Video camera suggestions to monitor a hidden yard area

[Spaceman Spiff]

Gday,

 

Not sure where to post this. Mod's feel free to move thread.

 

I have a hidden yard area that I would like to monitor via video. I'd like a two camera set up (one for each end of the yard), that will hook up directly to either one or two smaller monitors (4 to 7 inch). I tried a baby monitor system but the resolution wasn't that great. I could probably use two web cams but don't really want to have use a computer. Any one have any suggestions?

 

 

Thanks

Spiff

Edited August 29, 2013 by Spaceman Spiff

[cteno4]

Spiff

 

I suspect the baby cam monitor may have been like 240 vertical resolution and thus low detail.

 

There are a lot of cheap regular 640x480 NTSC spy and survalance cameras out there wired and wireless. The expensive thing may be getting a small LCD monitor that has 480 vert lines of resolution, most that size are only 240 (probably what the baby monitor used). Car backup monitors are the main use of small 4" or so LCD NTSC input monitors. 480v ones start around $50. Cheap NTSC video switch box could be used to switch between sources.

 

Another option would be a cheapo 480v 2 camera survalance system. You can get packages cheap that even have hard drive recorders and streaming video that you could stream to a smart phone or cheap tablet. Also usually have VGA and or NTSC out and sometimes hdmi, but no monitor usually included.

 

Another option with the webcam out is a raspberry pi computer. Very inexpensive but 1080p hdmi out. Might need to use a larger screen to get it cheaper. It's Linux so sure lots of options for webcams.

 

Wonder if any of the cheap android tablets are ip or wired web cam capable, those would have the higher resolution displays at the 7" size.

 

Jeff

Edited August 29, 2013 by cteno4

[Mauka]

Take a look at IP cameras. I have four set up around my place and can monitor from any web connected computer, tablet, or smart phone. Mine are Panasonic cameras, and have been on 24/7 for 2 years now. One can be remotely panned, and two have audio (listening). They can be setup to detect motion and alert you by sending photos. Mine are setup to save via FTP to my home network, but they have their own limited memory as well.

 

Each camera has it's own IP address, and they are availble wired or wireless. I went with PoE, power over Ethernet, where the network cable also powers the camera. Some have night vision, there all kinds of options - and prices. The Panasonics I bought were designed for semi-pro installs, but I recently researched some additional cameras and found out that Panasonic dumbed down their product. They are cheaper now but lack many of the features my older cameras have. I could not recommend them any more.

 

Check Amazon and search for IP camera, or network camera. The Y-cam and Sharx Security brands are well rated and priced around $200, which is about what I paid for my Pansonics 2 years ago. The first IP camera I bought was a Foscam, they are widely available. The Foscam I had failed after 2 weeks of indoor use.

 

My cameras are 640x480 resolution, no problems with details, but you can't zoom in for any more detail. Higher rez would be nice but at the expense of bandwidth and storage memory. That said my next camera will likely be 1080 at least. My cameras don't have night vision, the Foscam did and it's nice to have. My cameras have problems with differences in light contrast.. By that I mean all my outdoor cameras are shaded under the eves or in the garage, anything not shaded, like the driveway can be difficult to see on bright days.

 

Hope this helps,

Alan

Edited August 29, 2013 by Mauka

[Spaceman Spiff]

Thanks for the replies. It seems more complicated than I thought lol.

 

Would something like this work:

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=111083853302&ssPageName=ADME:X:RTQ:US:1123

 

 

 

Spiff

[cteno4]

Yep these are the ip webcams that we mentioned. You can set apps up to grab the streaming video on a tablet for your monitor. This has 640x480 which is decent resolution. Going to 720p will be more expensive. Main thing is getting software for the tablet or computer that works with the camera.

 

These ate nice as they have motorized pan tilt that you can control via the software.

 

Jeff

[Spaceman Spiff]

Thanks again for the info.

 

Is spending a few bucks more for a HD system worth it?

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=181131162936&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT

 

 

Spiff

[cteno4]

spiff,

 

I've not seen the output of 720p ip cams, only 480s. The do some compression so there is a tiny bit of artifacting in the 480p one I played with, not bad though. 720 will do more compression and need more power on the tablet end.

 

Jeff

[Mauka]

Here are some samples from my garage and back door cams.

 

These are 640x480, as saved to my network, no enhancements.

 

We are having some work done, hence the concrete truck in one garage photo.

 

The homes in the background are six traffic lanes plus grass strip away.  One background car is parked and other moving at about 30 mph.

 

Image resolution is important but not everything.  The software to setup, manage, and save images from the cams is equally important in my opinion.  Many camera owners purchase additional camera management software, "Blue Iris" is one example.  In my case the browser based firmware built into each Panasonic camera has worked well for my needs.  I invested quite a bit of time reading and experimenting to get the most from my cameras, time that could have been spent on trains!  :)

 

http://blueirissoftware.com/

 

For viewing on my smart phone I did purchase apps optimized for a smaller screen. 

 

Alan

Edited August 30, 2013 by Mauka

[cteno4]

maruka is spot on here that the software can be your key to managing the streaming video. some let you set compression level etc which can be critical go getting good picture quality. 

 

sorry these things are not really clear cut as there is such a variety of hardware and software out there. sometimes you can find cheap knockoffs that do a great job, other times you get what you pay for with lousy or very limited software.

 

image quality also depends on lighting and contrast in your scene. many of these cameras are made for bright daylight during the day others set for indoors artificial lighting and others for very low light situations that dont do quite so well in brighter situations for good resolution.

 

ive been looking sideways at these as i have thought it would be fun to have a couple on the club layout to have track level views at interesting points (like inside the station) for the public to see. but i have not gotten down to serious decisions on what to use...

