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spy cam needed.

Or possibly two.

What I want is something that will be utterly self contained, and stream pictures from two garden locations to the home network somehow. Cables are not an option so WiFi or similar it is. Motion sensor and some ability to capture would be ideal.

ideally i'd automagically download any captured images to me server once a day or somesuch, and then autorotate files after a month or similar.

Range on one cam would be about 30m - the other more like 120m or more

They will be out in shit weather probably up trees and so on.

Purpose is to track some vehicle movements past the house on the road - very very low traffic, and a lot of it 'snooping' and also intruders down the bottom of a very long (160m) garden up to and including humans deer and badgers.

Aerials can be arranged, but cables to /from cannot.

Anyone done this?

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher
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Your biggest problem will be supplying them with power. Typically a Wifi camera needs around 1.5-2A @ 5v so you will need a chunky battery and a wind turbine or solar PV panel if you have no mains available ;-)

Otherwise expect to have to recharge overnight and lug a 40Ah lead acid deep discharge battery out there every day per camera.

A video out weatherproof camera can be had off the shelf from Rapid for about an order of magnitude more and about 0.5A.

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You might be able to do a DIY combo using your own PIR to switch on the higher current camera as and when needed.

Look for wildlife camera traps but they are not cheap. Basically they record to local sD media and only activate when a PIR sees something. A lot of effort goes into minimising their standby current whilst still responding fairly fast to a trigger with IR LED lighting if needed.

Reply to
Martin Brown

Beat me to it. You can get loads of "wireless" camera's but all need a wire to power 'em so what's the point of the WiFi? You need a cable for power so make it ethernet with PoE.

Not specified if this is permenant or temporary? Bog standard CAT5 will last quite a long time (years) outside and is cheap. Tack it along a fence or tuck through the shrubbery. Could either be used to send baseband video back (with balans each end of a pair) or for ethernet. Could even loop one pair as a "tamper" circuit if required, not 100% sure that would be OK with PoE, can't remember if that uses the "spare" pairs or not.

Do they do video? I thought they were only stills, and they don't stream...

Yep battery life in the order of weeks if not months.

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

The 802.3af standard uses phantom power on the data pairs, but the non-standard method just uses the spare pairs for power, beware of different polarity.

Reply to
Andy Burns

You are much more likely to have mains power nearby on a socket than Cat5 cabling at least in domestic premises. WiFi is now ubiquitous.

A run of black Cat5 would be my suggestion too, but I thought tormenting him with what is actually a genuine application of wind/solar was fun!

I don't think any do streaming but some will do stills or video for a (higher) price. Video eats battery life though on a stills camera.

Simplest PIR I think might do the job (after being made waterproof etc) is about £20 and ~40uA @ 3v which is a lot more like it.

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Old plastic large lemonade bottles make reasonable shelters for ad hoc kit outdoors until they go brittle from the UV.

Reply to
Martin Brown

In article , Dave Liquorice writes

PoE uses the brown pair (7&8), so with 10/100Mbit ethernet (1&2, 3&6) the blue pair (4&5) are free and could be used for a tamper circuit

Reply to
Mike Tomlinson

I have 3 CCTV cameras outside my house and wifi is NOT an option here due to thick walls etc. All 3 cameras are POE, and I get pretty good pictures and video from them.

Reply to
Bob H

I have the basic Bushnell Trophy cam (#1119436) which takes video or stills, and I'm pretty sure they all do. There's a socket labelled "TV out" and you can choose PAL/NTSC in the menus but I think that's just for playback. I'll try it later ...

The more expensive ones offer HD resolution, a built-in screen for playback, and totally invisible IR leds; mine are just visible in the dark.

Battery life (8 AA's mind) is many months, and it's completely waterproof.

Reply to
Reentrant

yes. I seems that yu can EITHER get battery operation OR wifi, but not both.

I will have to see what chance there is of some cabling...

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

Or possibly two.

What I want is something that will be utterly self contained, and stream pictures from two garden locations to the home network somehow. Cables are not an option so WiFi or similar it is. Motion sensor and some ability to capture would be ideal.

ideally i'd automagically download any captured images to me server once a day or somesuch, and then autorotate files after a month or similar.

Range on one cam would be about 30m - the other more like 120m or more

They will be out in shit weather probably up trees and so on.

Purpose is to track some vehicle movements past the house on the road - very very low traffic, and a lot of it 'snooping' and also intruders down the bottom of a very long (160m) garden up to and including humans deer and badgers.

Aerials can be arranged, but cables to /from cannot.

Anyone done this?

Have a look on an ex-work colleagues site and click his link for contact details

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Roger has been doing this kind of stuff for ages... He might be able to help

Reply to
Nthkentman

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Mms, solar panel recharge, invisible ir,

Looks interesting alternative

Jim K

Reply to
Jim K

I'm considering mounting a camera on my garage. There is power there, but no cabled connection to my home network. So wireless is then obvious solution.

Reply to
charles

I'd have thought (without checking up anything) that most cams actually run on modest voltages, so perhaps lead-acid gel batteries could be used to provide a decent whack of power at sensible cost?

Reply to
polygonum

This any use? Might be a bit lo res.

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Wireless Video Door Phone with PIR Motion Detection,

3.5 Inch Monitor, 300m Range Picture and Video Recording Function Camera Usage Time: 3 Hours of Continuous Use Camera Standby: 1000 Hours
Reply to
Simon Cee

doubt it

"PIR Motion Detection Range: 2 Meters"

300m did sound a tad over-engineered...

Jim K

Reply to
Jim K

If the power in the garage is fed from your house consumer unit don't forget homeplug - can be simpler than wifi.

Darren

Reply to
D.M.Chapman

many people say that Homeplug doesn't work through a Consumer Unit.

Reply to
charles

Depends what you mean by "through".

If it's a different ring from the same CU then it's fine (usually). Through an RCD or RCBO is a different thing altogether... through a meter - no chance in my experience.

Darren

Reply to
D.M.Chapman

In article , D.M.Chapman scribeth thus

We were asked by a country park some years ago to sort out a small CCTV system for them. They had quotes from CCTV "suppliers" who all were raving about just how good "wireless" was and it would sort the problem just like that..

  1. No mains power for the cameras and to power the wireless point ..

  1. With all the trees in the way I doubt a 20 kW TV transmitter would get thru them..

Result a few management red faces and a cable plough duct and cable:).

Ben fine for years now:)....

Reply to
tony sayer

In my situation the garage is fed through an RCD, so it probably won't work.

Reply to
charles

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