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Old 11-04-2007, 12:52 PM   #11
P and B
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Yep Larry, that's my driveway. Bad for backing down but killer views of the bay.

I did a little more hunting around today on the web. For Joe, who's looking for a cheap solution, I doubt we'll find one under the $200.00 mark. I thought about the 802.11 web cams but you have to be careful of the focal lengths. For a backup camera, you'd almost want a fisheye type. Remember that they usually only focus well to a few feet. The ones they list as web cams (as opposed to notebook cams) might work. Problem is you have to buy them to play with them.

I then looked at a USB version, since they are the least expensive, thinking I would just hard wire it. USB has a 15 foot "powered" transmission limit without using active cables, which cost about $20-30 a pop and only come in 16' lengths. I've got a 3124 so I'd need two actives and another short cable to make it work. Transmissionwise, I'm just not sure this is a great plan either.

I did find one site http://www.videosystemsbyjim.com/ who sells a wireless system that claims 100' range but it'll set us back $250. His web site appears to be home grown and doesn't have a lot of information. All of his products are Chinese from a company called "Sharpvision".

BTW- another problem with the off the shelf solutions are that all the cameras seem to run on 5VDC so you'd have to knock the battery voltage down accordingly. All kind of a hassle.

If I do come up with something reasonable, I'll post it here.

Phil
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