Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms home security system - cameras

Son In law has an internet linked system. Ours is a simple two camera System from Maplins. It will take four but I don't need four. Colour, sound and infra red. When we first had one I used to watch playback and marvel at the old fart who shuffles round our garden. Now I don't bother..........,

I use a pair of Canary wifi cameras. One in the house, one in the garage.

You need to relocate the camera to the garage. He's now usually lying underneath a couple of old cars.

I have just fitted two UCam247 cameras, one inside and one outside. They will either store to an SD card in the camera or via a micro-cloud to a remote SD card. They don't have to rely on the internet. You can access the cameras and clips remotely via iPad or smart phone. Very good support service for IT novices like me.

I'd thought about it, but working from home I felt that whilst monitoring the recordings might be amusing there isn't any real need. But I agree, it would act as a deterrent.

There is a story, possibly apocryphal, of an IT graphics consultant that had a number of high end work stations in his home office.
Whilst on holiday thieves broke in and stole the lot,

All the cameras were sound activated and as all the data went straight into the net and a remote server it was all recorded, HD sound and vision. they system alerted him to an incident: he watched it on his phone and he called the Police to report it. They asked him to call round on his return with the recording

On returning he went to the police and gave them a USB drive with the recording. The Police watched it with him, took a statement and arranged for a SOC team to go round to collect DNA as from the video it was clear that the thieves had not been wearing gloves.

A few days later the Police called to say the boys had all been arrested as they were recognised from the video. They denied everything but then pleaded guilty when charged, after the Police showed their lawyer the video....

So, if you have valuable stuff a good HD video security system is good, but it must record to somewhere off site. Most cheap systems don't, they store the data in the property in something that can be stolen.

BTW, dogs are useless: my sister in law had all her computer stuff stolen from a room, she uses as a home office, they broke in through a window. The two Rotweilers in the hall went nuts, but the idiots at least had the sense not to open the door from the office!

I've just fitted a budget system that works very well although I think the cameras themselves are a good deterrent when augmented with a dusk till dawn lighting system. Wiring up the cameras are a real pain but battery operated ones eat batteries. Make sure your chosen system can send email alerts with video clips.

We have a cheap WiFi home based system that uses motion and sound detection to store to Dropbox (internet disc) or local PC with four cameras cover for front, back and garage.

Philips Insight. Each camera just needs WiFi and a small USB charger to drive it. There is a great iPad/iPhone application as well as a Cloud service for remote monitoring. It takes a snapshot and video clip based on movement criteria you set then pushes it up the wifi/broadband off site so if your home computer is taken you still have the photo/video evidence.

As mentioned it is great for catching the gardener taking the mick. If you tweak the settings it works surprisingly well.

Thoughts to consider.
1. If you want night time cover then look for units with LED's on the front as they will paint the darkness and give some (reduced accuracy) visibility.

2. Most of the home cameras are okay at short distance but if you want to cover to the end of a drive you need a more professional unit like Lillin with a good lens, this becomes expensive. Also the software is used to being installed by a pro and so is more fussy and less user friendly.

3. The WiFi based units can throw a decent connection range but you need the access point in range which can be difficult in old homes with thick walls. Bluetooth is not fast enough or long enough range to do anything useful.

4. Please note that it is quite easy to block WiFi signal and so transmission so this does represent a risk, keep a couple on UTP/Ethernet if possible if you are protecting something of value. If the person listens to the local WiFi and then just sets up a heavy transfer on the same channel it can block the cameras ability to transfer its images.

Hope these help.

I have 6 of this cameras, and run it on my Synology NAS System

http://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/H-...4838.0.0.JSgfcp

It runs very good. Its China, ok, but all the big players sell also China stuff.

Manuel

Well, I've now visited an Aldi and it was surprisingly ok. Friendly and knowledgeable staff and a clean but rather random layout. Got an Aldi-cam (I made that name up) for £35. Infra red, programmable, waterproof (IP34), recordable and timeable. 3 year warranty. Tried it indoors last and it captured the dog's nocturnal wanderings.

The cheap wildlife camera traps can produce surprisingly good images in the right conditions. I left one pointing across our driveway for a day or two, and got this.