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Aircraft Audio To GoPro

Terry Lutz

Well Known Member
Sponsor
I need to record aircraft audio to a GoPro. What is the best connecting harness or wiring diagram to use? Would like to plug into the headphone jack in the rear seat while flying. Any advice or link to a harness would be great. Thanks!
 
When we record audio/video for the magazine, we usually just tuck a microphone up into the headset cup, and it picks up everything on the radio and intercom. Cheap, and sort of a kluge, but it works fine!

Paul
 
I bought harness that does exactly this. It basically just plugs in between the headset and the airplane and then has a lead that goes to the go pro.

Don't remember the brand name, but I believe I just googled it and bought the cheapest thing that popped up on amazon. Works fine.
 
I need to record aircraft audio to a GoPro. What is the best connecting harness or wiring diagram to use? Would like to plug into the headphone jack in the rear seat while flying. Any advice or link to a harness would be great. Thanks!
Hi Terry,

Which model of gopro? There is a company called nflightcam that makes them for various models. Here's a link to one. Their main website shows a malware warning, so I'd be careful.

https://www.amazon.com/Nflightcam-Audio-Solution-GoPro-Hero5/dp/B01MT3Q50Y/

I've used the method Paul suggests with good success, but with my Hero3+ and the nflightcam cable, the sound quality is much better.
 
This discussion prompted me to research a solution for my own GoPro setup. What I found is that the later model GoPro cameras require a proprietary conversion box to allow external audio recording. The box itself is just shy of $50.

https://www.amazon.com/GoPro-3-5mm-...7157&sprefix=gopro+mic+adapter,aps,104&sr=8-3

From there, you'd use a headset splitter cable. The 1/4" end goes into the port where you'd normally plug-in your headset, your headset plugs into a receptacle in the adapter cable and then an 1/8" plug from the adapter cable plugs into a port on the GoPro proprietary adapter box. If you zoom in on the NFlightcam setup, you'll see all this.

If I were going to install a more or less permanent camera, I'd buy the proprietary GoPro adapter box and then fabricate my own wiring interface from there. You'd need an 1/8" plug to go into the GoPro adapter and from there, you'd just tap directly into your aircraft audio panel. I wouldn't want the extra cable mess associated with using the headset splitter cable.

If you're looking for a portable/temporary system rather than a permanently-installed system, it would seem that a different vendor is offering a setup identical to the NFlightcam setup for about $25 less...

https://www.mypilotstore.com/MyPilo...By7S8i9nKiK65STisLcQZueoRAhHYZURoCgD0QAvD_BwE

Or you could buy the GoPro adapter and then buy your own aviation headset splitter for $23 and assemble your own portable GoPro solution.

https://www.amazon.com/Smartphone-A...TVBW9KF/ref=pd_lpo_1?pd_rd_i=B08TVBW9KF&psc=1

I haven't been terribly excited about messing with video on my plane, but a recent incident with an overly-sensitive (a/k/a "Karen") Bonanza driver now has me considering the installation of some sort of automotive style traffic cam on my RV. The guy tattled on me to a local tower controller saying I was doing aerobatics and cut him off doing 200kts. I flicked him a plus/minus 30 degree wing wag because he was told to expect to follow me and he couldn't seem to find me. He claimed I was "completely knife-edged" when I passed him doing 200kts. Now my RV-3 is one heck of a performer, but not quite capable of knife-edged flight at 200kts! :-/ Also not sure I ever passed him or cut him off because he was, by his own report, 3 miles behind me.

Nothing ever came of it, but things like this scare me because all it takes is one overly-sensitive do-gooder to cause a whole bunch of stress in my life. I fly for a living so I don't need this kind of thing. Flying a really fast, little red airplane capable of speeds, climbs and roll rates in excess of most single-engine spam cans tends to attract attention even when I fly it like an airliner--as I do when I'm in the view of other aircraft or anywhere near a public airport.
 
Sporty Pilot Shop, Spruce Aircraft and others sell an adaptor that goes between your headset and the aircraft. It has outputs for cameras. I like the mic in the ear cup hack. There are a couple of YouTube videos on this subject.
 
GoPro 8, nflightcam, REMOVE BATTERY

https://www.amazon.com/Nflightcam-Audio-Solution-GoPro-Hero5/dp/B01MT3Q50Y/

I've used the method Paul suggests with good success, but with my Hero3+ and the nflightcam cable, the sound quality is much better.

