D-Link DCS-930L Wireless-N Network IP Camera (£39.59 + £10 P&P)

vibe666

Just ordered 4 of these, seems like a pretty decent deal compared to the likes of foscam's etc. although now that i've pulled the trigger on them, i expect someone to be along shortly to tell me otherwise.

the total inc. delivery for 4 of them was £174, so around €220.

http://www.broadbandbuyer.co.uk/Shop/ShopDetail.asp?ProductID=10703



http://mydlink.dlink.com/products/DCS-930L

granted you don't get pan/tilt functionality, but you do get a 45 degree viewing angle, so coverage is pretty good and they're cheap enough that you can buy enough of them so you won't need it.

you don't get IR for your money, so they wouldn't be suited to dark situations as they're (apparently) useless at 1 lux or less, but for indoors or well illuminated situations, they're perfect.

you can remote view with your browser, or mobile (apple & android) apps and record directly to a NAS, or via a PC app directly onto a desktop or laptop, with the usual motion sensing etc. and even a built in mic.

for the money i think they're a pretty good deal.

Do-more

vibe666 wrote: »

i expect someone to be along shortly to tell me otherwise.

Same one £34.98 each here with free super saver delivery.

:P

[Edit] @ vibe66 under distance selling regulations you should have 7 days cooling off period to cancel your order with broadband buyer and re-order from Amazon.

clint_silver

some questions Id be most grateful for if someone could answer

Is an electrician required to run cable to power them?

Are they motion sensitive or continually running and you get to delete history every so often?

Whats the quality like, lets say I stick a camera on the front of the house and my car is broken into, its realistically 10 meters away. Are these cameras of sufficient quality to make out someones face at 10 meters?

Is IR/pan and tilt necessary?

full set up details anywhere online?

vibe666

hopefully these should answer your questions.

clint_silver wrote: »

some questions Id be most grateful for if someone could answer

Is an electrician required to run cable to power them?

Not as long as you are able to put a plug into a wall socket, or run an extension lead yourself.

Are they motion sensitive or continually running and you get to delete history every so often?

they are live view (i.e. no recording), but dlink provide an app to record up to 32 cameras on a PC and you can use them with practically any IP camera software like zoneminder or any NAS that supports IP cameras.

Whats the quality like, lets say I stick a camera on the front of the house and my car is broken into, its realistically 10 meters away. Are these cameras of sufficient quality to make out someones face at 10 meters?

the video output is vga, so 640x480, so it's not going to be HD quality, but it should do the job.

Is IR/pan and tilt necessary?

IR, only if you want to be able to see clearly at night, or in dark areas. pan/tilt, only if you think you'll need to move the camera around to view the surrounding areas.

full set up details anywhere online?

yep, on the dlink page in my first post there are full instructions.

vibe666

Do-more wrote: »

Same one £34.98 each here with free super saver delivery.

:P

[Edit] @ vibe66 under distance selling regulations you should have 7 days cooling off period to cancel your order with broadband buyer and re-order from Amazon.

i might see if they'll price match to save me arsing around re-ordering them.

good tip anyway, you'd have thought i'd have checked amazon before ordering.

groom

I'm thinking about getting one as a baby monitor. Was disappointed this one doesn't do night vision. Looks like it'll have to be a Foscam one.

gerryk

There's a pan/tilt/IR one here for the same price http://www.amazon.co.uk/webcam-Internet-infrated-Nightview-Wireless/dp/B003VUY5PW/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1343736701&sr=1-1

Clareman

I'm looking for 1 as a baby monitor as well, does anyone know what the mic is like on them?

CreepingDeath

gerryk wrote: »

There's a pan/tilt/IR one here for the same price http://www.amazon.co.uk/webcam-Internet-infrated-Nightview-Wireless/dp/B003VUY5PW/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1343736701&sr=1-1

Not a bad price for a FosCam clone/knock-off.
There's an Android app called "IP Cam Viewer" which will let you use an Android smart phone to view it over the net.
At least it works with genuine FosCams.

CreepingDeath

clint_silver wrote: »

Whats the quality like, lets say I stick a camera on the front of the house and my car is broken into, its realistically 10 meters away. Are these cameras of sufficient quality to make out someones face at 10 meters?

No.

Typically the IP cameras are 640x480 resolution.
Go to the window where you want to place the camera, take a photo with a camera/phone camera, and then reduce the image resolution/resize it down to 640x480 to get a good idea of the detail.

