Installing more cameras


Last year I installed two solar powered independent surveillance cameras that are linked via WiFi to our central surveillance system. This year, after monitoring the power consumption of these two cameras, I've determined that the solar panels and batteries I configured for each camera should be able to support an additional camera each.
A close up view of the components of a camera system.  A normal CCTV camera enclosure makes a nice weatherproof housing for the system.  Inside there's basically just an HD webcam, a Raspberry Pi computer, a DC to DC converter,  and a USB extension cable.  The only specialized item in this setup is a small printed circuit board I etch for the DC to DC converter.  One end of the USB extension cable, which passes outside of the enclosure through its grommet, is embedded with epoxy in the lid of an empty plastic pill bottle (lower left corner of image).  With a tiny Edimax Wi-Fi dongle plugged in and the bottle screwed in place, the pill bottle makes a very effective waterproof Wi-Fi dongle housing.  It's childproof too!
Each camera's operating system is simply a clone of one of the existing surveillance cameras with a few minor post-cloning modifications.  Modifications include: assigning a new manual ip address in /etc/network/interfaces, changing the ftp folder destination for captured images being transferred to the central surveillance station, and changing the 'text_left' camera number in /etc/motion/motion.conf. 

The six video camera feeds as they appear on my laptop.
 In addition to the surveillance system's automated motion-activated imagery capture and transmission processes, I am also able to view the video feeds live when connected to the local Wi-Fi network.  In other words, I can watch the video in real-time on my laptop while sitting in my camper trailer. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Front-end loader mounted t-post installer

Image
 Since we started fencing the perimeter of our ranch in 2014, I've strove to increase the rate at which I am able to fence an area.  Among the most recent improvements has been a t-post pusher which is mounted to our tractor's front-end loader bucket.  This device is very simple, but has already saved us countless hours of work. The following photographs illustrate how I use the post pusher.  Aiming: The loader is first positioned with the end of the pusher is close to the ground.  I then maneuver the tractor until the end of the pusher is in alignment with the marked post location.  This is how the lined up pusher looks from the driver's seat of the tractor.  Yes, I know the loader has an issue with the hydraulics cover. Loading:  Once the pusher is aligned, I place the tractor in park, raise the loader arm and insert a t-post into the open end of the pusher.  Tilting:  Correct placement of the t-post is dependent aligning the post along three axises,
Read more

DIY cultipacker-roller

Image
For those of you who are unfamiliar with agricultural equipment, a cultipacker is an implement used to compress soil.  There are several reasons a farmer may use a cultipacker, but, for me, the primary purpose for the cultipacker is to pack down soil that has just been planted with grass seed.  This should greatly improve seed germination in newly planted bison pasture. Five truck tire rims welded together form the shape of the cultipacker.  Technically this is really more of a cultipacker-roller hybrid as the ridged portions on the roller should be more closely spaced on a true cultipacker.  A thick piece of steel tube runs through the center of the rims, which I'll explain later in this post. For added weight each tire rim was filled with concrete after it was welded in place.  A photograph of the roller portion of the cultipacker completed and waiting for the concrete to cure.  The length of steel tube that runs through the center of the roller is welded to the
Read more

Face fly nightmare

Image
Face flies beginning to appear a few days after my initial treatment with AiM-L VetCaps.  I unfortunately don't have any photos of the original mob of flies, which was much worse. Since the forth of July an insect called the face fly ( Musca autumnalis ) has plagued our ranch and caused me a considerable amount of stress.  It was a week ago, on the forth, while doing a routine check on the herd, that I noticed that the bison appeared to be greatly agitated by a surprisingly high number of the flies.  While the sight of flies or other small insects buzzing around grazing animals is nothing unusual, this was something different.  The flies flocked in groups around the eyes and nose of each animal so incessantly that the bisons' natural defenses appeared to be ineffective.  All the blinking, ear flapping, tail wagging, snorting, rolling in soil, and rubbing on trees had little effect.  No matter how many times they did these things the flies would just briefly fly up into the
Read more