Security camera questions

Hi all,

I'm thinking about setting up a couple of cameras in my front yard to monitor for intruders. I've been looking around at what's available, and I've come to the conclusion that I want a setup with night vision and motion detection that's wireless.

I seem to not be finding many setups with both motion detection and night vision. Is it because the infrared LED's interfere with motion detection? I'd think that body heat is of a much longer wavelength than the just-barely-below-human-sight wavelengths they can use for night vision.

Another thing is I keep finding wired systems that would be good, but I don't really want to deal with running wires all the way across the yard to the house, and I really would rather not have an analog setup. I'm more comfortable working with things on the computer, and hard drive space is cheap.

Do any of you folks have any experience with this sort of stuff, and know where would be a good place to buy the equipment?

wireless will mean batteries, IR LED's in an array are going to potentially eat the batteries alive rather quickly.

I would go with a wired setup even though you want to not do that, just to lessen any potential dead tiem due to dead batteries.

Well, lemme clarify: I need wireless communications-the power supply can be wired. The reason is I have an outdoor outlet fairly near the place to be monitored. Any signal cable would have to either be suspended pretty high or go across the driveway (a big no no-we drive dodge diesel trucks that would easily crush any normal cable). Thus, powering the led's wouldn't be a problem, but getting a signal through a wire to the house would be. To make it even worse, the entire house is made of poured concrete, not concrete blocks. Biggest damn mess you've ever seen to try to run cable from outside. The cable tv guy drained 3 cordless drill battery packs and wore out two bits trying to drill through the wall from outside. He finally had to borrow a plug-in drill to get the job done.

Adragontattoo said:

wireless will mean batteries, IR LED's in an array are going to potentially eat the batteries alive rather quickly.

I would go with a wired setup even though you want to not do that, just to lessen any potential dead tiem due to dead batteries.

Click to expand...

I rectified that very easily, I have a waterproof day/night infrared security system with three camera, one is in a tree outside watching the side of the house, It's a 9 volt camera with a 6000mah battery pack (It runs 15 hours before it dies if theres no sun) To rectify never having to recharge the battery pack, I added a Solar panel I got cheap at Harborfreighttools.com

My Porch infrared cam also uses the same setup, but I can also use a/c power if I want, but the solar panels are the way to go because it's free power. My last camera is setup inside on a/c power

Yeah that is what I was thinking of later SSS. Very rarely will you go 16 hours without enough sunlight to at least trickle charge or balance the useage.

Adragontattoo said:

Yeah that is what I was thinking of later SSS. Very rarely will you go 16 hours without enough sunlight to at least trickle charge or balance the useage.

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If you decide to do this, be smart. Buy some silicone sealer and seal everything if it's going to face the elements. I sealed every connection with silicone and it's maintenence free.

The last piece of my security system was supposed to be this, I ordered it but it just went out of stock. So I have to find it elsewhere, but this is the last thing I need. I don't really need it, but I want it PS, That's for the porch cam and wont be exposed to the elements.

how much security do you have otherwise? I.e. keypads, cipher locks etc?

Condo I am renting has a cipher lock OR key that you can use to get in, the building is secured so I dont really need much for security. I am probably going to wire up a few cameras just to face the entry points though in case of any issues.

one thing for OP and you SSS, I dont know if the program is still available but there used to be a program called homewatcher(IIRC). There was a free and also a pay version of it. It had motion tracking capabilities and had a FTP client built in.

FYI saw this and thought it MIGHT work for either of you.

http://www.overstock.com/?page=proframe&prod_id=1996486

• Use with any television set
• Compact discrete B/W camera with rain shield for indoor/outdoor mounting
• Wide angle auto iris lens
• Built-in chime alert
• 1-way audio monitoring
• Motion sensor range of up to 20 feet
• Selectable auto/manual/off modes
• Fully adjustable mounting brackets
• VCR recording capability
• Systems includes 65-foot camera cable, VCR cable, and TV cable
• Easy to install and operate
• Weatherproof for use outdoors or inside

Receiver:

• Video signal 1V p-p 75 ohms
• Door bell chime 5 seconds
• RF output UHF/VHF Ch.3 or 4 & A/V jacks
• Power supply 12V DC adapter, 500mA

Adragontattoo said:

one thing for OP and you SSS, I dont know if the program is still available but there used to be a program called homewatcher(IIRC). There was a free and also a pay version of it. It had motion tracking capabilities and had a FTP client built in.

Click to expand...

I use something like that now, they even have free versions like Dorgem that can turn your PC webcam into a motion activated recording system.

I use Argus software for this, but it's not free, it came bundled with a surveillance smoke detector cam.