Can't believe I found this site on a random search. GREAT ideas. In the process of building a surveillance system for fun/work. The concept.............using three video cameras (one color, one B & W facing forward and one color facing backward. Both mounted on a pan/tilt device, Also threw in a red laser for effect. Problems encountered so far....3 diff voltages required-6 to 12 volts for te cameras, 4.5V for the laser and 12V for the pan tilt. Need to modify those and so far am using direct wire for 12, R Shack voltage adapter for the 6-12 cameras (work well at 9V) and prob another adapter for the 4.5 laser. Pan/tilt speed.....moves to slow to track. Seperate wire for each device. Have to use multi cpnductor wire but how many ? **Additional gadget...Have a 12V Infra red spot light but..... Did I mention the whole device is mounted under/inside a clear dome. Using spare vehicle emergency beacon (matches other lights on War Wagon) Brings up additional problem......using IR spotlight inside dome causes reflection so it degrades camera view. Switching for cameras, can't run all three at once cause it would require more wires. Everything inputs to laptop or LCD minitor in car. Have I confused everybody yet. This probably isn't too clear but I'm thrilled to find this web site and I'm rambling. Have all the parts and I'm assembling but I need more ideas. This could be earth-shattering !! Send help / ideas / committment papers. Dick J......RetiredLawman@(REMOVE THIS)Gmail.com

Vague first time poster, over-excited, reads like junk mail solicitation. Maybe my BS alarm is too sensitive, but this post just doesn't feel right. If I'm wrong, then please accept my apology.

Well, if he comes back and fills us in on what the "war wagon" is, it's fine. Sounds like something for the military or police, but it's not hard to do.

You take a trio of USB cameras and feed them into the laptop, set it to record the streams and output the laptop monitor out to a touchscreen compatible monitor where you can use it /see it. Problems solved. As for glare from inside the dome, just mount the IR floods outside the dome, on top, and have them aligned with whatever camera is using them (presumably the B&W IR one.)

Hardly earth shattering - I could set this up within 20 minutes.

Edit: Ok, sorry, just saw the bit about the pan & tilt. For that, buy either a USB camera with PTZ on it, or buy a network compatible (runs over CAT5) camera with PTZ. I don't currently have one of those, so add another 24 hours for shipping. ;-)

Well, the post is free from links or other possible spam traps. I suppose that it does relate to some of the other topics that we have in this section with in-car LCDs and the like as well. The closest thing to a link is the guy's email address, which is hardly a problem.

Good luck with the project, the video cameras are interesting ideas.

I'd take a look for Maxim IC devices, they make some pretty good DC-DC converters, fairly high efficiency. A PWM SMPS (Pulse Width Modulated SwitchMode Power Supply) could also be made, but would be very complex.

If this is meant to be used while the vehicle is not running, then you'll want the power supplies to be as efficient as possible, which pretty much means SMPS. If lecrical supply isn't a problem, then depending on the amount of power required, I'd probably just get y our 9 and 4.5V from some IC voltage regulators. A couple of LM317 circuits should do the trick.

Assuming that a common ground is not a problem, then you'd need 1 conductor for each voltage. Ground can be to the vehicle chassis.

Thanks for the input that answers some questions. I think an email address of "Retired Lawman" should indicate "some" connection to Police. Apparently my first responder doesn't read or observe. The war wagon is a specialized Jeep Cherokee with more "police" type equipment than listed. Your "need to know" has just expired. Thanks......

the clear dome will probally have to go to a glass specialist and recieve anti-reflective coating treatment, I would not recommend plastic dome as thay scratch, and dull easially. to that end, you have described your physical concept. but did not descrive the objective, to what exactly are you tring to accomplish, what is the goal of this project?


I do hope this is not being used when you are driving, with a laptop and lasers will likely be recieving a sitation for disorderly conduct, and inatentave driving when using this concept.

Walmart does sell a video backup kit, video camera with a license plate frame bracket, and a small lcd. This may help trucks and other 4x4's avoid a colision when backing. You may see video cameras mounted on garbage trucks, and this is for safty.

Your concept sounds dangerious, and quite possably illeagle when driving. it souds like this has already been built, You may want to take this to your local police department, and make sure its legal,

you may wish to replace the laptop with a true hard drive video recording device, school bus and businesses uses them, thay have no monitor, so thay are safe in vehicles thay are also more friendley on the battery, laptops and lcd monitors can reduce a new 12v led acid car battery within a few hours. remove any pan tilt swivle device, and any visable ilumination devices, use 4 digital cameras at radioshack walmart, use one front back left right, and have the hard drive recording device can swich sequencially between all 4 stationary cameras. when done recording, pull the recorder into a safe location, like a house, and then use a computer to view the video that was recorded.

please reply back and let us know what the police department comments about your concept.

Well, for the simple LM317 based voltage regulators, it's easy enough to do.

Click to view attachment

Basic LM317 schematic.

To get the voltage, you use different value resistors for R1 and R2.

I'll specify a fixed value for R1 of 240 Ohms (Pretty typical for this type of circuit.)

