Home security webcams - Linux & IR

[Jethro]

HRA only applies to "the state", not individuals.

[Dave Liquorice]

Aye, one may think that 100mA @ 12v isn't a lot of power but when you come to provide that in the middle of field, reliably, 24/7, without lugging batteries about it becomes quite a problem. The voltage drop on 200yds of Cat5 at 100mA will be about 3.5v on a single pair or just under 2v using both unused pairs. You could of course feed in a higher voltage and hope that load variations didn't allow the volts to rise to high at the camera.

A wired IP camera with PoE capabilty suddenly looks very useful, apart from the night vision aspect. Are there any PoE IP cameras with IR illumination?

[Owain]

I think the problem is that the P available oE is rather limited.

Owain

[pcb1962]

Not that limited, up to 51W is possible:

[Dave Liquorice]

12.95W assured at the device (15.4W inout) for the first PoE standard IEEE 802.3af-2003.

IEEE 802.3at-2009 is 25.5W but not sure if that is input or output.

Axis 211 PoE IP Camera spec sheet says it takes 7W so you have at least 5W available for IR LED lighting, if you can get at that power...

I don't know how effcient IR LEDs are but at 12v you have about 400mA available. Some LED effciencies have shot up. Tried to dim a blue LED on a cheap network drive I bought as it was lighting up the room at night. Fed from 3V supply and the leakage through my dry fingers lightly holding the wires would make it glow. Increased the series R and eventually reduced the current to 50uA (micro amps) and it's

*still* on the bright side.

[F Murtz]

You could run a higher voltage with a 12v regulator at the end.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "Dave Liquorice" saying something like:

Black tape works.

[marpate1]

supported (as per mine) then Motion may work for you.

[Dave Liquorice]

B-) This was the "activity" light which I wanted to be able to see. I guess I could have stuck a pinhole in the tape... but then I wouldn't have known about LEDs that are suitably bright at 50uA against the

10mA or so I'm used to.

[Mathew Newton]

Hi Jethro,

For a number of years I've been using Zoneminder and can highly recommend it.

The cameras I use are Panasonic BL-C1 IP cameras - extremely good value for money with very good picture quality; not bad in low light conditions too. Performance (picture quality at least) is not far off from the benchmark Axis IP cameras which are considerably more expensive. However, I can't imagine they'd be much use for outdoor usage but thought them worth a mention if you are considering any indoor monitoring (they're not too 'camera like' either so quite compatible with the aesthetics of a domestic environment). Panasonic may well do outdoor versions but I'm not in a position to comment on them. IP cameras were the obvious choice for me given a fully- networked house however if starting from scratch you might want to consider alternative setups.

Zoneminder makes for a very flexibile system - I was able to incorporate offsite backups, SMS alerts for alarm events etc. Indeed its scope and usefulness was greatly enhanced when I incorporated a camera as a live visual feedback loop for an Internet-enabled cat feeder! :-)

Mathew

[Dave Liquorice]

If you can still find one, lots of sites have it marked as "discontinued".

[Mathew Newton]

I had noticed it was becoming seemingly harder to find.

It looks like it may now have been replaced by the BL-C101 which appears to now feature audio capture (note that ZM doesn't support this yet), remote triggering and IPv6.

Mathew

[Mr UPVC]

I second the recommendations of Panasonic and Axis IP cameras - I've found them to be more reliable than USB cameras.

Legal issues aside, I would be cautious about putting up cameras, either overt or covert, that can "see" any public areas or parts of your neighbours properties. I'd even be cautious about setting up cameras that your neighbours might *think* are capable of viewing them or their properties.

Neighbours are strange unpredictable things that never come with instruction manuals, and some of them might react in surprising ways to the appearance of cameras.