Feeder — Feeder camera lamp

Feeder camera lamp (C2 and C3)

How-to guide

The OV9732 720p module clasped between its two halves, pushed into the ring on the arm, and the arm pushed up into a finished lamp. Build two.

Author ReveryX

Contributors Spencer, Danny, BrickCycleAlice, barthel and Daddy-O's Bricks - Bill

Parts needed

Cameras

Printed parts

Screws

2× 8mm

A an interchangeable alternative works (hover for what).

Tools needed

Hex key, 2 mm

Build a lamp arm before you start. This page does not build the arm, the reflector or the cover: it takes a finished one and puts a camera in it. The arm's parts and its 12 screws are on that page.

CAD render of the camera lamp seen from below: the inside of the cover with the reflector dome, the LED hooks spaced around the rim, the camera at the centre, and the arm reaching up into it — A finished lamp arm, from below. The camera at its centre is what this page adds. Rendered from the part geometry, not from a build. Render: Spencer.

This is the lamp that hangs over C2 and C3, the two feeder channels. Build two.

It carries the OV9732 720p module. That is the only thing that differs from the classification camera lamp, which takes the IMX415 4K. The clasp, the screws and every step below are the same on both.

Fastener icons match the parts list: the silhouette is the head shape, the colour is the thread size. M3 M4 M5 M6

Step 1 Clasp the camera between the two halves

The camera board sits in the recess in the Camera clasp top. Put the Camera clasp bottom over it with the lens through the opening, and secure the two halves with 2 M3 × 8 mm countersunk screws. They go up through the bottom half into the top, one either side of the board, and seat flush in the countersinks.

Then plug the camera's cable into the board. It ships with the camera.

A camera board sitting in the square recess of a grey printed clasp half, component side up with the black cylindrical lens standing in the middle, and a screw hole in the plastic below the board — The board in the clasp top, photographed upside down. Photo: Danny.

The second clasp half closed over the camera board, the lens standing through the square opening in it and a black countersunk screw seated flush in the plastic at the near edge — The bottom half closed over it, one of the two screws seated. Photo: Danny.

A hand holding the closed camera clasp, the camera board seated in the round grey disc with its ribbon socket empty and a rectangular slot in the plastic beside it — The camera in the clasp, photographed before its cable went on. Photo: BrickCycleAlice.

Step 2 Push the clasp into the ring

Into the ring, no screws. The clasped camera pushes into the camera lamp ring on the end of the arm, with the lamp still off the arm entirely. Nothing fastens it: the only screws in this build are the two holding the clasp's own halves together.

Push until it sits firmly, not just until it meets resistance. The next step pushes the arm up inside the lamp, and a clasp that is not fully home lifts out on the way.

The clasp's two halves form a spigot that plugs into a socket in the ring. The ring has two of these sockets, and both take the clasp. The machine these steps come from uses the left-hand one on all three lamps, looking down at the lamp from above. Use the same socket on all three, keep the camera's lead running clear of the arm, and check the lens points straight down before you go on.

Which socket changes what the camera can see, not just which way up the picture arrives. If a channel's drop zone and its exit are not both in frame at first setup step 7, that is the mounting, and rotating the view in the camera settings will not fix it.

Expect it to sit loose. The lamp's cover is what traps the clasp and holds the camera in, and that happens in the next step, once the arm is up inside the lamp. Until then the camera can lift straight back out, so do not pick the arm up by it.

Looking straight down on a finished lamp: the grey cover with its square opening, the 720p camera board seated in the clasp inside it, and the ribbon lead leaving the board's connector through the slot below — The module seated, on a finished lamp: the lead leaves the board's connector and goes out through the cover's slot. Photo: Daddy-O's Bricks - Bill.

Step 3 Push the arm up into the lamp

The lamp arm page leaves you a finished lamp: reflector, LED strip and cover. It keeps its cover on for this.

Feed the camera's lead up through the rectangular slot near the rim of the cover first, so it is clear before anything is pushed together.
Hold the lamp and push the arm's ring up into the middle of the reflector from underneath until it seats.

That is what holds the camera in. The clasp is wider than the opening in the middle of the cover, so with the arm home the cover overlaps the clasp's rim and traps it.

It is a tight pass. The clasp is 67.76 mm across and the reflector's bore is 68.0 mm at the top, a quarter of a millimetre all round, so the clasp rubs the whole way up and can lift out of the ring as it goes. If that happens, take the arm back out, push the clasp fully home and try again.

Looking up into the reflector from below: two turns of LED strip round the skirt held by the hooks, the arm coming down through the middle, and the clasped camera seated in the ring at the centre with its lens facing out — From below, with the arm home: the camera seated in the ring at the centre. Photo: BrickCycleAlice.

The finished lamp from above: the grey cover seated on the reflector, the camera clasp recessed in the central opening, and the cord coming up through the rectangular slot in the cover — Finished: the clasp recessed in the cover's opening, lead out through the slot. Photo: BrickCycleAlice.

The finished result

A finished lamp: the arm, the shaded lamp and the 720p camera trapped under the cover, with its lead out through the slot. Build two. They hang onto C2 and C3 later, at step 7 of arranging C-channels, once the channels are standing.

The lamp on channel 3 from a low angle: the camera board in the cover's opening, the red and black lamp leads cable-tied to the arm, and the rectangular slot in the cover below the board — The finished lamp, on C3 with the LED leads tied down the arm. Photo: Daddy-O's Bricks - Bill.

Wiring is Preparing the LED strip and its drop (L1 to L3, L1p to L3p) for the strip, and the electronics page for the camera.

Back to Camera lamps.