webcam in a bird box

[davyboi]

hi, one of the schools i support are making this garden thing, anyway the teacher who is organising it is wanting to put a webcam in a bird box and have it streaminig live on the schools website, i was just wondering what is the best course of action to do this, the internet here is provided and filtered by kirklees mbc and i dont think they will want us to do it through their internet connection for security reasons etc, also the school is worried about people acessing things on the network,

so i think the easyest most secure way would be for the school to purchace a seperate adsl internet connection and use that(considering the budget will cover line rental etc), that way its completely away from the school network and kirklees mbc,

the other issuse is the camera to use, would it be best using IP webcams straight into a router connected to the seperate line or normal usb cameras connected to a standalone pc, the ip way would be easyer but more expensive, theres also the option of wirless cameras but again cost could be a problem and i imagine that you would still have to run power to a wirless ip camera or you would have to keep changing batteries.

anyway i was just wondering your thoughts and to see if anyone else had done something similar and to see if you have any advice or if im best of just saying "it cant be done sorry" lol

[Ric_]

Do a search on the word 'birdbox' and you will reveal a thread about this already Pay special attention to probelms about disturbing nesting birds, etc. Also, you will see that it is possible to buy ready-made bird boxes with cameras in them.

[plexer]

There is no problem with putting a camera in a nestbox or on a feeder.
Because the cameras will be stationary they will not disturb the birds.

I would recommend a B/W camera for the nestboxes initially because they will operate during the day without any extra illumination. If you opt for a colour one then light is limited inside the box and you would need some white light. If you use a small bulb or white LED's then ensure that they are turned off at night time so that the birds can recognise night and day. You could add some invisible infra red LED's if you wanted to see what was happening at night.

I asked the same question of the RSPB and that was their reply.

Ben

[Gower]

Hi, I know the original post was made a while ago, i just wondered if you have had much success using an additional ADSL line for the bird camera. We are looking into doing a similar thing in a school that we support, using an IP camera.

Please could you give further details of what camera you have used, as I am struggling to find an Outdoor IP camera that will fit in a modified birdbox! We have previously tried to use an indoor ip camera, which didnt work very well!

Thanks in advance.

[davyboi]

the school never went though with it so i cant help you bud sorry

[richard.thomas]

You wouldnt need to allow people access to your network.
Assuming you're able to get a webcam in a birdbox, get it working, etc there are several bits of software you can get that are able to take a snapshot and then upload the image via FTP to a server (i.e a webhost)

You could set it up so that you have a machine connected to the webcam in the birdbox to take a picture every minute, then get it to upload to the website. This way you'll always have a fairly recent image on the website.

I know it's not streaming, but it's alot cheaper than getting in a new ADSL line and then having to deal with streaming issues.. Good luck

[greenfieldsupport]

Use these: http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx...avigationKey=0


they use simple 12v @ 1 amp, which is fantastic, you can run them off car batterys, solar panels, but in your case just run some wire from any cheap dc converter.

640x480 @ 20fps is fantastic, better then most standard cctv.

also it comes with tools for sending the video as an e-mail, capturing it as an avi and uploading it etc.

even comes with a port for an external antenna!!!

10/10 for £60

[Gower]

We have tried using an indoor IP camera in the past, and it didnt work to well. I have been told it has to specifically be an outdoor small ip camera, but i am really struggling to find one. I have checked the dimensions of the edimax one, and it is too large unfortunatly!

[iTeacher]

We have tried several nest cam technologies. We a found that there are several ways of streaming footage, across the network and possibly to the web too.

IP camera and nest box
Make a good box deep enough for a good IP camera. Choose an IP camera that acts as a remote server (isolated) and has features like motion capture and frame rate etc. This is slightly more expensive as the technology costs more to produce (so they say)

CCD camera and nest box
Use a CCD camera with a well made box, designed for nest box use. Connect the camera to your PC via an interface graphics board or USB capture device. Use software to monitor and stream grabs to a shared page on your network or webspace. The cost are cheaper and the options are more flexible.

Try looking at Handykam.com camera nestbox and wildlife cameras kits. They specialise in nest box cameras and may save you a lot of time and effort in the long run. They have been so helpful and have many options. (Not on their website) We have tried many others, but we found them the best.

Hope this helps.

iTeacher