DIY Monitoring of Home, Office, etc. over the Web

[BayouPinoy]

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For Do It Yourselfers, this is my home surveillance setup. I have two cameras at home (one is night-vision capable) hooked up to my desktop computer. My desktop is behind a firewall and a wireless router, and hooked up to the Internet via a cable modem. The first camera (wireless) monitors the backyard and the other covers the frontyard. The cameras are controlled by tincam (tincam.com) , configured to be motion-activated. The motion activation can be from the whole view or just a portion of the view, adjustable via a configuration page. The software has also been configured to automatically upload the pictures to a web site. Optionally, the software can e-mail images as well as configured to stream video (bandwidth hog!). It does work, but you have to come in and clean up your hard drive every few days as the images do collect. Little things like insects, pets, etc. can set the camera off and you get pictures of bugs and plants on your web site. Typically, these activities set the camera off: delivery from Fedex/UPS/mail, trash pickup, yard work (I see myself over and over again), the neighbors taking a walk, etc. During night, the night vision camera is set off by lights from passing cars. Screen shot from my "surveillance" site. Note: I have configured a "box" around the driveway area, including a portion of the street, to activate the camera. I am guessing some insect triggered this set of pictures as I do not see any vehicles or the like. Also note my "tangad" garden in the back --- sinabaw nga manok anyone?:

[img width=512 height=384]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b279/BayouPinoy/webcam1.jpg[/img]

[AMD_infinium05]

cool bro...

[meko_stryler]

do u have any guide to share with us on ur DIY monitor ?

[BayouPinoy]

Bai,

Thats a good point---I am in the process of putting together an outline of the steps. I hope to include screenshots and some details about each step, so I'll have to post it on my web site. I'll post the link to the site shortly. Meanwhile, here is a "quickstart" guide.

Components:
1 computer with dsl/cable internet connection. Important if you want the image feeds to be in realtime. If it is not connected, you can configure to store the images on the hard drive for viewing later. A dsl/cable connection is really ideal, as you can monitor your home/office/car when you are travelling in the country or internationally.

1 "webcam" software that can control your cameras as well as upload files. I have been using tincam (www.tincam.com). The newer version apparently supports more than 2 cameras that are WDM-compatible. Currently, tincam does not support network camera types.

1-2 cameras, wired or unwired. You can potentially use more than 2 cameras, depending on your hardware and your software. I currently have a USB wired camera (cheap version) and two wireless cameras (one night vision capable). However, I cannot use both wireless cams at the same time as these share the same freq. If you have two wireless cams that have diff. freqs. you can probably use these. I am using a cheap Dazzle USB adapter to hook up my wireless camera to the computer. (see pic below). Wired cameras generally yield reasonably clear images under good lighted conditions. However, you are constrained by the length of its USB wire. Wireless cameras are really useful as you can move these around within reasonable range of your receiver. Under good lighted conditions, the images are "tolerable". My backyard shot above was taken with a wired camera at around 11 AM. These cheap cameras are however suscpetible to interference. I note "cheap" as the more expensive ones may work better.

1 web site that you can upload pictures to. Tincam automatically uploads pictures when you point it to the site, and after entering the user id and pwd. You can also configure tincam to upload at regular intervals and specify how many pictures you want uploaded before they are written over. All pictures are stored on the hard drive, so you have a documentation of all shots taken. You can also configure tincam to e-mail the iimages as attachments. I tried that --- and ended up being "spammed" by myself. Not a good option, IMHO, unless you are monitoring the inside of your household and don't expect movements unless there is an illegal intrusion.

general steps:

1. If you already have a webcam, all you need to do is install tincam or your preferred "webcam" software. Position your camera(s) near the window, with a good view of your target area (car, yard, office, hallway, maindoor, etc). My wireless night vision camera is weather proof so I actually have it outside my window. The glass in the window interferes with its LEDs during night time. Otherwise, cameras can be positioned by the window.

2. Configure tincam or your preferred software to be motion-activated (vs. take pics at regular intervals). Define the motion-activation box or hotspot.

3. Define where you want to store your images on the hard drive. Configure where tincam will upload the images. Tincam also uploads a default webpage template (I used the default template on the screenshot above). Once you click "Ok", it will restart and run in the background.

4. Storage considerations. You can specify the resolution of your images. If you are away from your computer from 2-3 weeks, you will use up 20 gigs of space, depending on activity and resolution of your images. If you have cars passing every minute in your target box, expect lots of pictures! You can configure tincam to "rearm" at specified intervals, and this should minimize storage requirements. One can develop scripts to clean up the storage by deleting the oldest images at regular intervals. I usually clean mine every week.

5. That's pretty much it. I've included some screen shots of tincam and my wireless nightvision camera.

a picture of wireless nightvision, weatherproof camera. (cheap version)

[img width=150 height=112]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b279/BayouPinoy/wireless1.jpg[/img]

the dazzle usb adapter i use the wireless cam with.

[img width=200 height=200]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b279/BayouPinoy/in513701.jpg[/img]

some screenshots of the tincam configuration page (not my cameras):

multiple cameras with tincam

[img width=628 height=437]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b279/BayouPinoy/multicam.jpg[/img]

motion detection settings

[img width=628 height=437]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b279/BayouPinoy/motiondetection.jpg[/img]

web site settings

[img width=628 height=437]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b279/BayouPinoy/website.jpg[/img]

web page settings

[img width=628 height=437]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b279/BayouPinoy/webpage.jpg[/img]

[isone]

nice boss!

[dexterdal]

a picture of wireless nightvision, weatherproof camera. (cheap version), bai asa na nimo g palit ang nightvision? mga tag pila pud ni? kanang picture g butang nimo sa 1st post, murag wala man na dri sa pinas.?

[BayouPinoy]

a picture of wireless nightvision, weatherproof camera. (cheap version), bai asa na nimo g palit ang nightvision? mga tag pila pud ni? kanang picture g butang nimo sa 1st post, murag wala man na dri sa pinas.?

Got this from ebay for about USD24. The camera is made in China and many shops in HK carry these. I'm surprised it's not available sa ato. Walmart already sells the wired version. A note about these "night vision" cams. Generally, the more LEDs the better is the quality. Under normal lighted conditions (daytime), the pics are in color. Under dark condiitions, pics are greyscale. If there is street lighting, it does help. I helped a friend set up his own system, and he has street lights in his neighborhood. I must say the quality is really good as you can almost see the entire neighborhood that is within the field of view.

[joshuayunkee]

cool.....you gave as a nice idea and project to work with.

[BayouPinoy]

There are a lot of other applications one can think of. I found a couple of software applications on the web that allows one to compile all the jpgs into a video format, thus replaying all the captured images. Here is some additional detail about the night vision camera I'm using. The screenshot below is from my setup. This was taken from the front yard with a floodlight on. The left view is from the nv wireless camera, the right comes from my wired usb camera (a really bottom end Veo Stingray). You can hardly see anything with the usb cam, but you can make out some foliage from the landscaping and some lights from the neighbors with the nv cam. Basically, this is similar to the night vision mode of your typical video cameras, only cheaper. Of course, the nv mode of video cameras are really, really good. . If there street lighting is available, the image quality really improves. Other uses: monitoring of pets, baby room; simple security setup for small business, etc. etc.

[img width=644 height=398]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b279/BayouPinoy/tincam2.jpg[/img]

[IT]

electric bill yikes. but its helps for some reasons. :mrgreen: