Outdoor surveillance cameras

[Robert_in_NY]

Hi guys, I have a problem. Since I bought my neighbors place I decided I will keep his small fruit stand going. However, the house isn't ready for me to be there 24/7 so I have a pay and take set up. I figure some people would take things without paying and accept that. But I also figure if people actually do pay for the majority of the items they take then I will make more money then letting the apples and tomatos fall to the ground and rot.

However, I do not trust my neighbor there and I want to put up cameras around the house, barn and stand (there is a small building next to the stand). Power is at every building but running wires would be annoying. So far I have only hand a quarter peck of apples and one tomato taken (which I do think the neighbor took ) but the stand has only been open two days He knows I don't live there so it wouldn't be out of line for him to help himself and not think twice.

So now, who makes a decent outdoor/indoor camera (I would prefer wireless) system. Ideally it would tie into my computer system instead of having another monitor. I would like to keep roughly 2 weeks of footage and the only camera that I would really want to film non stop would be the stand camera. The other cameras could be stills taken every couple seconds or what not (I don't know how these things really work). All in all I would want 4-5 cameras.

And do these systems have their own hard drive to store the footage on or would it store on my current system? Thanks.

 

[keving]

Robert,

Check these guys out http://www.webcamstore.com/ they have a variety of systems available for your needs. It's gonna cost at about 2K to get a good camera and DVR. I use a Sony camera and no DVR. I can zoom, pan, tilt the camera over the web. The camera plugs directly into my router (no computer necessary). I've used it for about 2 years and it works flawlessly! PM me if you would like to have a phone conversation on all the details.

Good luck!

 

[tommu56]

Robert_in_NY

What about a game cam it wont be on line but you can down load it to camera and it works on motion.

I was thinking of putting one near my gate at my cabin, but thinking is as far as I got so far.

tom

 

[Casco1]

I just purchased this setup for my summer place. I haven't put in yet, but I did quite a bit of research. I showed it to my friend, An electrician with security experience and he gave it an A+.


http://www.samsclub.com/shopping/navigate.do?dest=5&item=364641&pCatg=5868

 

[Gadgetnut]

A couple thoughts... even wireless cameras will likely need a 120 volt power supply to keep them running for days. Do you have electricity at the stand? Do you have a secure building near the stand where you would keep the video receiver / hard drive?

For my purposes I decided that wireless cameras could not match the quality and reliability of a hard wired connection, so I trenched more than 1200 feet and laid conduit and now all my outbuildings are on the same network, which gives me great flexibility.

I think the above suggestions are good. I've been using several complete surveillance systems purchased at Costco for about $1300 each. The set includes a 17" flatscreen monitor with integrated DVR+hard drive and comes with four day night cameras. The cameras are described as "outdoor" but they recommend you keep them out of direct rainfall and I've installed mine under eaves. You can either use special extension cords with the cameras or for one of my longer runs I used inexpensive Cat5e (8 conductor communications) cable with video baluns on each end.

The good thing about these systems is that you can set them to record motion events only-- so when you want to review days of activity in the monitored areas, you can instantly jump to the motion events only. The system that I am using includes a remote viewing software client, which allows you to view live and recorded video over the internet from a Windows computer-- but again the receiver needs to be in a secure place with 120 volts electricity and a broadband internet connection.

If you happen to use Apple Macintosh computers, an affordable solution might be

http://www.bensoftware.com/ss/index.html

which uses your Macintosh computer to view and record web cam video.

 

[Willl]

Not just Mac, any PC can do the same.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

Thanks guys, there is power at every building and running wires wouldn't be out of line as the stand is literally 20 feet from the house and the barn is 100 feet from the back of the house. From looking at the cost of wireless I have started leaning towards wired cameras. I like the idea of the ease of install with wireless since I already had power at these locations and wouldn't have had much else to do and I could move the camera easily if need be. But the complete sets you guys posted are more in line with my budget and look like simple enough systems to install.

I have a couple of Camtrakkers but they take only one photo and that doesn't do much for the stand as you need video to see if someone is stealing or not. Plus the Camtrakkers are too big and bulky.

Thanks to everyone who has replied. It gives me a few options to consider now.

 

[keving]

Thanks guys, there is power at every building and running wires wouldn't be out of line as the stand is literally 20 feet from the house and the barn is 100 feet from the back of the house. From looking at the cost of wireless I have started leaning towards wired cameras. I like the idea of the ease of install with wireless since I already had power at these locations and wouldn't have had much else to do and I could move the camera easily if need be. But the complete sets you guys posted are more in line with my budget and look like simple enough systems to install.

I have a couple of Camtrakkers but they take only one photo and that doesn't do much for the stand as you need video to see if someone is stealing or not. Plus the Camtrakkers are too big and bulky.

Thanks to everyone who has replied. It gives me a few options to consider now.

Let us know what solution you picked an how you like it. I'm probably going to expand in the near future.

 

[drssg]

I purchased this to monitor my barn. It supports wifi or ethernet connection into a router, and it comes with software to provide motion-sensitive recording to a PC. I think I paid about $700 for it.

