video surveillance - DIY ??

[tb-av]

I wondering if anyone has any words of wisdom concerning catching people that break into cars at night.

I live in a suburb and in general crime is fairly low. This year though we have had quite a few break-ins. They seem to be two types. Bold daytime robbery. Night time unlocked cars.

I think the police may have caught the guy that was doing the daytime break-ins. They caught someone with $400K in jewelry.

But for going on a year now, we are having someone go through people's yards and driveways and steal things like GPS, wallets, cell phones and chargers, etc.. almost without fail the cars were unlocked.

I want to try to set up some video cameras. Maybe IP based. I am on a hill/corner and there are only two ways in and out of this subdivision and I'm on the corner of one so it stands to reason that if something happens they will pass by my camera.

Does anyone know any -specific- low cost, good video quality, easy to maintain say three days back for review. I've started looking at some things but not sure what works, what doesn't and what is the most economical. I don't mind breaking out the soldering iron if need be.

So I kind of want security but I'm also actually trying to catch or at least identify someone.

[Just a Jarhead]

I had a situation and researched video camera's. A descent system was expensive $600-1500. I went with one of these as a solution and it worked for what I needed. I hid it in bush.

http://www.cabelas.com/catalog/searc...h-All+Products

[tb-av]

A descent system was expensive $600-1500.

That's sort of the sense I'm getting as well. I was just wondering if maybe I was overlooking something new and inexpensive that might have come about.

[serbonze]

I set up a system based around my home network. I use several D-Link wireless cameras that run through my router. I can record directly onto my hard drive (computer must be on and running for this though), but I can also watch from my smart phone. This requires a few additional steps, but it's not too difficult.

I even set up one camera so I can watch my dogs on my phone while I'm at work.



You will need to spend a little more money for an infrared camera to watch the cars at night, but it can still be easily done, and it's not terribly expensive.

[tb-av]

That sounds perfect. I actually have several computers and devoting one to this would be no big deal at all. Also have several wireless routers and some Apple Express nodes that work great as repeaters. Computers are windows but I've found apple network devices to be rock solid.

I've also got lots of trees, bushes and ivy beds close to the street to hide things in.

Would these cameras be able to read a license plate or identify a face at say 50'? Reliably.

[serbonze]

That sounds perfect. I actually have several computers and devoting one to this would be no big deal at all. Also have several wireless routers and some Apple Express nodes that work great as repeaters. Computers are windows but I've found apple network devices to be rock solid.

I've also got lots of trees, bushes and ivy beds close to the street to hide things in.

Would these cameras be able to read a license plate or identify a face at say 50'? Reliably.

It really depends on how much you want to spend, but sure, it should easily be done with the right camera. Mine are fixed, bit you can also get motion activated, tilt, pan, zoom, etc all from your phone.

One word of caution though, is that to record, the computer must be running (not in sleep mode). Even if the computer is off though, you can still view the cameras.

[rob_s]

https://www.dropcam.com/buy

[Just a Jarhead]

I must have spent 2 weeks diligently searching a few months ago. I shopped online, at stores at spy shops. The camera's these guys above are using appear to be strictly indoor camera's or cam's with no IR night vision. It will be tough (nearly impossible) to capture clear enough pics of someone outdoors through a window unless they're very close and not 50' away as you describe, and forget about clear enough pics of a license plate.

Sounds like you need outdoor camera's and you may or may not require with night vision depending on when things are happening. I did see when I was researching a few months ago one's with 30-50' range. I know with the trail camera's I captured pictures up to 50' at night with some light from moon and outdoor street lights. The camera had 21 IR lights for night vision and cost about $150. Even if you need to get a coup;le of them it will be cheaper t han a descent worthwhile system IMHO from my massive research.

If you go the video camera route and not trail camera route, you can get wireless but you still need to connect them to a AC power source so they'll need to be attached to the house eaves and then power cords ran in the attic to an outlet or run an extension cord to them in a bush or something. That's why I went with the camera after assessing what might do the job with the greatest ease and least hassle and cost. The AA batteries in the camera needed to be replaced every 3 days. You can set the camera to still pics or video and it's motion activated so you'll get lots of pics of rabbits, birds, cars driving by ,electric meter man etc. With a camera you can easily move it around...no wires at all. Not so even with a wireless video camera.

I did catch my culprit..it was a friggin rabbit and not a human. I planted some new grass seed and made a string fence to keep the ducks out of about 4 strands high 20' x 60'. Here in Florida we have lots of lakes in our backyards with muskogee duck that come and go. Every day someone was cutting the stands in many places and the cuts were so clean like a knife or scissors. We all got a good laugh out of it I was going ballistic for a month thinking someone was f@cking with me. I fix the cuts and that night they;d be cut again. Needleess-to-say I hear lots of "what's up docs". The camera was worth every penny to get my sanity and peace of mind back. It took a week of monitoring to finally get good clear pics of the wascally wabbit doing his mischief.

[tb-av]

LOL, ducks, man, I hope whatever is breaking into cars doesn't turn out to be some sort of wildlife beyond the human variety.

I forgot all about needing a power source for the wireless cameras. I need to rethink this a bit. I actually have some areas I could easily run some 120v and of course the house mounted no problem but I forgot some areas would be too much trouble to run electric.

I think I need to try my still camera out and see how much area I can cover with the fewest cameras that could run AC to.

I still a little confused on the brain that records the video too. I see some that are basically a DVR and have 4, 8 or what have you BNC inputs for a camera. I haven't figured how the computer setup interfaces to the various cameras.

the other problem is if these jackasses have some sort of night vision be it goggles or a simple camcorder conversion. They will see my IR lights on the camera. I guess there is nothing I can do about that. Although that alone might keep them out of my yard anyway.

[rob_s]

I agree with the above, given the various limitations I think I'd just opt for the game cam. at least to start with.