[SATLUG] off topic... Home security alarm components...

[Brad Knowles]

On 2/2/08, Jeremy Mann wrote:

>  Altex has a complete isle for security stuff. Myself, a few years ago
>  I bought a Axis 2100 camera from a friend. You can find one on eBay
>  for about $250.

Axis cameras are good, but they are expensive -- they are the 
Cadillac of the business.  You can get other cameras that are much 
less expensive, however.  Fry's usually carries at least two or three 
different types, but the Airlink101 models seem to be the least 
expensive of the network video cameras.  Airlink101 also has a 
Pan/Tilt/Zoom model that's only slightly more expensive than the 
baseline Axis static cameras.

Lorex also makes video cameras, many of which are the CCTV type with 
some sort of IR capabilities and varying degrees of ability to 
withstand weather, and in both wired and wireless (analog, not 
digital).  However, Lorex also makes a video camera server that takes 
two analog video inputs and provides the network web server component.

Both Lorex and Airlink101 seem to have a decent level of support in 
the business, although obviously the Axis cameras are going to be 
some of the best supported -- which is what you would expect, since 
it is the Cadillac of the business.

>                     Currently I have it hidden in my house and can
>  monitor the interior of my house from a web browser. I did have motion
>  on mine running for awhile, but with cats in the house, it was always
>  recording ;)

I have an eight camera license for use with SecuritySpy on MacOS X, 
and our cameras were all trained on various aspects of feline 
behaviour.  With multiple cats, you never know if one of the cats is 
not acting normally when going to the litter box, and you may not 
know if they are eating or drinking water normally.  So, we set up 
the Feline Surveillance System -- mostly Airlink101 cameras for those 
cases where we know we will always have light (i.e., pointed at their 
food & water dishes), and Lorex analog cameras going through a a 
multi-input video splitter to a Canopus analog/digital video 
converter via Firewire.

In this new house, I'm going to skip the video splitter and the 
Canopus video converter, and use the Lorex dual-input camera servers 
instead.

>  Things to consider, the Axis products are quite expensive, but they do
>  deliver. They offer POE (power over ethernet) and audio modules in
>  case you want to listen as well. And they come in wired and wireless
>  models. The wireless model is about $300-350.
>
>  The more expensive models, PTZ, can remote PTZ (pan tilt and zoom) all
>  from a web browser, but expect to pay about $1100 for that capability.

I'd love to use Axis if I could afford it, but I can't.  I can afford 
the Airlink101 and Lorex cameras.

-- 
Brad Knowles <brad at shub-internet.org>
LinkedIn Profile: <http://tinyurl.com/y8kpxu>