Dummys guide to DIY Calving Camera

agricamera

Lofty0990 wrote: »

agricamera wrote: »

Are you buying a spool or a preterminated length?

Comms express is the best place to go for preterminated, if you want outdoor rated cable on a roll Solwise are generally cheaper but their preterminated patch cables are junk.

Avoid anything that is called CCA - copper clad aluminium, it will cause you no end of grief.

is the shielded cable better for hostile enviornment of dust ,condensation etc that you would get in cubicle house?

http://www.comms-express.com/products/shielded-cat5e-rj45-patch-leads/

Just normal cat5e will be fine.

GoodMan55985

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=iHTxuYa3Kzo

This link is great for lads getting to know port forwarding, setting up a static ip address and viewing ip camera remotely etc for foscam but it would useful to know for any ip camera brand. It is very detailed video. Best I seen on the net by long way.

just do it

just do it wrote: »

I took the plunge and purchased the Foscam camera and 3 nano-stations on ebay. I was going to buy from Foscam UK direct but I just thought the extra st£35 added in at the final step a bit checky, and suddenly it was €132 vs €75 on ebay. The nano-stations from the website linked earlier in this thread were not available for immediate shipping, hence I'm getting these from ebay as well.

All going well I'll have the full set-up for €235

Got the gear and now need to look at setting it up. Will the nano stations connect through a block cavity wall (i.e. through the external wall of the house) or through a window? The base station I'll be connecting to my modem in the house isn't conveniently placed allowing me to run a Cat5 cable to the outside.

valtra2

just wondering there is the cow cam on sale in local glanbia for 460 euro, was thinking of getting it, fathers house is on farm 20 meters from cow shed i am 5 miles away they are broad band in father house so i could get it in my houes, just wondering what you think of the cow cam, there is a app for the cow cam too

vanderbadger

just do it wrote: »

Got the gear and now need to look at setting it up. Will the nano stations connect through a block cavity wall (i.e. through the external wall of the house) or through a window? The base station I'll be connecting to my modem in the house isn't conveniently placed allowing me to run a Cat5 cable to the outside.

mine one inside the house is inside a window pointing up at sheds, works fine

big_show

Looking to set a similar Ip camera system. The shed is remote so ill have to go down the mobile broadband route.

So far reading through this thread my shopping list consists of an IP camera (probably a foscom judging by the thread), 3/4G router (like a dovado 4GR or a cheaper alternative), a prepaid mobile broadband dongle (3 or vodafone) and finally an account with dyndns.org (free).

I'm looking at connecting them together in that order and making this go. is there anything I'm missing?

I see some mentions of DVR's on other threads, do i need one of them? whats the benefit of having one? is it just to look back through footage?

All my i want my system to do is to log into the camera to check on cows calving every so often during the day, so i don't need it for security.

just do it

just do it wrote: »

I took the plunge and purchased the Foscam camera and 3 nano-stations on ebay. I was going to buy from Foscam UK direct but I just thought the extra st£35 added in at the final step a bit checky, and suddenly it was €132 vs €75 on ebay. The nano-stations from the website linked earlier in this thread were not available for immediate shipping, hence I'm getting these from ebay as well.

All going well I'll have the full set-up for €235

Up and running



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Still need to play around a bit with location in the shed. Putting it up higher will hopefully get rid of a lot of the contrast due to light from open side of shed.

vanderbadger

just do it wrote: »

Up and running



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Still need to play around a bit with location in the shed. Putting it up higher will hopefully get rid of a lot of the contrast due to light from open side of shed.

good stuff, if you hang it upside down up high somewhere there should be a setting in the camera somewhere to invert the image, when its up high it should give you a good view of the shed

just do it

GoodMan55985 wrote: »

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=iHTxuYa3Kzo

This link is great for lads getting to know port forwarding, setting up a static ip address and viewing ip camera remotely etc for foscam but it would useful to know for any ip camera brand. It is very detailed video. Best I seen on the net by long way.

Thanks Goodman. I'll be trying it out tomorrow, fingers crossed

just do it

just do it wrote: »

Thanks Goodman. I'll be trying it out tomorrow, fingers crossed

No joy with this I'm afraid. I've done as outlined with no-ip.com but when I enter my new hostname in the browser it goes nowhere. I've opened up the ports allowing port forwarding but still no joy.

There may be no option but to get a static IP address which costs €50 from eircom. My issue with this is our BB connection is poor and I really don't want to spend any more on it at this stage.

vanderbadger

just do it wrote: »

No joy with this I'm afraid. I've done as outlined with no-ip.com but when I enter my new hostname in the browser it goes nowhere. I've opened up the ports allowing port forwarding but still no joy.

