My Baby Monitor Solution

Hi Friends.

So we initially tried the summer baby monitor. 900 mhz color handheld with infared night vision.
Problem neighbor was using same thing. They could see eleanor, we could see their baby.

Before I continue
If you use a 2.5 GHZ cordless phone, you will have to go to 5.8 GHZ or 900 MHZ. Currently because so many people have wireless internet also, 2.4 GHZ phones are jamming the channels.

I purchased my cameras and video stuff from this X10.com . They really made their name with annoying pop up ads. I think popup killers were created to kill x10 ads.

X10 technology uses the wiring in your house to send signals to turn on or turn off different components plugged into the house.

I use X10 to wireless control lights, ceiling fans, rope lights in my home theater. I have mini timer as well. The good thing about the mini timer is you can set lights to turn off and on in your house, but on random time. One day 6:05 turn on, then 5:59. Generally within 5 minutes of the actual time you want things turned on, but not exactly timed. So people "casing" your joint will see randomness.

ok. my setup
2 full color x10 cameras.
2. Black and white low light cameras.

These cameras are wireless signal back to the base, but still require ac power. the cameras all use 2.4 GHZ bands for send images back to base.

In my package, i added 4 PTZ Pan/tilt bases. These are controlled thru the X10 in house wired networking.

All the video gets picked up centrally in the middle of my house.
Thats the AV receiver. You can output signal to a TV with Coax, or AV Jacks.

I used Coax for the TV set to channel 3 or 4.
Then i used the AV jacks to send video and audio into the Slingbox. I already sang the praises of this awesome little internet gadget.

Why slingbox.
I can watch the in home video at my laptop downstairs, desktop upstairs, warehouse office, and even my windows enabled pocket PC phone.

Last night. We put the baby down to sleep , then went to the home theater to enjoy some alone time. We watched the baby from the video the whole time.

Pros: Video is pretty clean when you have everything setup right
Can pan/tilt cameras - if you by the upgrade.
can watch remotely

Cons:
Can have lots of 2.4 GHZ interference. If you have a large home... or your "central" base is not in the center of your home... you could run into problems
Cost: I spent about 600 bucks in total for this setup. about 3 times the cost of a simple baby monitor.

The X10 deal = $400 bucks
Slingbox $200

Currently slingbox is 150.

Also X10 do not buy anything until it goes on sale

Wait for the mega pack: 4 cameras, AV receiver etc etc. Also the ninja pan tilt bases.

Is it perfect?
no

But for what we need excellent.
I am blogging and watching the baby at the same time!

Any q's about X10? You have to like to fiddle with things to get the ins and outs of X10. but very cool when you get it all setup.

Aights.
A seperate post is coming for pics from yesterday and today.

Techo-Sam