Video Surveillance 101

For Christmas my very significant other, Susan/Wife, was wanting a camera or baby monitor down at the barn that she could use to check out sick goats, mommas bearing, breeding, and what they are doing in the barn overnight. Okay, this should be easy.

First the choice of broadcast type. Wireless or hard wired. That was an easy choice as if I was getting her a video cam surveillance sytem then it was gonna be more than just a goat cam. So, just to go to the barn is 250' and not gonna run wire/cable.

It would be necessary to have the cams perhaps 300 or 400 feet or more from the house to cover goat/livestock barn, vehicle barn, main entry gate, back way in-never used road gate/cable, and the path/route that trespassers are most likely to use.

The system would need to be 12V so I can power it with solar and recharge thecar, tractor, small tractor, or motorcycle battery.

The system would need to function as an alarm so that movement would set it off and it would integrate with current alarm systems. It would also need to be able to be "triggered" by movement or noise and record whatever set it off; but NOT record, record, record all the time constantly. In addition it needs to be able to be monitored from my PC, lap-top, a "smart" phone, or additonal TV monitor.

Inra-red capability and range is a totally required item on the list with at least a range of 100' feet or more.

Ok......So need at least 4 cams with a DVR, good warranty, customer service,tech service/help, and most of all.....GREAT PRICE.....

Dream on Sherlock............

So after a lot of research, phone calls, talking with sales folks, and other users I selected a Lorex system that is built for outdoors and all of my above requirments and more. Yes, COSTCO, Walmart, Sams and others sell their systems; but I went directly to Lorex because of their outstanding customer service, fast delivery (we were getting down to the wire for Christmas), warranty, and knowledgeable AMERICAN techs on the phone.

OK..........Got it and have been setting it up for several days now with NO hurry...........

Had to :
get a solar panel
battery

Build a box for those hanging on a tree or telephone pole to protect from weather

Try out distances and hook up extra extender antenna or not

Figure out the size of battery I needed. Ends up being a small tractor/lawn mower is just right. Got a 10W 12V solar panel. This charges the battery and provides enough power for cloudy days. The Cameras use 325 miliamps..................

Ok........NOW to use them...............More later. God bless........Dennis

Looking forward to this thread. Thanks for starting it.

Bob

Not quite as extensive as you were looking for but I have a setup from Vuezone. The cameras are wireless and run off of a camera battery. The base station is 12V and needs an internet connection. Netgear bought them out. I have 2 cameras set to watch my hay rings. A good little range extender is from a company called Open Mesh. They're designed for hotels.
http://www.vuezone.com/
http://www.open-mesh.com/

Ok thanks for the thoughts big orange. We pretty much have everything now except MORE cams. Like my wife says, we should have done this long ago, it is addicting.

Again, the 4 cams, as I sit here at my puter writing this, I have 2 puter monitors for video editing, anyway, as I sit here, this stuff is on one screen and the surveil cams are on the screen of the other monitor. They have audio included so I hear my dog barking in the road and the goats talking to one another down in the barn as I watch them.

I started this thread to give an idea as to what it's like to use this stuff as so many guys are into the game cams. The hardest part so far is figuring out what solar panel and battery size to use because Lorex does not recommend using batteries and such..........for me though, 12V is 12V, no matter where it comes from.........
I tried a .7W solar panel and an extra gam camera battery only a LARGE one and yes that worked just fine but the panel did not put out enough to run the cam, 350mw, and charge the battery so it died............Pretty sure now though again, a 12V lawn mower battery and a 10 watt solar panel have worked for going on the 3rd night and one cloudy day........lol.....the battery is only 5 years old that I pulled out of my lawn tractor/mower that maybe gets 2 hours of use per year...........Anyway.....it's working.............God bless.......Dennis

Wow, I am so looking foreword to this follow up; my wife is driving me crazy to get a monitoring system for the house barns etc. but it is impossible to run hard wires. I just built a new house and I will not start drilling holes to run wires.

The wireless stuff really does work. It is all plug and play and one doesnt have to go through a bunch of hoops to hook it up. At the worst one has to rig out what is called a range extender antenna but that is no big deal either

Sittin here right now, as I do this writing, watchin my wife doctor on a billy that has pneumonia and our new little Anatolian livestock guard dog, 6 month old chasin her tail and a stick there in the middle of like 8 momma goats in their side of the barn...........God bless........Dennis

This is SUPER !!!!


Nothing like knowing what is going on all around you !!!!

........ Two Guns

Dennis what brand and model are you using?

Not gonna give out my total perimeter defense system here. The guys down at the store, every little spot on the map has a "store". The place where all the local guys gather in the morning, have some coffee, fresh biscuit with whatever, sit on the porch and watch the traffic, and GOSSIP...............I wasn't born down in the back of the pasture in the same old pickup as them; but I share stories and thoughts from time to time.
Anyway, my best perimeter defense.......being known as "that crazy ol Viet Nam guy who has that place up on the hill." Twice now in the last few years it has been proven that I act first and ask questions later. Was the talk of the store for weeks when a county tax survey team was wandering around the place without asking or letting me know. The judge laughed them out of court with their endangerment charges.
Combine that with gossip about booby traps and live traps set........Keeps the vandels at bay for sure................

Ok........so, the surveillance system is the latest link in my armor and yes, I see at least 4 more cams coming. Currently I use 2 wireless motion detectors on each entry, gated or cabled off road into my place. Dakota Alerts...........GOOOOD STUFF and folks.......Anyway I use 2 spread out by perhaps 100 yards on each entry. Why 2.....Most any motion detector will give off falses or a critter can easily set it off.......But, when both go off within a minute of each other.........it's time to get the pump out and handy. Yes, at 2 a.m. have had a couple of times folks park, walk around the electric gate and procede up the road towards the equipment barn or house.........Funny how the sound of crankin/pumping in a round carries quite a distance at night and folks take off the way they came................

Anyway, so....the Dakota Alert wireless system......and so now I add to that:

http://www.lorextechnology.com/Wire...lay&sorting=-rating&page=1&start=1#reviewsTab

Not the most expensive and not the least; but has all the features that I want and need. That is what I truly want, what WORKS for me.........God bless......Dennis

Thank you Dennis I appreciate the information.

Great post, Dennis. It ... together with the link you provided ... told me more about security camera systems than I've ever known before. You have piqued my interest in installing such a system at our home.

I have only one question at this time: how do you power the cameras? Solar panels?

I know nothing about solar panels ... the electricity utilities want to keep me uninformed about solar power. Do you use solar panels for your rigs? If so, can you provide a link to a vendor who provides the panels?

Thanks again for all your good info and especially the link to Lorex.

The cams come with a 110V/12V power supply. I am still, been a couple of weeks now coming up with the proper size of battery for the two cams that I am powering up with right now 12V lawn tractor type batteries............
Right now, I am recharging the batteries using a 10W solar 12V battery charger with a controller to keep the battery from undercharging (running down below 12V) and overcharging and boiling the battery.........:

http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&page=1&rh=i:aps,k:12V Solar Battery Charger

The cams are working just fine off of the batteries but DO NOT quote me that the batteries and that particular solar panel are going to work. It's only been hooked up one sunny day and 2 cloudy days now and I really want a few more days to make sure that the battery size is big enough.
I know on my electric gate I had to go with a second panel to get the recharge amps that I need to keep the battery up for it through cloudy days. Golly that is a huge amp load compared to what the cams use.............We shall see........God bless........Dennis