R2=680Ohms = 4.8V output. This is probably acceptable for your 4.5V laser, the next common E12 value of 560 Ohms produces 4.2V This will play it a bit safer, and is likely still over the Vforward of your LED laser.

A 1.5kOhm resistor for R2 will give you 9.1V

A 2kOhm resistor for R2 will get you 11.7V, but if you want to regulate the 12V, I'd probably just use a zerner diode. This is only an issue of your 12V electronics are sensitive to overvoltage. (I regulate my car to 9V for my LED projects, since the voltage can jump as high as 16V at times, and in a load dump situation can spike higher than 30V, which kills LEDs fast.)

All of the parts to do this can be bought very easily and cheaply. A dual 4.5/9V supply for up to 1A current can be made for maybe $10, buying small numbers of components. Buying larger quantities could reduce the cost to a dollar or two each.

For this, I'd probably just wire things point-to-point, and not make a circuit board at all. Maybe put things in an aluminium box, bolt the regulators to the side (for heat dissipation -- but don't forget to electrically insulate the package. Kapton tape or a mica washer recommended. Then I'd fill the thing with hot glue or epoxy.

[since I AM the police and the vehicle referred to is a department vehicle,I doubt I'll get any tickets. Use of video cameras or any camera is not illegal in any state. We don't need "Guard House" lawyers.

Also don't believe that this request for help is any crazier than some of the projects I've reviewed on this site. Thanks gentlemen. (By the way, the vehicle is called the War Wagon is because it can cover almost any emergency situation. You'd probably be aghast at some of its "other" goodies)





Sincename='estefan2020' date='Oct 5 2009, 08:47 PM' post='313187']
the clear dome will probally have to go to a glass specialist and recieve anti-reflective coating treatment, I would not recommend plastic dome as thay scratch, and dull easially. to that end, you have described your physical concept. but did not descrive the objective, to what exactly are you tring to accomplish, what is the goal of this project?


I do hope this is not being used when you are driving, with a laptop and lasers will likely be recieving a sitation for disorderly conduct, and inatentave driving when using this concept.

Walmart does sell a video backup kit, video camera with a license plate frame bracket, and a small lcd. This may help trucks and other 4x4's avoid a colision when backing. You may see video cameras mounted on garbage trucks, and this is for safty.

Your concept sounds dangerious, and quite possably illeagle when driving. it souds like this has already been built, You may want to take this to your local police department, and make sure its legal,

you may wish to replace the laptop with a true hard drive video recording device, school bus and businesses uses them, thay have no monitor, so thay are safe in vehicles thay are also more friendley on the battery, laptops and lcd monitors can reduce a new 12v led acid car battery within a few hours. remove any pan tilt swivle device, and any visable ilumination devices, use 4 digital cameras at radioshack walmart, use one front back left right, and have the hard drive recording device can swich sequencially between all 4 stationary cameras. when done recording, pull the recorder into a safe location, like a house, and then use a computer to view the video that was recorded.

please reply back and let us know what the police department comments about your concept.
[/quote]

Goes great with eggs...

Then welcome, Judge Dredd.

Seriously, go read what I wrote up top. From the scant detail provided, this isn't even a tricky afternoon's work. Everything you want is available for under $2000 as a nearly plug-and-play system, and for a little more you can add wifi/3G/HDPSA etc. support, so those at the field office or whatever can see near-realtime feeds from the cameras.

The dome can be anything you like, imo. Plastic will be fine - go for polycarbonate if expecting it to get targeted with a brick during riots. Get a glass outer dome if you think it is likely to be getting scratched by stuff, though on a tall vehicle it's unlikely.

Still need to know a bit more, though. I'm seeing some form of periscope for a semi-armoured SWAT type truck used as a mobile command, rather than something for a pursuit vehicle. Are you thinking of having non-digital zoom? What sort of resolution do you want? Is it covert or overt surveillance? Do you need chain of custody and the ability to use it in court, or is it to verify officers are doing what they should be?

No, this project certainly isn't any crazier than others which have been tendered on this site. Some of them are pie-in-the-sky projects, of course, but others are quite doable, and are, in fact done.

I was thinking about some of the problems and what could be done.

For the IR floodlight, I can't see any way of enclosing this in the same housing as the camera and not getting problems. I don't think that it can be done.

So don't. Put it in a separate housing. If you want to pan with it, it could be connected with a sort of pantomine gear to follow the movement of the video camera. It makes the initial application more complicated, but solves many more problems than it creates, IMO.

I don't like to depend on laptops or things for car electronics, so I'd probably look more at something like a mini ITX mobo and stack something like a dual TV tuner/video capture card in it. This would allow at least 2 channels if video input, and you could probably crank in a third eas enough. I'd probably use USB webcams if I were to do this myself, for cameras, since they're cheap, reasonably good resolution (They'll keep up to standard definition) and very easy to deal with in software.

A small solid state drive with a Linux install on it for software, and you've got a mobile recording box.

Add in a small LCD monitor for the dashboard, wireless keyboard, and you're good to go.