I ordered the Trust 814 card yesterday as it sounded ideal for my needs also. Just had a call from the supplier (cyberselect.co.uk) to say they cannot supply as they have withdrawn the card from sale due to problems with it recording when there is no movement and filling up the hard drive. Looks like I may have to pay the extra for a better card such as the "Stealth Big Brother" - but it's about £100 more :-(
No point buying an unreliable system.
Alan.
Useful information. What I've read so far just gives technical information, not anything to do with the "quirks" of day to day use.
Actually, this is making me think more about where I want the cameras sited. The external camera was ti be on the back corner of the house, looking down the drive. But as I sit here staring out the front window into the sun I've just thought that in the winter the camera could be blinded by the sun.
This could be, subconciously, why I'm wanting to take it a step at a time by buying a card and a camera, then adding to the system later.
Thats also handy to know. I now know I only need to be looking at low voltage cameras and ones with coax connections. Again I can now browse the Web-sites / catalogues from a position of bein better informed. And to think I thought at one time the B&Q stuff was what I wanted...
Don't let me stop you, it's all been of help so far.
Tell me about it. The last[1] PC I built is performing the role of a jukebox server. With PC kit I read for a while, decide and buy and then ignore the magazines and web-sites for months so I don't cry because XX has been replaced by much better YY at 2/3's of the price
[1] of too many, way too many
Cyberselect were one of the 3 places I had on my list to try and order the card from today. Looks like the Trust is off the list then.
Which at this moment in time, isn't possible :-(
Noted
Which may be why cyberselect.co.uk wont let Alan have one (see post down -vvv- there)
I'm looking at using Linux based software ZoneMinder as featured in Novembers Linux Format. (But that could all go pear-shaped...)
stuff that I thought too "fancy" for my needs/wants so I sort of gave up on it.
The Grandtec stuff looks to be promising. I'll be off trying to find their homepage to find out more about each of the cards.
Thanks for the pointers.
Looks like the thing I want/need and I couldn't find it earlier this week. Not used to ebay I'm afraid. I'll keep my eye on it to see what it finally goes for. Thought the £20 postage is going to bump the final price up somewhat.
We accept VISA, MASTERCARD, L/C or advance Electronic transfer Minimum shipment value US$5000 "
EEEK!!!
you could use one of these at the other end of the drive
These are the people we use most for our systems BT, as they've been doing this stuff since computers were invented, so have a read through their site and maybe pick up a few pointers. (been trying to fond this link since reading your first post (grin))
Check out
I have been using the trust card for the last 12 months with two cameras covering the front and rear of my property. I have had no problems at all with this setup, and I even manage it across the internet from work using Remote admin and an Adsl connection.
I bought a cheap second hand PII 400 pc for £40 and put the trust card in that with two 10gig hard drives and put it on my home network without a monitor, keyboard, or mouse and away you go.
It's worked without fault for the last twelve months, the hard drives last on average two weeks before I have to clean them up.
In all its a very good option.
So with P&P that's £41.
I've also sussed out that the seller has a number of auctions on the go at once, so there's a PCI card each day so I could have a go at getting one. But I *want* something this week and so I don't think I have the patience to keep bidding till I get one and then wait till it arrives from Hong Kong.
Thanks for the pointer though.
That's what I thought too. I'm particulary interested that you're running it on a 400mhz PC as I'm contemplating using one of my "retired" PCs as the processer.
I've oodles of disk space, or rather disks hanging about so space shouldn't be a problem. But, are you using recording everything or just when something triggers the cameras?
The set up is as follows
Compaq PII 400mhz 394meg ram running Windows 2000, 6 gig hard drive for the operating system. the two 10gig hard drives for each camera and a network card.
I have an infrared illuminator to the rear of the property and a standard pir coach lantern at the front which give illumination during darkness.
The software is the standard trust software that came with the card, it time and dates stamps the video that it captures. I have it set up to capture only when there is movment detected in the feild of view of the cameras. you can mask out area's of each image and set up individual trigger levels for each channel.
you can set it up to record continusly if required
Regards Tydraig
Well I can certainly put together that hardware setup with what I have at home.
The Coach Lantern seems like a good idea for illumination and maybe a front door camera. I noticed last night that the light I have at the front to light my way home is behind me when I get to the door and so I'm casting a shadow on the front door. So if I had a peephole camera in the door, I wouldn't be able to see a face because of the backlighting.
Time to do some more research I think.
Again, thanks for the info.
Starting to talk about backlight compensation now. Boy, your learning fast BT. :-))
LOL
I'm pretty smart, honest :-)
I looked at the stuff in B&Q *ages* ago because I fancied CCTV because I'm a bit of a sucker for gadgets. At the time I justified my interest because I wanted to protect the bikes in the garage. However, I didn't like the "packaged" solution that the sheds do and so put that Project aside.
I got burgled a while ago, so I decided that the Alarm project and CCTV project needed to be resurected. I did quite a lot of research into the alarms and sensors and stuff. You have to put yourself into the position of trying to break into your own home and it can be quite surprising what you find. But somehow the CCTV project got shelved again.
I'm now "resting" and want to finish off the TV Project. As I'd thought about piping the CCTV through all the TVs when I'd sorted the signal distribution it was time to resurect the CCTV project again.
So when I started this thread I knew I was going to implementing a PC based solution (I've about 5 or 6 knocking about), which is why I wanted sources of cards because they seem so hard to find. Although I Googled I'm finding that it doesn't find stuff on the big sites that have a "catalogue". So, maybe Maplins have what I want, but googleing doesn't work.
Anyway, because of what's been suggested and what I read I'm now paying much more attention to where I'd site the cameras, what light levels would be available for each site, etc. Like you've already said about IR, if the picture's rubbish then you'll not catch anyone.
My Plan at the moment is to have to front door / front approach covered by one camera. So that anyone coming to the house will be seen. That could be a lantern thing which will also provide "fill in" light. Camera 2 will be at the side of the house looking down the drive to the street to see anyone coming round the back of the house from the road. This will face south and so I have a problem with a low sun from now until March. Although I could have it up high and covering an birds eye view of the drive/side of the house. One in the garage. One in the kitchen, so that if someone gets in the back door it's mugshot time. Also one behind the front door for the same reason.
I haven't got a solution to the illumination for in the house yet. During the day (when I got turned over) there is enough light, but obviously at night it's dark :-). I'm mulling over the idea of having "emergency" lighting that comes on with the Alarm PIRs or something. That is something like some picture lights or other subdued/mood lighting that come on, but there's no obvious switch to them.
I also want to be able to wire the landing light so that it comes on when I walk along the landing to the bathroom in the middle of the night, but that's another Project.
A problem I have is that I have no connections to the Electrical trade and so am using the Web and Newsgroups to research and then to try and locate the kit. It takes time.
What I thought I'd do is to document the "fun" I have and either post it to the group and stick it on a website and post a link. Obvious security issues censored of course.
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