1/8 mile of farm yard

[thefarmshow 0]

Well my father and I bought a farm this year, and upon taking over ownership of the yard, people have been coming/going and grabbing items, which was fine, we told the previous owners that was alright ( still have 5 more years of dealing with them )

But the neighbors have been coming/going in the yard, and things have gone missing, $600 of wire, and recently we had 500 gallons of diesel fuel delivered to locked tanks, and within 2 days someone stole it all, so we put some money towards a cheapy camera system, and a set of deer cameras to catch people. We are planning on moving the diesel tanks indoor of the big shed, to keep them locked in the building, and out of sight, with a dummy tank outside full of varsale, diesel and whatever else will wreck an engine.

 

This farm is 40 miles from where my parents live, I currently do not live on the farm, and we try to go over to it, every other day or so in the winter. There is power, and many buildings on this yard, and its spread out over an 1/8 of a mile.

 

However there is no internet on the farm yard yet, which would be nice to be able to monitor it from here, instead of checking it there. It is on our list though.

 

I am wondering what cameras/ set up should I be purchasing for permanent security?

 

There is 14 buildings on this yard site, and 90,000 bu of grain storage between a half ring of bins, a line of bins, and a grain elevator.

 

There is 3 tv antennas that sit pretty high, and all the important buildings have new locks on them.

 

The small/main shop even has a 4KW generator in it. but power outages aren't common there. I recently bought some Ubiquiti Nanostation 2's for my parents farm, and I am impressed with them! Someday when we get internet there, I would like to have internet to most of the buildings via nanostations anyways, is there a way to do this through them? Like IP cameras?

 

It would be a massive job to install enough cameras to catch people doing anything, but I am sick of getting ripped off. have installed two systems already, one on my parents, and one on my farm for temporary security. Here is an image how the yard is set up.

 

I've been telling my parents, for the money we have lost in fuel stolen/items missing, Camera system would of paid for its self already, but we are still on a budget of around 2-5K, installation our selves too.

 

Im glad i found this forum, great information on here, and hope some of you guys got some ideas of what I should set up. Thank you!

 

P.S I live in Canada if that makes a difference, not ready to jump on the band wagon to buy yet, just shopping around and looking at options.

[Soundy 1]

IP is definitely the way to go if you want to put cameras in remote buildings - they work over the same type of network as your internet connection, so once you use Nanostations to link the buildings, it's a simple matter to drop a couple IP cameras in a building and link them all in to a central recorder.

 

It's a little more expensive up-front, but something you might want to look at to get started are cameras with build-in storage, like Mobotix or VideoIQ - then you can get started recording some key areas without needing to link them in to a central location (that can come later). As you build your infrastructure between buildings and add your internet connection, you're then ready to just tie those cameras in. There's also the benefit that they'll keep recording internally if the wireless link goes down for any reason.

 

The other thing that might work for some buildings is ethernet-over-powerline adapters, which will give you a good hardwired connection (probably not as suitable for buildings with heavy electrical machinery, as large loads and noise on the circuit tends to affect speed).

[thefarmshow 0]

IP is definitely the way to go if you want to put cameras in remote buildings - they work over the same type of network as your internet connection, so once you use Nanostations to link the buildings, it's a simple matter to drop a couple IP cameras in a building and link them all in to a central recorder.

 

It's a little more expensive up-front, but something you might want to look at to get started are cameras with build-in storage, like Mobotix or VideoIQ - then you can get started recording some key areas without needing to link them in to a central location (that can come later). As you build your infrastructure between buildings and add your internet connection, you're then ready to just tie those cameras in. There's also the benefit that they'll keep recording internally if the wireless link goes down for any reason.

 

The other thing that might work for some buildings is ethernet-over-powerline adapters, which will give you a good hardwired connection (probably not as suitable for buildings with heavy electrical machinery, as large loads and noise on the circuit tends to affect speed).

 

Well for 10 nanostations im looking at around $500, which isn't too bad, probably can get a better deal yet. I like your idea about built in storage, that is definitely a good idea, and start to it! But what kind of image quality can i expect? I don't want crappy 640x480 resolution anymore i want more 720p quality. Just the trouble is, I will also need IR for the dark.

 

Second problem is, if i have a nanostation on one building, and 3 cameras inside the building, how do I connect 3 IP cameras to one nanostation? Router? or some sort of switch, or splitter box thats cheap? More than likely would want 2-4 cameras per building.

 

I dont really want to do thernet over powerline, as there is always large loads, or heavy electrical machinery on the power ( many water pumps, big lights, compressors, etc )

[Soundy 1]

Well for 10 nanostations im looking at around $500, which isn't too bad, probably can get a better deal yet. I like your idea about built in storage, that is definitely a good idea, and start to it! But what kind of image quality can i expect? I don't want crappy 640x480 resolution anymore i want more 720p quality.

Most, if not all, Mobotix and VideoIQ offerings will be megapixel. There are other brands that do onboard storage, mind you, those are just two that came immediately to mind. VideoIQ has the added benefit of built-in video analytics (think: really advanced, intelligent motion detection) so you can more precisely control what gets recorded and what gets ignored. Of course, they're correspondingly more expensive.

