I’ve been looking at various cameras and systems to do a bit of home monitoring while I’m away, based on motion and audio detection.

I’ve broken this new project down into two sections : Hardware, and Software.

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The Hardware :

I settled on one “good” camera for now, where it is fairly close to the computer; the Logitech QuickCam Orbit AF will cover the office, and a couple of storage closets off of that room. I have used this model before at a business, and while not perfect, it’s pretty good. Made for desktop use, it does include a reasonable built-in microphone. The drawbacks : it’s USB only, which typically limits the max length to about 16 feet from the computer (per USB spec). It’s not designed to be “stealthy” in any way, and since it is not originally designed for security work, it doesn’t work well in very low / no light.

I chose the Orbit based on experience (prior 1.3 megapixel model), as well as reviews. Frankly, most of the IP “security” cameras just don’t look very good to me, either in performance or within a semi-reasonable price. I am sure there are going to be some negatives with the “do it yourself” route I’ve chosen, as well. The Orbit AF has Pan / Tilt / Zoom (PTZ)  and pretty good optics for it’s class.  The PTZ can also be set to automatic tracking, and has a wide field of view for both panning left/right and tilting up and down.

I am planning to extend one other Orbit AF (and hopefully two) to close rooms using a usb over cat5 type extender. We’ll have to see how that goes, as there is sure to be a performance penalty in there, as we are not at USB2 speeds (unless you want to plunk down a ton of money). Luckily, I can repurpose the extender if it doesn’t work out well. Wireless USB just looked too short range and not quite ready for the data speeds we’d be looking at, based on some net research. Fall back plan – investigate other USB extension types.

I also chose a small, fixed focus model : the Linksys WVC54GCA Webcam 640×480 802.11G Wireless Internet Camera and a review of same. We are definitely stepping down in “camera” level / capability here, but the point was to gain wireless access to cover a small, somewhat distant room (not attractive to run CAT5 to). Since I was only looking at about an eight foot room depth there, I really wasn’t concerned with super high resolution or the limit of fixed focus / no automatic PTZ.

I would dearly love for someone to come out with something akin to an Orbit (camera wise) that sported a gigabit copper ethernet port. While I don’t have good figures, I can’t imagine the incremental cost per port is much of an upcharge in moving from 10/100 up to 10/100/1000 gauging by current 5 port consumer desktop switch cost for those two types.

For the wireless side of this new “dreamcam”, please integrate something recent such as draft 802.11n – and of course make sure like with most modern net cams that we can flash it to a new bios, which would include the “final” spec, due in November I believe. I do not mind hooking up a camera via ethernet or USB to flash it; I’ve never met anyone who really trusted a flash process over wireless

This could potentially just have a small wall power converter if you wanted to run it wireless. I think USB availability would not really be needed if there was a gig-E port there, but that’s just me.

In fairness, I am not expecting the maturity of a serious network security camera setup, like an Axis. I’m pretty sure it would both have cost less, and been a lot easier to have a professional friend hook me up. But since I’m comfortable with packet analysis and writing code, I took this as a learning challenge as well.

To go with the wireless, I opted to step up to N. My old “b” wireless just wasn’t quite up to what I was looking for here, so I went with another “D” product, the D-Link DGL-4500 Xtreme N Selectable Dual Band Draft 802.11n Router. It wasn’t the least expensive option, but the reviews were pretty good, and it has wireless range and speed, as well as QoS tagging on the LAN and WAN side, and integrated gigabit ports. Goodbye, extra switch at the office desk. The were no reasonable AP’s anymore, so I’ll put the older DLink DSL-2540B into bridge mode and let the newer system route.

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The Software :

Important considerations for me were compatibility with Windows 7 (x64 Utlimate, 6.1.7600 RTM) as well as the ability to record to local disk, and to upload to either an off-site location, or to stream if (rarely) needed.

I quickly learned that there was no Santa Claus with the Orbit’s bundled software. Not that I really expected to get that lucky Third party time.

After a bit of navigation through this thread I was not overjoyed yet. Time to utilize the Google-Fu . . . ah, yes, here’s a likely candidate.

I’ve downloaded the software from http://www.webcamxp.com/ - specifically, Webcam 7 Pro; while it’s “beta” compared to their established product line, it looks stable so far. They again were a smart software company; they allow a limited use (one camera) system for FREE; not a trial, but ongoing. And a standard tiered software expense based on how much or little you need beyond that.

Since I was looking for more than one, they had a solution there too : 21 days free on the premiere product, no other limits. Check! Confidence in their own products ability to sell itself is always a good sign.

So far, it looks great. I’ve been testing it out under VMWare workstation 6.5.3, guest OS is Win7 64 bit Pro. (I know the host OS is Ult, but I don’t need that in every VM). Good feature set, even without hooking a cam to it yet.

These screenshots are from an older version of the software; I think the new version is even better, from what I’ve been able to tell so far.

They have a detailed list of supported cameras at http://www.webcamxp.com/ipcams.aspx as well, and they were prompt in replying to my pre-sales email :

“Hello, webcam 7 is intended for such purposes however Logitech drivers aren’t much suitable to use more than one of those camera at the same time. If you use only one sphere then there is no problem (drivers 11.5 suggested to be able to use all available resolutions). The logitech camera is not in the IP camera list because it’s not a network camera. Only the network cameras are listed, all USB cameras with a WDM driver are natively supported. Btw i have one of those AF camera as well as the older models too, it’s really one of the best usb camera available but the problem with usb camera is always where you don’t want the camera near the computer. Regards”

I understand this, and generally expect I’m probably not going to plop 6 cameras on there at 2 megapixel, hah. Understandable. I don’t really need that level of resolution for my purposes, so we’ll experiment with the software; there’s a ton of options there, but it seems to be laid out well so it’s not a problem if you don’t want to go into the heavy details.

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Between the new toys of  Software and Hardware, this will not only be useful but a good learning experience. UPS should be arriving with goodies on Thursday, so we’ll see how it goes, and I’ll post as I progress. Cheers!