Equipment Information
Our equipment came from Nest
Cameras and consists of :-
Camera
The camera is a cheap day/night waterproof web camera (see above). It
comes with a 12 volt power adaptor and can be connected directly to a
television or video. It has a series or infra red Led's that illuminate
the area in front of the camera at night. This illumination seems too
high immediately in front of the camera causing some burn out of parts
of the image, particularly if an animal gets close. I have reduced this
effect a bit by putting blue tack over some of the Led's! The camera
can also be focused by removing the glass cover and rotating the lens,
it is a bit of a tricky operation though. The camera has a 320x240
pixel image (about 1/4 of a TV screen). The camera can be connected
directly to a TV or video, but is most effective connected to a PC with
motion detection software.
Cable
The camera comes with about 2m of cable so an extension is likely to be
necessary! Having measure the distance from the front of the house to
the back of the garden I decided that a 50m cable should be sufficient
to reach all areas of the garden. (although it is possible to get
cable up to 100m). The cable includes power supply and video feed so no
other wires are needed. It is possible to get wireless cameras, but
these run from rechargeable batteries, which would have to be changed on
a regular basis.
PC Card
By adding a TV tuner card to a PC it is possible to view the
output of the camera on a PC.
Motion Detection Software
There is a lot of motion detection software available, most of it can
be downloaded for free trail. Much of it is aimed at the home security
market. The big advantage is that you don't have to go through
hours of nothing happening to find the occasional bit of action.
Better software will allow the masking out of areas of the image to
reduce false triggers (e.g. a bush that moves in the wind). It will
also allow some control over the amount of movement necessary to
trigger an event.
Unfortunately larger raindrops close to (or on) the camera trigger an
event, also shadows of bushes that move in the wind can't be masked as
they move with the sun! We also get quite a few events triggered by
shadows cast by seagulls flying overhead.
It is also useful to have a pre trigger recording option as sometimes
some action happens before the trigger point has been reached.
Sorting through the clips
All that has to be done then is sort
through the clips, removing ones where it has been snowing! or a
the shadow of a bush moving in the wind has triggered a
recording, Some help is available, the cat points out the badger
disappearing down its hole!