Home security camera -where and how?

As I have stated before, technology beats me all the time. hence, as usual, I ask for help from people who know more than me. Now, bear with me, this is not the usual type of question.

I have a sick cat. The vet thinks maybe she has eaten something. I have given my place a sweep for suspicious elements and I am still scratching my head.

Then on TV, while watching a program about pets, they were showing how they use cameras to “unveil” pet mysteries. For example, there was a household with 2 dogs and 2 cats. When the owner came home, the cat’s can of food had been opened mysteriously. By using the camera, they found out it was one of the dogs. Then another household had “ghost steps” in the middle of the night. Turns out it was one cat playing with a ball down a flight of stairs -he hid teh ball when the owner was up.

Hence it has occurred to me that if I set a camera I can find out what is going on. The problem is what kind, where, how? I don’t even know where to go and look for one. B&Q?

It has also ocurred to me that maybe even a fake camera on the entrance of the building will deter thieves. However,. I don’t remember seeing any of these for sale recently.

I would look at Gunghua market, there are some shops that specialize in such.

What you need is a recording unit, those are made specifically for surveillance cameras, from 1 to 8, 16 or more inputs. The more advanced models use an interchangable hard disc, the simple ones may use memory cards (like those of digital cameras). Probably the latter will do for your purpose, and it will be cheaper, too. Just make sure it has motion detection, meaning the recording starts when the controller detects changes in the picture coming from the camera. This way it won’t record continuously and waste storage space and your time when reviewing the recording.
The recorder should be able to connect to your TV, the more expensive ones can also connect to a PC monitor (and internet/LAN etc.).

Example of a simple recorder: homespy.com/PDVR-SD1.htm

And a more advanced one: scdlink.com/Details.cfm?ProdID=2348

Pair it with a reasonable priced camera with infrared (IR) LEDs / night vision if you need to record in the dark. Don’t go for the really cheap ones, their resolution and range is ususally poor.
Cameras can be black & white or color; the latter will be more expensive but night recordings are usually black & white (or more green and white), so if you don’t need to record in color during the day a b&w will do.

Example for something that looks like it won’t do the job (only a handful of IR LEDs): ferret.com.au/c/Ness-Securit … ts-n815871

Something like this will be better (the cheaper ones): deluxecctv.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=96

You can probably get a decent local made camera cheaper in Taiwan and some may actually use branded sensors (like Sony etc.). But beware of the claims regarding the see-in-the-dark range, they are often exaggarated.

[quote=“Icon”]As I have stated before, technology beats me all the time. hence, as usual, I ask for help from people who know more than me. Now, bear with me, this is not the usual type of question.

I have a sick cat. The vet thinks maybe she has eaten something. I have given my place a sweep for suspicious elements and I am still scratching my head.

Then on TV, while watching a program about pets, they were showing how they use cameras to “unveil” pet mysteries. For example, there was a household with 2 dogs and 2 cats. When the owner came home, the cat’s can of food had been opened mysteriously. By using the camera, they found out it was one of the dogs. Then another household had “ghost steps” in the middle of the night. Turns out it was one cat playing with a ball down a flight of stairs -he hid teh ball when the owner was up.

Hence it has occurred to me that if I set a camera I can find out what is going on. The problem is what kind, where, how? I don’t even know where to go and look for one. B&Q?

It has also ocurred to me that maybe even a fake camera on the entrance of the building will deter thieves. However,. I don’t remember seeing any of these for sale recently.[/quote]

Before you start you’ll need to think about what type of camera, how many, and placement. If you have a web cam you can set one up to become a security camera for free.
You can also setup a system similar to what Rascal had suggested, but this might be a bit overkill if you’re just watching for your cat. Unless it’s to deter thieves…

There are wireless cameras that can network into your existing wired/wireless network. These seem to work well, I’ve seen some businesses use them as surveillance before. (Hell, even my post office uses one.)

Here’s some information on free software/ideas for your webcam.
http://lifehacker.com/393274/do-more-with-your-webcam-with-free-tools

Thank you very much, Rascal. Now I have a better idea of what to look for -and what not, that is also very important.

Mijo, I hope I can set that up, too. Thank you for the suggestion.

A surveillance system costs a few thousand dollars at minimum. Unless you’re also looking to make your place more secure, I’d go with the web-cam option. You can stream video for free on sites like justin.tv. It’s really easy to do it–just click the broadcast button on the top right. If you don’t want other people watching your cat eat god-knows-what, then you can set your room to be private. These sites generally allow you to let them record the video, too.

There are already some companies that use these web streaming services for their security camera. It gives you a little free advertising, allows you to check the video anywhere you are, etc. I should write a how-to article about it. :blah:

Ok, for less than two thousand, I’m all set. I bought a night vision web camera for Internet access -less lighting in the bedroom- and a small simple survelliance camera for the living room -which will be connected to a recorder. I’ll let you guys know how it goes.

After viewing this thread, I got inspired as I’ve always wanted to get a streaming camera set up so that I can view anywhere, anytime online of my home if I were to go on vacation/work-related trips.

I’ve always had a webcam (Logitech QuickPro for notebooks) and so I found a freeware, www.yawcam.com, installed it, enabled it and port forwarded my port from my firewall to my laptop’s IP and voila!

My home laptop is a streaming webserver. The only thing I’m worried about is how safe is the built-in webserver application for yawcam. So far, I haven’t been able to find any vulnerability for the latest version that is offered 0.3.0.

My problem has to do with the doggie’s seizures. Vet always asks how does he do, and frankly, when I’m home, I haven’t seen him have them. But recently he’s had a couple of “accidents” and I am concerned whether it is he’s having a seizure when I’m not there.

The other thing is to find out if the cats are licking the walls or doing anything strange -again, when I’m not there- that will explain their possible recent poisoning.

Sigh

Update:

Web camera setup was not successful. Must call Nam.

Video so far has revealed thanfully dog does not have seizures, but will soon as cats harrass him. :fume: They do body slams on him. :noway:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-10216518-71.html

Home security systems can actually work. The above story (plus youtube video) was a break-in that happened just last Wednesday. She was watching her dogs over they security system while at work. Then she saw some people! She called 911 right away, and the police arrested the two robbers minutes later.

The high point of the video is the end, where the police burst in, guns drawn. I’d post the video here directly, but forumosa doesn’t support Youtube embeds!