I've a proper Foscam, and in low light you're not going to see much.
If you have IR led lights, then they'll reflect back from the window, blinding the camera, so IR lights are no good through windows.

At best, if you had an IR capable camera and disabled the light, then had a separate external IR LED lamp outside to illuminate the area you'd have better night vision. Even then, night vision is grey not colour, unless you have a motion triggered floodlight.

clint_silver

CreepingDeath wrote: »

No.

Typically the IP cameras are 640x480 resolution.
Go to the window where you want to place the camera, take a photo with a camera/phone camera, and then reduce the image resolution/resize it down to 640x480 to get a good idea of the detail.

I've a proper Foscam, and in low light you're not going to see much.
If you have IR led lights, then they'll reflect back from the window, blinding the camera, so IR lights are no good through windows.

At best, if you had an IR capable camera and disabled the light, then had a separate external IR LED lamp outside to illuminate the area you'd have better night vision. Even then, night vision is grey not colour, unless you have a motion triggered floodlight.

thanks for that.
I was thinking then to motion sensor floodlight the back and front. Maybe these.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/OXLUX-Floodlight-Sensor-Cool-White/dp/B0058DUD06/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1343741115&sr=1-1-catcorr

could stick 2 couple of cams under them then.

maybe a couple of those cheaper D-links indoors.

yep.

gerryk

CreepingDeath wrote: »

Not a bad price for a FosCam clone/knock-off.
There's an Android app called "IP Cam Viewer" which will let you use an Android smart phone to view it over the net.
At least it works with genuine FosCams.

I'm tempted to get one and try it out. I use Zoneminder for recording and control, so it would be nice if that would work. I would imagine that the cam would publish either a H264 stream, or, worst case scenario, JPGs.

Amalgam

Techmoan has uploaded a Foscam review just recently, with an eBay link as well. Might be of use to someone, looks okay.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3J3eDbTwiE

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/smartcamdirect

CreepingDeath

gerryk wrote: »

I would imagine that the cam would publish either a H264 stream, or, worst case scenario, JPGs.

The Foscam fi8918w has a MJPEG video stream, and a horribly Microsoft specific proprietary audio codec.

BlackWizard

I'm thinking of getting this http://www.ebay.ie/itm/New-Webcam-Wireless-Pan-Tilt-IP-Camera-Audio-Night-Vision-view-WIFI-CAM-Black-/221075792874?pt=UK_CCTV&hash=item337924e3ea

Similar to what was posted on amazon by gerryk http://www.amazon.co.uk/webcam-Internet-infrated-Nightview-Wireless/dp/B003VUY5PW/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1343736701&sr=1-1

Do-more

BlackWizard wrote: »

I'm thinking of getting this http://www.ebay.ie/itm/New-Webcam-Wireless-Pan-Tilt-IP-Camera-Audio-Night-Vision-view-WIFI-CAM-Black-/221075792874?pt=UK_CCTV&hash=item337924e3ea

Similar to what was posted on amazon by gerryk http://www.amazon.co.uk/webcam-Internet-infrated-Nightview-Wireless/dp/B003VUY5PW/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1343736701&sr=1-1

Why buy from China when you could get caught for customs charges when there is a good selection on Amazon with no risk of extra charges?

fletch

I bought these....the exact same except with night-vision.

pjproby

are these for internal use only?

vibe666

fletch wrote: »

I bought these....the exact same except with night-vision.

how do you find the video quality?

i ended up cancelling my original order (i asked them if they'd price match amazon, but they said they wouldn't be able to) and i'm thinking about getting them off amazon now, but it's also got me thinking i could still do better as prices seem to have come down quite a bit since the last time i was looking.

also, to be fair to the guys i made the purchase from, they were actually very nice about me cancelling it and had refunded my paypal payment immediately, all with a very friendly and courteous attitude. i wouldn't hesitate to recommend them based on that alone. most places wouldn't be so nice about losing a sale.

i'm half thinking of building one myself with my raspberry pi and a regular webcam, but i don't have a huge amount of free time these days for that kind of messing.

vibe666

pjproby wrote: »

are these for internal use only?

yep, most of them are, unless specifically stated otherwise, although i have a mate who's been using foscam's outside (under his eaves) for over a year now and they're still going strong.

paidi_ed

I was thinking of getting one or two of these for internal use also. The ones on amazon listed earlier in thread. Maybe I am missing it completely from specs but can someone tell me if they are battery, mains or plug powered. I think its the latter ?

thanks

dingding

I use the iPhone app uDcsCam to view my dlink cameras on the iPhone and iPad. You can also upgrade the app with a quad view which shows you four cameras on a split screen. It works over 3G and and it supports cameras which have pan and tilt.


http://ubntek.com/udcscam/

Do-more

paidi_ed wrote: »

Maybe I am missing it completely from specs but can someone tell me if they are battery, mains or plug powered. I think its the latter ?

