Quoted:
THIS is a mothafreakin' TAG.

I may want to do that. I'd wonder if one could just rig the directional antenna into the camera itself... although the output may be a bit low. Maybe some sort of amplifier in-line with it? Then you can just have the camera and the directional antenna rigged up on the tripod.


I've already got a couple USB batteries... I recommend the Anker brand.

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Build ideas are welcome.  I am always looking for ways to improve my setup.  Some of you posted pics/comments about your own.  Please share the wealth.

Quoted:


I have been doing lots of longer range shooting in the last couple of years, and normally shoot on steel. Recently I got on a range that goes to 700 yards but does not allow steel targets.  After the very first day shooting this range, I knew there had to be a better way.  We must have walked 10 miles in all back and forth to check our targets.  The mirage was terrible, and even with a 60x spotting scope we couldnt really see any bullet holes past 200 yards reliably.



The property owner offered to rent us his target cam system for $20 the next time we were out there, and we gladly took him up on the offer.  Not money well spent.  His was a low-res 900mhz RF model with cheese grade 7 inch VGA monitor.  When we actually did get enough signal, and the wind was blowing just right, we could make out our targets in all their blurry detail.  When we left that day, the property owner asked me how I liked the camera setup, and wanted to know if I would like to purchase one.  I was cordial and told him that it saved us from walking, and I appreciated it.  Thats when he told me I could have my very own for $1050 OTD..  Thats right....Over 1k for a hack job cam system.  Again, I told myself that there had to be a better, cheaper way.



Watching Youtube videos, I ran across Bullseye target cam systems.  To me, it looked very straight forward and used all off the shelf parts.  Im pretty handy, and had a few drinks in me, so I headed to Amazon.com and ordered a bunch of shit, knowing that I would have regrets the next day.



Total Amazon order was $189.31 Almost every single part that you need for under $200 bucks.



Now, to be honest, I was really skeptical that it was going to actually work. Also, I really didnt have any place to test it other than the range, and I didnt want to waste a range trip testing it, so I located a road close to home via google maps that was 455 yards according to my GPS.  IT FUCKING WORKED.



I was stoked, and immediately called a couple of skeptical shooting buddies and told them the news.  Again, they were skeptical and doubted that it would actually work as well as a commercial system.  Over and over I explained that what I had built was almost identical to the commercial system selling for $700 dollars, even down to the same battery pack.  Both of them said "We will see this weekend'.  Yeah, we would.



Honestly, I was worried too, but here are the results.



This was the setup at 500 yards. Everything stayed in the homer box but the antenna on my custom bed slat mount.

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d173/clindav/20150627_151836_zpszayzrvwd.jpg



This was the Range from the firing line, AKA bed of my truck. The barely visible blue arrow is pointing to the antenna.

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d173/clindav/range%20snip_zpsldcug5dd.jpg



Strong signal back at the laptop

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d173/clindav/20150627_161245_zpseu2sdss3.jpg



And a live view from the camera in real time.

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d173/clindav/20150627_161202_zps97t26bsb.jpg



And this is a screen snip from the laptop of what you actually see.

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d173/clindav/Cam%20screenshot_zpsgwkmloyv.jpg



This is a Youtube video of me shooting with the target cam cropped and zoomed in.  The targets are still very very clear after editing, cropping and zooming.  The only thing I noticed was there seemed to be a delay sometimes back at the laptop.  I will revisit this later in the writeup.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u865qlw-mPo



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDeJWAd9BTI



And my buddy Russ with his GAP.  Notice even on the small targets cropped and zoomed bullet holes are still easily visible.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1p37IRRGB0



So, How do you do it you ask?  Well, you might do something different, but I will tell you what I did.



Start out with buying these.  I snipped these today, so the prices should be accurate.



The antenna.  We will re-visit this one

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d173/clindav/Capture7_zpsfl8vwbuk.jpg



Extended antenna cable.

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d173/clindav/Capture4_zpselff0qe2.jpg



Camera.  The commercial version uses the VGA version.  The HD version was 10 bucks more, so I went for it instead.

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d173/clindav/Capture5_zps6qjopttj.jpg



The router.  You need the detachable antenna version

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d173/clindav/Capture6_zps1qhzqu0z.jpg



This is your high gain wifi adapter for computer.  I will revisit this as well.  Lets just say that you have a few options here, including a repeater.

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d173/clindav/Capture2_zpshkffnine.jpg



Big ass battery pack with 4 outputs.  Not needed really, as most of you have several laying around.  I actually used 3 different ones prior to purchasing this one.  More on that later.

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d173/clindav/Capture3_zps4vmguowq.jpg



And this little jewel.  You could use 1 or 2 and I will tell you why later.

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d173/clindav/Capture_zpsmgfmu0aw.jpg

Quoted:
Range setup walkthrough.

Start with your kit.  You will be taking this to your target.

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d173/clindav/Mobile%20Uploads/20150630_145917_zpsqhqommhp.jpg

Unpacked

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d173/clindav/Mobile%20Uploads/20150630_150133_zpszuboeprw.jpg

Plug router power cord into the battery pack.. This is a wire that I spliced into a USB cable.  Couldnt be any more straightforward.  Red to red and black to black.

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d173/clindav/Mobile%20Uploads/20150630_150204_zpsb1zqdoco.jpg

Router has powered up immediately

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d173/clindav/Mobile%20Uploads/20150630_150213_zpsskxjjhqm.jpg

Screw in the panel antenna. For this demo I did not use the extension cable, but you get the point.

