Compact cheap "surveilance" camera

A club I am a member of has a problem, members keep leaving the club's buildings unlocked, unalarmed and even with the doors open on occasion. All the members are of course entitled to use the facilities when they please, they pay for it after all, but the trouble arises because the last person leaves for the day and either forgets to lock up, or thinks somebody else is still around. It's only through pure luck we havn't been fleeced already.

So what I'm considering is a compact and reasonably cheap solution to have a time lapse series of digital images taken, ideally, a looped recording so it can just overwrite old images as it fills up. That way when somebody discovers the doors open I can grab the device and have a look to find who was last there and give them an ear bashing.

Something like the "L'espion S" (

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) but with a much larger capacity so it can take and store an image every, say, 120 seconds for a week, and even better if it had "night vision". Doesn't need to be colour (8 bit greyscale is fine, only need to identify the people passing through, not judge thier fashion sense) or high resolution (probably could get away with 320x240, but 640x480 would be better). Battery powered would be best, but I guess it could be plugged in if necessary, but we don't want to have it connected to a computer that then has to run 24/7, it would only be connected to the PC when we need to review the images.

Anybody seen such an item?

Reply to
bitsyboffin
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Reply to
alarman

Yes

Reply to
RW+/-

In article , snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com writes

Stable, horse, bolted. You want self closing and locking doors that anyone can open with a button on the inside or a key from the outside.

Reply to
Prometheus

Perhaps I should have been more specific.

Has anybody seen such a device, and if so, could you please tell me the make and model.

Reply to
bitsyboffin

Another suggestion might be to get your existing alarm monitored, and then... a) Have a guard attend and lockup when it's left unlocked. b) Have the alarm company ring down a contact list when the alarm is unset after hours, to get someone in to lock up.

You can have them monitor it, and when it's unset, they can phone, check who's there, and what time they're finishing.

Shortly after finishing time, they will call back if the alarm hasn't been set, and get a new time. Or, you could have them call someone and pop down to lock up if there's no reply.

These two suggestions seem like a much better bet than waiting to find you've been burgled, and then trying to finger point.

As it is, finger pointing isn't actually going to solve your problem, as it's likely to be several/all your people leaving the place unlocked at times, and unless you start removing keys from people, there's sod all you can do about it anyway.

And, no, I don't own/work for an alarm company, but I think you might have a bit of tunnel vision in looking at your problem here.

This message brought to you by the letters G, U, and the number 5.

D.

Reply to
d

And if no one is locking up and setting the alarm, the club is open at odd non set hours by the sound of it.

Reply to
Pete D

The club is an aircraft club, we are on an uncontrolled but busy airfield about 1/2 an hours drive out of the city. The door lock is a combination, everybody in the club is given it. We have no set "open hours", members come and go as they wish, first one in opens up, last one out closes, that's the way it's supposed to work at least. We only have about 120 members, so if I can find out people who have left it open and make sure they don't do it again, then we can at least try and reduce the problem.

So alarm monitoring isn't really the answer here, I don't think it would be manageable with the unset hours of operation, and people coming and going all the time.

Same goes for card access ( a. cost, b. it's not going to record who left the door open, only who initially opened it).

Reply to
bitsyboffin

How about selflocking doors swipecard in swipecard out.

Reply to
Rebel

I've been looking for one of these for years, particularly with motion sensing to eliminate the hassles of taking the photos and a choice of card size to allow for busy sites needed to store a lot of images. Aim a little higher with the specs, a 2 or 3MP image will avoid the nonsense of the images shown in the newspapers or on TV taken from security video cameras where you would be hard-pressed to tell the difference between Arnie and R2D2.

Because there is no need for a viewing screen or adjustable lens, the cost could be kept very low. I reckon under $50. Sufficient for every home & shop to have several and schools, businesses and such to order them by the bucketful. The manufacturer would be shipping them by the container.

I have seen one around US$380*, fine for guarding pedigree bulls but too expense for ordinary folk.

The big advantage for said folk is that with every home having them, quietly clicking away and being ignored until something goes wrong, is that they would remove burglary as a career option. The crims would never know when they were being photographed and couldn't roam about the town wearing a ski mask all the time without attracting attention.

Reply to
IRO

Yes, but the monitoring option will still work, as the operator at the company updates their database with each call, and once the alarm is set, it cancels the reminder to call again.

