pine 140 Posted March 4, 2012 Share Posted March 4, 2012 Hi all, Im in need for helping a friend to gather evidence of some sort by means of photos or even video. The background is from the suspicions that the landlord entered my friends apartment without asking first. We installed a simple device using the 430 mcu to check the door opening. Yesterday the landlord called my friend and sheepishly asked whether anyone is in the apartment. My friend was with me dining out when he called. When we were back, the led indicators showing someone entered before us. We think this is enough for prima facie evidence.. now we would like to have to take stage 2. We planned to control a digital camera to take photo or even video at the door whenever the device detected intrusion. It could be my friend entering, but we will check the photos or video when something like last night happened. The digital camera we have which is a casio exilim does not seem to have interface for it.. not even IR. Any advice for implementing this? Are there products out there, diy or consumer, for this? We have thought about having the casio runs continuously, but its max video length is half hour regardless of the size of the storage card. Thanks in advance. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RobG 1,892 Posted March 4, 2012 Share Posted March 4, 2012 Can you just get a cheap USB camera and hook it up to your desktop? You can then use time lapse or motion detection software. pine 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
oPossum 1,083 Posted March 4, 2012 Share Posted March 4, 2012 You could use a RC servo or solenoid to trigger the shutter release of the camera. A PIR motion sensor would be good too - so it can take pictures as long as someone is there. RobG and pine 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RobG 1,892 Posted March 4, 2012 Share Posted March 4, 2012 How about some cheap camera from craigslist, then you could just take apart and solder release wires directly to the camera. pine 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Vitos 1 Posted March 4, 2012 Share Posted March 4, 2012 Maybe the easiest way should be to dismantle camera and attach some wires to the ON/OFF switch and the Trigger switch. Then you can connect those wires to msp430's gpio and easily toggle "switches". I know it isn't hi-tech solution but it should be done in very short time at least for testing purposes. pine 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Vitos 1 Posted March 4, 2012 Share Posted March 4, 2012 How about some cheap camera from craigslist, then you could just take apart and solder release wires directly to the camera. RobG was first, damn it :-) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RobG 1,892 Posted March 4, 2012 Share Posted March 4, 2012 ...and the camera could power your LP too Quote Link to post Share on other sites
pine 140 Posted March 4, 2012 Author Share Posted March 4, 2012 Thank you all for your advice! Will try the usb cam to get a prelim quick to deploy solution, and progressively move on to other of your suggestions, thanks again! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
GeekDoc 226 Posted March 4, 2012 Share Posted March 4, 2012 I'm cobbling together a security cam system using HD video cams (on sale at Best Buy for $8 each). The picture quality was important to me. So far, they're great in room light/daylight, but not good in low light. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
cde 334 Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 I'm cobbling together a security cam system using HD video cams (on sale at Best Buy for $8 each). The picture quality was important to me. So far, they're great in room light/daylight, but not good in low light. Test them with some IR leds. Then either self make, or buy some premade Round IR boards to mount around the cams. Also 8 dollar HD video cams? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
GeekDoc 226 Posted March 7, 2012 Share Posted March 7, 2012 Test them with some IR leds. Then either self make, or buy some premade Round IR boards to mount around the cams. Also 8 dollar HD video cams? I may try them with IR LEDs, but the areas I'm going to point them to are generally at least partially lit. The webcams were on sale (turns out it was a really good sale) at BestBuy.com for $8 each. I jumped on it and bought 3. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.