Web Cam options

[peakbagger]

For those who have stopped by the house I have what many would consider a unique view of the Northern Presidentials that currently isnt covered by any public webcams that I have located.

Here is my wish list

My criteria would be

Low power consumption - I think a camera with a built in server(?) so I dont have to have a PC running all the time to support it.

A timer or photo cell so that its off line when its dark

Solar powered ? (I have several spare panels, a charge controller with LVD and could spring for a battery)

One way access from the outside, I want folks to be able to look at the view but not compromise security of the home network.

Band width limit - I have limited bandwidth so would like to limit the amount eaten up by folks viewing the cam.

I expect that there may be commercial packages available out there but this would definitely be on the cheap.

So any suggestions

 

[MichaelJ]

The best way to avoid compromising the home network or bandwidth is one of the many models of webcam out there that can be set to upload (FTP or other techniques) an image on a regular basis to a web server somewhere else, so the general populous is not hitting the server on the camera itself (most cameras do have a server, and you can specify a URL to hit that will take and serve an image at that moment) and possibly overloading it. I don't know of cameras with bandwidth/usage limits. Another option is to have a website grab the image from the camera on a regular basis, so only that website "knows" the URL of the camera, and everyone else hits that website. It can simply not grab images at night. Either way I think a separate website will be in the cards.

One way to deal with solar is to get a Power over Ethernet (POE) adapter, for cameras that can use that. Use that device (or any other you can find) to feed 5V or 12V onto your ethernet cable, and run that to the camera. The cable-less alternative would be to run the camera on WiFi and provide power directly to it from your solar system in place of the power brick. True solar-powered cameras seem to be a pro market and $$$$ but I can't see why a little smarts can't connect your system to power it.

I think you want at least a 720p or 960p camera (1280x720 or 1280x960). A VGA camera (640x480) is going to leave the Presies looking like a blob. That means more bandwidth and leans more towards having the actual server somewhere else.

These are just non-researched thoughts off the top of my head. Foscam makes good consumer webcams.

 

[peakbagger]

Thanks, I guess I need to go search for webcam hosting site .

The solar option is just using up spare parts, with my recent solar upgrade I am generating far more power over the course of a year than I use so I have been heating the house with a mini split to burn up the surplus so plugging a conventional power supply is the easy option