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Davo Dentetsu]

It doesn't have to be too complicated.  A basic television and AV cable setup to a suitable video camera would do the job.  Can easily be cheap and cheerful if you have a look around too.

[Spaceman Spiff]

Cheap and cheerful is what I am looking for lol

 

Thanks for the images Mauka. The baby monitor set up I used looked ok at farther distances but up close to the track (6inches away) it got all distorted. I know 6 inches is close from the camera to the track but I limited room to put the camera in. Would these ip camera be good for something that close up?

 

 

Spiff

[Mauka]

Sorry Spaceman Spiff (love Calvin and Hobbes!), I mis-understood "yard". I was thinking outside security. Doh.... the 'not sure where to post this' threw me off.

 

One of my cams can be moved I'll test the closeup ability this weekend for you. If listed on the camera specifications I think that would be "focal length". But I doubt many webcams are designed for closeups.

 

Sorry about that, i feel kinda dumb, bet you were wondering what the.... :-)

Edited August 31, 2013 by Mauka

[Spaceman Spiff]

Lol my bad.

 

Yes the camera is for a hidden yard under my n scale layout :-)

Unfortunately I'm out of town at the moment and can't attach a pic of the area. I'm thinking there may not be enough room for an ip camera. I may need to just a small webcam or CMOS camera (if they work)

 

Ya Calvin and Hobbes was good

 

 

 

 

 

Spiff

Edited August 31, 2013 by Spaceman Spiff

[cteno4]

Ugh, that is going to be a problem with the cheap cams,. They usually have a fixed focus in the range they get the largest depth of field. I doubt many will do well at less than a foot. They are mostly made for general survallance so its going to be for further out.

 

Dave has a good thought, a cheap little DV cam that has a video out could be put into a monitor.

 

Actually come to think of it the cheap spy cameras use a pin hole lens usually that should handle closer stuff. I've got a couple of those ill dig them out and see how well they work that close.

 

Jeff

 

Ps when I first read Calvin n Hobbs it totally freaked me. Half the stuff was things that went thru my head as a kid and I knew better to ever express to adults at the time...

Edited August 31, 2013 by cteno4

[Spaceman Spiff]

Thanks Jeff

 

Here is a vid that a posted awhile ago.

 

At the 19 second mark you can see the one end of the yard (behind silver dome car, yellow cabling for the switches in the yard) and at the 31 second mark under the Shinkansen is the other end just behind the station building. (the station is stored there to get it out the way, it won't be installed there). I'm not sure if there will be room for an ip camera there.

 

 

Spiff

[cteno4]

Spiff,

 

Little CMOS cameras might be the easiest and cheapest like this with a pin hole lens

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Super-Mini-Micro-Color-Wired-CMOS-Camera-Monitor-PAL-/140875163652?pt=US_Security_Cameras&hash=item20ccd06804

 

Or these may let you focus the lens

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mini-Security-Monitor-Camera-Micro-Color-Wired-CMOS-Full-function-Camera-PAL-/171061998160?pt=US_Security_Cameras&hash=item27d416f250

 

You are down under, right? If so my bad things will need to be pal not ntsc.

 

The tough thing to easily find is a little monitor that will be full resolution, take video inputs and be cheap...

 

Jeff

Edited August 31, 2013 by cteno4

[Tyler B]

Have a look at cameras with very wide angle lenses, if you can find any, they tend to be more forgiving for items closer to the lens. I seem to remember you can get cameras that are designed to replace those little peep holes you get in front doors, they would probably do the job.

 

For the same reason, try and avoid infra-red cameras, because they are usually set up to illuminate items several meters away, any items that are very close up in the way you want to use it will be over-lit by the infra red emitters and will appear bleached out on the screen

[Spaceman Spiff]

Thanks for the info guys.

 

Jeff, I'm in Canada so NTSC for me. The CMOS cameras don't require power supplies? I take it the just plug into a monitor via te standard RCA video jacks?

 

 

Jon

[cteno4]

Jon,

 

Must have been you accent that confused me! ;-p

 

Yep NTSC are the RCA, usually yellow jacks, pre HD.

 

the cameras typically need 6-9v range, so a small wall wart should do. Some go down to 5v so a cheap USB power plug would work on those.

 

They are cheap enough to buy one to try out and just use some monitor with 480 NTSC resolution to see if it does the trick in your situations. Then if it does see about finding your 7" LCD monitor with higher than 280 resolution and you can get a very cheap NTSC switch box to switch between feeds.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/3-Way-Audio-Video-AV-RCA-Switch-Selector-Box-Splitter-with-3-RCA-Cable-blue-/251305015303?pt=US_Audio_Cables_Adapters&hash=item3a82f23807

 

You can get nicer ones, this one is just nice and cheap!

 

Cheers

 

Jeff

Edited September 1, 2013 by cteno4

[Spaceman Spiff]

Hi guys,

 

I found a video monitor system on a local ad site. I'm sure it the same as the chinese ones that are sold on Ebay. I got a two camera wireless system for $70. It seems ok for what I need. Down the road if I find I use it alot I will get a better system.

 

 

Thanks for all the help.

 

Spiff

[cteno4]

spiff,

 

hey looks good enough to see whats going on in there! it looks like the monitor may be 240v resolution, bet the cameras are 480v. 

 

focus looks decent close up.

 

if you need more lights you can get little flat led matrixes at 12v cheap to put on the ceiling under there to bring in more light.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Spaceman Spiff]

Hi Jeff,

 

I haven't quite figured out the lighting yet.  I'll have to do it sooner than later as the scenery is starting :-)

 

Jon

[JR 500系]

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