My barn is about 100' from the house, and the wifi didn't work for me, so I ended up running ethernet to the barn. I rented a little "slicer" trencher that makes about a 1/2" slice in the ground and puts the wire maybe a foot deep. I'm sure it's better to get it buried deeper and in conduit, but I couldn't beat this approach for speed and minimizing ground disturbance. I bought a second network camera later, and paid about $100 less for a model without wifi.

 

[1bush2hog]

Does it matter if the neighbor knows you are filming him/her? Maybe a 'dummy' camera would suffice

How much profit do you really expect to loose? a cheap game camera, or dummy camera might be enough to deter the theft

 

[Robert_in_NY]

Does it matter if the neighbor knows you are filming him/her? Maybe a 'dummy' camera would suffice

How much profit do you really expect to loose? a cheap game camera, or dummy camera might be enough to deter the theft

Actually, I planned on telling him it was a dummy camera anyway. This way if he still wants to steal I will know for sure just what type of neighbor he really is. Some people you just trust automatically, others make you uncomfortable and this neighbor makes me uncomfortable. Yet almost any of my other neighbors have access to my barn and equipment and vice versa. There are just two neighbors that don't fit in well out here and they both recently moved here from town.

The main thing is to have a camera watching the barn, driveway, stand and possibly the back yard or inside the barn. This system isn't just for the stand and it would probably cost more then it was worth to go after some of the people that steal from pay and take stands but the idea is if you have a camera up then it makes people think twice about stealing when they think they are being watched.

 

[dbdartman]

Does it matter if the neighbor knows you are filming him/her? Maybe a 'dummy' camera would suffice (a) dummy camera might be enough to deter the theft

Cheap & excellent suggestion! I did just that at my last house in the suburbs. We had a problem with (I'll assume) kids messing with our old cars. Two different cars had their passenger sides keyed, front to back, on two different occasions. First was the '68 Barracuda, which needed the whole side of the car repainted (was just painted a month or 2 before). Second was my 68 Dart, but the scratches were not deep enough to go through the paint & most of it compounded out. After the second incident I mounted the "cameras" out in the open for all to see, then taped notices in all the cars that said, "Smile! You are being recorded on video!" The vandalism stopped!

 

[Robert_in_NY]

But wouldn't it have been great if you installed an active camera after the first time and caught the idiots the second time.

 

[1bush2hog]

If you install a dummy camera first you will also find out if someone intends to damage them without incurring alot of cost.

I would set up a dummy first and let them think it was a real one without saying anything - but that's just me. If they are not trustworthy, they may also not like being filmed

You could always set up a live concealed camera to record the area where the dummy camera is located.

 

[scott_vt]

Mornin Robert,
I know your over in western ny but over in eastern ny there are pay and take stands all over. My buddy has a small farm over in Hartford,Ny and quite often when I go over to see him I will stop at some of the stands in that area. No one seems to have any problems with money or produce disappearing ! Before I spent any amount of money, I would set up the stand and see what happens. Your neighbor would have to steal a bunch of produce to equal what a camera would cost. JMO !

 

[dbdartman]

Rob, sorry I didn't include this but there was a couple years between the first & second incident. It's moot now as the cars have their own sanctuary large enough to store 5 or 6 of them with room to work, or if one could "pack them in" would probably hold 8 or 10 (but only 6 if they were all the size of the '64 Imperial ).

 

[Robert_in_NY]

Mornin Robert,
I know your over in western ny but over in eastern ny there are pay and take stands all over. My buddy has a small farm over in Hartford,Ny and quite often when I go over to see him I will stop at some of the stands in that area. No one seems to have any problems with money or produce disappearing ! Before I spent any amount of money, I would set up the stand and see what happens. Your neighbor would have to steal a bunch of produce to equal what a camera would cost. JMO !

Hi Scott, my neighbor ran this stand almost all of his life. He raised 7 kids and kept the stand going until just a couple years ago when he passed away at 85. Every year he would have people stop when they had the pay and take going and take things. Also at night people would stop and steal. There are not a lot of pay and takes anymore as this area is being developed and the old farmers and passing and the land is sold. If it is good land it goes into vineyards or subdivided and built on. The more people the more crime.

Also, I planned on using one of the cameras to keep an eye on the stand camera until I find another place to set the fourth camera.

 

[MossRoad]

I can't see spending 2K on a video system to protect a few dollars of veggies. Look into a video capture card with 4 ports for a used PC running XP. Then get some wired or wireless X10 cameras and plug them into the video capture card. Then download some free motion sensing software that will record when movement is detected in any of the frames. It saves screen shots and/or video clips to the hard drive. If you have internet access, it will even e-mail you when something's up. There are several vendors out there. X10 is cheap junk, but it actually works well for the price. You could also look into used DVRs on ebay.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

The system would be more then for just the stand. It would keep watch over the barn as well as the driveway. My truck has roughly $4k worth of tools on it, some days more. The barn has a lot of tools and equipment. I also thought about setting a camera towards the back yard so if Ava is out playing and I have to go inside I can keep an eye on her.

 

[bones1]

Take a look here Robert.4-Channel Digital Video Surveillance PCI Card w/Audio
They have camera setups too.