Wireless IP Chick Cam

[My6Chicks]

I am interested in getting a wireless IP Chick Camera which will be installed in the coop and allow me to view my chicks on my iPhone any where in the world. Has anybody done this already and can you provide a materials list and installation guide? I have 110V available in the coop (should have run cat5 cable along with the power cables). Also have a wireless lan in the house. The coop is about 50 feet away from the house and I might need to install another router in the house closer to the coop.

I haven't asked my friends for any advise because they might think the chick cam is for another purpose

Thanks...

 

[ScotH]

As joe pesci once said: "It's all about the dollars." ...

At justin<dot>tv there is a web-stream of chickens (user name: vasalini), might try asking there.... The name of the stream is: "Daily life with a flock of chickens in HD"

What you really need is to know the upload strength of your internet, you could buy a awesome cam, run LAN or firewire to your coop.. and still end up with horrible video quality because of a bottleneck in bandwidth.

......

Edit:

Meant to add I have an old camcorder I can hook up to my laptop via firewire, every now and then I will broadcast something on Justin<dot>tv (I'm sure there are other sites)... and you might want to look at the selection of surveillance cameras\
eviews at Newegg<dot>com.

 

[Neese87]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/655065/added-ip-camera-to-be-able-to-check-on-chickens

You can use this.

P.S. You can watch the video.

 

[GeoKan]

Hey My6Chicks. I too wanted to view my chickens from afar and took the long journey to figure out how to do it. I'm really not adept at networking and just have some basic knowledge. With a little perseverance and much research I finally figured out how to view them over the internet.

I bought a Foscam ip camera from their site which offered me free shipping and a 1-year guarantee replacement. They also have an option for remote set-up for a nominal fee. The company is based out of Houston, Texas. They have a nice support forum that has tons of information on troubleshooting problems like this one. I'm on a Mac so this was really helpful to me.

I also ran across this great iPhone and iPad app that works beautifully and well worth the money for EVERYTHING it does. The only drawback is that this app really likes to suck down battery life. The guide is really useful too.

My biggest hurdle was reception, in which, I did a couple of things: 1.) I bought a more powerful antenna and 2.) raised my Airport Extreme higher than I had it.

I'm able to take snapshots or record my chickens, talk to them, and even listen in. (Although not very well — lots of static) I can even view them in the dark! I like this set up so much that I'm going to purchase more cameras for the other coop and even the run.

Here's a snapshot from my Foscam in my coop just before sunset.



I don't know if this answered any of your questions, but it might give you a start.

Good luck!