Cheepest way to hook 5 cameras up to a computer

[VodeAn 0]

If I wanted to mount cameras on a race car what would be the cheapest way to record from all of them with a computer (preferably a laptop)?

[Soundy 1]

If I wanted to mount cameras on a race car what would be the cheapest way to record from all of them with a computer (preferably a laptop)?

 

I think in that instance, you might be better to just use cameras with their own built-in recording - small camcorders, for example... depending on where you want to mount them, of course. If you're looking for things like the underbody cams you see on NASCAR and F1 racers, showing sponsor labels on the struts and whatnot, you need to remove the word "cheap" from your requirements before you go any farther.

[FranciscoNET 0]

I think that the poster's objective can be done without removing the word "cheap" from his requirements:

 

A cheap 480 TVL CCD Pinhole/miniature camera with ultra thin wires and a PCMCIA DVR card for your laptop shall do the trick.

[Twilo123 0]

not sure about the cheap part but one option might be

 

ip cameras (if you are mounting on outside of car you will need housings)

wired/wireless

hook up to a local switch/router by wire or wifi in car

get some cheap nvr software (activewebcam, webcamxp, blue iris, etc.) and record on your laptop

 

if you get wired cams you can probably get POE with the right router/switch and not have to run seperate power cords for each cam. power/video will just come from cat5 cable.

 

if you go wireless then you don't have to worry about cat5 cabling but still have to power the cams so there will be wiring needs regardless.

[Soundy 1]

Wow, a lot of people having trouble with reading comprehension. Did anyone actually pay attention to the original question, or is it just the usual wave of spammers with their "MY PRODUCT IS PERFECT FOR ANYTHING YOU NEED!"?

 

Hint: "If I wanted to mount cameras on a race car..."

 

PoE is not going to work well. You'll either need a PoE switch or injectors that run off 12VDC, or you'll need an inverter or some other source of 120VAC in the car. Most race cars do not have such luxuries. "Professional" level cars like stock cars and open-wheel cars are pretty stripped-down.

 

And yes, if he wants something suitable for viewing sponsor logos on underbody parts, he WILL need to eliminate "cheap" from the equation - anything that will stand up to that kind of beating will be pricey, and anything cheap won't last through a dozen laps, let alone an entire race.

[FranciscoNET 0]

I still think it can be done cheaply.

 

If vibration and beatings are of a concern, a very small pinhole/miniature camera can sustain beatings, you can even buy a steel enclosure to further protect the camera if you suspect it can be hit directly where ever you decide to mount the camera

 

a laptop can be used, just make sure you use Solid State Disk (SSD) Drives, get the largest capacity you can, and dont worry, it wont get over written too many times quickly as the compression method and just one or cameras that you will be using wont fill up the hard drive too quickly, will probably take months for you to fill ONE cycle of the hard drive before overwriting takes places, with today's SSD hard drives, its data can be over written 1000's of times before requiring replacement. The good thing about SSD drives is that it can handle shock, vibration and beatings. You can even get the miniature laptop for that purpose followed by the PCMCIA / Card Bus DVR card. You can safely strap the laptop on one of the car seat as to if the car crashes the laptop wont suffer anything.

 

Depending how you do it, the setup may end up looking a little "ghetto" (pass the cable where ever you can or drill a small hole, use the car's 12vdc car battery or cigarette adapter as the camera's 12v power, strap the laptop to an unused chair very securely, etc, etc) but its still a very cheap way of doing it.

[Twilo123 0]

i think i mentioned he would need a POE switch already...the power is not that hard to tap into on any car stripped down or not. the setup i recommended could easily be used in either way although POE would be easier and is DEFINITELY feasible for this situation.

[marketzion 0]

when the car is racing, there is a huge vibrations, the laptop would fail in the HDD part. people need to set up suspension system with the HDD installed in the laptop.

the perfect solution woud be using a mobile DVR recorder which is specially designed for the video recording in a racing car.

 

when the ignition of the car is on, the video starts recording.

[FranciscoNET 0]

when the car is racing, there is a huge vibrations, the laptop would fail in the HDD part.

 

That's why I suggested a SDD (Solid State Drive), they wont fail becaues of vibrations.

 

You can check out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid-state_drive

to learn more about Solid State Drives.