It's a good system, and would work, but the original poster seems to have dismissed it out of hand.

I think he's looking more for an ambulance-at-the-bottom-of-the-cliff type system.

Still, I tried to help.

Never mind.

D.

Reply to
d

Don't get you knickers in a knot just because he didn't accept your totally not what he asked for suggestion.

He's not looking for an ambulance blah blah option, he's looking to pull people up who leave the place unlocked. Not after it's burgled, just when the next person finds it open.

Ever thought of writing for the soaps? Your sense of the dramatic would appeal to a daytime audience with nothing better to do.

Reply to
~mosfet~

Just sit outside and wait.

Reply to
teflon nonstick

It's ok. I just get the impression that he's fixated on something that won't solve his actual problem, which he has so far failed to correctly identify. I mean, he's the one asking for help, and then dismissing it.

If he wasn't going to consider it seriously, don't bother asking frankly.

And, this is pretty much directed to him...

The problem he has, is that his clubrooms are being left insecure.

Taking a photo of someone flying his model plane will not make them secure.

I thought it was a good answer to his actual, if not perceived problem. Even identifying who it was that left it unlocked, won't fix the problem, this time, or next time he does it. The building will be left insecure, until he, or someone else, discovers the fact.

He has no way of removing their access, so he's just going to be the nasty guy that points the finger all the time, with no effect. But annoying people.

I'm assuming that they aren't leaving it unlocked on purpose now, so telling them off, will have no effect except to make him unpopular.

Basically he's screwed, but doesn't realise that yet either. Sigh.

What he actually needs, is a way to make sure the place is locked up securely. He has an existing alarm. My suggestion would involve probably minimal cost (being burgled would certainly cost more) and would secure the building, therefore solving the problem.

Still, he's free to ask for, and then ignore, good quality problem identification, and advice on how to solve it, and rush out and buy a small camera, in the hope that it will somehow solve his problems.

I wish him luck.

He's gonna need it.

Nah, don't watch telly, it's crap. Rots your brain.

Cheers, D.

Reply to
d

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might have what you are looking for. I've never bought anything from them, so I can't attest to the quality.

HTH, EJ in NJ

Reply to
Ernie Willson

...or, a normal Yale lock with a self-closing spring on the door.

Reply to
teflon nonstick

Yes, we're putting a self closing springeethingee on the combination door, and double locking the ranch slider (and not giving out keys, so it can't be opened at all unless an executive member is there). That should at least keep the place locked in the winter, it's not going to set the alarm and turn the lights out though.

In the summer it might be a different story, the door tends to get propped open to keep the place cool during the day and people are there later in the summer too, so probably more chance for people to think "oh, somebody else will close it".

Maybe alarm monitoring would work, but I just think it would be more trouble (and expense) than it's worth, if the alarm company rings up at

2am to say the alarm's not set, either they would have to drive 1/2 an hour out there close up, and drive 1/2 an hour back, or one of us would.

My idea was simply to try and tell those who have left it open, to not do it again, but to do that you have to figure out who it was that left it open. With 120 people it could have been, it's not as easy as saying "was it you", and a blanket "don't leave the place unlocked" just doesn't work (the members have been told, and told, and told again, to no avail).

Reply to
bitsyboffin

How about a newsletter declaring an increase in membership fees, to either pay for a security firm, or increase the insurance cover.

Alternatively, lock the place up at fixed times. Either one should grab the attention.

Or, burgle it yourself. No one will suspect you. 8]

Reply to
teflon nonstick

Real planes mate, real ones. And I don't want an ambulance at the bottom of the cliff, I want a trampoline half way down.

It is, and I considered it, and I do thank you for raising it, I just don't think it would be workable in this particular situation.

Like I said, I don't honestly think it would, at least not without significant expense.

Whats the going rate on at least an hours trip (1/2 an hour there and back) for the security guard to go and check on a building that's apparently been left unalarmed, possibly unlocked. Potentially a couple times a week.

The camera idea isn't perfect, and perhaps it wouldn't work at all, it was just an idea that I thought we could try with a camera for less than $100, if it worked great, if it didn't no big loss we try something else. Besides, it could always be expanded to a live webcam feed ;-)

Reply to
bitsyboffin

The phrase ton of bricks comes to mind ;-) It might just have to come to that yet.

Reply to
bitsyboffin

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