HELP Lambing shed

[Ltmc123]

Someone please help!
We have a poly tunnel in our yard about 40-50m away from our broadband router in our living room. We would like a camera installed in the tunnel to access from our phones to check on pregnant sheep when we are not near by. At the moment our Wi-fi does not reach the tunnel but we would prefer a camera with an Ethernet connection anyway as it will be more reliable. It would be helpful if the camera had a zoom function too and if we could move it remotely that would be amazing! We don’t want to spend a fortune as it will just be used for this purpose. All the cameras I’ve seen so far seem to require a DVR which we definitely don’t need. All we need is real time viewing. We were given a voucher for currys for Christmas to buy a camera and I have asked in our local shop and on the phone and they weren’t much help at all - the one they said was ideal for us had to be sent back as it was actually an add on to an existing system. Please help, I have no clue. Tia.

 

[Deleted member 24354]

Do you have a plan on how to get an internet (wired / Wi-fi) to your poly tunnel?

How much do you have to spend at Curry’s ?

 

[Ltmc123]

I was just going to run an Ethernet cable from my router out into the tunnel. eBay have 50m for about £50.
I have £80 on a voucher but willing to add £50-70 to that to get the right thing for us.
Thanks for replying

 

[xxGBHxx]

You need to think about how you're going to lay the cable unless it's only for a relatively short time. If it's all earth between the house and the tunnel and you're going to bury it then you need to think about mechanical protection unless you're going to bury it deeper than about .5m. That cable will be very flimsy and a spade or fork will go straight through it plus I'm not sure how internal cable will hold up to the cold/wet in the earth. If you're going overground then you need to either use external grade cable or put it in a conduit to protect it from the elements.

As for the camera you will need to power it. Power over Ethernet or running power to it are your choices. I would personally go for Power over Ethernet but you'll need a POE injector or a POE switch for that. You will need to think about what you're going to display the footage on and whether you're going to save it. You can just connect to the camera directly and take a feed without saving anything and most cameras will allow you to do that.

Think you might need to revise your budget one way or another as UV stable cable is going to cost you a little more than £50 and you're going to need to sort out the power.

G

 

[Deleted member 24354]

If you are running Cat5/6 outside ensure that you use Outdoor grade cable (it is different). It has a heavier UV resistant jacket on it (and rodents love to eat the jacket on normal Cable).

Sadly i think that you may struggle to get what you are looking for from Curry's PC World, their CCTV offering is pretty limited.

I think that something like this would fit your needs / budget

Home View PTZ Camera

It has 2 way audio, a smartphone app, is wifi / hardwired, 350 degree pan and tilt, motion detection and IR, 720p which should be fine for close monitoring upto 10m. It will require power

But it is not a Curry's product.

 

[Ltmc123]

Thanks for your replies. The Yale does look ideal although I’m not sure how it would cope outside? Perhaps Curry’s will have the Ethernet cable I require so I could use the voucher for that, I won’t get my hopes up though as, so far, I haven't found them much good for anything!
xxGBHxx there is power in the poly tunnel with a socket which has been ran from our garage (which runs from our house) so all in the same circuit as the house. It would be literally for about 1.5 - 2 months the camera would be needed as we just have a small flock of sheep. It’s our hobby so both my husband and I have jobs (my husband works literally 1 mile away) so it really is just for peeking in on the sheep when we are not there.
Thanks again for your help, I really appreciate it.

 

[Deleted member 24354]

How about you use the money to buy a pair of powerline adapters from Currys to run the camera. Then buy the camera separately. Will it be inside the poly tunnel ?

 

[Ltmc123]

Yes I would be happy to do that. I have no other use for the vouchers as I was given them purposely for a camera. Yes the camera is for inside the tunnel but it’s quite open so cold and damp.
Could you talk me through the power line adapters?

 

[Deleted member 24354]

Power line adapters basically allow you to use mains circuit to carry an internet traffic. You plug one unit into a plug socket near your router and connect it to the router with a patch cable. You plug the other end into the socket in your poly tunnel and then a patch cable into your camera and it provides an internet connection.
The caveat is that both plugs need to belong to the same fuse board.

 

[Ltmc123]

That sounds good for us! I take it there doesn’t need to be a clear line of sight between the two then? Do you then use an Ethernet cable from the 2nd plug to the camera?
I will have a look and see if I could possibly get those from Curry’s.

 

[Deleted member 24354]

Yes that is correct and Curry’s do sell them. I am sure that the camera would be fine as long as it is dry and under cover.

 

[Ltmc123]

Thanks Mushii, you’ve really helped. I really appreciate it.