Nest box camera: Advice needed

[Lindyfurby]

I want to install a camera in a bird box at my school preferably wireless does anybody have a recommendation
Lindy

[PeterReynolds]

Good morning. Haven't had too much experience of wireless cameras ... but i'll have a look around for you. Do you have the box already; if so can you describe it or post a picture ?

[PeterReynolds]

P.S. What is the distance from the box to the TV screen ? Is there no chance of using a fixed cable ? I'd be happy to help ... (see my link)

[Mobee]

I bought my camera as a kit from gardenature.co.uk mine is wired but they have a full range. You could also try Nature Cameras web site.I have just set up a second camera as my blueys used the wrong one last year.Good luck with your project, not straight forward but well worth the effort.Mo

[birdbrain]

Hi!

Try Garden Safari at www.gardensafari.co.uk (http://www.gardensafari.co.uk)

They give discounts to schools too.

Good luck!

[ChrisR]

Surely the difficulty with a wire-free camera is how to power it? Not to mention the lights.... I've come at it from a computer-based direction. Wireless cameras are now affordable, but they do require connecting to a power supply, even if the pictures come via radio. So the need to run a powerline out seemed to make the wireless data feature a bit pointless for this project. This year I have an ethernet-based camera (Asus CX200) which was dismantled from its stand and assembled into a tupperware box onto the roof of a nesting box. 4 infra-red LED's provide the light so it can see inside the dark box. In total, the whole lot draws about 1 amp, so you'd need serious batteries to keep it going. I'm using "power over ethernet" to make use of the spare wires in the ethernet cable so that all the data and power travel down the one cable. Properly specified ethernet equipment should be able to run cable lengths up to 200 m or so, but this particular camera device wasn't able to drive a 20 m cable. I've set up with about 10 m and the box is in a holly tree alongside the house. So far, we get a bird (Bluetit) looking in most days, and sometimes up to three times a day. (S)He even brought a friend on one occasion. The beauty of this computer-based approach is that the camera has its own motion detection, so it takes snaps when it sees the picture changing and stores them via ftp onto a computer in the house. In theory, the camera could be exposed to the outside world (i.e watched in real time over the internet), though I've chosen not to do this in the interests of security and bandwidth consumption. I can however view the snapshots via the internet and thereby keep an eye on progress. My pictures are a little blurry, The camera doesn't have great depth of field and I have set it to focus somewhere between the entrance and the floor, in the hope that the bedding the birds bring in will raise the nest off the floor and into focus. My one regret with my choice of kit is that there is no built-in provision for sound.

[Mobee]

You are quite right that wireless cameras still need a power supply. That was the reason I chose a wired camera. I also have a microphone in mine and I must say I love to hear the birds arriving. They have a special call they make before going into the box, I also like to hear them tapping on it testing for suitability perhaps? The drawback with mine is that although there is only a single cable it has three connectors which required quite a large hole to pass through the wall, bigger than any drill bit we had. Another mistake I made was not to have infra red so I could only view in good light. Fortunately I was able to exchange it for one with IR. All I need now are for my bluetits to come back!

[Jimbo]

The drawback with mine is that although there is only a single cable it has three connectors which required quite a large hole to pass through the wall, bigger than any drill bit we had.

Try stripping back the outer insulation and passing the connectors through the hole one by one.

HTH:)

[PiratesAhoy!]

Despite not being totally 'wire-free' - wireless cameras do offer a bit of an advantage. In our case, the cameras are mounted on the kitchen wall, but the computers are in a room on the other side of the house. We can run a cable for power from the transformer in the kitchen, but having a wireless camera means we don't need to run cables through the entire house as well!

[Birders]

We have a wireless camera. Our nest box is fixed to our garage wall and the wire to power the camera and transmitter runs through the wall to a socket in the garage. All dead easy and it remains on 24hrs/day. The wireless receiver is connected to our main TV and a quick click of the remote control shows the inside of the bird box. Our camera has IR lights so the inside of the box remains "illuminated" permanently without disturbance to the birds.