Now that surveillance cameras and equipment is within the affordability range of the average man I think its a good time to take up surveillance as a hobby. Ever since I was a little kid I thought it would be cool as fuck to own a surveillance camera.

Anyhow what I'm thinking about is setting up a wireless camera in my porche just for the fun of it. Instead of having it running all day I was thinking I could hook it up to an infrared motion detector which turns the camera on for a few minutes whenever theres someone at the door. This would act like an answering machine for the door. People could just play back the tape to see who called to the door during the day. Would it be hard to hack a cheap surveillance cam and motion sensor to get them to work together?

As for viewing I was thinking about accessing it with my computer over the wireless network somehow. Surely if you can hook it up to your TV you can hook it up to your laptop. Last but not least I wanna install some kinda intercom device or just a plain old radio which I can use to talk to the person at the door so if its one of those salesmen or Jehovahs Witnesses I can tell them to fuck off from my chair instead of having to go to the door.

I don't wanna go too mad but to top it off I could put in an electromagnetic latch in the door and set up a buzzer so I can remotely open the door for people I know.

How much would a system like this cost and would it require much experience with electronics? I don't even have a soldering iron but I know a little bit about electronics. Am I dreaming or could I pull something like this off for under $250?

You could probably do all of that for under $250 if you do work yourself and buy bits second hand.

Use an old computer - early P4's can be had for almost nothing - with a decent sized hard drive to do all your recording. Remote start time-lapse VCRs are painful beasts, you'd need to rig the pause input to the sensor and a circuit to make and break the connection to start and end the recording.

Buy a cheap video capture card from ebay for $15 or so, and use some *cough* free software to detect movement in the frame and start recording. There's plenty around...and you therefore don't need a motion sensor.

The camera shouldn't cost more than $100 for a fairly decent weatherproof unit. I'd stay away from using a webcam as they tend to be too noisy for low-light stuff.

Make a big IR LED array with the change left over for some short-range night vision.

There are wifi cameras now where all you need is a power plug and an access point, and with the camera software you can watch and record to your computer over your wireless network, no need for a tuner card. I believe that theres software that will monitor the video stream for movement and only record when someone/thing is in the frame, so you dont need a seperate motion detector. Youd also be able to check your camera from the internet too. I see Fry's ads all the time for these things, theyre a little pricey (for me anyways) but its really an all in one solution.

Thats exactly what I'm looking for hazmat thanks.

I don't wanna go too mad but to top it off I could put in an electromagnetic latch in the door and set up a buzzer so I can remotely open the door for people I know.

How much would a system like this cost and would it require much experience with electronics?

Well I work for a company that installs security cameras/access control/intercoms...

The the door latch that you are talking about are around 80 - 250 dollars AUD. The buzzer would just be a switch to put power onto the strike to open it, strikes usually run on 12V DC or 24V AC...

We get intercoms from comelit for about $150 and strikes for about $100.

We get honeywell day/night dome cameras for about $200 and they run back to a DVR which does exactly what you want... For about $80 for a cheap shitty one.

You may want to invest in a cheap UPS for you system to protect from spikes... And that's about it.


Your setup would be rather easy to put together, If you know what you are doing.

An easy simple way to make an intercom is to connect to speakers together with a battery.

http://www.hanssummers.com/electronics/equipment/intercom/

Pervert. However, I seen a little robot that does all this w/microphone on the gadget show. Can be remote controlled from anywhere in the world using the internet, too. I think it cost £250.

I managed to win $200 in a poker game last night so Im loaded. I dont know if I should waste it on a surveillance camera though I should probably get something more useful.

Thanks for the info monkey. Theres no way Id spend that much money on a door buzzer. I might just get one of those shitty $80 cameras to get me started though. Are the cheaper cameras usually wired as opposed to battery powered? If im gonna put it in the porch then itll have to be battery powered cuz theres no plug socket out there.

If im gonna put it in the porch then itll have to be battery powered cuz theres no plug socket out there.

And be stuck changing batteries all the time? One time hassle - drill a couple holes, run a cable, and some caulk to be safe. Be careful where you drill though. Saves you dough on batteries too, even rechargable ones will wear out.

They sell wireless pinhole cameras + receiver here for $23
http://www.chinavasion.com/product_info.php/pName/micro-12ghz-wireless-pinhole-av-pal-camera-receiver-set/
Straight from China. Chinas the best place to get your electronics because half the electronics you see in the shops in America and Europe came straight from the sweatshop in China.

They sell all sorts of cool shit on this site for real cheap.