I successfully use the nflightcam cable for my GoPro8, and an external standalone “USB-type battery pack” to give the camera many more minutes of recording time.

Then I had some camera funnies and GoPro tech support advised me to remove the battery from the camera when using the external battery connected into the camera by the USB-C camera input.

Now it all works good! Good sound, recording everything coming into the headset audio cable (not by Bluetooth however). Plenty of recording time with a 256Gb microSD and an external battery.

Carl
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I successfully use the nflightcam cable for my GoPro8, and an external standalone “USB-type battery pack” to give the camera many more minutes of recording time.

Love the nflightcam. It's great having the full audio. Patrick is friendly and helpful too. The modern hero cameras use usb-c, so it's the same cable from hero5 through hero10.
 
...
I haven't been terribly excited about messing with video on my plane, but a recent incident with an overly-sensitive (a/k/a "Karen") Bonanza driver now has me considering the installation of some sort of automotive style traffic cam on my RV. The guy tattled on me to a local tower controller saying I was doing aerobatics and cut him off doing 200kts. I flicked him a plus/minus 30 degree wing wag because he was told to expect to follow me and he couldn't seem to find me. He claimed I was "completely knife-edged" when I passed him doing 200kts. Now my RV-3 is one heck of a performer, but not quite capable of knife-edged flight at 200kts! :-/ Also not sure I ever passed him or cut him off because he was, by his own report, 3 miles behind me.

Nothing ever came of it, but things like this scare me because all it takes is one overly-sensitive do-gooder to cause a whole bunch of stress in my life. I fly for a living so I don't need this kind of thing. Flying a really fast, little red airplane capable of speeds, climbs and roll rates in excess of most single-engine spam cans tends to attract attention even when I fly it like an airliner--as I do when I'm in the view of other aircraft or anywhere near a public airport.

I'm not sure an aircraft "dashcam" will help a lot in situations like this, but better than nothing. I have one installed just in case something interesting or fun happens, or I want to figure out why I botched a landing. It's not really too helpful for that, as even if a landing feels horrible, on the camera it looks decent. The audio recording is sometimes interesting.

One thing that surprised me is that between my new $50 "action cameras" and my used $50 Gopro Hero 3+ there is an enormous quality difference in both video and audio. If you are just getting started, I'd start with a decent gopro, even an older model if there is a budget consideration.

(I think there is a lot of space for innovation with much smaller cameras, more automatic editing, cameras in lots of locations, live streaming, etc.)
 
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My intercom has an auto out jack installed in the airplane. It and an adapter cable can be plugged into your GoPro for audio. I use it with an MP3 recorder to capture radio and intercom data on formation flights and to collect flight test data. Original flight test data was recorded on a cassette tape recorder as MP3 recorders either were not invented yet or were too expensive for widespread use.
 
I use a Garmin Virb camera and their audio adapter cord, but I've always wished someone would make an adaptor cord with a small built-in mic and volume control to mix ambient sound and cockpit audio into one camera. I've tried capturing audio on a hard disc recorder and syncing it but that's a pain, and rigging an audio mixer seems ridiculous. I might just have to use two cameras and mix the audio in post.
 
.. I've always wished someone would make an adaptor cord with a small built-in mic and volume control to mix ambient sound and cockpit audio into one camera. I've tried capturing audio on a hard disc recorder and syncing it but that's a pain, and rigging an audio mixer seems ridiculous. I might just have to use two cameras and mix the audio in post.

True, this is a problem with the nflightcam adapter - you only get sound when the squelch on the mic is broken, so it's total silence until you or someone else talks.
 
PIREP, AKASO EK7000 PRO video camera, GoPro “clone”

Sorry, Thread Drift….

As noted in earlier post I’m using a GoPro8 for over the shoulder view of panel avionics and capturing headset audio. The GoPro8 creates a series of video files as the audio and video recording continues. The files smoothly edit together during later computer processing.

PIREP - The AKASO EK7000 Pro cameras, available at Target and maybe other places, produce decent video files for an $80 camera. I use two for a pilot/passenger view and an exterior mount. However the EK7000 files do not smoothly connect. There is an approximate 2 second gap as the camera starts the next file. This can cause the loss of audio sync/lip sync between the GoPro audio track and the “watch the people” camera.

I created a tiny black video file approx. 2 seconds and 14 frames long to insert between each file to keep things sync’d. The EK7000s on the panel and/or exterior provides all the engine/wind/ambient sound I want to mix into the audio stream. YMMV.

Carl
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