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Loading ...Digital CCTV Surveillance for Next to Nowt
eschatonic
Digital CCTV for Next to Nowt Part 1 - The Strange Case of Cheapest is Best
This blog is about building a digital CCTV surveillance recording system, as the title suggests, at as small a cost as possible. Generally speaking you get what you pay for and I had no intention of spending very much so my expectations were set pretty low. At the risk of spoiling the plot, this blog has a very happy ending.
Down to business. Clearly the elements to this system are: cameras, some kind of computer, a means of storage, some way of linking all the bits together and, of course, the software to run it all. The first element of this jigsaw that I focussed on was the category ‘linking it all together’ and in particular how to get video into the computer. In my particular case going wireless had great attractions in terms of both convenience and cost of wiring but in either case the result is the same - by the time the picture gets to the computer it is analogue. This is a bit odd really since the TV picture starts out its life as a digital image. The CCD (charge coupled device) inside a video camera is an analogue shift register that shunts, by a clock, a frame store of electronic signals through successive stages of capacitors effectively delaying and serialising parallel analogue signals. The CCD itself is not responsible for the actual imaging which is done by photodiodes.
Any road up, you wind up with a bit of electric string that typically ends in an RCA plug (on cheap systems) or a BNC connector. In the case of
Britain and NZ this will have an PAL analogue TV signal on it. The problem then becomes how to turn that picture back into a digital form that can be manipulated and subsequently stored. So I looked around at what I could get at an affordable price. This wretched little ad caught my eye on the NZ auction site TradeMe: -4 channels PCI DVR card
-Simultaneous 4 cameras recording onto the hard drive in the PC
-Continuous, Scheduled or Alarm trigger motion detect recording
-4 BNC connectors
-Support PAL or NTSC, select option during installation
-Remote viewing
-Works with Windows 98/2000/XP
-Minimum requirement, Pentium P3 500Mhz, 256MB and 20GB hard drive.
Will work with any CCTV cameras
That was it. No picture, no spec – literally no shit. So I bought it for $30NZ (£12). I expected the worst and my expectations were further lowered as the board took weeks to arrive from
Australia.
But look what turned up!
This is obviously a very tidy and workmanlike board. It just doesn’t look cheap and cheerful. For some reason the retaining bracket was separate but the screws for attaching it to the board were included so what the heck. Take a look at the top left of the card as viewed. See the little black block? That’s an audio connector. Hmm no mention of that in the silly advert and on the top edge of the board there are two blocks of pins – again not mentioned in the advert. In the same package was a baby CD.
It turns out that this board is much more capable than the ad suggests. As well as the obvious 4 video channel inputs there is a single audio input and a set of alarm inputs and outputs.
It turns out that the feature list looks like this:
DSR provides multi-channel video recorder, multiplexer and video transmission server functions Support both PAL and NTSC standards Support full resolution video (768×576 PAL, 640×480 NTSC) Provide real-time digital video compression Provide configuration retaining Provide status retaining for auto start Easy to use graphic user interface Easy to expand by software upgrade and system integration Multilingual Capability Support up to 16 camera inputs with multi display modesState of the art real-time display and recording under optimum condition of up to 4 channels Programmable timer for recordingProvide circular recording mode to allow recycling use of the recording drives Provide archive-recording mode to allow directly recording to a specific removable driveAudio recording with a selected camera Pan/Tilt/Zoom Control (selected Protocol) Video Playback & Search Simultaneous playback and recording Playback with sophisticated search functions (by camera, events, time/date)Snap shoot with print and save Alarm & Motion Detection Alarm I/O interface for alarm triggered recording Motion detection recording Pre-alarm recording Scheduled alarm and motion detection function Remote Playback & Online ViewIntelligent remote player through telephone dial up, LAN and Internet connectivityVideo transmission server function provide online viewing of live video with password logon control and event logRecording in remote client machinePlayback recorded videos (both local recorded and server recorded files) Alarm alert function Pretty impressive huh!
Clearly the majority of these features relate to software which at this stage I had no idea was included with the board. Result!
But will any of it work?
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Loading ...Space Burke
eschatonic
Is it me or what?
Here we are firing up another bunch of astronauts on their way to THE International Space Station which is then going to be replenished by a space truck carrying 5 tons of stuff and it’s not even on the telly. (Not in NZ anyway).
Now, which part of that paragraph isn’t actually stupendously exciting, filled with human achievement and hope for the future?
Back in the early 1970’s there was a history of technology focussed TV series called ‘Connections’ which was written and presented by a dude called James Burke who later became a science historian and the leading figure of the Knowledge Web Project.
He once postulated the wacky notion that a forthcoming revolution in communication and computer technology would allow people all over the world to exchange ideas and opinions instantaneously. Since this was back in the days when a 2400 BIT per second modem came in an 19 inch rack case and way before any permanent computer to computer connection was established between say London and New York you have to admit the guy had insight.