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d173/clindav/Mobile%20Uploads/20150630_150233_zpsxspc39lu.jpg

Router showing power as well as wifi broadcast.

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d173/clindav/Mobile%20Uploads/20150630_150250_zpstnsut9nv.jpg

Camera connections.  You will only be using 2 of these unless you want to run a downrange mic, in which you can use the 1/8 mic jack.

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d173/clindav/Mobile%20Uploads/20150630_150330_zps2jzs9zqp.jpg

Ethernet connection in the LAN slot, not the WAN. Any slot will work as long as its not the WAN port.

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d173/clindav/Mobile%20Uploads/20150630_150347_zpsmrjrbqns.jpg

Other end of ethernet goes in the cam

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d173/clindav/Mobile%20Uploads/20150630_150409_zps9rebmdcw.jpg

Plug in voltage booster into battery pack. Notice red status light.  Make sure you have adjusted the trim pot to a minimum of 9VDC to run the HD cam.  I run mine at 12.

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d173/clindav/Mobile%20Uploads/20150630_150427_zps1itn3y2i.jpg

Plug in power jumper into cam and voltage booster.  The booster I linked in my first post comes with the correct cable for both the router and the camera.

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d173/clindav/Mobile%20Uploads/20150630_150503_zpsnljhjlna.jpg

Notice on the router it shows a link on port 2 as well as wifi broadcast.

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d173/clindav/Mobile%20Uploads/20150630_150512_zpsljwoo94q.jpg

Connect to the router.  In this case, I named mine TGT. The only configuration I did to this router out of the box was to change the broadcast ID to TGT. There is no security enabled.  I dont see a need to for my purposes, but you may want to run yours with WEP or WPA encryption.

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d173/clindav/Mobile%20Uploads/20150630_150534_zpsbfhtbz4i.jpg
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d173/clindav/Mobile%20Uploads/20150630_150907_zpsiyueokfs.jpg

Once you are connected to your network, click the Foscam icon labeled IPcamera
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d173/clindav/Mobile%20Uploads/20150630_150641_zpszjiovmgz.jpg

This is the first thing you will see.  It shows you any camera that it sees connected to the router.  Click the camera shown. Notice that I labeled mine Targetcam.  
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d173/clindav/Mobile%20Uploads/20150630_150650_zpss1hrvlw5.jpg

The next screen you get is the camera login screen.  Initially, when you first connect your cam, you will have a real quick setup screen.  That is where you can name your camera, set up passwords, set up in-cam wifi, etc.  All I did was re-name it and set up a password.

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d173/clindav/Mobile%20Uploads/20150630_150701_zpsivsd8qab.jpg

After you type in your password, you will get a live feed.  Thats my nutty dog Jackson laying under my desk

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d173/clindav/Mobile%20Uploads/20150630_150724_zpsmjrrvfoj.jpg

With the stock Foscam software you get lots of control.  Shown in this pic is the fullscreen, record, and snapshot modes.  There are other settings in the pic above such as color adjustment, NV mode, Framerate settings, and multiple cam layouts.  I generally dont mess with that crap and just use the record and snapshot modes.

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d173/clindav/Mobile%20Uploads/20150630_150737_zpsd7rfwjgl.jpg

Thats all there really is to it.  Its almost so simple you wouldnt expect it to work, but it does, and most excellent at that.

Quoted:
Sorry if this is dumb, but can this run off an iPad or similar?

Quoted:
Relevant to my interests. I'd like to look into modifying a rig to give me a solar powered camera on my gate as well.

Quoted:
Still looking for other builds as well. Im not set on mine. Curious to the owner of the bullseye cam system how that cam actually runs on 5 volts.  Would there be a power requirement difference between the HD cam and SD cam versions?  This might explain why Bullseye hasnt upgraded their cams yet.

Quoted:
To really fancy things up you can add automated group size analysis:  On Target Software

Quoted:
This should be moved to the diy section and sticky

Quoted:


Anyone mention looking into FPV hardware from a drone?

Quoted:
So, Olympus is about to release this: http://www.getolympus.com/us/en/air-a01.html

http://cdn.hiconsumption.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Olympus-Air-A01-Smartphone-Camera-Lens-4.jpg


It's basically a Micro 4/3 camera all built into a little lens-shaped body. I already have a nice Olympus u4/3 camera and a couple lenses. I'm wondering if I could get this thing, mount it on a tripod and point it at a target, then access it over WiFi as a remote camera. Sure, it's more expensive at $300 for the device, but I'd be able to keep it much more mobile, and probably easier for me to use.

I may explore this option. Of course, I have a 40-150mm lens (and a very expensive 12-40mm lens I wouldn't use for target spotting) that is equivalent to 80-300mm on a full frame, so I could probably set it quite a ways in front of the target if I needed to.

Reviews so far say battery life isn't that great, but it does have a micro USB charging port, so I could just plug an external battery into it.


The questions I have about it are -

What is the WiFi range?  (I could use a range extender to get around this. I'd need something external in order to use a directional antenna... this will require a little research)
Does it go into a standby mode and can it be woke up remotely? Don't want to have to go down range just to hit a button on it to wake it up.

Quoted:
I've love to see what kind of cheap system could be put together for shorter ranges.  100-200 yards?

Quoted:
http://www.amazon.com/Syma-Headless-Support-360-degree-Quadcopter/dp/B00X7D1MR2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1435888547&sr=8-1&keywords=syma+x5sw

I'll test mine tomorrow and see if it does 300 feet linear.

TRG

Quoted:
Couldn't you put the panel antenna right to the foscam and skip the router?