nfair

It's very easy to turn a USB webcam into a IP based camera if you are good with linux. Grab a TP-Link WR703N pocket router, add Open WRT firmware then install and configure the MJPG-Streamer package. The wiki page about it is a little out of date http://wiki.openwrt.org/doc/howto/webcam but it's a good start. You can also download a custom firmware like the ones at http://www.madox.net/blog/projects/tp-link-tl-wr703n/ I've done this with the Logictech C270 and it works great, although I only set it up for 15fps. I'm fairly sure it will also work with a 1080p USB webcam. $17 for the webcam, $23 for the pocket router, free firmware and you've got a $40 IP camera with both wired and wireless connectivity. It's also powered by a micro usb adapter so you can power it off one of those USB batteries. You should also be able to add a small USB hub and USB memory stick and have MJPG-Streamer record to the memory stick. If you want to use POE you might be able to grab a passive POE cable set (like from Sparkfun). However you'll get significant loss over the ethernet cable injecting 5V and you'll have to build your own adapters to insert and extract the 5V from the barrel jacks on the passive POE cable set.

I went through some overnight video and I saw what looked like a heavy snowstorm - lots of white dots moving through the image at times getting so heavy I couldn't make heads or tails of the image. The only problem was it didn't snow that night. It wasn't until I got to the early morning video that I figured it out. The IR shut off and the picture cleared up quite a bit. I could see the low lying fog but I still had a much better picture. Is it the IR light reflecting off the fog/water vapor? Is there anything to be done about it? I imagine I could do away with using IR and just keep my white light on overnight but I'd love to find a way to automate it.

wow its getting very technical. you could always remove the subatomic hadron particle let the water dissolve the neutron frame work and block it with a nuclear filter. but i have found it much easier if you just use a motion light with pir sensor. if its bright enough it will switch your ir off. remember you are talking about fog. i dont see the point in modifying a camera just to deal with a problem that only happends with fog It happens with snow as well, but to a lesser extent. People also leave tracks in the snow so it's a little easier to track down the typical neighborhood thief trying car doors in the snow than in the fog. Plus this winter I've had as many foggy nights as snowy nights, usually there's a lot more snowy nights than foggy nights.

Automate what exactly? I just figure it's the price of doing business with IR. All my cameras have it and they all do the same thing. Not really so much of a bother, as heavy fog that causes it happens more infrequently than frequently. Cameras without IR, such as what I monitor at work- it just looks like fog usually does when visibility gets low. That's good, but they have other problems that my bullets and eyeballs don't, so I still favor IR cameras. And motion lights too of course. I'd love to have firmware on my camera that recognized "whiteout" conditions and shut off IR. With the IR on even when my motion floodlight came on the camera stayed washed out due to the IR reflections mentioned in this thread. Once it got bright enough out to switch off the IR the picture improved considerably. I need to test the idea but I think if in those conditions I shut off the IR and turned on the floodlight I'd get a better picture (for the reasons mentioned in the thread, light source further from the sensor). Camera and floodlight have the right inputs and outputs to do this, but firmware would need to recognize "potential whiteout, let's try alternative lighting scheme".

I'm getting ready to install a couple of ip dome cameras up in the soffit area of my house. In general where's the best place to put motion activated lights in relation to the camera. I'd like to put the 2 dome cameras and flood lights in a cluster with the flood light at the center. For example O V O where the Os are the dome cameras and the V is the flood light with each leg of the V roughly pointing in the same direction of the camera. Is this typically an acceptable setup for lighting? What sort of separation should I put between each fixture (other than making sure the flood light is just out of the field of view of the dome)? One leg of the lights will be pointing at the driveway less than 15' away and the other at the front stairs about 20' away. Any suggestions? Thanks!

I've been reading the forum for a week or so now and I think I've just started to understand enough of the capabilities of modern IP cameras to ask some semi intelligent questions. I'd appreciate any advice you all may have. Recent thefts in my neighborhood have made me realize exactly how much I've got tied up in "toys" and other stuff that gets stored in my yard and shed where there is no security system to protect them. I've got a couple of trailers parked as well various yard equipment in a shed on my 1/2 acre lot. I'd like to monitor the front of the house very well since it's the only way a thief could get the trailers or larger equipment (snowblower, lawn mower, etc) off my property due to fencing and landscaping. The back and sides I think I could get away with less capable cameras since I'd just be interested in tracking where they went without considering identification or excellent low light recording. For the front of the house I'd strongly prefer a dome setup to keep it more discreet and I'd also like to add more motion sensor lighting to the area. Mounting would be done in the soffit of the house about 10' up. I need to be able to identify people and make/model of vehicles and would like to get plates but understand that's unlikely. The most important area to cover is a 90 degree field of view covering about a 60'x60' area with the most likely travel path coming almost under where I think the cameras would best be on the corner of the house. Another camera might cover the remaining portion of the front. Initially I thought I could do this fairly cheaply but I now realize I'll likely need to spend well over a grand to do this right just for the camera(s) for the front. I'm having trouble deciding what to use for cameras though. If they were more available I think two Sanyo VD-HD3300 cameras would work well. I've also looked at the Vivotek FD8361, Acti TCM-7411 and Axis P3344-VE. All look capable but I currently have a slight preference for the Vivotek since the IP8332 seems to be the least expensive bullet camera I would consider using elsewhere. I'm also interested in the Mobotix lineup but I haven't been able to really grasp if a single Mobotix (near as I can tell replacing two others at the price point of both) would be a better camera for my needs. I just haven't been able to figure out exactly how the M12 or M24 would perform in a megapixel variant with wide angle lenses. The side door, back door, back yard and other side yard could each be covered by bullet cams such as the vivotek ip8332 or acti acm 1231. Their lower performance should be offset by a need to travel through the field of view of the better cameras out front. In terms of a NVR I haven't planned it out well enough yet but I'm more comfortable there since I've got an unused Dell server box sitting in my network closet that I could install a vendor's NVR software like Vivotek's st7501 or zone minder since I'm very comfortable fiddling with various flavors of linux. I've tried talking with some local (southern NH) vendors who supposedly deal with CCTV systems on a regular basis but they all have pushed me towards a traditional system rather than an IP system and I have convinced myself that I need the extra resolution in order to keep the number of cameras under control and still be able to identify people and vehicles to a high degree of confidence. So do you all have any suggestions? Have I overlooked some vendors and models that might be able to fill my needs at a similar price point? Am I over or under spec'ing my needs? Any other advice? Thanks, -Nat

Just wanted to say Hi and thank you all for providing such a great source of CCTV info. I've been browsing the site for about a week now trying to scope out how to best expand my system. Currently I've got a Panasonic BL-C131A pointing out a 2nd story window on my driveway plus a generic IR bullet cam hooked up to an analog USB video capture stick with no capture set up. Not much of a system but it's what I've acquired over the years. Now I get to keep reading and figure out how best to design a real system that meets my amateur needs.