The BBC TV series was, however, a thinly disguised excuse for Jimmy to clock-up a bizillion air miles visiting every nice location on planet earth. Nice work if you can get it. He was 20 years ahead of his time in lots of ways. For example he appeared dressed in all black and had the proto-geek look all fixed out, this was something really daring for the BBC. Burke was at the top of his TV game riding the wave of his Apollo coverage as the BBC’s man in Cape Kennedy (now Canaveral again). The dude in black was on first name terms with astronauts and the British public held their collective breath while Jimmy digested and interpreted NASA speak on our behalf. Each episode of ‘Connections’ would start along these lines, “What connects this ordinary household lightbulb with the fabled Library at Alexandria via this topless beach bar in Acapulco”. He wasn’t afraid to stretch the absolute truth either if it started getting in the way of a spot of apres ski in Val d’Isere pausing briefly for a glimpse of the Grand Prix at Monaco of course. Man - that guy was my hero.
If you haven’t already done so please take the time to have a butcher’s at Jimmy’s site. It’s seriously cool.
Back in ’69 we bought newspapers to see pictures of humans standing on another planet (ish) but now it’s to see Patsy Celeb getting out of a limo with no knickers on. Anyone feel a bit sad?
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Loading ...Talking Myself Out of a Case Mod
eschatonic
Here’s the patient. She’s just coming up to 4 years old but she’s seen quite a lot in that time including three operating systems and going around the world twice. She’s even had a few upgrades; new drives, new power supply and 2 VGA cards.
Configuration is: Athlon XP 1700+ (1.4MHz), on an Asus A7V8X-X (loadsa slots) with an Nvidia GeForce 7600 GS in the AGP x8 slot.
This all started when I decided that I needed a CCTV server to protect my café and grounds here in the middle of rural New Zealand. There are less than 20 houses within a 10 mile radius but in the last 2 years we’ve had 2 shootings, 1 murder (opposite my café), 1 conviction for ‘P’ dealing (methamphetamine) and just yesterday police helicopters were dragging marijuana bushes away by helicopter. They don’t tell you that when you’re emigrating.
I bought a new 4 channel MPEG encoder like this but with a single audio input for $30 (about £12) on TradeMe ( that’s the NZ equivalent of ebay).
After I put the board in I started to think about how hot the inside of the case seemed. There was just a fan over the CPU and the power supply fan. So I installed the most excellent and entirely free PC Wizard 2008 . This is a lovely little bit of freeware that contains, amongst a lot else, a simple and convenient display of voltages and temperatures.
I was quite shocked by what I saw. The CPU was idling at 61C and the GPU idling at 51C which I figured was way too hot and clearly begging for a case mod. No matter – I have a Dremel and I’m not afraid to use it. First stop was cleaning the case out. The stock heat sink and fan were encrusted with shite as was just about every other nook and cranny. This called for my fancy pants Bosch vacuum sander/blower/briefcase. I bought this new knocked down for $58 including tax (which I claim back anyway) so let’s say 50 bucks even or £19.65 at today’s rate. It’s basically a 1400 watt vacuum cleaner with a vacuum driven detail sander. Pretty damn cool for a score I’d say.
I had me some innocent fun with the Bosch Briefcase a suckin and a blowin - it works pretty well. I cut up an old biro body and taped it to the narrow nozzle so that I could get at the fins on the heat sink.
Well, what do you suppose happened? Yep both the CPU and GPU idled at 51C. Still too hot though wouldn’t you say? The funny thing is this machine has NEVER missed a beat.
With a case mod still very much on the go I downloaded the manuals for both the Asus mobo and the Athlon. Well bugger me! The Athlon XP series up to 2200+ are rated to run at a staggering 95C! This prompted me to investigate further. The Nvidia control panel for the 7600GS sets the throttle down temperature threshold to 125C! Remarkable. So in fact my dear old PC is operating well inside acceptable limits and I won’t need to start cutting holes in her, painting up the case, fitting loads of lights and a big fan after all.
Yeah right!
The fan, grill, LEDs, big drive bay conversion and small bay front peripheral connectors are all on order.
The point of this ramble is how many of us actually know very much about cooling and the need for cooling before we chuck away the stock cooler and reach for the Dremel? My instinct on processor temperatures was based on two things: growing up with water cooled mainframes and seeing the immense amount of effort and expense that goes in to PC cooling these days. My instinct was completely wrong.
Here are some very useful links that I’ve visited on the topic. If you don’t already know Dan you should do. Dan is the Mythbuster of technology – totally independent and plain speaking. He reviews everything from toys to satellite guns with humour and insight born of both experience and education. Dan’s Data is an immense resource on just about everything, added to which, if you have a problem that’s interesting enough he will give you a thorough no-bullshit reply. Make him happy and sock him a few bucks while you’re there – PayPal Preferred.
A quick way to check on your CPU’s temperature range is through this article on Hardware Secrets another great resource.