Web cam video surveillance made easy (and cheap)

2011-01-17T18:09:00.002+01:00

My cheap surveillance system is up and running for almost two years now, so I can say that I have found the best combination of software and hardware for that project.

So, you have cheap web cameras (or you can get them) and PC running 24/7 (or only when you are not at home) and you want to monitor your house, courtyard or firm... And record all activities out there? No problem.
Here is what you need:

Web camera
PC
USB extension cable
PCI USB card/adapter (in case of 4,5 or more cameras, or lack of USB ports on motherboard)
Surveillance software

Web Camera:
The cheapest webcam from e-bay would suite. You can mount Hi-end webcam with 2Mpix or more, but then you'll need stronger CPU, for higher resolutions. Mine VGA cameras are running at 320x240 resolution and output picture is good. They work on temperatures from -10 to 35 degrees Celsius, here. They are placed outside, but on dry place.
You can get them from 4$ per piece, shipping included. Just enter "usb webcam" on e-bay search, and sort by lowest price...

If you want, you can buy webcam with IR led light (price is about the same), but that works only on 2-3 meters... I'll explain later how to modify your webcam for better night time monitoring.

Computer:
Most of us have some old computer or hardware components in basement, so it is a good way to get benefit from it. If you can squeeze usb cables from your everyday PC to a webcam spot, that's even better.
Here are my 10-year old computer specifications:
Socket 478 motherboard with LAN port
Pentium IV 2.4 GHz
512 DDR ram
20Gb Hard Disk
250W power supply
PCI Ethernet adapter cost couple of bucks, in case your MB doesn't have LAN port. Or you can use WiFi card/stick to connect computer wirelessly. I have no need for Graphic card, because I'm connecting to that PC through ethernet cable (via remote desktop). It is a barebone computer with low power consumption. If you are going to buy that kind of used computer, it would cost you about 35$.
Power consumption: ~7$/month

USB extension cable:
Tricky part. Some motherboards can manage up to 18m of USB cable, but other allowing only 5m or even less. My ex GA-945P-S3 could run USB webcam on two 5meter + one 2m extension cable with no problem. Gigabyte 8PE800, which is in my current system, works well with one 5m cable.
So, it is important to place computer on a good place that would cover most of desired monitoring spots.

PCI USB card :

Cost: 3$ on e-bay. If you are going to have more than 2,3,4... webcams, it is a good thing to buy one, or two. I have 3, with two webcams on each, because half of my driver-less cameras have same chip, which doesn't allow them to run on single PCI USB card/MB ports.

The software:

I can tell you right away that the best monitoring and recording software is Blue Iris. I am not advertising BI co, I just spent months testing various software and find Blue Iris to be the best one.

There are lots of tutorials and forums regarding BI, so I'll put here only couple of Pros and Cons:

Easy to use, it can be really fine tuned, low CPU usage, WMV/A streaming, good motion detector algorithm, able to record motions before they occur, various recording formats (low disk usage/good quality record), access to your cameras from internet via GSM cellphone (GPRS, 3G)

Poor remote http interface, it can crash once in a week or two (More Simple Watchdog is the solution for that)

I will write down my software configuration later.

Conclusion:

If you need basic, but stable surveillance system, don't spend more than 50-60$ on it (excluding software cost).

Just do it yourself!

Webcam surveillance

Web cam video surveillance made easy (and cheap)