I’m restoring an old house in Calvert, Texas and recently I’ve been having problems with someone breaking in and stealing my tools. I’ve added motion detector lights and upgraded the locks, but I also want to add a surveillance camera. In fact I’ve already bought a pretty nice one, but the problem is that it is a pretty “dumb” system. It just records straight to a VCR until it runs out of tape. The problem with that is that I’m only up there a couple of days here and a couple there, and once the tape is used up it’s just going to sit there.
I think what I need is something that will record only when it detects motion, or only records a frame every 10 seconds or so. I guess this means I’m going to have to record to a computer with some software controlling when things get recorded.
It is relatively easy to rig a motion detector to a VCR so the VCR records onle when there is motion. There re also Software programs which do the same thing with a computer cam but that would be more expensive I think.
Looks like a big job so presumably there are a lot of tools - we’re not just talking a couple of hammers and screwdrivers. I guess that made me wonder if a camera will deter the thieves at all, I’d just wear a balaclava if I was dead set on getting in there and thought there might be a camera. Is there no way you can secure the equipment off site in a lock up facility nearby? Failing that record a loud dog barking as a .wav or something and put it on playback from a cheap PC system?
