The set up for the streaming video starts
with 4 cameras. Two are located in birdhouses. One is for
the bird feeders. Currently only one interior birdhouse
camera is active at a time. The houses use a
Hawk Eye night vision camera complete with
audio. Infrared diodes "light up" the interior for 24
hour coverage. Using a 100' AV cable complete with DC
voltage, the cameras are interfaced to an
iMac 2.4 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo computer
with XLR8 Xtraview's video to USB adapter. A Sony DCR
TRV530 camcorder connected via firewire to a Mac
Mini in another room in the house. That is
providing the weather shot. The images are coupled via
wireless networking. The weather image is uploaded to
Wunderground once per minute.
House #1
Part of Apple's OS X operating system
includes Automator, which along with Script Timer can be configured to perform all kinds
of tasks on the Mac computer. I use those two utilities
to change the cameras automatically when needed. It also
provides the morse code identifier on the hour and half
hour. I use Evocam webcam software which includes
a built-in web
server for streaming the video. Evocam is a powerful
application for a relatively low price. A nice addition
to the setup is streaming audio. I use
Nicecast to broadcast live audio from the
birdhouse or from any other source. This adds a great
dimension to the whole experience. There is about a 3
second delay to the audio due to buffering.
Anemometer located above Birdhouse #1
Our latest addition to this site is a weather station. I am
using an Oregon Scientific WMR968
weather station. I found a
Mac version of weather software and it seems to be
working well considering it is in beta right now.
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 iMac via a
Serial to USB converter. The Sony camera is now
providing the weather picture. All this is uploaded to
provide real-time updating to this site.
The iMac has no problem running all this a one time.
This set up continues to evolve as time goes on and we
learn more.
