Re: Norhtec computer for security camera

I played with the 'motion' software several years ago and liked how it
was able to use a cheap usb webcam to generate enough frames to make
decent movie clips of motion events. As you say, the difficulty outdoors
is wind. For the past couple of years I have used a cheap $100 IP camera
from gadspot.com inside of a wooden box bungeed to spruce tree so I can
review what goes on in my driveway. It's connected with a couple hundred
feet of extension cord and cat-5. It ftp's jpegs to my server when the
picture changes. It sees infrared and has build-in infrared LED's, and I
also have an external infrared LED illuminator, but that has still
proved effective only within a few feet (bats and moths). Unless it is
extremely windy, which is rare, I can easily pick out the interesting
pictures because of the consecutive timestamps in the filenames. This
camera runs linux internally and has an external input and output. You
have the option to put an infrared motion or other type of sensor on the
input and trigger the camera that way. The bad thing is that some of the
config options can only be set with ActiveX controls, but IE under Wine
works for that. You also need IE to view and capture full-motion video
with the built-in web server. That may have changed in the last couple
of years though.

Here's my best driveway shots for the last couple of years:

http://nancylake.com/dwpics

Another outdoor option is an infrared motion-sensing battery-powered
trail camera. Even a cheap one takes pretty good pictures, with or
without automatic flash, or in infrared.

Here's a pinhead somebody recently caught with a night-vision trailcam
as he was allegedly siphoning gas:

http://nancylake.com/gasthief.jpg

Ben Everitt wrote:
> I had a zoneminder install working for about 8 months. The zoneminder
> software was pretty buggy (at least back then). Motion detection in
> general takes a lot of patience and understanding. It works best in very
> controlled environments like views down a hallway at night. Outdoor
> motion detection is very very difficult because of the wind, weather,
> and animals up here. It was nearly impossible to find a good setting
> recipe that would work. A man has the visual mass of a cat at 100'.......
>
> -Ben
>
> bob@estimations wrote:
>
>> This computer looks pretty cool. I'm thinking of ordering one to run a
>> security camera, booting puppy linux from a flash memory, to run a logitech
>> webcam and "motion" motion detection software.
>> But before I do, I'm wondering if anyone have experience with NorhTec? Or
>> with running a camera and motion detection software in linux.
>>
>> opinions (or better ideas) to offer. Quoting from the NorhTec website:
>>
>> "NorhTec has developed a range of small, energy efficient and fanless
>> clientsand servers that serve as building blocks to create highly modular
>> network computing solutions. The MicroClient Jr. is the most cost effective
>> device NorhTec has ever produced." The basic unit costing $120 has IDE
>> interface, 3 USB ports, 10/100 MBPS ethernet, CF slot. It draws 0.9 watts,
>> issilent and fanless.
>>
>>
>> NorhTec: http://www.norhtec.com/products/mcjr/details.html[1]
>>
>> puppy: http://www.puppylinux.org/user/viewpage.php?page_id=1[2]
>>
>> motion: http://www.lavrsen.dk/twiki/bin/view/Motion/WebHome[3]
>>
>> --- Links ---
>> 1 http://www.norhtec.com/products/mcjr/details.html
>> 2 http://www.puppylinux.org/user/viewpage.php?page_id=1
>> 3 http://www.lavrsen.dk/twiki/bin/view/Motion/WebHome
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Received on Fri Sep 14 10:45:40 2007