I'll be honest man. I like that camera, but trying to use it for a range cam is a problem looking for a solution. Add in the fact that you, or someone else might accidentally tag that thing and your out 300 bucks plus the headache of getting it set up. I'm thinking you would be better off using the cam I listed, or the cheaper SD version. It's waterproof too.

tag

I'm looking into the FPV route.  I have no experience with them but from what I've read it should work.

A 200mv 5.8Ghz xmitter is supposed to have a 1 to 1.5 kilometer range, unobstructed view. They make more powerful ones for longer range. I ordered a 250mw 400mw and a 200mw.

Changing out the antenna to a circular bipolar will help with reception when drone flying, so it is worth it to me to spend $15 on a couple of those.

As mentioned in earlier posts, a voltage increaser would also be necessary on both ends (sending and receiving) and seems easy enough.

Also I needed a way to convert the image for viewing on a laptop or tablet. I have two items coming to test that out. One wired to USB and one Wifi for phones, etc.

I will report back when I get something working. Parts are on a slow boat from China.
ETA: corrections/spelling

Well, my point in looking at it is that it would have more than one use - mostly as a camera, but a neat secondary use would be as a target camera. With the camera you found, you'd have one use. Although it is quite a bit less expensive.

I'm not even sold on that camera as just a camera. It's missing a few features it's "full camera" big brothers have, and the usefulness in reviews I've found is not quite there. IMHO, it's a neat idea, but not near perfect.

That is a very nice option. I am going to go ahead and purchase a transmitter/receiver set and try it out.

you can boost your wifi recieve by strapping an iphone inside a yagi

We went with a directional antenna, otherwise it just wouldn't make it out past 800 yards.
The 1000 yard setup...

Can you describe your setup?

Awesome work!  This looks way more streamlined than my current attempt using a china-made a/v transmitter.  I got out to about 150 yards with stock antennas on a 1.2ghz setup using the blue 12v lithium battery packs for power.  Got an android tablet just sitting here, but I have a couple of questions before I hit up Amazon.

You earlier suggested a high gain repeater for tablets/phones.  Any particular recommendation?  Will it need an antenna as well?  

My other question is about multiple cameras.  If I'm understanding your setup, would it be as simple as running 4 cameras via Ethernet to the LAN ports, identifying them 1-4 and switching in the viewer app?  If so that would speed up our local bullseye matches significantly.

That's awesome!    My wife will be so pleased that I have another project to start working on

First-This is very cool.  Thank you for the time and effort OP

Second-Are those 500 yard groups in your screen cap?

if so, very nice shooting!

Yes, 500 Yard groups. Not the best, but the only ones I have on cam so far.  If you watch the linked videos, at the end I have each target that was run through OnTarget to give group data.

UPDATE:


I have returned the USB adapter and panel and purchased instead a repeater This one from Amazon  and Antenna

I was not happy with the laser beam broadcast of the panel antenna, and frankly wasnt really all that happy with it in general.  At 500 yards I shouldnt have to use a wifi adapter at the laptop at all, but I did.  With the new antenna, I triple the gain without going with a booster and have a wider signal beam.

As far as returning the wifi adapter, I did it mainly because I wanted the ability to run multiple devices i.e. phone,tablets, laptops at the same time so a spotter could use one as well as the shooter.  I have yet to configure any of the new stuff, as it is not supposed to get here until 7-25.

I have also in the mean time experimented with a few other items that didnt work out as well as the original setup.  

I used an "advertised 8 watt" booster at the router here and instead of the panel antenna purchased an omni antenna here to plug into the booster. I ran my voltage booster at 12v for power to the signal booster.  I also tried a different wifi adapter at the computer here

While this system DID work, I believe I was at its absolute limit for range at 500 yards, and was also having to use more juice from the batteries (Didnt really matter though. 6 hours of shooting and only dropped one bar).  I ran into major framerate issues using this setup, and sometimes just got a black screen.  Sometimes I would have to wait 10 seconds or so for a bullet hole to appear on the target.  I was able to get around this by remotely switching the camera to SD mode instead of HD mode, but the pic quality suffered a lot.  Plus, whats the point?

Here is my theory.

I believe the reason Bullseye Camera systems still have not gone to HD cams is the bandwidth.  Even though the Foscam that I am using has H264 compression, it still requires at minimum 2mbps connection speed. The SD version requires less than half that, and thats why it only really worked well when I switched over to SD from HD. With the original setup, it worked great as evidenced by the video, but, like  I said, I believe I was at its practical limit.

I believe with the new setup that is on its way, I should be fine to at least 700 yards(if not I can add a booster) and have the ability to stream to multiple devices.  I should have a test complete by Saturday and will update this thread.

