How to Set Up a Car CTV Recording System

Although the video recorder came into existence in the 1970s, it has been in recent years that it has found a home in autos due to its size and ability to take high quality pictures. Police forces in the UK adopted in-car camera (or spy camera) technology in the early 90s, but the turn of the 21st century has seen multiple possibilities with the onset of the digital age, especially the digital storage systems - which have been shrinking in size and growing in capacity.

Only during the past 10 years have special custom systems been built (i.e. for the Police) with video recorders bolted into the host vehicle.

You could go out and buy a custom in-car recording system - although most are specifically designed for Police forces and are generally VERY expensive.

Why would anyone want a CCTV? There are several reasons that come to mind: It can be used to record bits of "home videos," such as holidays; if a car is "borrowed" the owner of a CCTV system can see how it has been driven and it may be useful to have recordings of other drivers, particularly if they are driving dangerously. These are a few reasons that one may come in handy!

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• a 9v powered wireless camera
• a 12v powered receiver
• velcro
• Neuros II Mpeg 4 recorder
• Compact Flash or Sony Memory stick cards in Mpeg4 format
• PC (for viewing)
• It may go without saying, however, a car
• An inexpensive "spy kit"
• All of the parts can be purchased very inexpensively on ebay by typing cctv under search and keeping the "all categories" search in place

1. 
   Adaptor for use with the

   One may wish to mount the receiver in the passenger foot well (or under the dashboard). This can easily be done with Velcro. The best way to mount the receiver is so that all connections and the tuning knob are accessible.

2. 
   photo of a mini camera which can be mounted close to the rear view mirror

   You may wish to mount the camera at "driver's eye view - somewhere close to the rear view mirror. This is the position that video-equipped Police vehicles use. This particular camera is so light that it is very easy to mount it using small pieces of Velcro. This provides for a very simple setup for the camera, without the need to wire a permanent power supply. The camera actually takes between 5v and 9v, so battery power is the easy option for anyone who doesn't want to build a regulated supply from the car's 12v - 14v supply.

3. The above-mentioned setup uses a "Neuros II Mpeg 4 recorder" for recording the video signal. It records onto Compact Flash or Sony Memory stick cards in Mpeg4 format.

4. Playback of the video is a simple matter of slotting a compact flash card into a PC , and viewing he recorded video with Quick tone player. A 2Gb compact clash card will readily provide 4 hours of recording.

[favefive]

on 12/17/2007 Excellent! This will be a great project for my hubby...:)