Watching your tank from afar (webcams)

[Phanman]

another downside you might find with telus is that you need to be on a contract with them if your not on a contract already. So thing long and hard if you want to be locked in for 3-5yrs.

What about going even a simpler way of using a webcam and keep it on with your computer using msn or something like that?

[Rippin]

There are many IP cameras out there, but the biggest problem is that the picture quality is quite poor. They are affordable and you can access it from anywhere in the world, as long as you know the IP address.


Argileh, what brand web-camera did you purchase?

[michika]

Originally Posted by Rippin

There are many IP cameras out there, but the biggest problem is that the picture quality is quite poor.

Quality is a big thing in this search. I've even started researching using a video camera, because I want good quality picture, and color as well.

I'm not really sure where to go to look for help or even to get information on doing this type of project. Hence all the research.

[ixel25]

I'm not sure what is your budget, but this should give you a starting point www.axis.com and a sample http://64.21.226.243/view/index.shtml


ixel

[untamed]

There's watching your tank from afar...then there is having the power to do something about it from afar.

If you have much of your system controlled by some sort of controller, with a computer program option (Aquatronica w/computer software in my case), then contolling the system from afar becomes a matter of getting access to my computer from a remote location over the internet. Something like this
https://secure.logmein.com/home.asp?lang=en might do the trick.

I'm just in the process now of setting up a home WIFI network, so that my Aquatronica computer can see the internet, then I'll go from there.

[michika]

I fogot to add that some of my research was also into mac friendly methods for doing this.

argileh,
Is the product you purchased macintosh friendly? Is the video streaming? How do you find the quality?

I looked into an iSight (a mac) camera that I could put somewhere around my apartement. Unfortunatly the iSight isn't made any more, and my computer isn't near my tank.

I agree about the Telus comment Phanman, being locked in isn't worth it. I'm not with Telus, but I have been able to get other services without going on contract, such as web hosting.

There seems to be two components to this problem, the first is hardware, and the second is a delivery method or software. I always expected that the delivery method would be the harder of the two areas.