Compact cheap "surveilance" camera

Now that's cooking with gas. We have a resident sparky, I'll have a chat to him about that.

That's not a stupid idea either, an electromaget hooked to the lighting coil, a beeper say 30 seconds before the lights turn off so somebody can go press the button. That could just be doable.

Yes it was, except for the price ;-) Thanks for the link.

Total overkill!! Everyone is thinking in terms of connecting computers and/or VCRs when we want to identify intruders, not make a blockbuster. That means lots of low-cost but effective concealed cameras. Something with the motion sensing of a web cam, guts of a cheap digicam stripped of unnecessary gear like LCDs, flashes, focusing lenses, etc but equipped to take photos unsupervised for months at a time.

The technology is so close but not quite here.

Actually the tip earlier in this thread is getting very close. Some interesting stuff coming up on eBay when I searched for "Trail Camera".

It might be overkill, but the camera is free and otherwise useless, and I already have a TV capture card in my computer, and that usually stays on overnight when the vandals are doing their thing.

If you're still looking for a camera, google wildlife surveillance camera. One 640x480 8 bit greyscale every two mintoes for a week would take 1.5GB to store. These wildlife cameras have motion detectors and use digital cameras. I couldn't find a way to turn off the flash on the one I looked at, so I went in another direction.

Overkill, but very inexpensive. Even a wildlife camera will end up costing more than connecting a cheap web cam to a surplus computer.

Yes, from Cabela's you can buy a wildlife camera that will do the job for about $80 (item QT-417136).

One more thing.......

If you go with a camera, point one towards the tie-down area. There's a rash of radio-theft going on. Looks like a ring is heading down the east coast taking KX-155s

I think you misunderstand: I don't have problems with companies that add me to newsletters without my consent because I generate company-specific e-mail addresses any time I order anything, and simply delete them if I start receiving unwanted mail. They can deal with the bounces. Since I make a point of never checking any "add me to your list" boxes I see when I order, if I get mail, it's without my consent, and I move the mail alias to my blacklist section so I remember not to order from that company again. That's not on the level of evil that makes me recommend boycotts, though.

What makes me suggest that people avoid X10 is that they have been involved in mass spamming of the more conventional sort, both by e-mail and on Usenet. As another poster noted, without adblocking tech, their website is too annoying to navigate as well, or at least it used to be.

It will antagonize people whose only offence is being ordinary negligent human beings not of being malicious or dishonest, you could loose members. The art of distrusting people is not to tell them that you distrust them, that way you get more from them.

I would use a PIR to turn the lights on, if dark, and turn them off 15 minutes after the last movement. This could still release a self closing and, locking door. A simple button on the inside by the door would allow anyone to close the door if they do not need it open.

That sounds like a better idea. So when somebody is there alone when the lights go out, they'll go back on when they stand up or move, and nobody has to stumble through the dark looking for a switch.

I would simply put an on-off switch on the electromagnet. It only needs to be on when someone wants the door held open.

Just a thought - have a look at VisionIP from RedHand

The problem is that is does require a PC to be on all the time. If you were to reconsider this restriction it could be OK for you. It takes high quality motion activated jpg images at 2 per second and records directly onto a PC hard disk and deletes old ones as it goes. With the small file sizes you can keep a large number on a disk for weeks if needed.

-Jerry

Who are you addressing? I suggested a card acces system, I'm not advocating recording anything. js

In article , alarman writes

In Message-ID: you said "Might also be interresting to know who was there", my attribution and quoting are accurate.

Except in my situation where there would be nowhere to park a computer even if I had a surplus one, with real difficulty wiring up a web cam in the best positions for capturing intruders. A stand-alone camera is much more viable.

It's surprising what is around once I locked onto the term 'Trail camera'. Caleba were interested in the concept of a security camera performing a similar function to their Trail cameras, so I'm waiting with interest to see what they come up with.

Could you give references to the specific hardware and software you used?

Thanks.

camsave.exe. Designed for a web cam but will just record to hard drive if that is all you need.

Bruce. Bruce