Low-budget surveillance system

Surveillance system w/ cheap off-the-shelf camera modules

Florian Wilhelm Dirnberger

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Description

Building this surveillance system is literally a matter of a few minutes. Different small camera modules can be used here.

I've picked an extremely low-budget, low-consumption black/white system, but basically any module that delivers a composite video signal (i. e. 1V p-p 75 Ohm, or (F)BAS) is appropriate.

The camera lens has to be adjusted manually for low-budget systems.

For displaying (and recording) the video signal on a PC I use the "Hauppauge USB-Live 2" converter. There exist many alternatives, such as putting in use an old TV etc.

Current consumption for my configuration (with 12V power-supply unit and L7805 voltage regulator):

- 23 mA for the black/white camera
- 11 mA for the (optional) LED

as you can see on the photo with the Amperemeter. Thus power consumption equals around 0.4 Watt in this case what is well below other comparable camera systems.

Details

Example recording (lens is not yet perfectly adjusted):

Files

datasheet-voltage-regulator-L78.pdf For the 5V supply voltage. Use the circuit diagrams in this datasheet as blueprints. Adobe Portable Document Format - 2.29 MB - 04/10/2022 at 09:53	Preview	Download

Camera-Module.pdf Camera module (example) Adobe Portable Document Format - 194.74 kB - 12/15/2021 at 10:39	Preview	Download

Components

1 × Hauppauge USB-Live 2 Video converter
1 × Camera module Module that delivers a composite video signal
1 × L 7805 CV Power Management ICs / Linear Voltage Regulators and LDOs
4 × Capacitors (2x film cap., 2x electrolytic cap.) Capacitors to stabilize the supply voltage for the module (see datasheet L 7805 CV)
1 × Coax cable 50 Ohm should be good enough in most cases, use 75 Ohm if at hand