Yes the D-link camera comes with a mains adapter which must be plugged in to power it.

yllw.ldbttr

Clareman wrote: »

I'm looking for 1 as a baby monitor as well, does anyone know what the mic is like on them?

Fine for video, but the audio on my Fosscam clone is not up to scratch. We use a bog standard audio monitor that I got on Amazon for 20 euro, plus the camera - which can be checked from iphone.
Great for checking babay is sleeping without actually disturbing by walking into the room.

vibe666

well, i went a bit mad in the end and i've spent most of the money i had earmarked for the cameras on a raspberry pi motion sensing, wifi, solar powered security camera project.

time will tell how that one goes, but i also went ahead and got a single DCS-930L and a DCS-932L (the IR version) off amazon, so we'll see how that goes. also worth noting that they seem to have short power leads so a quick ebay search for "2.1mm extension" should get you what you need to fix that.

fletch

vibe666 wrote: »

how do you find the video quality?

Sorry only seeing this now.....video quality isn't HD as you know, but its acceptable enough. I have mine set to snap 6 photos and email them to my gmail if the motion detection is triggered. Tbh I bought it more as a deterrent as 5 houses were broken into in my estate in one night recently. So I have one in the kitchen facing the patio doors and the other in another location in the house. The IR is actually quite good even in pitch dark.
It was really great being on holidays in Greece and being able to log into the app on my phone and check up on the house.
One annoying thing with the software is that I would like to be able to set a schedule to turn on and off motion detection, i.e. during working hours and at night...however it's either on or off. As a result, my email account gets filled up every couple of months with images (easy enough in gmail to delete them)....I email mydlink and it's on their development roadmap (so they say )

Saruman

Good price for an individual camera but when you get 4 of them and spend €220, you are now in to full CCTV system territory. Usually 4 cameras and DVR and all cabling required for not much more than you paid for the 4 IP cameras.
Since you have to have them plugged in to the mains anyway for power, you might as well get a normal wired system to be honest.

A system like this.

pjproby

are normal dvr systems expensive to run?

vibe666

Saruman wrote: »

A system like this.

i've actually got one almost exactly like that already looking after the outside of the house that was here when we moved in.

these are for inside.

i only got two in the end (for now).

the one without IR is going to be positioned where it can cover about 80% of the downstairs and the one with IR is going to be for keeping an eye on the baby when he's sleeping.

i have a NAS i can use for recording footage and an ESXi Server if i want to try other monitoring software.

the main TV also has a HTPC connected to it and a HD webcam on top for Skype calls to friends and family, which I also use to double up as a security camera if we're ever away for long periods using yawcam with the motion activated option, but it's not exactly in the perfect position, so unless someone happens to walk past it, it's not going to be that much good as it is if i forget to move it into a better position before we leave.

and yes, i'm fully aware of how much of a nerd i am.

neacy69

vibe666 wrote: »

well, i went a bit mad in the end and i've spent most of the money i had earmarked for the cameras on a raspberry pi motion sensing, wifi, solar powered security camera project.

time will tell how that one goes, but i also went ahead and got a single DCS-930L and a DCS-932L (the IR version) off amazon, so we'll see how that goes. also worth noting that they seem to have short power leads so a quick ebay search for "2.1mm extension" should get you what you need to fix that.

Any more info on this?

I'm also looking for some cctv camera's since my car was nicked back in march

vibe666

neacy69 wrote: »

Any more info on this?

