Hi,
I would like advice please, on whether what I would like to do is achievable, and whether this can be done at a low to moderate cost, and what gear could do the job. Sorry for the long spiel, but I am trying to cover all relevant info!
What we would like:
When home at the house we would like to be notified in real-time of people or cars entering the driveway.
We would also like to capture images of people and cars entering the drive so we can look back to see who has entered when we are not there, which requires day/night capture at sufficient detail of numberplates and faces.
We would like any camera to be concealed, and not use a flash.
Physical situation:
We have a rural driveway, that zig-zags up a hill. The entrance to the drive is quite restricted in width (4-5m), as it is a cutting, (so this reduces the area we need to monitor).
The house site is uphill, about 60m vertically and 120m horizontally from the driveway entrance, and the area between is fairly dense vegetation both bush and trees. If there were no vegetation there would still not be a direct line of sight from the house to the drive entrance, because of the curve of the hill.
To one side of the drive entrance is a rock face varying from about 1.5-2.5 m high and above this cutting is a fairly steep slope. The vegetation above the cutting is scrub from 1-3 m high and a few metres further up it there are large trees. To the other side the ground falls away sharply.
There is no power supply at the driveway entrance. The house has its own off-grid solar system.
We do not have cell phone coverage on the property.
Running a cable up the steep land, through the dense vegetation and across the driveway would be difficult, and probably prone to damage. (Trees fall over, branches fall, vines choke things and we get the odd slip too.)
There is limited, but some sun for solar power at the drive entrance, because it is at the bottom of a N-S valley with large trees to the north. (We are in the southern hemisphere - New Zealand).
We have seen a Buckeye camera advertised with real-time wireless transmission of images for significant distances, but we don't know whether this would suit our image quality requirements.
We could work out a software means of providing a notification when an image is received at the house if there isn't an off the shelf method, but easier is better.
Are we dreaming or is this feasible?
Thanks!
