Calving Cameras - check over the WWW

BeeDI

I'm trying to come up with a calving camera configuration to the following specification.

1. Sheds are 1,500 meters from the house and no clear line of sight.
2. No fixed telecom lines near the shed.

So my question is as follows.

Is there a low / reasonable cost camera system I could install using mobile phone SIM card as a way to dial into to see what's going on with the cows. I believe there is something called IP cameras, but I don't know much about this stuff.

Who can advise?

I should clarify, I have an O2 mobile broadband dongle, which I could potentially use as the SIM for the system.

B

blue5000

I'm not an expert but would it be possible to use skype? Have you mains power at the farm?

BeeDI

blue5000 wrote: »

I'm not an expert but would it be possible to use skype? Have you mains power at the farm?

Yes I have power and I did think about Skype, but discounted it for the reason, that I would need to train the cow, to answer the incoming Skype call:cool: unless of course there could be a way around that! Any ideas??

pakalasa

Covered here;
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=63230559

vanderbadger

BeeDI wrote: »

I'm trying to come up with a calving camera configuration to the following specification.

1. Sheds are 1,500 meters from the house and no clear line of sight.
2. No fixed telecom lines near the shed.

So my question is as follows.

Is there a low / reasonable cost camera system I could install using mobile phone SIM card as a way to dial into to see what's going on with the cows. I believe there is something called IP cameras, but I don't know much about this stuff.

Who can advise?

I should clarify, I have an O2 mobile broadband dongle, which I could potentially use as the SIM for the system.

B

the IP camera is handy but since you have no line of sight that means you probably wont be able to get a wireless link between your home and shed so you have no IP connection there..im not sure mobile broadband would work great either, lets face it, its sh1t slow and would probably take all day to get a decent pic up, and it would be expensive to get a new line from eircom etc in shed and then get broadband..if you put a gih pole onto roof of shed do you think you have any chance of line of sight?

laurence997

If there were any chance of a line of sight a pair of Yagi antenna would probably bridge the gap from your wireless internet in the house to the shed. The best chance is to have a N rated router and computer dongle. Have a camera connected to the computer, and then you could probably connect to the computer via software like logmein or something, though I'm not sure how easy it'd be so set up logmein on an internal network(if anyone can help me out there please do).
I've thought about it a bit and thats the simplest way that I can think of doing it. Have fun

PS Actually the IP camera idea is way simpler but you'll have to set a router in the shed to bridge. When I was thinking about it I was thinking about computer control to move the camera around, and I'd leave a computer in the shed. Sorry if my blind rant confused anyone.

snowman707

BeeDI wrote: »

I'm trying to come up with a calving camera configuration to the following specification.

1. Sheds are 1,500 meters from the house and no clear line of sight.



B

1500 mtrs isn't that long, what is blocking the line of sight ? ie trees, buildings etc, or the elevation of the land ?

laurence997

snowman707 wrote: »

1500 mtrs isn't that long, what is blocking the line of sight ? ie trees, buildings etc, or the elevation of the land ?

Its long enough for even the slightest interferance to block most wireless signals unless you use very high gain adapters I'd imagine.

nilhg

Might be worth the OP's while giving Justin at Wi-Pipe a shout, there would be no problem covering the distance with his gear, absolute LOS might not be required.

BeeDI

snowman707 wrote: »

1500 mtrs isn't that long, what is blocking the line of sight ? ie trees, buildings etc, or the elevation of the land ?

It's land elevation. Thing is I cut a tree tonight which gives me clear line of sight of another shed on my property which in turn has clear line of sight of the calving shed. Both sheds have power. This must give me more option. Any one care to give me a guide.

nilhg

BeeDI wrote: »

It's land elevation. Thing is I cut a tree tonight which gives me clear line of sight of another shed on my property which in turn has clear line of sight of the calving shed. Both sheds have power. This must give me more option. Any one care to give me a guide.

What's the distance between the sheds, you'll be able to run up to 100M of cat5E cable, which would make the setup easier if for example one was close enough to the house.

Here at home we have 4 houses and a workshop all connected together via wireless and sharing a DSL connection once you get it setup it works perfectly.

laurence997

nilhg wrote: »

Might be worth the OP's while giving Justin at Wi-Pipe a shout, there would be no problem covering the distance with his gear, absolute LOS might not be required.

