Wireless CCTV - opinions and/or experience?

[gilson]

Hi All,

My garage is 'on block' a about 10m from my house. They are broken into about once a year and unfortuantely they were hit again a couple of nights back at about 3am....

Fortunately they didn't, couldn't, get into mine as I have a good garage door but they easily bust into about 15 of the 20 that are there. Of all the garages, I've got the most to loose having a couple of bikes in there...

I was thinking of something like this:

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=97467 and then http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=221498

200GBP for some quality footage of these "people", is worth it IMHO. I'll have to ask a nighbour to host the camera but it will also show his garage too so he should agree....

Anyone have any experience of these wireless CCTV's? They sound good and if they were to "do exactly as it says on the tin" it'll be great. I'll also combine it with a USB hub (above) that will record only when there's some movement.

Would be good to get your thoughts.



Cheers!

[LutonStorm]

Hey Gilson,

Funny I was looking at that sort of thing only last week!
Asking around and therefore only 2nd hand info..... you need a really good/fast/reliable wifi connection. Apparently (obviously) the better the pictures sent, the faster the connection needs to be. Anything dropping below 20mbps would result in unwatchable pictures. (dont forget a picture is about 500KB-1MB. @24 frames per second for motion viewing thats 12-24Mbps.

So as long as you have a good connection/wireless setup, everyone recons they are absolutely fantastic!

At least with Maplin they are fairly good at taking stuff back that doesn't do what you want!

[gilson]

I'm confused... not difficult.

That speed of transfer is influenced by the transfer of the pictures from the camera right? I would have thought that would be handled by the device and produce nice clean pictures.

The pictures are not being transferred via a DSL line, they will go from the camera, wirelessly to the 'base' (for want of a better word), then from the base on to my PC via a USB controller (the 80GBP thing) which allows for recording on a timer or motion triggered....

Or am I not thinking correctly?

As you say, Maplin are great. I'll give it a go and if it doesn't work, send it back. The good thing is that if I move, I can always take it with me so the cost isn't huge really..

[LutonStorm]

You might be confused easily, but at least you can read!

My eyesight however ain't gonna get any better. I thought they were IP cameras (thus transfering via WIFI over the net) As they are 2ghz they will be excellent.

Sorry, just having a... ermm.. blond(?) moment!

[Stratman]

Now all you need is a switch to transfer 50,000 volts to the garage door when you spot them!

[gilson]

They are good comments Timbo.

I'll mount it on the side of my nieghbours house, it's the only one near the garages and he'll power it. I hope to put it up high so the line of sight to my house is better and it's out of the way. I doubt they'll even see it.

It has to be wireless as a wire would have to run across a small road! impossible.

I might give it a go and get my old PC out of the attic and use that...

The main issue I've got is that I'll get some great footage of them wheeling out my bikes, hand it over to the cops and them not making an effort to catch them....

I'll have a think about it and let you guys know if it works....

[bikerpiker]

Maybe better spending the £200 or whatever camera money on stopping them getting in for your bikes in the 1st place .You didnt say how they gained access to the garages ?
Poss if its wooden doors on the garage you could reinforce with a steel frame inside ? Maybe stronger,more secure locks/drawbolts , and/or some sort of really noisy battery operated alarm,so if they did get in,it would be to noisy for them to risk hanging around.

[storminateacup]

At that price I doubt you will get useable pics that you will be able to recognise the miscreants by. I have a lot to do with viewing CCTV of crime and the only cameras that will provide detailed pics especially at night cost a lot more that that.

[gilson]

At that price I doubt you will get useable pics that you will be able to recognise the miscreants by. I have a lot to do with viewing CCTV of crime and the only cameras that will provide detailed pics especially at night cost a lot more that that.

Oh.....

[cupasoop]

a length of 2x4 wrapped round their skulls should make them think twice about visiting your garage again

[METALDAN]

You could save the 200 squids and get one of those tripwire alarms for just inside the garage door, they're about 7 pounds and use a blank shotgun cartridge. then all you need to do is angle it the right way and replace the blank with a buckshot shell, even at the speed plod move they'd be able to catch footless burglars.
A couple of years ago a mate of mine fitted one (blank) under the seat of his speed triple and forgot about it when it went in for service, made the mechanics and staff/customers in the shop poo involuntarily

[AMCQ46]

A couple of years ago a mate of mine fitted one (blank) under the seat of his speed triple and forgot about it when it went in for service, made the mechanics and staff/customers in the shop poo involuntarily

that made me laugh involuntarily

[gilson]

Blow of a foot... nice...

My garage door is top notch. It's a new Garador with extra security locking system at the base so they can't pull it up. It also looks like a normal door.

The last time they did it, they only broke into those with external locks....

I'll have a think about it but it's looking unlikely....

Thanks for the discussion....

Look at this rather good site!

http://www.ultimatehandyman.co.uk/SECURITY_CENTRE.htm