As far as running multiple cams, you dont have to wire any up to ethernet. The cam that I have is wireless as well, and as long as you had a repeater set up in the middle of your cam arrangement, and they all had a good connection I believe you would be fine.  The software is far easier than what you assume.  There are 3 views avaliable. I think one is single, the other is quad, and the last is 8. Just click any of those and you will have a live feed of all of them.  Then double click the view you want and it opens full screen.

Why not use 12v li-ion battery packs rather than the usb chargers and the voltage adapter thingy?

Well, things have changed quite a bit lately. No need for 12 volts anymore.

I woke up to my truck missing all its wheels on Monday 7-27. Apparently someone wanted them more than I did.  The S/O had to leave to go out of town Tuesday, so that left me dealing with insurance and trying to find a ride to pick up new wheels and tires.  I ended up using the previously mentioned Foscam as what it was designed for and mounted it in the back driveway. I also ordered one for the front and a replacement for the target cam.  This time I went with this model, and was pleased to see that it uses 5v dc. It also has a pan and tilt function.

I have everything configured with the new equipment, and will be taking it this weekend to the 700yd range. I will have full results/pics when I get back Saturday afternoon.

IMHO, I believe the setup I have now is going to be the best one yet. The only thing I have lost is the waterproof cam, but gained a cam thats 5v compatible and has pan/tilt. The router works perfectly fine at 5vdc as well, so the voltage boosters are not really needed at this point.

seen this?




 

Looks like 13dbi antennas with a 24v requirement. I have looked at those before, but the power requirement scared me off for a temporary setup. Ideas?

how about

Seems cool and inventive, but not really what I was going for. I am sure it wold serve someone well if they had the time and money to sink into it.

By tomorrow I should have a full review and update the post with the current setup.

Sorry to here about your misfortune with the tires. I hate thieves.

Eagerly awaiting update on the new setup!

And

Sooooo in on this.

has it been tried using an android phone with camera at target synced to a android tablet. great thread.  Sorry to hear about your wheels. collecters items, they were collected. Thats fucked up. Look forward to more of your ingenuity it would be such a great time saver and aid for a guy like myself that goes out by myself in the desert.

Sorry I havent updated lately. I have had a real rough month.  I will tell you the new setup is flawless and will try and post everything up tomorrow with pics, etc.

Yes, I use it with an android tablet, laptop and iphone (multiple users) all at the same time.

In for updates.

Links to the products would be great. Is looking online tonight to buy some of the items but an glad I didn't yet.

Sorry for the long wait for an update. Like I said in the previous post, ive had a really rough month.

Anyways, this is the current setup that works like a charm.

Parts List:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BS49ZF8?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003CFATOW?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s01
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006Z8MJ6Y?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s02
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00S8A6GUM?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00O1R28OY?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00428R89M?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s00
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002WBX5ES?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00

Most of these you may already have, like the power banks. I have to use 2 with this setup, and one has 4 ports and 3 of those are used.

This is the setup at the target.  One 4 port power bank, the camera, fans, and router all plugged into it and the lid closed.  The fans are really not needed, but it makes me feel better to have them.


I drilled a 1/2 inch hole in the top of the box for the power cable and antenna cable.  I also used the provided mount that came with the camera and mounted it to the top of the box.



Once everything is plugged in, I run the antenna cable to the antenna that I rigged to an old shoplight tripod.  Thing works great.


This antenna is very directional, so be sure to aim it as best you can to where your repeater will be set up.  This is a simple/cheap wireless N router/repeater/access point.  It was pretty simple to set up, but I can see for someone that did not have basic networking skills to have to refer to an online tutorial or something.  Notice the second battery pack and wire.  This is what I place at the firing line on the roof of my truck.




This is what is placed at the target.
 

A photo at the firing line of our setup. Notice the Iphone 6 as well as the Asus laptop on the table.  I also have a Galaxy tablet that is in the bed of the truck where we shoot from.




I think with the repeater and the better antenna, this would work for many of you out to probably 1k or beyond.  My range only goes to 700 yards and it works flawlessly at that range although I usually only shoot at 500 during load development.

There is a quirk though. It has happened with both cameras.  While recording the target cam, there seems to be network lag due to distance.  Its hard to explain, but what happens is, if I sync the first shot of the shooter cam with the first bullet impact on the target, due to lag, they become unsynced with each other.  I have discovered that this particular version of the camera has an onboard microSD card which should alleviate the lag because its recording locally to the cam and not broadcasting 1/4 mile away.  Below is an example of a video I put together 2 weekends ago.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I48Ohde2Q70

One last advantage of this camera over the previous version is its pan/tilt feature.  Makes setup a lot easier.  The downsides is this camera is not waterproof like the other.  YMMV.

