Update: RV Park system follow-up

Well, it has been a while, I know.. I have been busy, and also have spent time waiting on extra little peices for my project.

I'm not done yet- but what i've done is pretty cool. I'm really tired from working on it ALL day so my typing might turn out a bit convoluted.

There are 2 cameras monitoring the activity directly at the entrance of the Park. It is mounted to a giant 4.5" pole that is cemented deep in the ground. I have them connected to wireless transmitters. Here's the cool part: they run completely, entirely off of solar power. The top of the pole supports a 110W solar panel which drives all 4 peices of equipment (2 transmitters, 2 cameras). There is a battery box at the base of the pole which stores the power from the solar panel. The only other equipment needed for my free-standing "wireless" cctv unit was a voltage regulator/charge control whcih i managed to sneak in one of the Pelco housings.

here are a few pictures that I took:

http://f1.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/stabmaster5150/album?.tok=phbC80ABW9_1DU2k&.dir=/d5a2&.src=ph

I have more work left. I might do something to conceal or secure all the wires, but at 18 feet in the air i don't know who is going to try to clip them.. the people who would stand to gain from it don't seem to have much drive to do anything, let alone climb 18'.

I am gong to do some work with a backhoe and i'm going to find a big friggin boulder down on the river bar and put it in front of the pole so that nobody tries to ram it over. probalby 1 on each side. the battery box at the base needs locks, but i didn't bury it which kindof sucks, but I really didn't have the option for various reasons.

I am going to spend tomorrow focusing the cameras and reading all the manuals to all of these damn toys-- and get them running smoothly. I am running 3 2.4ghz accessories and there is another dude running a 2.4ghz router on channel 11, so it's a squeeze.

AHH man, Those cameras look so fucking cool!!!!!

What kind of DVR did you end up getting?

cool man, you should make them and sell them as a kit

I ended up with the Kalatel unit we were discussing. I am going down there today to focus the cameras and wire everything in, and play with it!

It's funny you mentioned the kit rory- someone with a storage unit business liked my idea and wanted me to do a system for him. I told him to let me know when he needs it and i'll try to price it out for him.

The one thing i wanted to do here that i couldnt was to build a battery tray tucked away under the panel (in the air). The genius of it all would be that I could use 2 batteries and counter-balance it on each side of the pole. Time was a constraint for this project so I didn't get that done. I also had to consider that the batteries need maintenence, which would be a PITA for the manager to do. The solution would be to get sealed or gel-cell batteries. Lifting the unit up was also a task- it took a lot of muscle and we didn't have the proper tools (like the trucks that the power company uses on towers). My cost of the system was not as bad as you would imagine (because i have access to wholesale solar equipment).

The rewarding thing about this system is that i made all my mounts myself. This was my creation- and I used only my imagination and know-how.

One great thing was that I didn't need a power inverter becasue the panel was 12VDC and I selected equipment that was both 12VDC and was rather efficient on power (about 1.5A total at 12V). The panel is about 7A and i sized it for the sunlight (25% or 6hrs).

The other great thing about this creation is that you don't need to bury or secure any wires.. and any contractor knows that you need a permit to wipe your a$$ in california.

I'll try to finish up today and get some screen shots. One of the wireless recievers actually CAME with the wrong connector on it-- so i have to get out my saudering iron. A few little thigns here and there and this thing will be up and smokin. I'll keep you all up to speed. THANKS again for helping me out with this! It will prove to have been one of our best investments here so far.

P.S. - i'm in the process of installing an automatic security gate with proximity sensors (proxi cards). this system, and some lighting, will be running off of solar power as well.

Im serious, make it weatherproof (well like you said for the battery thing) and I can sell it down here. Maybe make the kit without the pole as that would cost a fortune to ship, but spec it to a special sized pole. Include all mounts, Solar, wireless, battery packs, Cameras (day/night) with housings, etc. Make it all in black coating color. Then we can just get our own black poles. Or have 2 options, plain and black.

How good were those wireless TXs? Range wise.

Im sure I can sell it here, or at least offer it and see what happens. Car Parks etc.

The transmitters look as though they work excellent- but I still have work to do. I didn't mount them outside or high enough, and my 2.4GHz wireless router makes the video flash when data transfers (changing router channels didn't help all that much). I am working on changing the transmitter channels, but there was no information in the installation manual (1 page) about which dip switches do what. One of the transmitters has the wrong power cable connector type coming off of it. I am calling the place i bought it from tomorrow to fill in the gaps. The image quality varies substantially by placement, but it is clear that a crisp video signal is achievable.

I am hardwiring some cat5 from the DVR and the office computer to the router tomorrow (100 foot run). I am mounting the recievers in a better location as well.

Rory- if you are serious about selling these kits, I would be serious about putting together a good weatherproof design and working with you. The base pole i used happened to be a 4+3/16" and it was about 8' high. I built the solar unit on the ground with a seperate 8' pole that had a flange that just slid over the top of the base. I could include a, say, 4' length of pole instead (with a flange). The flange is important because the solar panel is fixed to the pole, and it's very nice to be able to rotate the solar panel exactly where it needs to be. I also designed the mounts so that the cameras and transmitters could rotate easily.

If i were to put a kit together, I think that i could cut the cost significantly on a couple of key peices. First, the transmitters had audio transmitting ability- which is most likely unnecessary. The second thing is that these transmitters/recievers are just dropped into $8 utility boxes and sold as "weatherproof." If i could find the electronics alone, I could probably cut the cost by dropping some units into weatherproof boxes myself. My assumption is that these utility boxes double as really crude waveguides (due to shape and depth). I think that the design can be imroved upon, personally. Of course aesthetics is important here so I wouldn't be strapping them into a pringles can!

Anyways, if i end up doing that job for the storage facility, i would be making some nice prototypes. I would probably experiment with the waveguide idea as well.