techno

[marklaverda]

Hey Hedgerow Pete, if your interested about budget camera security try wetinbe cyclops GSM cameras (www.wetinbe.org). These are alarm cameras that work through the GSM network. As cheap as a wifi camera but you can use anywhere there is gsm signal.

 

[Hombre]

IP camera with high gain (16dBi) antenna would improve range and/or signal quality if your camera has a removable antenna with a small sma connector. Unfortunately a high gain antenna might be less than discreet. Coaxial connections need to be exceedingly short to minimise cable losses at the 2,4GHz operating frequency.

Not to confuse IP cameras operating at 2.4GHz with 2.4GHz cameras producing a composite analogue video signal.

The requirement for low power consumption and communication with minimal cost is a real problem. You are probably better placed than a lot of apiaries that are in remote locations far from the nearest IP connection. Also your windmills are part of the furniture and no one will think twice about what other uses they are being put to. An out apiary in the sticks with a dozen hives and a windmill might attract more speculation as to it's function.

I believe that a tracker from Patak is a good idea, with an external battery to give extended service life. That service life needs to begin when the major item that it is all built into goes walkabout. About that time, you need to get an alert also. Backed up with a covert camera storing to SD card and activated by movement or other sensors might be of use, as long as it wasn't either burned or the whole shed nicked on the back of a lorry.

Sorry if I have drifted off the thread slightly, but an integrated approach is needed and the optimum answer is far from clear. Moreover the constraints seem to be almost infinitely variable.

It's a bit like RFID tags, great if you can either lay hands on the gear or get close.

Standard cantenna gain is 9dBi and a dish can increase that by a further 9dBi. Every 3dB is a doubling in effective power, so 9dB + 9dB = 18dB. So 3dB=2x, 6dB=4x, 9dB=8x, 12dB=16x 15dB=32x 18dB=64x. so if you start out with 100mW, assuming no cable loss (ha ha) then your effective tx power is 6400mW or almost 6.5W Good for more than a few km line of sight, but terrain will severely affect this and if the antenna wobbles then the signal will disappear, as it's very directional.

The dimensions of a Pringle container are actually a little too narrow for the frequency of 2.4GHz as can be confirmed if you examine a cantenna calculator with a 1/4 wave radiating element. The variant with a yagi comprised of disks I don't know about. I am prepared to be proven wrong regarding that device.

 

[Nellie]

...Whilst leaving all the doors wide open with a big sign saying 'please shower here'.

If you'd named your network "Free Internet, please join" then I'd agree with this, but I digress.

it was suggest to me that with ones own web server you dont have to pay as much to have a web site also as we wanted to improve or exspand it was easier to do

Again, we're down the route of "it depends". If you're going to try host it on a server under the stairs then you need to talk to your ISP and find out whether the connection you're on is suitable for hosting your own site. You need, at the least, a Static IP address if you want people to be able to consistently find your site whether they connect using http://192.168.0.1/petessite.html or http://www.petesbees.com/

I've had the same IP address since I moved in 2 months ago. Well I did until I had to reboot the router and then it picked up a new IP address.

At the end of the day it depends on what your aim is. If it doesn't matter that your site will have appeared to have gone offline every now and again (depends on your ISP and how they allocate IP addresses) then go for it. There might even be a service already out there that will refresh DNS entries on urls when IP addresses change, I've no idea.

I'd say that it all boils down to how much you value your time. http://www.justhost.com/ have a deal for £2.95 a month at the moment from £5 a month standard price on their basic stuff.

So to save £3-5 a month how much time are you prepared to dedicate building a server under your stairs? How much is it going to cost to put it together and how much time are you going to have to spend on it afterwards to keep it up and running? Lets say that it only takes you an hour a month, is that worth £5 to you because it's worth 5-10 times that much to me if I go out and charge someone else for my time.

 

[jimbeekeeper]

CCTV in theory is good, but like just about all CCTV in operation even if you do catch them in the act, it stands up very little in court!

Or if you are looking to use CCTV to watch, unless you are there 24/7 by the time you view back they are gone.

What might be better is an alarm type system that phones/texts you when the hives are being tampered with.

Perhaps a pressure switch or just a switch that when the hive is lifted it phones your mobile. or a beam system set at a hight that all the local wild life does not set it off, but 2 legged wild life does!

This is very simple to build yourself using, and I would say more effective than CCTV.

 

[East Yorks New Bee]

CCTV in theory is good, but like just about all CCTV in operation even if you do catch them in the act, it stands up very little in court!