There may be no option but to get a static IP address which costs €50 from eircom. My issue with this is our BB connection is poor and I really don't want to spend any more on it at this stage.

couple of quick things to check, if you have set up port forwarding you should not be able to access your camera without the port number, for example if you were going to 192.168.1.10 previously this probably wont work without going to 192.168.1.10:3333 or whatever port you set up..so if you are still accessing your camera without the port number something not right

next your public ip on your broadband router wont change unless its rebooted so in all likely hood you will have hte same address for long periods
if you open google and type whatsmyip it will show you a site, if you click them they will tell you your public address, if port forwarding is working as outlined above you should be able to put this public address into your browser with the port number and get to your camera
eg 57.36,17,45:3333

GoodMan55985

just do it wrote: »

No joy with this I'm afraid. I've done as outlined with no-ip.com but when I enter my new hostname in the browser it goes nowhere. I've opened up the ports allowing port forwarding but still no joy.

There may be no option but to get a static IP address which costs €50 from eircom. My issue with this is our BB connection is poor and I really don't want to spend any more on it at this stage.

What type of router do you have. I have Netopia. To get it working for me I had to set security as Low instead of Medium (reccommended). Not ideal but port forwarding would not work for me otherwise. That was the biggest problem I had.

just do it

GoodMan55985 wrote: »

What type of router do you have. I have Netopia. To get it working for me I had to set security as Low instead of Medium (reccommended). Not ideal but port forwarding would not work for me otherwise. That was the biggest problem I had.

Same router and I've set the firewall to low but still no joy. According to the test programme on portforward.com the port is open but still not working for some reason.

PureBred

just do it wrote: »

Same router and I've set the firewall to low but still no joy. According to the test programme on portforward.com the port is open but still not working for some reason.

Your dyndns address will not work if you are using the internet in which the camera is also connected.

For example 192.168.1.99 is you camera on your home network and it is setup with WAN Port 3000 and LAN Port 3000 on your router. You have a dyndns account setup as mycowcam.dyndns.org.

You can access you camera from your home with 192.168.1.99:3000.
Obviously this will not work from your neighbours/work internet as this is only and INTERNAL IP address.Correct?

However mycowcam.dyndns.org:3000 should work from your neighbours/work but not yours as this converts to a EXTERNAL IP address. There is some sort of loopback that will not allow the dyndns account to work from inside your own Lan. I found this from setting up my own system.

So make sure when your testing the mycowcam.dyndns.org:3000 from somewhere outside of your home network(neighbours/work).

just do it

PureBred wrote: »

Your dyndns address will not work if you are using the internet in which the camera is also connected.

For example 192.168.1.99 is you camera on your home network and it is setup with WAN Port 3000 and LAN Port 3000 on your router. You have a dyndns account setup as mycowcam.dyndns.org.

You can access you camera from your home with 192.168.1.99:3000.
Obviously this will not work from your neighbours/work internet as this is only and INTERNAL IP address.Correct?

However mycowcam.dyndns.org:3000 should work from your neighbours/work but not yours as this converts to a EXTERNAL IP address. There is some sort of loopback that will not allow the dyndns account to work from inside your own Lan. I found this from setting up my own system.

So make sure when your testing the mycowcam.dyndns.org:3000 from somewhere outside of your home network(neighbours/work).

Makes sense, I'll give it a go

agricamera

just do it wrote: »

Makes sense, I'll give it a go

If you are still struggling tomorrow, give me a ring, 01271 828 407, I'll get it working for you

We have set dozens of them up before we had our new system that doesn't require port forwarding, I am quite speedy at it now :eek:

just do it

Yippee, thanks to vander I got it working. I changed to port associated to the camera from 88 to 3334 and that one is open. Port 80 and 88 are shut according to canyouseeme.org, whereas when I entered 3334 I get the message the port is open.

I've checked from a source other than my home network so I'm satisfied I now have remote access.

Thanks folks for all the replies, I may now be able to go away for a night or two over the New Year:D:D

PureBred

On a side note has anyone used the likes of these?

http://www.irishwireless.net/networking-solutions/solutions-for-agriculture/eoc1650#.UNXeM6zkJj4

My shed is too far away to get the wireless out to it from the house. It still is only about 100m.

Dozer1

Trying to get this working on a foscam FI8918w.
I can get it all working except the port forwarding bit to access out side the house.
Has anyone tried using the free DDNS domain that is detailed in the instruction guide: its xxxx.myfoscam.org where xxxx is a number on the bottom of the camera?

Also previous treads have mentioned free dnydns.org accounts. When I look at it I can only find a $20 per year account. Am I looking in the wrong place?
Thanks for the help.

GoodMan55985

Instead of dnydns use no-ip.com. That one is free.

just do it

Dozer1 wrote: »

Trying to get this working on a foscam FI8918w.
I can get it all working except the port forwarding bit to access out side the house.
Has anyone tried using the free DDNS domain that is detailed in the instruction guide: its xxxx.myfoscam.org where xxxx is a number on the bottom of the camera?

Also previous treads have mentioned free dnydns.org accounts. When I look at it I can only find a $20 per year account. Am I looking in the wrong place?
Thanks for the help.

