speleomike

Hi Davie I have just setup over the last two months my first farm monitoring system also, for alpacas. It's working really well and I can see them from 250 km away! See this thread here: viewtopic.php?f=19&t=21740 It's under: Board index » Video Security Systems » IP Cameras and Software Solutions My post on the last page has a pic of them I used a Mobotix M24 camera, 2 x Ubiquity NanoStation M5, make sure you get a correct PoE (Power over Ethernet) connector for Mobotix if you get one of those. The Ubiquities come with a PoE. Then a small switch in the house and connect to that and you will be able to monitor them. For a cow shed I would use 2 cameras if needed and not one with pzt for reliability. But then again the Mobotix are very pricy. Mike

Hi all I would appreciate some advice on the wireless aspects of a monitoring system for a Farm. I intend to us Mobotix IP cameras linked back to the farm house via wireless. At the farm house another wireless access point (AP/Bridge or Client?) which connects to a router which goes to a satellite modem. The router is required to provide access to any camera through the satellites single IP address. This would be done by setting the router to do port forwarding so that each camera is accessible via the satellite modem’s IP address though a different port like this: Camera 1 at 192.168.1.1:80 <--> Sat Modem's IP:81 Camera 2 at 192.168.1.2:80 <--> Sat Modem's IP:82 An optional linux box could connect to the router to store additional images or to runs scripts to create simpler web pages with small images for fast download. The linux box may even replace the router (if I can find a small embedded box with 2 x ethernet ports). See diagram attached. What I am having problems with is: 1. What mode the wireless devices should be set to. There is AP, Bridge and Client modes. Is it client mode for the camera attached devices and AP for the one attached to the router and why? 2. A suitable wireless device that is not too expensive. So far I have found: http://www.moxa.com/product/AWK-4121 Series.htm but this is AU $1400. Searching this forum indicated to me that http://www.engeniustech.com.au/ has many devices as do Umbiquiti. However not quite knowing whether I want AP, Bridge or Client make choosing tricky. Any suggestions - I am in Sydney, Australia so a local supplier who knows the products is preferred. Some sites state a distance that their wireless will cover others just state power or dB. I require from 200 m to 1 km. Allowing for rain that means a few km? I also need one that truly is weather proof like IP 65. The storms and rain can get pretty heavy out west. Any other advice appreciated. Thanks Mike

Not on solar yet. Fortunately where it is at present has power. Solar will be the next hardware upgrade and that will provide more flexibility in placement of the camera. Mike

Hi all Just a follow up to close the thread and thanks to those that helped with advice. My system is up and working fine. The attached pic is from my website in Sydney that displays the paddock every 15 minutes or when an event occurs (I cropped the pic for this upload here. It's much bigger.). The pics are displayed as a web album with the days images. Including movement triggered events like birds flying in front of the camera means I get about 100 images a day uploaded. My system pretty much followed the system that I had planned together with the the suggestions from here. I'm using a Mobotix M24 2048x1536 camera, two NanoStationM5's for the wireless so 5.8 GHz and a small fitPC2 for the PC. The later fits in the palm of my hand, has 2 ethernets and uses about 4 watts. Some python and bash scripts process the images into a web album and then rsync transfers them to my website which my wife and I can view from our work. I'm using a satellite with 2Mbps up/4 Mbps down. A tunnel also allows me to ssh in or to view the live camera video. The video speed is quite OK but it sucks my transfer allowance so we generally just look at the web album. Its enough that we can see the alpacas are OK. The system has been up and running now for a few weeks and works quite well. Thanks all Mike

Yeah, I could not afford the M12 Getting M24 at first, if animals are OK in the daytime then fine. When this s all setup I'll have to post some pics of the Alpacas

Ah. I have on order a Mobotix M24 and two NanoStation5M

Hi all Thanks for these tips. I'm planning now to do what hardwired suggested. Use the Ubiquiti passive PoE and get the Mobotix Poe (described here http://www.mobotix.com/eng_AU/Products/Accessories/Power-Supply/Power-Adapter-PoE-Set) and power each separately. I'll do either of two things: 1. Connect PoEs back to back via their "data in" connectors so the power to each device is independent. 2. I read that the Mobotix can also be powered via its ISDN socket so will trty that too - also with its own PoE. Mobotix states that the network/ISDN and serial interfaces are electrically isolated. or as the wired guy suggested I can try the 32 pin connector. That would be the serial I/O? I am not sure you can power the Mobotix on 12V - the docs seem to suggest 24-35 Volts at http://www.mobotix.com/eng_AU/Products/Camera-Functions/Power-Supply I have the stuff on order but won't get it all till prob late next week. Best wishes Mike

Hi Well that clears up one thing. I couldn't work out how to have two voltages on the one Ethernet line. The injected power does not appear at the data input side of the PoE but only on the data+power output side? is this true for both passive and 802.3ef PoE? Yeah their advertising shows a camera attached to the pass-through. For the next 2 months I'll be using 240 VAC power then will use solar. That's the next tricky bit.

