Beecam advice

[dickbowyer]

I have set up a beecam for my hives using a cheap camera off amazon and connected to TV with 50 metre RCA Video/Audio CCTV Cable. The 12v AC/DC power supply that came with the camera makes the picture all wavey, another I found at home produces scrolling lines and another gives a great picture but is not powerful enough to power down the length of the wire. Seems to me the quality of the adaptor used is crucial. Any one have experience of a good quality ac/dc adaptor that does not interfere with video signal? Of interest, I can see a mouse scampering about under the hives in infrared mode - thank goodness for the mouse guards!

 

[hedgerow pete]

two points are the power cable and signal cable close to each other , if so try keeping them 150mm apart to stop the interference.

soldering the power joints could help

 

[must_dash]

I have been contemplating this for some time. It sounds like your camera is outside the hive.
I fancy duplicating the Sysonby Knoll bee cam. They have an IR camera and a web cast set up.
From a browse round the web you can modify a normal webcam by removing a filter and I assume you would need an IR emitting diode to provide some light. Connect a camera from each hive to a solar charged laptop secured under the hive connected to a GPWS card and follow the bees all winter...... If you're lucky enough to have your hives at home you could use an IP camera straight to your wireless network.

Tom

 

[Hombre]

Dick, is the DC power fed down the signal cable or via a separate pair, as suggested by Hedgerow Pete?

 

[dickbowyer]

The power goes down a combined 50 metre CCTV sound/video/power cable which I presume makes it more susceptible to interference. However the video quality varies with each of the ac/dc adaptors I have used. The supplied one 12v 1000mA is awful whether connected through triple cable or straight in to camera. That is the wavey one. Another one I found at home 12v 1200mA gives lines which ever way connected though worse when via triple cable and the final one 12v 800mA gives a great picture when directly connected to camera but unable to power camera along 50 metre cable. I was hoping to find a 12v adaptor that did not produce interference when used with long CCTV sound/video/power cable.

 

[newportbuzz]

get a waterproof plug and use your 800ma adaptor on the end of a long lead. then run your 50m of video cable as usual.
just my thrupence

 

[Kev]

Hi Dick,
Sounds to me like you are suffering from voltage drop down the cable. The problem with this is that there will not be the full 12v avalible at the camera. Try using the 12v 800mA psu and feed it to the camera via some thicker wire, probably some cheap speaker wire would be worth a try as it is likely to be much thicker that the video/audio cable. You shouldnt get too many interference problems between the signals and the power cables as the power should be DC and the signals will be reasonably low impeadence and relitavely immune to interference. Would be usefull to know what the voltage is at the camera end of the cable, if you have a meter.I have used cheap video cameras over about 130m of burgular alarm cable with no problems simply by having an adjustable power supply and setting the voltage high enough to achieve the required 12v at the camera.

Kev

 

[Dishmop]

Try using a computer monitor instead of TV.

 

[dickbowyer]

Thanks all for advice. Best result are when power, audio and video all through different cables. Set up today and here is result:

[VID]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7L5VXiXxQuo[/VID]

 

[dickbowyer]

Thanks all for advice. Best result are when power, audio and video all through different cables. Set up today and here is result at second attempt:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7L5VXiXxQuo[/ame]

 

[Dishmop]

That looks OK.

You going to put it on-line?

 

[dickbowyer]

I think I'll wait before setting up as a webeecam, now I have got it working, I have got to get all the wires tidy and hidden so don't trip over.............

 

[Hombre]

Very good, enjoy yourself.

 

[onriver]

anybody managed to put a beecam within the hive?
I'm trying to work out (with my techy friend, Jim) how best to do it. Our current thinking is for me to make up a nuc box with a perspex end piece, fit a cone to this, camera on point of cone, IR leds directly onto the perpex to reduce reflection, blackout over all of it..... anyone already tried this or shall I start a new thread?

 

[BobH1]

could you get right inside the hive using a (flexible) fibre optic, light pipe or something similar.

A home made version of this: http://www.digiviz.co.uk/sv100-flexible-video-inspection-camera.html

 

[Mike a]

I've seen a few pages on the net about adapting a normal cheap webcam for night sight. They are naturally very small to start with and once the outer shell is removed the lens only needs a small hole. The only other problems are IR light and focal distance afterwards.

See here

I decided to wait a few years as I've seen several home security system cameras have IR built in around the lens and have wireless included and the software to stream the output live making the whole process easier although still a little expensive.

I watched the video linked below, this is what got me interested in the whole process.
HERE I was amazed watching the bees stream in and out of the picture to the bottom right where the entrance is then clustering again at night.

Owners comments
This video is time-lapse photography of honey bees moving into a Top Bar Hive and building honeycomb.
About one week is compressed into a little over six minutes in this video. One photo was taken per minute. Over 11,000 photos were strung together to make up this video.
The photos were taken in total darkness using infrared lights for illumination. That is why the video appears Black & White.
Occassionally you can see a few bright sunrises on the video shining through the hive entrance which introduce a smidge of color.

 

[Dishmop]

The only problem I see is that how much of an area can be covered?
If you put a cam in the end/side of a hive what do you see?
If you put one at the top you cant see down between the frames.
Surely the most movement you would be able to view is at the bottom.

If you put a perspex window in the side of a box and then fitted another box around the window you could then have the camera set away from the window to give a wider coverage........

but........ how much happens on the outside of an end frame anyway?

 

[must_dash]

As I said earlier there are web pages out there on converting normal webcams to IR webcams by removing the filter. Maplin do a range of infared emitting diode, so you could wire that into the 5v in the webcam feed to give light.
I was thinking of putting a hole in the crown board towards the centre to look down between the frames (obviously the focal length of the webcam is a deciding factor). You could also put a webcam by the entrance to monitor that. If you have several hives close you could 'wire' them all up to a laptop, you would need to go to system settings and device manager and set all the conflicting IRCs to get many cams to work.
Power wise it would depend where your hives are but run a suitable power lead to run the concealed laptop. Hopefully your domestic wifi would have the range to reach the hive so you can sit and watch on the web...
I don't believe those of us with remote hive will be so luck. For power you would need a 12v to laptop power converter, a large 12v battery and some solar panels. For the web I don't believe a GPRS dongle has the bandwidth so maybe only one hive cam at once.

Look at http://www.sysonby.com/beecam/ and they stream live viahttp://www.camstreams.com/
you may need Internet Explorer to view it as Chrome doesn't work.

Tom

 

[Mike a]

Just to add a few extra thoughts.

Warm or cold way.. I would opt to put the camera in one of my Nationals set up the cold way and put the camera in the entrance block or held in a light proof box as part of the entrance block to get this view.

Not sure I would want to put a hole in the side of a perfectly good brood box unless I knew the cameras focal length would be good at such close range.
Or alternatively how about a (see link for a picture) slated bottom board as our cousins across the pond call it, its effectively an eke with batons which line up under each frame to prevent the colony building down from the bottom of the frames. This added space should give you more than enough to fit a camera and added distance for focal length. All you need to worry about is where you want it from week to week.

 

[drstitson]

not related to the cam issue itself but no mouseguards?