[edessex]

Hopefully I've posted this in the right section!

What set-ups do you guys use for CCTV in areas with no mains power?

I'm after something able to record by sensor, at night (of course).  But don't want to go over the top on the cost, as its is only really to marginally increase the existing security I have in place.

I was thinking of a budget of £50. 

Something that can run off 12v car batteries would be great, as | have a stock of those ready for when I get round to putting an electric fence up.

For that price I'm not expecting an all-in-one unit, I'm happy to run cables, rig up extra night vision lamps, even solder circuits, etc.

Any advice or tips would be greatly appreciated!

[hughesy]

I too would be interested in any possibilities with this. If only to determine if it's a fox or my neighbour's dog that's snooping round my chickens

[MAK]

I set up a static camera and infra red lamps and took the image into a laptop. I have a bit of software that detects movement within the frame and allows you to "fast forward" and view thereafter - costs more than £50 if bought in from a chap I know in Oxford but I could ask him for a price and laptop spec needed if you want.   

[40acres]

You can pick up 'trail cams' but they are between £100 -£350 each. Some have Wi Fi too. It works of rechargeasble batteries and has a PIR trip built in.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q='trail+cams&oq='trail+cams&aqs=chrome.0.57&sugexp=chrome,mod=3&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#q='trail+cams&hl=en&safe=off&tbo=u&source=univ&tbm=shop&sa=X&ei=24LkUP7eCYjR0QXgyYDwDw&ved=0CJEBEK0E&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.r_qf.&bvm=bv.1355534169,d.d2k&fp=7c469da22eb57c92&bpcl=40096503&biw=1024&bih=712

[edessex]

MAK - I don't actually have a laptop, but if you could find out prices and operating specs that would be great!  I might be able to get an old laptop and power from a car battery...

I've considered trail cams, but the price is over my budget!  I've also thought about the in car ones, but not sure about the night vision distance, and would need to waterproof.

Maplins do a nice all-in-one unit for about £70, but want a tad cheaper really.

[pgkevet]

I've played with these ideas at various times and been very disappointed. the cheapest route would probably be a simple ebay wireless spy-cam transmitting to an ordinary vcr but the night leds on those are weak. Worst is that images I've had from low and moderate quality cctv looked good enough to me but the courts will probably throw them out even if the police can be bothered to follow up on them. I had cctv images of vandals in my south london home and was told "If you don't recognise them we aren't going to find them". I had a more powerful night system at my business and found there that once the people got close there was too much back reflection of the IR light and it blinded the camera image of their faces - again useless. A lack of time code on screen can be an issue too with cheap diy systems. You'ld do better with a trip wire, cartridge and a bag of dye though doubtless that's assault!
It's also suprising how often you have to recharge your battery on a transmitting system or how much it can cost in cable to run a long length of aerial line (depending how far your talking about)

A cheap wired cctv cam with a low powered IR lamp illuminating from the side is probably the way to go using a coax signal wire that can also pass your 12v dc to power the cam from a simple mians adapter in the house. Ideally if you have a PC you add a video capture board and use that..but they can be flaky to get working diy. The cheap USB one's work but the ones i played with didn't capture often enough so it was as likely to miss the face shot as get it. If you have a vcr with extended recording times and a long tape then it's likely better to use that and make (and keep) notes of the times set etc

[graham-j]

I set up a static camera and infra red lamps and took the image into a laptop. I have a bit of software that detects movement within the frame and allows you to "fast forward" and view thereafter - costs more than £50 if bought in from a chap I know in Oxford but I could ask him for a price and laptop spec needed if you want.   

Hi MAK,that sounds very interesting but I assume the lap top has to be fairly close to the camera to pick up the signal,my field is over a mile away and I have had some one poking about,it would be nice to see who it is.

Graham.

[edessex]

...the cheapest route would probably be a simple ebay wireless spy-cam transmitting to an ordinary vcr...  ... the courts will probably throw them out even if the police can be bothered to follow up on them...

A cheap wired cctv cam with a low powered IR lamp illuminating from the side is probably the way to go using a coax signal wire that can also pass your 12v dc to power the cam from a simple mians adapter in the house. Ideally if you have a PC you add a video capture board and use that..

In my case everything would have to be run off battery, including VCR if that was the only option!  There is no way of running mains power, video feed, or wireless feed to/from my house.

I'm not planning to capture images to use in court, most home CCTV systems are thrown out of court straight away anyway.

[supplies for smallholders]

Over the £50 Budget but you could consider an Alert Pal GSM System

Works off mains or 12V Car battery and is fully mobile - so can be used in your boat / caravan / tool shed / tack room / tractore etc etc.

Once the PIR is triggered it takes a series of pictures and sends them to your mobile phone - so you know who / what is around

Thanks

[pgkevet]

...
In my case everything would have to be run off battery, including VCR if that was the only option!  There is no way of running mains power, video feed, or wireless feed to/from my house....

You're not maing this easy... original requirement from you was budget £50 and happy to run cables/fix up lights. What part of the set-up is the £50 part of the budget for?

If cannot power from the house and using car batts then wireless link means recharging at least daily. That means down to local capture and very low power  requirement system. Either you go punting around for secondhand kit that does this sort of thing - such as trail cams with SD card storage or you need some cheapo second user mini computer (android phone?) and find/write an APP to take snaps every x seconds or minutes and store on it's internal card... used you car battery to keep it charged.

Where i am sending data to your mobile phone is a non-starter.. no signal unless I climb the hill.

Always a chance that the first thing stolen is your camera - why better systems store away from the camera and have two cameras watching each other - and still death by laser pointer...

[edessex]

I knew it would be a tall order!

I would prefer to be able to cover the whole lot for £50!  I've already got car batteries, and I'm sure I can find various useful cables laying around. 


The chance of someone stealing the camera in my case is doubtful, and burning it out with a pointer is even less likely!

[pgkevet]

I did a quick search and there's plenty of android apps that will take a time-lapse video..so the cheap answer is a secondhand android phone and plug it's car charger into your car battery..seal everything in plastic bags and clingfilm or condoms to waterproof and you're done.
Cheap android phone with minor damage would do..you want a big s/d card to view on your home laptop after - should be in budget too.
Ask in the pub...there's bound to be someone about to get a 'free' upgrade