Apologies for not coming back to you on this sooner. I'd an issue with port forwarding as well. What port have you assigned to the camera? I'd assigned 88 as per one of the foscam youtube videos and it wouldn't work. Now, thanks to vander, it is assigned to 3334 and I can view it remotely.

I've a free dyns account but haven't used it yet as I've been at home and just haven't got to it yet. You sign up but cancel within 14 days and they leave you one host address.

How I view it remotely is I get my current IP address from whatsmyip.com and then from the remote location just add :3334 to the end of it.

Have you got it working?

Dozer1

No worries just do it, got it figured out now like you said had to to follow van's advice, used the 8080 port on our router and we can see it now.

waiting on a fella to put up a bit of a calving shed before I can fully use them, its for the inlaws so its one of those free time projects;)
I see from the photos thread u're making full use of your system

just do it

Dozer1 wrote: »

No worries just do it, got it figured out now like you said had to to follow van's advice, used the 8080 port on our router and we can see it now.

waiting on a fella to put up a bit of a calving shed before I can fully use them, its for the inlaws so its one of those free time projects;)
I see from the photos thread u're making full use of your system

Yeah it's like a new toy to be honest. I've 2 cows calved since I got it and I'd now find it very hard to go without it! Sitting in work currently and just had quick peek to see nothings happening

Good to hear you got sorted.

RoncoRider

Sorry to arrive a bit late to the thread but really excited about it all.

I have one question about the nanostation option as oppose to the direct wiring using cat5. I want to install two foscam cameras so how does that work with the nanostaion and connecting each of them to it ???

My yard is only 40 - 50m from the house so I know I could just run two cat5 to each camera and power them outside off the sheds power, which does share the same earth as the house !!!

just do it

Dozer1 wrote: »

No worries just do it, got it figured out now like you said had to to follow van's advice, used the 8080 port on our router and we can see it now.

waiting on a fella to put up a bit of a calving shed before I can fully use them, its for the inlaws so its one of those free time projects;)
I see from the photos thread u're making full use of your system

Going completely off topic, what kind of a shed are you putting up? Quickly running out of space here :rolleyes:

just do it

RoncoRider wrote: »

Sorry to arrive a bit late to the thread but really excited about it all.

I have one question about the nanostation option as oppose to the direct wiring using cat5. I want to install two foscam cameras so how does that work with the nanostaion and connecting each of them to it ???

My yard is only 40 - 50m from the house so I know I could just run two cat5 to each camera and power them outside off the sheds power, which does share the same earth as the house !!!

I'm no expert but at that distance I think cat5 cable is probably better. Somewhere earlier in this thread it talks about a junction box when using more than 1 camera. Loads of threads on here on this topic.

vanderbadger

RoncoRider wrote: »

Sorry to arrive a bit late to the thread but really excited about it all.

I have one question about the nanostation option as oppose to the direct wiring using cat5. I want to install two foscam cameras so how does that work with the nanostaion and connecting each of them to it ???

My yard is only 40 - 50m from the house so I know I could just run two cat5 to each camera and power them outside off the sheds power, which does share the same earth as the house !!!

just buy a little 4 or 8 port switch from amazon etc, connect you nano shed side into the switch along with the 2 cameras
for example
http://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-Link-Unmanaged-Desktop-TL-SF1008D-Plastic/dp/B000MGBOHA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1357241662&sr=8-1

Dozer1

camera is for the inlaws, I've plenty of space at my place I'd say.
they're just adding another bay onto existing shed it'll give them 2 pens which should be loads.

gctest50

From the lads who make Nanostations :

http://www.aerial.net/shop/product/107/1184/ubiquiti-aircam-h264-outdoor-megapixel.html



http://www.ubnt.com/airvision


havn't seen them ==> no idea how good they are



Anyway once you have a data link out to your sheds, other devices could be useful

This will sense current ( or lack of it) : 10euro-ish

http://www.aerial.net/shop/product/1269/ubiquiti-ubiquiti-mfi-mfics-current.html

it could send an alert if
- maybe if a electric fence stopped ?
- milk cooler /stirrer thingy stopped ?



P.I.R sensor so you can load the shotgun :

http://www.aerial.net/shop/product/1268/ubiquiti-ubiquiti-mfi-mfimsw-ir.html

http://www.ubnt.com/mfi



Data Switch with Power-over-Ethernet - make a tidy job of supplying power to Nanostations and cameras

http://www.4gon.co.uk/ubiquiti-toughswitch-5port-poe-p-5478.html --- * 24 VOLT !!!!!!


.

ferger1

Well lads, im fairly new to this forum, but id like a bit of advice when it comes to calving cameras and the set up id require.

I live approxiametly 3 miles from my calving shed with no line of sight between the shed and the house. I have vodafone mobile broadband at the house, which can be hit and miss (no phone line at the house). As far as i know there is a '3' mast quite close to the farm.

I would like to be able to view the camera from my smartphone and laptop.

Im not upto speed with how this could work, so any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.