Maybe this should go in the gear section or accessories? I did a search and couldn't come up with much but anyways... Is anyone using outdoor cameras for added security? My garage door faces the alleyway and I was thinking of putting a little wireless camera out there to monitor behind my garage. I searched the web but there are alot of choices even dummy cameras but I don't know. If anyone has any info on this I would appreciate it and cheap is always good. [thumbsup]
Thanks!
I do. Most of my stuff is from old stuff that was getting tossed out from various facilities and Ebay. My crown jewel is the fully networkable 500Gb security camera DVR I bought from a friend for $300.
I forget who the seller was but I bought a bunch of these http://cgi.ebay.com/New-30-LED-Infrared-CCTV-Security-Color-Camera-Spycam_W0QQitemZ190375170801QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item2c533e92f1 (http://cgi.ebay.com/New-30-LED-Infrared-CCTV-Security-Color-Camera-Spycam_W0QQitemZ190375170801QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item2c533e92f1) for $10 apiece, I ran 100ft rca cables out to them that were also Ebay sourced.
A little searching and poking and prodding you can put together something good pretty easily.
i have the same one, you hook it up to a HDD DVR and jsut let it record and clear out the hdd every week. its main purpose is to catch people who throw garage into our garbage pile (mostly people who get paid to dispose of garbage without any real way, they just distribute garage amoung other peoples piles...assholes)
My neighbor's bicycles were stolen from his garage (leaving behind his Honda touring and dirt bikes!) a week ago, so I'm looking into this too.
At work in my lab (lots of "misappropriation" goes on), I use a web cam with built-in LED lights and IR capability connected to my PC running freeware (called Where's James) that has motion detection capability. Snaps JPEGs while motion is detected and saves em to the HDD.
Lethe, I like that little camera, may have to pick one or two up for the home setup.
I've been using this since October:
http://www.supercircuits.com/Security-Camera-Systems/4-Camera-Systems/ (http://www.supercircuits.com/Security-Camera-Systems/4-Camera-Systems/)
Yes, the first thing you need is a DVR to store the video so you can watch it again at a later time. Then you need to decide what type of camera you want. A fixed camera or a pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) camera. A PTZ camera costs more. Cameras can be connected via ethernet, co-ax, or wireless. I have never found wireless cameras to be of great quality, and the frame rate is very low for larger video sizes. If I had a choice, I would wire up an ethernet camera (fixed, to save cost) to a DVR and power the camera with the ethernet connection. Super Circuits (mentioned above) is a great place to purchase the equipment. I'm preferential to cameras made by Axis.
i just have cameras next to the potty in the guest bathroom
The Panasonic IP cameras are pretty nice for the money. Most offer pan and tilt and can record to an internal SD card. You can view them remotely too. We mostly install the Speco Intensifier cameras for our customers with a DVR and add a Panasonic analog to IP converter to distribute them to touchscreens round the house if needed, but that is getting expensive. You really have to watch with the cheap cameras. You will not be able to see at night as good as you think. Everyone thinks their going to see like James Bond with these things and that is not the case unless you spend BIG BUCKS. The Speco intensifiers work great at night where you just need a little ambient light and it is like daytime with them.
I have a Synology NAS that is awesome for streaming music and movies around the house but it also has an IP camera DVR function that works great. If you don`t have a DVR than you will have to be watching the camera at the exact moment something happens, which is highly unlikely. If you need a DVR try the Synology NAS you`ll get a great NAS to store/ stream Music, movies, pics, as well as a DVR with remote access.
Quote from: Mr Earl on March 14, 2010, 10:50:24 AM
Lethe, I like that little camera, may have to pick one or two up for the home setup.
I had figured for $!0 apiece how could I go wrong and was pleasantly surprised that the video quality is pretty decent. I have a small
Pelco monitor in the corner of the living room displaying it, also have it feeding to an input on the big tv. Nice for when you're expecting company you know when to head downstairs to greet them as you see them pull in the driveway and walk to the front door.
Hmmm I may have to rethink this... would be a cool thing to have a camera at the front door too watching the cars parked on the street. What about something like this http://www.surveillance-video.com/alldi2coirni1.html (http://www.surveillance-video.com/alldi2coirni1.html) any good? Problem I'm having with running cables is that my garage is detatched and is kinda far from the house. :-\
Quote from: Enzoman on March 14, 2010, 02:16:54 PM
Hmmm I may have to rethink this... would be a cool thing to have a camera at the front door too watching the cars parked on the street. What about something like this http://www.surveillance-video.com/alldi2coirni1.html (http://www.surveillance-video.com/alldi2coirni1.html) any good? Problem I'm having with running cables is that my garage is detatched and is kinda far from the house. :-\
Perfect excuse to dig an escape/utility tunnel. [thumbsup]
Anybody got any FHE with any stuff from these guys:
http://www.x10.com/promotions/xx16a_as_cam_41806_promo_vcr_2_0418_home_burst.html (http://www.x10.com/promotions/xx16a_as_cam_41806_promo_vcr_2_0418_home_burst.html)
you can't go wrong with the ones they sell at costco:
http://www.costco.com/Common/Category.aspx?cat=4802&eCat=BC%7C79%7C4802&whse=BC (http://www.costco.com/Common/Category.aspx?cat=4802&eCat=BC%7C79%7C4802&whse=BC)
my friend bought one, and he had one extra camera he had no place for. So he put it on the mousetraps in his attack. Talk about suspenseful entertainment.... you'll be on the edge of your seat watching the mice chewing away at the food on the trigger mechanism.
