Re: Long range wireless or other solution?

["Jim" <alarminex@xxxxxxx>]

Joe Bramblett wrote:
> Looking for something in a battery powered or 12V low-light camera with at
> least 500ft range, or at least 6 hours built-in recording at no less than
> 10fps. No need for pan/tilt/zoom or anything else fancy, just good enough
> to get a license plate on a slow moving (25mph tops) vehicle when placed
> so that it will be directly behind the vehicle. Based on the road layout,
> the vehicle should be within 20-30yards of the camera and facing almost
> directly away at one point, and the plate should be within a roughly 10'
> wide area unless they run off the road completely. Adding in the desire to
> get the mailbox itself in frame, and we can call it 15' minimum required
> FOV at 60-90', with resolution good enough to read a (most likely) Texas
> black-on-retroreflective-white license plate.
>
> We've been hoping to ID some mailbox vandals, but they seem to be bright
> enough to avoid any boxes that are close enough to the houses to make them
> easy to catch.  I've considered the digital wildlife cameras with IR
> flash, but I'm not sure that they would record enough to get the vehicle
> as it turns away.
>
> Of course, they never show up when I'm sitting in a camouflaged blind with
> a nightvision scope and flash camera.  I'd hate to use a visible-flash
> camera unattended and find the mailbox smashed and camera stolen, though.


I had this problem a number of years ago. I was hell bent on finding
out who
was doing it re; low light cameras, infra red lights etc. until I
realized that I'd probably get arrested for what I was planning to do
to them. I took another approach. Much less costly too.

I made my mail box out of a piece of 12 inch cast iron pipe, welded to
a 6 inch
cast iron pipe, 8 foot long, (4 feet in the ground) filled with cement.
The pipe in
the ground is in a 3 foot diameter sonatube that I filled with 15 bags
of sackrete.

I smile at the thought of someone coming along, riding in a car with a
baseball
bat, hitting mail boxes.

I just hope no one ever runs into it with their car.