I'm moved to install a surveillance system as twice now my son's jeep has been vandalized. The most recent being today with all 4 tires slashed. Since my day job is a sysadm, zoneminder looks to be the perfect solution.
Before I drop on the hardware, I have a few questions. I'm looking at this capture card. It appears to be supported, but I'm curious about this spec "Records 1 channel at a time". Is that just with the windows driver or is that a hardware limitation? If hardware, is there a better card I should be looking at?
I'm looking for a camera recommendation as well. My driveway is 38' wide and 45' long. At times he may park on the street as well. So I'm looking for a camera that will work at night and see out to the street. Of course I'd like the camera to be inexpensive, but not necessarily cheap. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated. I'm sure I'll add to the system as time goes on, but I'm thinking of starting with two cameras for the driveway and go from there. I should add that there isn't a street light near my house. They are 2-3 houses away from us. We also keep our lights off at night. There are no trees to speak of between the lights or our garage and the street. I plan to mount the cameras under the eaves of the house, about 9' above the ground. Also, it does snow where I live but still reaches over 100 degrees in the summer.
Any other thoughts that I should be concerned with?
Newb with a few questions
The card your looking at, using all four inputs would give you an average of 2 to 3 frames per second on each cam. Yes there are far better, if you click the shop link at the top of the forum it has a link for Bluecherry. as to what you want to buy, I'd tink of everything you might want if cost was not an option (number of cams being the concern and what frame rate you want).
Each bt878 chip can do a total of 30 fps, but when inputs share a chip you lose one frame for each switch and sometimes two to resync. So performance drastically drops from dong 30 fps using one input on the chip down to 10 to 12 when sharing two inputs, 4 to 7 for three inputs, etc...
Personally, I like cards that share two inputs, and usually opt for the eight chip 16 input cards where I can do eight inputs at 30 fps or sixteen at 10 fps. Mostly just so I have the option since rarely to I ever run a cam more than 6 fps
As for the cams, I can shoot you an email of some of what I have used for exactly the same situation, almost sounds exactly like my story and conditions when I started using ZM 6 years ago. Maybe you moved into my old house
Each bt878 chip can do a total of 30 fps, but when inputs share a chip you lose one frame for each switch and sometimes two to resync. So performance drastically drops from dong 30 fps using one input on the chip down to 10 to 12 when sharing two inputs, 4 to 7 for three inputs, etc...
Personally, I like cards that share two inputs, and usually opt for the eight chip 16 input cards where I can do eight inputs at 30 fps or sixteen at 10 fps. Mostly just so I have the option since rarely to I ever run a cam more than 6 fps
As for the cams, I can shoot you an email of some of what I have used for exactly the same situation, almost sounds exactly like my story and conditions when I started using ZM 6 years ago. Maybe you moved into my old house
Thanks for the reply. As I was researching more, I did notice that the card I mentioned had a very slow framerate as you mentioned. If I'm not mistaken, the card I linked to appears to be similar to the PV-143 from Bluecherry. I will probably use only two cameras with the system and if I wanted more, then add a second card. Or would I be better suited running one camera per card? At $15 I figure it could be a disposable card to start with.
I'd love to get your take on the cameras. I've been looking at this one TP-936WIR-MSP at bluecherry and this one QSC48030 at amazon. Would either one be a good fit for me?
I'd love to get your take on the cameras. I've been looking at this one TP-936WIR-MSP at bluecherry and this one QSC48030 at amazon. Would either one be a good fit for me?
This cardSabrent SC-PVS4looks like it may be a good compromise for me.
I wouldn't do that card, your first option I know would work. That one from Tiger has NO good reviews and I have no idea if the linux kernel even supports it.
Go with the first card, like you said $15 bucks, two or three cams on that should get you decent pictures at 320x240 (anything above that interlaces.).
As far as the cams go, I know that the qsee stuff is not so great. I'll send you some stuff on cameras soon as I bring a box back up so you can have a look at how what I'm using performs.
Go with the first card, like you said $15 bucks, two or three cams on that should get you decent pictures at 320x240 (anything above that interlaces.).
As far as the cams go, I know that the qsee stuff is not so great. I'll send you some stuff on cameras soon as I bring a box back up so you can have a look at how what I'm using performs.
The first thing to buy is a chunk of oak stairway handrail about 4' in length. Then don't skimp on hardware; the PV-149 from bluecherry allows for expansion and is supported by both the bluecherry live cd and any of Ross Melin's masterpieces (all are rock solid; I'm currently running the PCLinuxOS live cd). I'm on an extremely limited budget and can vouch for getting it right the first time (made many cheap mistakes)! Focus on CCD cameras with a 4-6mm lenses and beware that in the summer time, if you choose IR illumination, you will become an expert on insect mating rituals. Oh by the way, don't install this on your slot 1 (A), 400 computer, also start with a UPS (the one time I needed this most power was out). Sounds like you're serious so do it right, the first time. As far as software: I support numerous versions at linuxtracker.org and can bring up a seed for 1.21.3, 1.22.2, 1.23 live cd's (thankyou RDMelin) just PM me. And if your interested in the pclos version of the live cd; the live cd forum has a link, otherwise I'll start a seed for that too (with ross' permission of course).
Heh heh. Louisville Slugger works well too..bb99 wrote:The first thing to buy is a chunk of oak stairway handrail about 4' in length.
As Cordel said, the bt878 cards are an excellent choice. I bought a LMLBT44 and haven't regretted spending one dime of it. No muss, no fuss. Plug it in, modify modules.conf and you're good to go.
Stairway handrail, I like it!
So I went with the Sabrent card and it works fine. I'm using two cameras for now but need some with a longer IR throw. Here is my view.
I'm using this camera currently.
I have one question, cordel mentioned interlacing at 640x480. Is that a card or camera limitation or just NTSC? Is it possible to get 640x480 without the interlacing?
So I went with the Sabrent card and it works fine. I'm using two cameras for now but need some with a longer IR throw. Here is my view.
I'm using this camera currently.
I have one question, cordel mentioned interlacing at 640x480. Is that a card or camera limitation or just NTSC? Is it possible to get 640x480 without the interlacing?