Sorry, this ended up kinda long...
I'll just play devil's advocate here for a minute: What do you really want this camera to do for you? Added security? Are you planning to watch this camera live at all? Just have it there to review footage if you do have a break-in? Deterrent for thieves?
I managed an apartment building near a university for a few years. Our building had "deterrent cameras" installed, meaning they had a little red LED on a fake camera. There were still break-ins and thefts (my R6 for one), maybe fewer, sometimes the cameras were found smashed or pointed away. One of my friends worked at a building where they had real cameras on a closed circuit feed in their building cable tv system. It was useful to see who was buzzing in at the door but only if the person looked up at the camera to talk to you. When he had footage of someone breaking in the front door, or breaking into cars in the garage, the police just didn't want to look at the footage. A few hundred $$ in misdemeanor damage/loss and a IZ_ photo wasn't enough to interest them in much more than filing a report. (Now the time we caught some guys in the act, now that was exciting!)
If you really want a deterrent, just get fake/cheap deterrent cameras, don't risk more expensive cameras getting damaged or stolen themselves. Make them visible and out of reach or they don't work well as a deterrent.
If you want a useful video recording of what happens in an area to review if there is a theft, make sure the camera is hi-def, works great in low/no light, and is positioned to actually get faces/license plates, but be prepared to maybe be frustrated of either not getting useful material, or not being able to get anywhere with it, or really in the best case scenario, just spending money on something that won't get any use because there is no problem and be obsolete in a few years.
If you are getting a camera for any of those reasons, my advice would be to make sure your insurance policies are up-to-date and spend that money on more shiny/go fast bits for the bike instead. [thumbsup]
All that said, if you going for the cool gadget fun factor, do it! I currently have a webcam live video feed (ustream.tv) pointed at our kitchen to watch the new puppy while we are at work. You need a computer hooked up to it, or an IP cam to get a live internet feed. The frustration factor kicks in here, what do I do when he's chewing on something he shouldn't, or missing the wee-wee pads? But it's a comfort to my girlfriend who is sad to leave him alone, and he does enough cute stuff to make it fun. I've got another IP cam that's probably going to go up out back to watch the creek.
I tried to set up a courtyard door cam for my mom's place, but unless you have a dedicated screen for it, it isn't practical to go to the computer and pull it up in time.
Quote from: Piller on March 14, 2010, 07:49:03 PM
you can't go wrong with the ones they sell at costco:
http://www.costco.com/Common/Category.aspx?cat=4802&eCat=BC%7C79%7C4802&whse=BC (http://www.costco.com/Common/Category.aspx?cat=4802&eCat=BC%7C79%7C4802&whse=BC)
my friend bought one, and he had one extra camera he had no place for. So he put it on the mousetraps in his attack. Talk about suspenseful entertainment.... you'll be on the edge of your seat watching the mice chewing away at the food on the trigger mechanism.
i thought mine in the guest bathroom were weird....
I wish I had an attack. ???
Quote from: ducpainter on March 15, 2010, 03:41:22 AM
I wish I had an attack. ???
don't those bouts of senility count??
>ducking<<
Quote from: ducatiz on March 15, 2010, 03:47:42 AM
don't those bouts of senility count??
>ducking<<
Quote from: Piller on March 14, 2010, 07:49:03 PM
you can't go wrong with the ones they sell at costco:
http://www.costco.com/Common/Category.aspx?cat=4802&eCat=BC%7C79%7C4802&whse=BC (http://www.costco.com/Common/Category.aspx?cat=4802&eCat=BC%7C79%7C4802&whse=BC)
my friend bought one, and he had one extra camera he had no place for. So he put it on the mousetraps in his attack. Talk about suspenseful entertainment.... you'll be on the edge of your seat watching the mice chewing away at the food on the trigger mechanism.
Very similarly to those lucid moments of yours. ;D
Quote from: ducatiz on March 15, 2010, 03:37:34 AM
i thought mine in the guest bathroom were weird....
you don't really do that, do you?
Quote from: Piller on March 15, 2010, 04:06:01 AM
you don't really do that, do you?
only when my sister-in-law comes over... [evil]
Quote from: ducatiz on March 14, 2010, 11:58:11 AM
i just have cameras next to the potty in the guest bathroom
off topic....
my g/f's mom has 2 switches in the downstairs bathroom (the one that everyone uses when there is a party)
one of the switches controls the lights, the onter one has not been hooked up to anything.
her mom got a labelmaker and labeled the switch that actually controls the light. the de4ad switch got labeled "webcam"
people were really freaked out and keep asking if it really is a webcam. that's entertainment! [laugh]
Quote from: Piller on March 15, 2010, 04:06:01 AM
you don't really do that, do you?
I wonder if that is why he keeps wanting me to come visit??
Lethe,
You got rid of all those 1980 cameras that are like 2ft long a piece?
i did an X10 system at my last job
the software is a little wonky and the pc kept crashing.
i did get a shot of 3 guys drinking at the school after hours, and then disabling the camera when they noticed it. [evil]
i would do the costco type with the dedicated dvr if i had it to do over again....