My CCTV at home isnt for the police to use it is for me to see who did it even though it is time stamped and as such admissable in a court of law.But as we all know if it went to court, they would be told not to do it again and be sent on a holiday to the bahamas

 

[jimbeekeeper]

And to cap it all you will probably end up in prison for "invading their privacy" through filming them

 

[hedgerow pete]

ok . i have read and re read this thread several times now and apart from the first posting by me, my brain has completly left me and i now sit here and dribble into my mushed up dinner,
i have again been to see the 8 year old sales oik at maplin, proberly will not buy it from there but at least i can see what is going on, now according to the oik these internet cameras work either with 3g (?) or wiffy(?) or danglerly thingys so at the bee shed i can under stand it will work , one way or another, so thats ok , but what about setting up one in the more rural areas we have our bee hives, we wanted this camers for two reasons because of distances from home to apiary we could switch on the computer give each site the beedy eye and do so from a sitting tea drinking position, this is a money saving cost option , nightly inspections but with out petrol costs etc, good in theory but for some reason every one is talking techno not hairy builder so the brain is struggling, second use of camera is to video tape any thieving scrotts in action, we could get an email or text from the bees saying HELP BE ARE BEING NICKED HURRY SAVE US!! or we could use it to recoord who did it and we can go and ask for the ladies back!, police need not be bothered, ambalance maybe but not the police, there other option is to buy and set up an ordinary cctv camera that we can set up to record when triggered, tracking of hives will be done with a pay as you go mobile phone and a mobile tracking service,

so given all this advice and my requirements can some one please explain in english or brumie what is it that these ip cameras do and not do please
also is this what every one else should be looking at for there own use??? or again have i completly missed the point

 

[JCBrum]

Pete they send a video signal over the internet.

This means they need to be connected to the internet at the camera location.

You can connect them to a computer at the camera site, which itself is on the internet.

Or you can connect them to a special type of mobile phone at the camera site, which itself is on the internet through the mobile network. I think the time charges by the mobile phone people might be expensive.

Once you have achieved the above condition, you can watch the video picture from any computer, anywhere in the world, provided it is also locally connected to the internet.

JC. (hairy builder spoken here.)

 

[hedgerow pete]

the light , i see the light !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[JCBrum]

There is one possible extra condition. Some of them have a very low power radio transmitter in them, which means they can reach a nearby (20 metres) computer, provided its fitted with a suitable radio receiver, and is connected to the internet.

This type of wireless link is really intended for items in the same house, and is simply to avoid the inconvenience of running a few feet of wire around.

JC.

 

[darrenperrett]

What about one of these, a bit pricey I know, but so are beehives.
http://tinyurl.com/kt687k

 

[hedgerow pete]

darren that is what we started this conversation off with, a simple take a photo , stuffed in the hedge camera, they are great and what i was originaly looking at , but thats when this 8 year old sales assistant at maplin came over, he was showing me a camera just like that one takes film or photos when triggered, great, but the next step was to be able to view the out apiary every night rather than risking a visit once a week but without the hassel of getting the car going etc so thats when i started this thread about ip cameras, they are supposed to be free standing all singing and dancing, but all everyone keeps doing is trying to talk me into having a computer in the bee shed or hedge /ditch with a few car batteries/generator running all night, so i think i will give up trying to embrace modern technology, i just could not understand why these things which promise so much help to a beek no one else is using them

 

[VEG]

I have just reccomended one of the cameras that darrenperret was on about to our association as we have had a few thefts this year. 1 full hive that we wanted to breed from (i dont think it was a coincidence) as they were very easy to handle. Then a queen and three frames of brood taken.

 

[hedgerow pete]

its not just security that i wanted it for but unless i get hold of three miles of extension leed and the same again of telephone wire, i think i will stick to booby traps and bungy pits maybe evan a moat!!!!!


watch this space, i have just had an idea?

 

[VEG]

Pete knowing the way you go about things it will be a good un.

 

[hedgerow pete]

this is what i am going to buy

http://www.y-cam.com/index.php

 

[Nellie]

You've got a wifi hotspot up at allotment?

I know it sounds lie we keep trying to wee on your fire but the reason we keep suggesting this stuff is that whatever device you stick in your shed, it's still going to need some mechanism to connect to the Internet and on an alltment that is most likely going to be through a mobile network unless your plot is very close to the local pub/starbucks.

 

[hedgerow pete]

sorry nellie dearest but you have started to speak techno again and my head has just exploded, i have spoken to the firm and the answer was that as long as your in a city there should be no problems connecting the camera to the internet, and i dont have to buy any thing else for it to work, no mention of 3g or wiffy

 

[East Yorks New Bee]

sorry nellie dearest but you have started to speak techno again and my head has just exploded, i have spoken to the firm and the answer was that as long as your in a city there should be no problems connecting the camera to the internet, and i dont have to buy any thing else for it to work, no mention of 3g or wiffy

The company speil says it needs to be connected to a mains power supply and a working wireless router(see yellow circled area on attachment) Hope this makes it a little clearer than mud Pete.

 

[peteinwilts]

as long as your in a city there should be no problems connecting the camera to the internet,

Birmingham was quite a few wifi hotspots, but looking at the specifications, I am not convinced it will work (unless you poach into a local router!).... I reckon the sales guy was talking porky's.

If you want me to contact them and talk techno babble, let me know...