The
set up for the streaming video uses 5 cameras.
Currently only 4 can be broadcast at once. Two are
permanently located in birdhouses. One is for the
bird feeder. What is currently online is dependent
upon the season. The houses use a
Hawk Eye
night vision camera complete with audio. Infrared
diodes "light up" the interior for 24 hour coverage.
They use a 100' AV cable complete with DC voltage.
The cameras are interfaced to an
iMac
2.66 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo computer with
XLR8 Xtraview's
video to USB adapter. A Sony DCR TRV530 camcorder
connected to it via firewire. This is what is used
for the bird feeder. It is located on the west
side of the house, looking out the computer room
window. The “weathercam” is provided by a Logitech
Pro 9000 camera connected to the weather server.
It not only provides streaming video, but uploads
a jpeg to
my weather page
and to
Weather
Underground.
This one is also in the computer room, looking out
the northern window.
I use
EvoLV
webcam software for the Mac, which includes a
built-in web server for streaming the audio and
video. EvoLV is a powerful application for a
relatively low price. A nice addition to the setup is
streaming audio. I occasionally use
Nicecast
to broadcast live audio when possible.
The latest camera is a Q-See QSC48030 Weatherproof
CCD Camera
w/80ft of Night Vision. This camera is facing in a
westerly direction. The night image is good and shows
quite a distance. We use this camera to capture some
of the wildlife that comes through at all times of
day and night. During the winter months, you may see
wild turkeys coming through in the morning and
evening hours. A motion sensor records short
movies.
As
mentioned above, we also have a weather station. I am
using an
Oregon Scientific WMR968
weather station. I use an
Emachine
PC to run
Weather Display
software. Wireless sensors provide temperature,
barometric pressure, humidity, wind speed and
direction, as well as rainfall. They are all powered
by solar cells backed up with batteries. The sensors
transmit every few seconds to the base unit which is
connected to the PC via a Serial to USB converter.
All this is uploaded to provide real-time updating to
that site.
In
the Spring of this year, we started with yet another
hobby. We are trying out beekeeping. I have thought
about this for years, but never really thought I'd
ever do it. After casually mentioning it one day, my
son-in-law presented me with a nice Christmas gift of
a starter supply. He used to delve in this with his
father in earlier years. Now, he and I have two hives
going. Of course, I have to add a camera to the mix.
Shown here is one of the Hawkeye cameras like is used
in the bird houses. This camera is interfaced with
a
Mac Mini.
That pretty much sums it up. Just a bunch of stuff
connected together along with a server to upload
these pages to. This is all done as a hobby. No
training in website development, just the drive to do
stuff. If you enjoy this site, please use the
contact form
and let me know. A word of encouragement can be
enough for me to know it's all worthwhile and keep me
going.