I'm also looking for some cctv camera's since my car was nicked back in march

The basic design is going to be using the following:

an RPi model B running debian or arch with 'motion' installed for motion sensing image/video capture
an 802.11n wireless adapter (not sure what yet tho, looking for something that will work well, and has the option of an external antenna to increase the range, i'm open to ideas)
a possible future upgrade might be a USB 3G dongle so i can put it pretty much anywhere i fancy, as long as someone doesn't find it and walk off with it!
a USB webcam (I have a Logitech C270 and a Playstation Eye already, but i might buy something else if it means I can get better results)
a 12800mAh 5V Li-Po USB Battery Charger Power Bank
a 5W 1A 5V Portable Solar Panel to keep the battery topped up (hopefully, more or less indefinitely)
a 4 port 5V powered USB hub
a USB DC Jack Power Cable
*some* kind of waterproof housing for it all (I'm thinking just tupperware or similar to begin with, but we'll see how it goes).

I have the RPi and a couple of webcams to test already, the rest is en route (mostly from asia) by way of ebay.

not sure how well the solar panel will fare in ireland, but it's all a learning experience at the end of the day an i'm sure i can .

it's just a pet project though, you'd probably be wanting something with a little more commercial polish to watch your car!

Do-more

vibe666 wrote: »

*some* kind of waterproof housing for it all (I'm thinking just tupperware or similar to begin with, but we'll see how it goes).

How about a cheap "Fake" cctv camera dome for the webcam? Bit of silicone and bob's yer uncle!

vibe666

Do-more wrote: »

How about a cheap "Fake" cctv camera dome for the webcam? Bit of silicone and bob's yer uncle!

well, the solar panel is going to be 200mm x 162mm, so that'll pretty much have to cover the whole of the top of whatever i put the rest of the kit in (it's waterproof anyway), so i was thinking the main box would be slung underneath it with a smallish hole cut in one side with a small glass or clear perspex panel stuck over it for the camera to see out of.

dingding

I have my pc set up as an FTP server and the cameras are set to post snapshots to the FTP server if they detect motion. I have the ftpnfolder linked to the photos folder on my Dropbox account so I can view the photos over the web and via Dropbox on other computers and an IPad

padocon

gerryk wrote: »

There's a pan/tilt/IR one here for the same price http://www.amazon.co.uk/webcam-Internet-infrated-Nightview-Wireless/dp/B003VUY5PW/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1343736701&sr=1-1

Does anyone have this one? Any good?

vibe666

padocon wrote: »

Does anyone have this one? Any good?

it's a clone of a foscam, would be almost impossible to tell which one it actually was and depending on the actual models, foscams can vary in quality quite a bit.

vibe666

just to let anyone know who's looking to get one of these, it's very simple to set up either with the supplied CD or manually, and for the price the picture is actually pretty good.

CreepingDeath

padocon wrote: »

Does anyone have this one? Any good?

I've a proper Foscam, they're okay.
It was a bit temperamental to setup, but okay after that.

The motion detection isn't fantastic, but it works after a fashion

1) they have a crude motion detection algorithm which is triggered by changes in light, eg. sun going in and out of the clouds causing shadows in the picture. So you get a lot of false positives.

2) it only stores 5 pictures, one second apart, when motion is detected.
These can go straight to your GMail account, or your own FTP server.
It doesn't record a video clip.

3) At night time it's just passable, you wouldn't recognise faces.

4) Resolution is only 640x480, a bare minimum these days.

But it works, "IP Cam Viewer" is a great Android app to view it from a smart phone.
Foscam also published their API, so you can control it via http commands or write your own web interface / remote recording application.

vibe666

there's a multi-cam management app for windows that comes with the D-Link cams as well, so if you want to record to a PC, just install that and it's got scheduled recording and motion detection etc. built in with the usual configurable options.

each camera also has it's own browser config page as well, both for remote viewing and to set up wireless access etc. with their own individual configurable options like motion detection with ftp upload or email alerts and scheduling. there's even a handy option to disable the LED on the front so the camera doesn't draw attention to itself.

setup was simple enough, i just plugged each one into my router via ethernet, waiting for them to grab a DHCP address from the router and then log in via my browser using the IP address given to them by the router with admin as the username and a blank password.

from there, you just enable wireless access, do a wireless survey, pick out your own wifi network and put in the wireless key and save the settings and that's it.

if you have a wireless router with a WPS button, it's even easier. just push the WPS button on the camera and on the router within a minute of each other and they'll connect automatically with no manual config at all.

obviously wired would be better for reliability and to avoid problems with interference etc. but if you're not able to run a network cable and homeplugs are out of your price range, wireless works fine.

also, the ip cam viewer app for android works a treat for mobile viewing.

overall, i'm delighted with the DCS-930L for the price, although by comparison the DCS-932L is a little pricy considering it doesn't have any PTZ functionality.