 

You can also check out this video where SSD drives were a series of tests where conducted to measure the reliability of SSD against the old conventional mechanical hard drives. Especially you can check out the vibration test (this emulates the vibration that the laptop might suffer in that car)

http://yafilm.com/view/94/solid-state-drives-vs-regular-hard-drives/

Edited September 3, 2009 by Guest

[Soundy 1]

i think i mentioned he would need a POE switch already...the power is not that hard to tap into on any car stripped down or not. the setup i recommended could easily be used in either way although POE would be easier and is DEFINITELY feasible for this situation.

 

I've worked with a professional stock-car team - believe me, anything that will add weight or rob power is NOT desirable in a pro car. A PoE switch would be a big waste of power: you'd have to step the power up to 120VAC through an inverter, which is a horribly inefficient device to begin with, just so the switch can knock it back down to 48VDC. The only way to improve that would be to have a switch or injector that can take 12VDC in and bump it up to the required 48VDC, which would still require some form of inefficient voltage inverter.

 

Now, if the OP is just a racing hobbyist or racing in an amateur division, it might not be as much of a concern...

[Securame 0]

I have mounted 4ch DVRs on rally cars. On that kind of installations, you have to keep several things in mind, some of them already stated on this thread.

 

First, weight. If possible, you do NOT want to add 5Kg of weight to the car for a few cameras, the lighter, the better.

 

Then, shakiness. Depending on the kind of car, normal HD is not an option. You can use SSD HD, you can use SD memory cards which are very cheap, etc, but not a normal hard drive.

 

The lightest one I have mounted weights 0.7Kg, it can record 4 channels A/V and uses SD cards which can easily be replaced. It gets power from ignition, you can easily set it up so it will just turn on when the car starts. The MDVR powers the cameras, so you run wires for power and video from the DVR, to every place where you will mount a camera.

[Erron S. 0]

Now you guys are talking my language! I'm a racer myself in my spare time, so this subject hits home for me. Want to see me racing, do a google search for my full name, Erron Spalsbury.

 

Anyway, you guys I think he's trying to get away with something less than the conventional methods. First off, what series are you trying to run in? (I ask because most of them don't let you have a laptop in the car during competition sessions, but that's besides the point.)

 

The #1 selling camera for motorsports right now is this little gem..

http://www.goprocamera.com/index.php?area=2&productid=2

 

There's also a number of guys using this type of system as well, a small imported dvr and a bullet camera...

http://www.raceoptics.com/

 

 

A friend of mine uses this one and loves it.

http://www.racecam.com/

 

This is similiar to what the big dogs run, but they usually do it with Motec...

http://www.maxqdata.com/VeQtr.htm

[Securame 0]

For one single small camera that records on memory card at 640x480@30fps, you can google for "camera md80". That one is pretty cheap.

 

That GoPro camera seemed small to me on the first picture, after seeing it on a helmet it looks huge!

[Soundy 1]

Anyway, you guys I think he's trying to get away with something less than the conventional methods. First off, what series are you trying to run in? (I ask because most of them don't let you have a laptop in the car during competition sessions, but that's besides the point.)

 

That's a good point... would be too great a risk of "abuse" there, especially with the "high-tech" cars. I don't think the CASCAR team I worked with even HAD a laptop, not that it would have done them much good, since there were pretty much NO electronics outside the MSD ignition systems in those cars

 

This is similiar to what the big dogs run, but they usually do it with Motec...

http://www.maxqdata.com/VeQtr.htm

 

Now THAT is some cool $#!t right there!

[Neurotic 0]

I have a dual core pc vista and am trying to get 4 usb webcams (MS lifecam) running and for some reason now Active Webcam is struggling to even show 1 camera.. I have extension cables for each and a powered hub.. I have better luck with WebcamXP as I can get 2 or 3 running nicely.. but it doesn't have as nice features as AW.. any ideas? thanks guys.

[olgotch 0]

Hi everybody,

I've bought my HDD-MDVR 4CH but I didn't receive no softwares for my MDVR.

I need to one MDVR playback v1.0 for reading my video records extract from my Mobile DVR's SD Card. Can you have it?

And then, any help on the configuration of my 3G/4G network with my mobile DVR will be welcome.

Thanks