Caught an Intruder

[MasseyWV]

This afternoon, I began clearing the undergrowth along the tree line which made a huge difference. I'd like to see someone try to hide there now.

A few of these maybe?

Signs are part of my plan, but these are more my style. :laughing:

 

[dstig1]

I've been reading along with this thread but hav not commented yet. Cameras is a topic that can fill pages. I have been researching this myself for some time. Here's some things that I haven't necessarily seen addressed:

IP Vs analog cameras. There are differences, but the #1 difference is resolution. IP cameras have the ability to have much higher pixel count than analog cameras do. That is not always necessary. If you are covering a small choke point, an analog camera may have plenty of resolution to show faces clearly. Analog cameras tend to be better in low light and often (though not always) at night. Analogs are generally much smaller too, so can be concealed in tight spaces. But you pay for resolution, bigtime. IP cameras are always more expensive, and often several times more, due to the resolution and other features.

You can mix camera types, though it seems to make sense to go IP for the system backbone. There are converters that make analog camera signals into network signals so you can feed those into your network, if you want or need them.

Recording. Systems in a box that include cameras and a DVR/NVR are almost always crap and should be avoided. Dedicated DVR/NVRs seem like a poor choice to me as many require proprietary hardware. I believe the better choice is NVR software on a dedicated PC. You basically need to create a separate network in your house for IP cameras, as they can consume huge amounts of bandwidth. You get a few cameras going, and it will bury a home network and you will lose frames, drop connections, etc. You very quickly get into the need for gigabit ethernet switches, which are not too crazy expensive anymore. There are some decent software packages out there, but Luxriot seems to be the best bang for the buck. A commercial grade system with reasonable costs. Get a decent PC (used or not) and XP Pro for an OS as your server. Win 7 uses too much memory and resources for this application. With software like Luxriot, you can log into the server remotely even from your smart phone and watch cameras. It can send alerts to you. Track motion. Scheduled recordings. Things like that.

This gets expensive very quickly. If you try to do it cheap, you will find that when/if you need those images, they will probably be useless as you will not have enough resolution or enough camera coverage to see what you need. It is like race cars - "speed costs money. How fast do you want to go?" Only here you will find you have just wasted money on a cheaper system as it will deliver nothing useful when you need it. You need to get good cameras, and frankly a lot of them to really be useful. You are better off starting with 1 or 2 good cameras rather than a raft of crappy ones. Then add as you can.

My $0.02

 

[aczlan]

Get a decent PC (used or not) and XP Pro for an OS as your server. Win 7 uses too much memory and resources for this application. With software like Luxriot, you can log into the server remotely even from your smart phone and watch cameras. It can send alerts to you. Track motion. Scheduled recordings. Things like that.

Here, we will have to disagree. I have several computers (Intel Core Solo or AMD Sempron 3000+ and faster) which I have converted from XP to 7 (for schoolwork with licenses through school). All have had at least 1.5 GB of RAM and IMO, all have been as fast, or even a little faster under Windows 7.

This gets expensive very quickly. If you try to do it cheap, you will find that when/if you need those images, they will probably be useless as you will not have enough resolution or enough camera coverage to see what you need. It is like race cars - "speed costs money. How fast do you want to go?" Only here you will find you have just wasted money on a cheaper system as it will deliver nothing useful when you need it. You need to get good cameras, and frankly a lot of them to really be useful. You are better off starting with 1 or 2 good cameras rather than a raft of crappy ones. Then add as you can.

I agree. As the saying goes: Good, Cheap, Fast. Choose any 2.

Aaron Z

 

[MarkV]

I agree. As the saying goes: Good, Cheap, Fast. Choose any 2.

Aaron Z

Used that a good bit as a builder before retiring.

MarkV

 

[dstig1]

Aaron, My point was not fully made, I guess. Post was long enough as it was...

You can get a pretty basic PC and run it with XP as it is a much lighter OS, and very stable. 7 takes a lot more horsepower to run. You can find a cheap PC that will run XP from lease returns on ebay and work perfectly for this. I wouldn't try putting 7 on those.

Plus a lot of industrial software like this seems to be an OS or two behind the curve, so things may not work as well with 7 as with XP, which is old enough to have been around the block a bunch. Heck you still find serial ports on some industrial equipment even though USB has been around for like 15 yrs...

 

[Lebneh]

I've been reading along with this thread but hav not commented yet. Cameras is a topic that can fill pages. I have been researching this myself for some time. Here's some things that I haven't necessarily seen addressed:

IP Vs analog cameras. There are differences, but the #1 difference is resolution. IP cameras have the ability to have much higher pixel count than analog cameras do. That is not always necessary. If you are covering a small choke point, an analog camera may have plenty of resolution to show faces clearly. Analog cameras tend to be better in low light and often (though not always) at night. Analogs are generally much smaller too, so can be concealed in tight spaces. But you pay for resolution, bigtime. IP cameras are always more expensive, and often several times more, due to the resolution and other features.

You can mix camera types, though it seems to make sense to go IP for the system backbone. There are converters that make analog camera signals into network signals so you can feed those into your network, if you want or need them.

