Tree Cam Installation

[Sybertiger]

I recycled an older 2MP HDW5231R-ZE that was in the backyard which was replaced with a T54IR-ZE-S3 recently by mounting it on a tree in the front yard. All my other cams point outward away from the house but I always wanted to have a cam looking at the house so I could see if there was a tree laying on the roof after a big storm, or shingles missing off the roof or smoke billowing out, etc....or just assurances that everything would appear as it should.

I had previously installed a tree cam at my parents house (as seen HERE) but on that install I purposely left the camera white because I wanted people to know a cam was there so they didn't even try to do something stupid like take a shit in the yard.

The tree install at my house I attempted to camoflauge the cam by using various spray paints I already had on hand. I don't know that I did a good job as it's surprising how every tree has so many different colors depending which direction it faces or the type of tree that it is. As you can see the east side of the tree I mounted the cam on has a lot of goldish and bronze colors but I did the best I could with what I had. It's funny how the next tree over didn't have the same goldish tones to it.














The direct burial Cat6 cable was installed inside of 1/2" dripline tubing to keep the squirrels at bay. You can't see the tubing running down the tree at any vantage point from the street. You'd have to be standing on the house side of the tree to see it and it blends in fairly well even without any goldish tones.

 

[paul@austins.tv]

Wow that looks great. Good job.

 

[Oneup]

Good paint job. May want to try draping a little spanish moss from it. Do you have any IR light conflicts with the house cams?

 

[Sybertiger]

Good paint job. May want to try draping a little spanish moss from it. Do you have any IR light conflicts with the house cams?

I normally have uplighting on all night long so that's the lighting you see around the house with the exception of the red circles. The three red circles are the IR from cams. Not sure why the one is so much brighter but likely it's because it's pointing directly at the tree cam. There's a boobie cam with IR mounted on the ceiling of the front porch but you can't see it in this pic due to the angle.

 

[Phil.g00]

I think you did a good job.
I think if you overlaid irregular pure black patches to break up the manmade regular forms and outlines, it would improve it.

 

[Flintstone61]

Good job,,,,,,,,,,,maybe throw a Robins nest on top of it....they'll camo it with bird poop....

 

[kenzi]

Nice job

 

[EMPIRETECANDY]

Great Job, those cams almost 8years

 

[Sybertiger]

Additional installation details:

This is by far the longest run I have at 160 feet of direct burial Cat6. The cable runs from the back corner of the house where my office is that has all the BI server, UPS and POE switches. It runs up through the ceiling of the closet and into the attic to the farthest corner of the attic above the garage then down the interior wall before it goes outside using the same hole that to irrigation control cables go outside the other side of the garage wall. Three months ago I had prepared for the eventuality of cams on the oak trees near the street. The plan was for at least a cam looking back at the house and perhaps a license plate cam or two in the future. I ran two 1 inches PVC pipes for Cat6/Cable plus one 3/4" pipe for irrigation of the azaleas (added another irrigation valve) around the trees plus low voltage wire for uplighting on the trees at night. If you're trenching 40 feet through the yard and under the walkway you may as well think of all the things you'd want over by the trees and do it in one shot. It's wonderful to have sandy soil here in Florida. It's like a day at the beach when trenching by hand. And when running the Cat6 it sure was easy-peasy feeding the last 50 feet of Cat6 through the PVC from the house up the tree about 9 feet.

 

[Heavyopp]

Only issue I have is the same color pipes in the same trench. I’m an irrigation installer. I purposely cut white pvc pipes every day. I could easily see cutting the wrong pipe there when adding a head.
For the record I have never purposely cut a grey pvc pipe underground that was running the same trench as sprinkler lines.