A fun one...

[Little-Miss]

As some of you on my facebook will know...or the eagle eyed of you will noticed the small creature on my avatar. 5 months ago i got myself a little friend! He's an African Pygmy Hedgehog and i've named him Dexter, he is the cutest thing ever! I love my little man.

 

Now APH's are nocturnal and are known to travel up to 8 miles a night. Obviously my little fella doesnt get to wander the plains at night so he has a wheel.

 

Now what i'd really love to do is:

 

A: measure how far he does travel on his wheel (odometer type thing)

B: See what he actually get up to at night!

 

So i need suggests for webcams and how to it up and an odometer. I dont want to spend a fortune as its only a little bit of fun!

 

[soveryapt]

Odometer, buy a cheap cycle computer and see if you can get that to work sensibly?

 

WebCam, no idea, but I'm tempted to do the same for my wife's daughter's mouse should it come and live with us again (it's on it's holiday at the moment with one of her friends whilst she does a gap yeary thing) as it drives me bananas running in the wheel all night, so I bet it'd be fun to watch!

[daz191]

Not sure if this is too big for him, Pet's Eye View Camera - buy at Firebox.com

 

It will stop him travelling 8 miles each night anyway!

Edited January 21, 2010 by daz191

[webman]

One of the comedians has a gerbil cam with infrared - either tech_guy or mattx, I forget which one.

[sidewinder]

Cant help you but that does look like a cool (and cute) hedgehog. Easy to look after, feed etc?

[fafster]

I'd love a camera for my dog, but it would more than likely end up being broken on its first outing.

[tmcd35]

Odometer, buy a cheap cycle computer and see if you can get that to work sensibly?

 

I thought that but unless he's scuttling around a 26"/27" wheel I doubt a cycle computer will accuratly record the distance.

[tech_guy]

Talk to Mattx - he's the expert with the infra-red gerbil cam!

[mattx]

Talk to Mattx - he's the expert with the infra-red gerbil cam!

 

Problem is my Gerbil keeps trying to eat it.

[BandyQuill]

I thought that but unless he's scuttling around a 26"/27" wheel I doubt a cycle computer will accuratly record the distance.

 

you can set them to any wheel size can you not ? i remember when i was a kid i had to set it up everytime the batteries ran out (very often)

[soveryapt]

I thought that but unless he's scuttling around a 26"/27" wheel I doubt a cycle computer will accuratly record the distance.

 

Play about with the settings and see whether you can get something that sensible relates, or at least work out rotations and do a bit of maths to find out what the distance is ..

 

Or, buy a HUGE cage and fit a 26" wheel! Now that would be worth webcaming online! lol ..

[Little-Miss]

Thanks guys.

 

It's a 12" wheel.

 

Erm, APH's are slightly harder to look after then hamsters for instance.They're classed as Exotics. The very basics are he eats dry cat biscuits but i have to watch what's in them. Meal worms is his absolute favourite! You have to keep them warm all the time as hibernation can lead to death (I just dont think they are built for it). They dont come cheap either lol

 

I remember seeing Mattx's gerbil now (ooer) will ask him!

 

I'm trying to upload a photo but it keeps going on about a security token!!

[Little-Miss]

Oh there you are Mattx!

 

Come on then....share you infared cam widom!! lol

[tmcd35]

you can set them to any wheel size can you not ? i remember when i was a kid i had to set it up everytime the batteries ran out (very often)

 

On my current one it just cycles through the common wheel sizes. Maybe more expensive models will allow a manual input?

[mattx]

Oh there you are Mattx!

 

Come on then....share you infared cam widom!! lol

 

Gerby says:

 

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2789/4021711125_185cf76731_b.jpg

 

Get a cheap one to start with - you can get one like mine for around £5 on flea bay. The quality is not fantastic but it does the job. Or go with a better logitech one if you want better quaility. Then setup Yawcam and you are away !!

 

Feel free to ask with any more questions..... [ BTW the photos are of Gerby but not taken with a web cam !! ]

 

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2511/4021721143_abf9bf4bb7_b.jpg

Edited January 21, 2010 by mattx

[tech_guy]

I have chickens (ex-battery hens) - I'm now thinking of setting up chook cam!

[BandyQuill]

dont know im sure the technology has changed since then, it wouldve been like 15 years ago ish...

[mattx]

I have chickens (ex-battery hens) - I'm now thinking of setting up chook cam!

 

I wanted to get some chickens but the missus won't let me........ How long have you been keeping them for & are they that hard to look after ?

[tech_guy]

We have four that we got last March from the charity that rehomes ex-battery hens - Battery Hen Welfare Trust

 

Fantastic to look after but they will EAT YOUR GARDEN. We gave them free range in the back garden and they have eaten everything, including the lawn.

 

Cheap to look after - a bag of chicken food costs £6 and lasts a month. We feed them all our food scraps, and they reward us with 3 or 4 eggs a day.

 

Really funny and intelligent animals. More pets than anything else. They love tinned tuna and lettuce.

[mattx]

We have four that we got last March from the charity that rehomes ex-battery hens - Battery Hen Welfare Trust

 

Fantastic to look after but they will EAT YOUR GARDEN. We gave them free range in the back garden and they have eaten everything, including the lawn.

 

Cheap to look after - a bag of chicken food costs £6 and lasts a month. We feed them all our food scraps, and they reward us with 3 or 4 eggs a day.

 

Really funny and intelligent animals. More pets than anything else. They love tinned tuna and lettuce.

 

I really want to get some - problem is the garden. Got a patch which the kids play on, then I have my bit in which I grow my plants and veg. I don't think the kids would apprecaite me nicking their patch !! I already have plans on turning it into an allotment for when they get fed up with it.....

[tech_guy]

You can keep them in a run - they don't need a massive area - and let them out occasionally. They'll eat all your slugs and sh!t on everything (which makes good compost btw)!

 

Ours beat the neighbourhood cats up if they're stupid enough to venture in to our garden.

[booggerboy]

Some cycle computers will allow you to enter the wheel radius/circumference manually. Some of the posher ones also measure cadence, or pedal rotations - that'd tell you enough to work it out yerself.

 

Can you get mini-pedometers? If so, how big is the length of "stride"?

 

bb

[dhicks]

I really want to get some - problem is the garden.

 

Saw these a while back - not practical in my flat 2-and-a-half stories up, though:

 

Omlet UK | Our fantastic chicken house and rabbit hutch the eglu! | Keeping chickens and keeping rabbits

 

I can't help thinking that all those computer sensor kits on show at BETT for ICT/DT could be used to put together a simple wheel-speed measuring device - simple infrared emitter and reciver, one each side of the wheel, when the sensor is off you know a wheel spoke is in the way of the beam, when it's on you know it isn't, see how often you flip between off and on and colculate speed accordingly. Or even use a small patch of reflective tape on the side of the wheel - shine infrared emitter so it hits reflective tape as it comes round each time and shine back to sensor placed next to emitter.

 

--

David Hicks

[witch]

Would love a webcam for seeing what my guinea pigs and rabbits do when I am not there. But as they don't 'do' wheels, I would probably end up with a lot of footage of small rodents asleep

[Little-Miss]

Is there software to record from the webcam (knowing full well there is software out for everything!)