double-checked - it does go unlimited - i have 4 hours of shots taken every 10 seconds on my card. I did turn off "auto-off" feature though.

That makes it definetively the most complete camera in this market segment.
Thank you so much for testing :thumbup:

Luigi

 

[Smersh]

I just received an email from Oregon Scientific. They have 25% off deal on ATC9K and its accessories on their site. The code: 25OFFATC9K :rockon:

UPD: Valid Through 02/09/2012