Multiple In-car/external Cameras

[dmnt]

Hi guys, As the title states i would like to setup multiple in-car and out of car cameras that all record the same footage. I was thinking of using a few (3-4) bullet cameras to get different angles, front and rear etc of the car whilst i am on the track.

The only real ideas i have had so far are.

1. Setting up a small computer with a 4 port video capture card, obviously this will need to be small enough to mount somewhere in the car so that it does not move. I would then attach all the cameras to the capture card and hit record at the start of my lap etc. The main downside in this is any computer that is small enough to mount in a car is usually to small to house such a card.

2. Run the bullet cameras to multiple DVR cameras, downside, i need to hit record on all the cameras and it will be expensive.

Those are the only viable solutions that i have come up with so far. I have searched through many posts over the past few days (both on SAU and other forums (google included)) and i can only find people running one camera or possibly a second camera with a switch (this is good but means only one camera angle can be recorded at any time.

Any ideas or direction i can take with this project would be great.

Thanks

George

[Trav33]

USB Web cams are getting better resolution these days, you could have a laptop with a USB port extender, and have 4 or 6 USB web cams plugged in. Upside = a fairly cheap solution, and a laptop is easy to remove and strap in, does not have to be powered.

[Chris Rogers]

question is at what resolution do you want to record. (are you doing a getaway in stockholm idea?) webcams may limit what you are trying to do.

Edited May 2, 2007 by Chris Rogers

[dmnt]

I'm not going for ulrta high quality but something around the 640x480 or as it's refered to by many supplies, 420-480 horizontal lines (i think). This is a fairly decent resolution but not to high. This may be in the resolution of some web cams but how well are they going to record? My experience with most webcams is they only handle fairly low frame rates.

Obviously i would like to keep the project relatively cheap, making mounts and installing everything myself so i don't really want to be spending hundreds on each individual camera etc.

Edited May 2, 2007 by dmnt

[mrgilly]

I think your main problems are going to be resolution and capture speed - no good to you if it's going to record 150k's an hour at 5fps

[dmnt]

thats exactly right

but still no one seems to know of a good method to record multiple cameras at one time

[-R33GTS-]

Grab urself a handycam, Hardly Normal have renting schemes too so u can return the hardware once your done.

They're getting pretty cheap these days and would be very handy to have one. :sorcerer:

Edited May 4, 2007 by -R33GTS-

[dmnt]

Again, good for a single camera (i already have a single camera) but i want to record multiple angles all at the same time. I know this can be done there has to be a simple way to make this work...

[Eug]

i would be interested too...

looked into DVRs and they seem to be the go'er with decent resolution and fps and will also allow good quality audio. like you said it's very costly.

can you adapt those reverse parking monitors? or are they too crappy?

[nkeast]

Grab urself a handycam, Hardly Normal have renting schemes too so u can return the hardware once your done.

They're getting pretty cheap these days and would be very handy to have one. :sorcerer:

If you're referring to Flexirent "The best way to pay for technology" it's only a rental in the sense that you don't own it, as someone who works for them I can tell you it's an absolute scam Our biggest customers are 18 year olds with no clue, and single mums with 10 kids who want to buy a 60 inch plasma to watch daytime crap on.

On topic though, have you looked at some cctv type solutions? Don't alot of those do multiple channle and HDD recording now? might be an idea to see if you could pick up a second hand/cheap system....

[dmnt]

I haven't tried this as of yet, but as stated above i'm not 100% confident in the frame rate those CCTV systems will provide. I think it may be a little too low, i guess the best solution would be to test one.

I thought there would be something i could buy off the shelf similar to what i am asking. I guess no one has found any items or they are just way too expensive. Oh well i'll keep searching

[frx026]

there is a company here in Melbourne that imports this type of equipment.

You could have a camera facing front/rear with one each side of the car all recorded to a hard drive and able to be watched split screen through a standard monitor.

I have no idea of costs bu the company is located in dandenong and is called TLC National. You want to speak to Tony. He is a bit of a bogun but would be able to supply you with this and other interesting security devices.

[dmnt]

Thanks for the reply, i knew there was something you could buy premade. I would go down and check it all out, being in perth though it's a little hard. May give Tony a call though and try and get some more info on the setup they sell.

[Tofu]

possible option; cameras to carputer for storage, procesing with spftware? I dont think you are going to get a decent bang for buck option for storing the footage. the cameras you showed me on the r31 seemed alright to test for number plate and parcelshelf installtion. Wonder how they would perform for night runs.

This is how i would rig it up:

4 x USB Cameras ---------------> Carputer-----------------> 7" TFT Screen for activation and deactivation.

Carputer-----------------> CD/DVD Player------------------------------------>Speakers/amps and all that jazz.

Carputer----------------->Storage: Porn, Music,Movies, and Cam footage.

Set you back about 1K for inital setp (not incuding stereo, but we could have fun with that). the comp doesn't need to be huge on processing power (2ghz a 1gig of ram wiill be very sufficient) and HDDs are as cheap as your mum on a sunday night with a 2 for 1 voucher. So that maybe your best option. In the end if it doesn't work we can use the parts elsewhere. The carputer will need to have has many usb slots as possible, maybe get a usb 4 in one adapter or something as you will need 4+ for cameras, 1 for usb stick/external HDD data transfer or you could go wireless here. But during the tests we will definitely beable to fine tune the necesites.

You will probably be able to record the footage from each camera individually to a folder called "dmnts l33t drivingz0r!!!11!one" then you could l33t hax it up to what you want later.

Grasping at straws but in theory it works and quite simply very user friendly. it would be fun as hell to install and test. If you want you could hold out for me to do it first, but I have soooo much more to do to the goat before I even contemplate doing this.

Peace

Edited May 10, 2007 by Tofu

[Trav33]

Webcams seem like a great idea, and they have been suggested earlier in this thread - but people are doubting their resolution and frame rates. I dont think they'd be a problem, theres some good ones avail these days - not those cheap $20 manual focus ones. I'll might do some research myself for a decent one...

As a starter, Logitech's webcam on their webpage shows 640x480 live video capture, at up to 30 frames per second. Higher resolutions are possible, but for still capture only.

Creative have a web cam with a resolution of 1600 x 1200 pixels, this is equal to 1.9MP which isnt bad!

http://www.creative.com/products/product.a...16425&nav=1

Edited May 11, 2007 by Trav33

[frx026]

A little while ago I saw one of these sytems in a car and working.

The car was a 2003/4 commodore

The car was fitted with 6 camera's.

1 - in the dash cluster facing the driver

2 - right b piller facing outside

3 - left b piller facing outside

4 - rear bumper facing outward

5 - front grill facing outwards

6 - rear parcel shelf facing into cabin

All the camera's hooked to a central hub. The hub connects to a portable hard drive which has video out and runs through a dvd headunit in dash.

All cameras can be on screen at the same time. One camera can be on the screen. Using a wireless network adaptor the car could send the pictures to a remote screen ( in side house).

The whole system was hooked to a gsm paging type alarm.

Quite a cool system, all of the shelf parts, and yes it was the TLC mob i mentioned earlier.

Camera's are waterproof and have paintable surrounds so they can hidden in the cars paintwork/ interior.

Just thought this further info might help.

[Tofu]

I dont think i necessarily meant webcams, but I am sure there are USB adaptable cams out there for use.