I've started repairing LCD TVs professionally - as a small business - to earn a bit of money on the side. Might as well keep them from landfill, as most of the people I buy them from are about to take them to the dump.
Now I need to evaluate the proficiency of a variety of couriers. Whether or not they treat packages right, for example. Most of these couriers are actually pretty cheap - around £7 to ship a 37" LCD TV (weighing 24kg, no less.)
I have an absolutely *tiny* video camera, which outputs NTSC video. It's about 8mm x 8mm and looks like a button. (I was kindly donated it.) The fisheye lens is built in. The camera works from 3.5V - 12V DC (it uses a built in 2.8V regulator) and uses ~50mA.
I also have a Sandisk portable video recorder, which requires 5V DC @ 100mA, and will accept SDHC cards of up to 32 GB. It uses about 200MB/hour of recording, so that gives me 64 hours maximum of recording... a little under 3 days.
So, I am thinking of shipping a box to a fairly close location, and seeing what happens. If it is dropped or mistreated, I will know from the video.
One problem I have is powering everything. I have a 5V buck converter for model aircraft, so I don't need a linear regulator. But I figure from a 12V lead acid battery, I will use ~50-70mA @ 13.8V. I'd need at least 3.2Ah to do 64 hours, and I'd probably want to double that up so the battery isn't overly discharged. I'll keep an eye out for a cheap battery. I'm not that worried about weight, as I'll probably put a TV in with it...
I'd also like to make a small circuit to detect light. If there is no light, there is not much point in recording darkness. So I can shut down the recording by turning off the camera (my recorder does not record when there is no signal - it shows "Pause for loss of signal.")
Then I will post the videos online, so all can see who treats packages well, and the ones who don't.
Now I need to evaluate the proficiency of a variety of couriers. Whether or not they treat packages right, for example. Most of these couriers are actually pretty cheap - around £7 to ship a 37" LCD TV (weighing 24kg, no less.)
I have an absolutely *tiny* video camera, which outputs NTSC video. It's about 8mm x 8mm and looks like a button. (I was kindly donated it.) The fisheye lens is built in. The camera works from 3.5V - 12V DC (it uses a built in 2.8V regulator) and uses ~50mA.
I also have a Sandisk portable video recorder, which requires 5V DC @ 100mA, and will accept SDHC cards of up to 32 GB. It uses about 200MB/hour of recording, so that gives me 64 hours maximum of recording... a little under 3 days.
So, I am thinking of shipping a box to a fairly close location, and seeing what happens. If it is dropped or mistreated, I will know from the video.
One problem I have is powering everything. I have a 5V buck converter for model aircraft, so I don't need a linear regulator. But I figure from a 12V lead acid battery, I will use ~50-70mA @ 13.8V. I'd need at least 3.2Ah to do 64 hours, and I'd probably want to double that up so the battery isn't overly discharged. I'll keep an eye out for a cheap battery. I'm not that worried about weight, as I'll probably put a TV in with it...
I'd also like to make a small circuit to detect light. If there is no light, there is not much point in recording darkness. So I can shut down the recording by turning off the camera (my recorder does not record when there is no signal - it shows "Pause for loss of signal.")
Then I will post the videos online, so all can see who treats packages well, and the ones who don't.