Discreet External CCTV/Webcam housing ?

[Clement]

I want to put some form of webcam on the outside of my house looking at the frontdoor. There is only a couple of meters of garden and no fence, with a busy pavement the at the end.

So I want something that is discreet - preferably not looking like a camera as it would most likely get stolen.

My initial thoughts are to convert an existing external coach light - effectively remove the electric cable and feed the data/usb cable for a camera into it.

Are there any ready-built external housings, or is it a case of DIY ?

Sadly due to the shape of the house its not possible to put something on the inside of the house looking out - the only downstairs windows are frosted, and the upstairs windows don't have a line-of-sight on the front door. Nor do I have a peep-hole in the door, and I don't fancy trying to drill one into a upvc door.

[hornydragon]

Why not just get an external IP cam? http://www.panasonic.co.uk/html/en_G...sCategory.html

[Clement]

The issue really is that every wall that has line of sight for the door is only single-story, so nothing can be mounted out of arms reach. If I put up a regular camera someone could steal it without even needing a ladder.

[hornydragon]

Er its a camera, and they could nick anything mounted there even a Lamp with a camera in it! I can see why you want CCTV!

[Clement]

I sort of found what I wanted - I've used one of the combined security light/PIR with a built in camera - they usually go for around £100 but found them on sale for £60.

Typically they record to an SD card when the PIR senses movement but what I've done is use the mini-usb connector and not bother with connecting up the power for the actual light & PIR sensor.

The CMOS in the camera is supported to a degree under linux and I've got it working well using ubuntu 8.10 (though oddly bugged in earlier and subsequent release) and have configured the application 'motion' to capture avi & jpgs based on perceived motion. This seems to work well and I've added a mask file so it ignores any movement on the public path, so will only trigger based on movement on my property.

All-in-all its been more of a fun exercise than any 'serious' security, but I've learned a bit

The light/camera isn't noticeably any different from those on loads of houses on the street, and I think 99% of callers to the house wouldn't notice the camera part unless they were looking for it.

Heres a picture of how it looks,

and a capture from the camera of some lovely person delivering junkmail,

[hornydragon]

Quite a good image you have captured but i would reconmend connecting the lighting function as that is better security than the Cam its self (alos the low light performance will probably be improved by the lamp although sometimes a lower watt lamp is better

[rich_jtg]

Originally Posted by Clement

I sort of found what I wanted - I've used one of the combined security light/PIR with a built in camera - they usually go for around £100 but found them on sale for £60.

Typically they record to an SD card when the PIR senses movement but what I've done is use the mini-usb connector and not bother with connecting up the power for the actual light & PIR sensor.

Do you mind if I ask where you got it from?

I have a similar one-level home arrangement, and this seems like a useful addition.

[Clement]

I got it from Maplins - and it seems they have dropped the price down to around £50.

The one 'downside' is that the camera like most USB webcams it doesn't perform in low-light - so by about 10PM the screen is simply black, though if you have a streetlight near by then you may get some more performance.

[rich_jtg]

Thanks for that - I'll check the website out now.

I guess the light would help with the low light situation - if the sensor could react to the change of light intensity I guess.