Most readily available professional grade cctv camera's (not those cheap
Radio shack//web specials//X10) are still not able to capture license plate
images. Factors such as lighting, headlight glare, shutter speed,focusing
issues,and movement of the car make it very difficult even for fairly
expensive cctv cams to capture license plate info. There are camera's
available designed to do this, they use infrared illumination and high
shutter speeds, but those units cost about $3000 each. Additionally, your
recording device should run at least 10 frames per second, which rules out
time lapse VCR's, unless you want to change tapes every few hours. If you
record too slowly you will miss the shot of the license plate on a moving
car. So think in terms of a digital recorder with a 320 gb hard drive.
Overall a license plate capture system will cost ya $8000 - $10,000
professionally installed.

If you put one of those cheap camera's and a vcr don't expect much.


--
Tony

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Jon Anderson" wrote in message
...
I love this group! Lots of great ideas and input.
This is a rental, and to our advantage, it looks closer to a trailer
trash type home than the surrounding mansions built by folks moving up
from the big cities. Would love to move but it's hard to find rentals
with 650 sq/ft of shop space and a landlord that approves of a machine
shop in the garage at a price about 1/2 the going rate....

Regarding autodialers and 911, I have a leg up there. Wife works for the
county jail and our home phone triggers a special alert at the 911
center. It will get a much better response than an average 911 call. (or
so we've been told) Still, I have found some monitoring services that
are very reasonable and the added weight that carries will probably lead
me to signing up with one.

I am going to install a wireless driveway sensor well up the road and it
will trigger a VCR to capture anyone driving in or out. I want to start
collecting license numbers of unknown cars.

I like the smoke idea. Would love to build a honkin' huge gate on the
driveway, but that's not perfect. House is two story, for the upstairs
all but the front door and kitchen window are inaccessible without a
ladder. Unfortunately 2nd story is level with the road and the deck has
a walkway right up to the road. A lot of stuff could still be carted off
pretty quickly.

Of course, my best defense is just being here, and most of the time I
am.

Appreciate all the great input!

Jon