That was exactly the site I was looking for but I couldn't think of the name. "Yagi" antennae as such are hard enough to find but they do the same thing.
Thanks Nilhg.

vanderbadger

BeeDI wrote: »

It's land elevation. Thing is I cut a tree tonight which gives me clear line of sight of another shed on my property which in turn has clear line of sight of the calving shed. Both sheds have power. This must give me more option. Any one care to give me a guide.

ya so you could use 3 devices to create the link, the one in the middle would be the central point with another at your house and another at the sheds where you need the camera, I use these and they are easy to set up and cheap to buy
http://www.aerial.net/shop/product_info.php?products_id=466
you can literally cable tie them to a drain pipe or anything, no need for expensive mounting kit
I have 3 working away myself, the sheds are my central point with one at my house and one at my brothers so we are all linked, for example broadband comes in at 1 house but is usable in both and you can look up camera in both houses also, i should also be able to look up my camera from the internet but need to set up a rule on the broadband modem which i never seem to get to

adne

I'd recommend CAT 5 cable and forget about the wireless, You can imagine how weak the wireless signal would be on a Windy Night in Feb just when u need the Calving Camera most....

Otherwise if u insist on a wireless option this is the baby u need (expensive but very good)

http://www.3com.com/products/en_US/detail.jsp?tab=reqoptprod&sku=3CRWEASYA73&pathtype=purchase

Jimbo

adne wrote: »

I'd recommend CAT 5 cable and forget about the wireless, You can imagine how weak the wireless signal would be on a Windy Night in Feb just when u need the Calving Camera most....

Otherwise if u insist on a wireless option this is the baby u need (expensive but very good)

http://www.3com.com/products/en_US/detail.jsp?tab=reqoptprod&sku=3CRWEASYA73&pathtype=purchase

A cat5 cable will generally only work up to 100m. He would have to install fibre for that kind of distance.

nilhg

adne wrote: »

I'd recommend CAT 5 cable and forget about the wireless, You can imagine how weak the wireless signal would be on a Windy Night in Feb just when u need the Calving Camera most....

Otherwise if u insist on a wireless option this is the baby u need (expensive but very good)

http://www.3com.com/products/en_US/detail.jsp?tab=reqoptprod&sku=3CRWEASYA73&pathtype=purchase

You'd need a powered repeater every 100M with the cat5E, if the wireless gear is mounted anyway securely there won't be a problem as long as the OP uses gear designed for outdoors.

The 3com gear looks fine if there is a supplier here, wouldnt be nice to be looking for a spare from the states in the middle of the calving. I still reccommend giving Justin at wi-pipe a shout, tell him what you want to do and he'll sort everything out for the OP.

Really this should be in the wireless forum, some really knowledgeable fellas there.

snowman707

adne wrote: »

I'd recommend CAT 5 cable and forget about the wireless, You can imagine how weak the wireless signal would be on a Windy Night in Feb just when u need the Calving Camera most....

Otherwise if u insist on a wireless option this is the baby u need (expensive but very good)

http://www.3com.com/products/en_US/detail.jsp?tab=reqoptprod&sku=3CRWEASYA73&pathtype=purchase

cables over long distances are a PITA , we are using wireless for 20 years with no problems, a system I built my self, all i will say if you goo well above VHF the weather conditions will not affect the reception , having said that however i am not going to say the frequency I am using ;)

BeeDI

Lads, cabling the whole thing is not an option. Have to cross property I do not own!!
I could concievably cable (circa 100 meters) from calving shed to another shed which is in line of sight of my house.
So what do I need to do from there.
My own guess is. Signal booster/repeater connected to the router in my house. IP camera in calving shed, cabled to the middle shed.
Now .......... what to I need in the middle shed? Do I need a computer?
Do I need an antenna? Do I need a router? Or do I need a combination of some or all of the three gizmos?

MB1380

Do you have power in the shed? you could try find a more powerful version of these >> http://www.maplin.co.uk/Family.aspx?Menu=1669&worldid=-3&C=Maplin&U=MainMenu&utm_source=Maplin&utm_medium=MainMenu&utm_content=Computing-Networking+-+Over+The+Mains&utm_campaign=MainMenu
I have one going to my garage but it is only 20M away.

nilhg

BeeDI wrote: »

Lads, cabling the whole thing is not an option. Have to cross property I do not own!!
I could concievably cable (circa 100 meters) from calving shed to another shed which is in line of sight of my house.
So what do I need to do from there.
My own guess is. Signal booster/repeater connected to the router in my house. IP camera in calving shed, cabled to the middle shed.
Now .......... what to I need in the middle shed? Do I need a computer?
Do I need an antenna? Do I need a router? Or do I need a combination of some or all of the three gizmos?

Presuming you already have a router in your house, you'll need an outdoor wireless access point on your house with view to the middle shed, on the middle shed you need a wireless CPE which will be connected by cat5 cable to a switch which will be connected by long cat5 cable to the IP camera in your calving shed (you might need a switch here too). No computer needed except in your house to view the pictures.

studdlymurphy

A bit expensive maybe?
http://www.donedeal.ie/for-sale/machinery/1529840

John_F

tis hot alright id say