Trailer camera...

[TimK]

This is a weird one. I bought a wireless camera system for our horse trailer several years ago. The cameras had small antennas and displayed on a 9" screen. The display had a few channels that we could scroll through for the different feeds: 2 fixed cameras and a battery powered magnetic one used to help line up the hitch. The picture quality was horrible.. too much interference but at least we could see the horses. Since then I have delved into the whole BI thing (have a small 16 camera system on the farm) and decided I could do better. I stuck an old router in the trailer and hooked up an IP camera to see the horses and we watch it on an old iPad. Works great.

My question is 2 fold..

is there a way to use the old wireless cameras with the ethernet/wifi network? Maybe some sort of adapter or something? I really like the form factor of them (small rectangles, weatherproof and wide angle) but haven't had luck on finding a converter.
or
does an IP or wifi camera exist that would work well on the outside of a trailer? Would be used as a "backup" camera to help parking and passing so wide angle is always good.

I bought the system from videosystemsbyjim.com but he passed a few years back and the business closed.

Thanks
Tim K

 

[sebastiantombs]

I would use a LOT of caution with this idea. Keep in mind that IP cameras have an inherent delay in the video feed. That's why vehicle cameras used for back-up or other views around the vehicle use composite video. If it were me, I'd look into a quality system designed for use on vehicles and trailers. They're not cheap, but they are available.

 

[TimK]

I'll be careful.. Don't have any camera back there now so anything would be an improvement. I wouldn't think the delay would be much longer than the original wireless set up... are we talking milliseconds?

 

[sebastiantombs]

No, we're talking seconds not milliseconds. You need to know what's happening now, not two seconds ago when backing up.

 

[TimK]

Anything Is better than the huge blind spot I have right now. Even a 1 second delay won’t effect backing up.. still will use common sense, and all that.

I do get the point you are making though. The system is really just to make sure horses are ok.

 

[sebastiantombs]

I don't know. It's just to easy to make a mistake and forget that delay, and Mr. Murphy says that will happen at the worst possible moment. For watching the horse IP is fine, but for any other purpose involving moving vehicles real time is a basic requirement.