Btt for those that are interested

Found my next project

Great work.
Thank you for taking the time to share your knowledge.

The compression is H264 as labeled on the camera.  I think the latency is caused by that, and distance, plus its also going through a repeater.

I also think the solar panels would be a good idea, especially if you were using it as more of a permanent solution.

Gunut,

Thank you for a great thread and all the time, effort and money involved in it.

Hope you are having a better month than the last one.

Just got the last of the stuff for my set up.

I did have 2 questions regarding the repeater you used.

Did you download the firmware they suggested?

And did you have to set it up as a router before you set it up as a repeater?

Thanks, again.

Best Regards,

Dan

I had to put the first router in bridge mode, and set the second router (the one at the firing line) in repeater mode.  I did not use any different firmware other than the stock versions.  I have named them both different so I make sure that I connect to the repeater and not the target router.  For example, I named the target router "TGT", and the repeater "TGT repeater".

Good luck with your build!

Have you made any improvements to this camera system lately?  How's it holding up? I'm goind to order the parts to build my own soon so i want to make sure it's been holding up, thanks.

No improvements have been needed. Have used it every weekend for a couple months and havent found any issues.

So, are you able to pan and tilt the camera from your shooting line?

Is there software you had to download in order to be able to control the camera, is it the "foscam" software from your previous set up?  

If so, did it come with the camera?

I guess this wouldn't work unless you are close enough to reach backward from your controller to the camera, as this system is set up to broadcast specifically toward the firing line?

Somewhere I missed the fans, can show a pic of what this looks like and where you got the fans?

Thanks for sharing this.

I can pan and tilt the camera from the firing line.
I am using the factory foscam software that came with the cameras
I am using a directional antenna.  If you wanted it broadcasting all over, you should get a small booster and omni-directional antenna.  The repeater I listed, I can get signal for about 100 yards in any direction around the firing line.  We use multiple devices simultaneously.
The fans are inconsequential.  They are just 2 usb powered computer fans that I mounted to the tool box.  I honestly dont think they make any difference at all.

In for updates, and thanks for posting this gunut!

tag

Op. Was there anything special you needed to do, to get all this to work? I purchased the equipment listed, but have been unsuccessful in the setup of the wifi part of if. I am no wiz-bang with computer stuff, but I have had a buddy, who is a pro, take a shot at it. He was talking about possibly needing to install different software in the routers in order for this to work?

I did not install any firmware or anything in any router.  

You need to set the main router at the target cam into bridge mode first, then connect the small (firing line) router into repeater mode.  They have to connect to themselves in order to create the loop. The best way is to have them both plugged in at the same time, in the same room. Connect your computer to the main router with an Ethernet cable. Go into the router menu. There will be an option for bridge mode. Select that.

In the second router connect your computer to it with an ethernet cable and go into its menu and select "repeater" mode.  Then you will have to select the wifi signal that you want it to connect to.  Once you have done that, they will be connected together as a repeater setup.  You only have to do this once, and they wont lose their settings if they are disconnected from power.  Mine live 99% of the time in the homer box in the garage until the 2 or 3 times I use them a month.

Thanks, gunut. I will pass this on to my buddy. Are you using wireless to connect the camera to the main router?

I am currently only because its more convenient, but I have used it wired as well. The other advantage to using it wireless is you can mount just the camera on a tripod or something away from the batt,router and antenna.

Looks like a neat project. I'm going to have to give it a go.

Got everything set up and tested out to about 250 yards. I couldn't get the camera to work wireless and I haven't got it to work with my phone yet (the struggles of the technically inept). Will give the system a good run this weekend at 600 yards. Will report back. Thanks!

To work with your phone, you will need to download the foscam app.  Then you will need to connect your phone via wifi to the repeater. then log into the app.

There are several things that could keep your cam from working wirelessly. For now just use it wired.

I have been reading the posts and looking at the pictures hoping to get this system working for me.  I have bought everything listed in the links on the latests posts.  If there is an answer to my question in the posts I apologize in advance for not seeing it.  I don't have mush experience with WIFI if it doesn't plug and play I will need an eduction so my question.

I see in the picture of the HD camera on the box is using the stock antenna.  Is the router at the target ONLY connected to power and the large antenna wire?  (It's done differently in earlier post pictures)  I don't see the router using any wired ether net connections to the camera?  Is the camera is sending information to the router through WIFI?

Thanks
For the help