Recording. Systems in a box that include cameras and a DVR/NVR are almost always crap and should be avoided. Dedicated DVR/NVRs seem like a poor choice to me as many require proprietary hardware. I believe the better choice is NVR software on a dedicated PC. You basically need to create a separate network in your house for IP cameras, as they can consume huge amounts of bandwidth. You get a few cameras going, and it will bury a home network and you will lose frames, drop connections, etc. You very quickly get into the need for gigabit ethernet switches, which are not too crazy expensive anymore. There are some decent software packages out there, but Luxriot seems to be the best bang for the buck. A commercial grade system with reasonable costs. Get a decent PC (used or not) and XP Pro for an OS as your server. Win 7 uses too much memory and resources for this application. With software like Luxriot, you can log into the server remotely even from your smart phone and watch cameras. It can send alerts to you. Track motion. Scheduled recordings. Things like that.

This gets expensive very quickly. If you try to do it cheap, you will find that when/if you need those images, they will probably be useless as you will not have enough resolution or enough camera coverage to see what you need. It is like race cars - "speed costs money. How fast do you want to go?" Only here you will find you have just wasted money on a cheaper system as it will deliver nothing useful when you need it. You need to get good cameras, and frankly a lot of them to really be useful. You are better off starting with 1 or 2 good cameras rather than a raft of crappy ones. Then add as you can.

My $0.02

Lots of good info here but I would like to expand on the network requirements a little. Unless, you're constantly recording video from all the cameras at the same time the network traffic is very minimal. Meaning if you have the cameras set to alert mode or aren't viewing them all at the same time there isn't much to worry about.
Most IP cameras have a web engine built into their firmware. The traffic is connection based not a blunt broadcast.

When you are recording it can jump up there a little but an N wireless network should be fine.

I run a bunch of cameras on mine without issue. I can even record/view them from the cloud via my small 500Kbps (upload) Internet line. I still have plenty of bandwidth to stream Netflix/ online games/ whatever. I even host a Vent server from the same network without issue.

So yes, higher res cams take more bandwidth but an N wireless network should handle it no problem.


IMO, if you buy a computer to do the viewing/recording just put whatever OEM, OS came with it. They will all do the job.

 

[joshuabardwell]

One of the things I plan to do to enhance my perimeter security is install electrified barbed wire along the property line adjacent to the field where the intruder fled. The barbed wire (powered by an electric fence box) will be hidden within the tree line so it won't be unsightly and will serve two purposes.

It is generally recommended never to electrify barbed wire. An animal that gets tangled in the fence can be killed by the continual shocking. At the very least, the animal will be tortured until it escapes, dies, or is rescued by someone. Getting tangled in barbed wire is bad enough all by itself without getting constantly shocked too. If you must combine electric and barbed wire, run parallel, alternating lines of non-electric barb and electric smooth-wire. Or electric smooth wire with a top line of barbed wire (non-electric) to discourage climbing over. Or, heck, if human animals are your main concern, forget electric and just go barbed. Electric is the end-all, be-all to animals, who have no idea what has happened to them when they get shocked. A human will get shocked and then will know not to touch the fence and will just figure out a way to defeat it. Barbed wire is a whole lot nastier and harder to defeat than electric. The electric fence can be totally disabled with an improvised ground rod placed against a wire, for example.

 

[Obed]

It is generally recommended never to electrify barbed wire. An animal that gets tangled in the fence can be killed by the continual shocking. At the very least, the animal will be tortured until it escapes, dies, or is rescued by someone. ...

The electric fence can be totally disabled with an improvised ground rod placed against a wire, for example.

Your common meth head may not be that smart. He's dumb enough to be doing drugs.

 

[texasjohn]

Joshua, gotta disagree with you re electric fence....I run two chargers and multiple miles of it....have for 20 years...so some experience.

modern electric high intensity fence chargers will not kill a person or animal nor start a fire.

You can electrify either smooth or barb wire. Personally, I run alternately smooth and barb. smooth is electric primarily because it is cheaper than barb and MUCH easier to handle and electrify. Barb is grounded. As a personnel deterrent, it will really set you on your can when you get hit...but immediately thereafter you are able to function again. True, you can get past it by rolling under it, using a stick to keep it away from you as you step over fence. Only if fence is multi strand, low to the ground AND too high to step over would it be a significant deterrent.

That said, such a fence is an excellent way to identify property boundaries, hang no trespassing signs on, contain/repel animals (enough wires and electricity will hold back elephants, hogs and coyotes...really) and as such would funnel intruders to gates or drive ways where they can be captured on camera or alerted by various sensors.

 

[birddog0304]

John you're correct. Might I add the enjoyment of watching a bull that has destroyed a conventional fence several times be introduced to an electric fence (lol).
Know you local and state laws regarding marking a perimeter fence that has been electrified. Wouldn't want to be putting any meth heads out of work because they got introduced to an electric fence. More important I would hate to see a filthy lawsuit against someone just taking care of or up keeping their property.