 

Just the trouble is, I will also need IR for the dark.

Consider motion-activated flood lights instead. Besides the fact that these are often a deterrent in themselves (bright light comes on, prowler scurries away), the other most likely response when a light snaps on is to look for the source of the light... if you have a camera mounted nearby, that means you've enticed your prowler to look more-or-less directly at the camera... and it means you'll get a nice, clear, full-color picture, rather than the ghostly pale faces and glowing eyes you get with IR.

 

Second problem is, if i have a nanostation on one building, and 3 cameras inside the building, how do I connect 3 IP cameras to one nanostation? Router? or some sort of switch,

Precisely. Just connect it to a switch and plug in whatever else you want to connect to the network. Or if you want WiFi in the area, connect it to the LAN port of an appropriately-tweaked router (as has been covered in your other thread.

[hardwired 0]

Second problem is, if i have a nanostation on one building, and 3 cameras inside the building, how do I connect 3 IP cameras to one nanostation? Router? or some sort of switch,

Precisely. Just connect it to a switch and plug in whatever else you want to connect to the network. Or if you want WiFi in the area, connect it to the LAN port of an appropriately-tweaked router (as has been covered in your other thread.

If you are planning to expand quite a bit, and you have clear line-of-sight between points, I'd use the Nanostation M5's (the Loco's would work at those distances, too, and they're a bit cheaper), to stay out of the standard WI-FI 2.4Ghz band (and have more clear channel choices), and possibly use the RocketM5 with the AMO-5G10 omnidirectional antenna as the main receiving point.

 

I recently used the same setup at a municipal landfill with Avigilon cameras between multiple outbuildings and poles, and it has worked quite well.

[thefarmshow 0]

alright, yeah I have been looking into the M5's too for this. It sounds like it would be a good start, I have been looking into dome cameras, but I am confused, do dome cameras move, and pan? or are they stationary inside? It would be nice to have a panning camera, but my main focus is image quality. We have installed motion sensor flood lights on the buildings, so I really dont need IR. I find that IR doesnt work very good anyways.

 

really would like to get 720p video cameras. But once I hook all these IP cameras up, what do I use to record, what is the best suggestion or highest recommended on the forum? Don't really want to build a computer to run it all, as im tired of doing that, and its a bit of hassle.

 

Whatever I get, I want mobile remote viewing/control, and something i can easily play back alarms, or events marked by the cameras. Biggest trouble I find with these home security systems is playback.

[Soundy 1]

alright, yeah I have been looking into the M5's too for this. It sounds like it would be a good start, I have been looking into dome cameras, but I am confused, do dome cameras move, and pan? or are they stationary inside?

Unless a camera specifies that it's PTZ (pan/tilt/zoom), assume that it's fixed.

 

It would be nice to have a panning camera, but my main focus is image quality.

Unless someone is sitting and operating it in realtime, PTZ is not usually worth the cost - it can still only view a limited area at any one time, and Murphy's law dictates that when any incident happens, the camera will be pointing in a different direction.

 

really would like to get 720p video cameras. But once I hook all these IP cameras up, what do I use to record, what is the best suggestion or highest recommended on the forum? Don't really want to build a computer to run it all, as im tired of doing that, and its a bit of hassle.

If you're ONLY using IP cameras (or analog cameras with encoders), then you need an NVR (network video recorder) to record them. There are a number of standalone options out there, such as NUUO, Exacq, QNAP, and so on. Something like the QNAP NVRs have a benefit in that they're basically built around a RAID array, so if you want to use something like RAID5/6/10 for data redundancy, it's there ready to go.

 

There are also some "turnkey" PC-based systems that, from a setup perspective, are really no different from a standalone: just unpack it, plug it in, fire it up, and configure it to the specifics of your network. Vigil is a good one, although a little on the pricier side.

[joseph.chen0312 0]

I think only 3G camera is only choice for 0 cyberworld.

[hardwired 0]

You mentioned you have a grain elevator, but no internet. You might want to contact any local wireless internet service providers near you, often they may provide you free or reduced cost internet service, in exchange for being able to place one of their AP's on your grain elevator, if it is in a good location for them.

[thefarmshow 0]

yes we have a grain elevator in the yard, and also another one in a town, that we would put cameras in someday, but the elevator down the road took the satellite deal with them before we could.

 

The elevator isnt tall enough, for the local farms to use it for signal, plus there is a cell tower just up the road , so i will have to pay for internet sadly, unless i run two dishes from my farm 40 miles away, but i dont think there is a clear line of site for that.

[joseph.chen0312 0]

yes we have a grain elevator in the yard, and also another one in a town, that we would put cameras in someday, but the elevator down the road took the satellite deal with them before we could.

 

The elevator isnt tall enough, for the local farms to use it for signal, plus there is a cell tower just up the road , so i will have to pay for internet sadly, unless i run two dishes from my farm 40 miles away, but i dont think there is a clear line of site for that.

 

If you reall need to run the cable fro 40 miles. The only choice is Fiber optical and you will gain crystal video.

[Soundy 1]

Wow...