Hi all Thanks hardwired for the comments on Ubiquiti stuff. After taking with suppliers I have decided to go with at first two NanoStationM5s and a Mobotix M24. One things that is problematic is that the power. NanoStation M5: http://www.ubnt.com/downloads/nanoM5_DS.pdf Power Supply 15V, 0.8A surge protection integrated POE adapter included (I can't find the max voltage stated on their site at all) MOBOTIX cameras are powered by a 24 to 35 V supply, stated here: http://www.mobotix.com/eng_AU/Products/Camera-Functions/Power-Supply I presume therefore that to connect the Ubiquity to the Mobotix I have to have 24 V on the ethernet line (no more & no less) which is the MAXIMUM that the Ubiquity can take and the MINIMUM that the Mobotix needs. Mike

Hi all Design is progressing. The wireless APs are the difficult things to decide on. I looked at Ubiquity NanoStations and Bullets as suggested here. They are about AU$240 and $120 respectively. Then there is a WAB-3003 which is about $346. http://au.level1.com/product_d.php?id=991 Triple the price but better waterproofing, IP68. Then there are InscapeData's AirEther SB54 at $1000 https://www.camtek.net.au/?page=shop/flypage&product_id=910&category_id=&offset=0 And there are other APs at $1,400. Why is there such a huge range in price? Why are the Ubiquity ones the cheapest. Is there something I'm missing. The other thing that I found out is that most are PoE powered so I'll need a two port PoE that can take 24 VDC input from the solar cell/battery, one port to the Mobotix camera and the other to the AP. I can't seem to find any outdoor APs that take a DC input directly. One more thing Im not sure about. Some AP do 4 modes; AP, Bridge, Client and Repeater. i don't quite understand what the Client mode is. I know I use AP at the central base station, Bridge mode for the cameras (as it bridges the camera ethernet LAN to the wireless LAN) and repeater if I needed to go over a hill. But what is client mode? Mike

Hi all > I was thinking of a FitPC2i which now has 2 ethernet ports, Atom CPU and runs Ubuntu. I have just ordered one and I'll get this probably tomorrow. This will be my router and act as a NAS if I need more storage. For the paddocks that I wish to use now I probably have LOS. I'll check that this weekend. The big paddock though, which we are not using yet, extends over a slight hill. I presume I could put some sorta AP on the top of the hill to relay the signal? The antennas will be wherever the camera is located. I can certainly raise them. Again I'll have a walk around and have a good analytical look from a LOS perspective. Its difficult to know whether to use 2.4 or 5 GHz. Being a farm its not in suburbia where there are garage door openers and all that stuff but there might be amateur radio operators, and there are electric fences that buzz. Whether they radiate in the GHz I don't know. They are probably DC to daylight One thing with the NanoStations - the cover at the bottom that you slide off - how weatherproof is that? It didn't look like i was IP65 or if it sealed, just a sliding cover. Other outdoor stuff has IP65 RJ45 connectors. Mike

Hi Thanks, I'll check these out today. Initially one Mobotix M24. By the time I add a camera at 2k, AP at$500?, solar cell/battery/regulator $500 I get $3k per node. Base AP at house will be AP+router+satellite = $4.5k so $7.5k is all I can afford at present. Next year we would certainly add another camera and the most we would need would be 4 cameras. We wish to be able to expand therefore from 1 camera now to 2 next year, then 3. Distance to base for current paddocks is 200m (clear LOS), furthest paddock is 700m (not quite LOS). Angle to Base from cameras is all angles i.e. [base]<--200m--> [cam1<)) /o\/o\animals ((>cam2] Data rate: limited by what we are prepared to pay for the Sat connection. The wireless APs data rate from camera to base would easily exceed what we could upload from the base's satellite back to Sydney. We will try 128 kb/s upload first and then pay more for 256 kb/s upload if 128 is too slow. 256 is the max upload speed and we may well connect at night get the Off peak, between 11pm and 7am AEST, to avoid congestion and get the fastest connection. (Hence the cameras and AP will be used at night even though we might get the daytime only camera) I was thinking of a FitPC2i which now has 2 ethernet ports, Atom CPU and runs Ubuntu. I can setup that to act as my router and as storage and even grab images from the camera and make a webpage of them. Low power too. Mike

Hi The Sat system that I can use has upload speeds of 128 kb/s or 256 kb/s for a reasonable amount per month and I can get higher if needed. I actually don't need video but would just look at lower res pics and pick out what I wish to zoom into for more detail. Basically if the animals have moved from one frame to the next then they are fine If there is a problem then with 3.1 MP of image I can zoom in. Mike