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I would like to get a camera w iPhone compatability for my grow room, my question is this: it seems like they all have an IR capability for night vision...wouldn't that screw up the dark cycle for flowering? Is it possible to block the IR emitter or do they have an option to not run the night vision mode?

Giddy up said:

I would like to get a camera w iPhone compatability for my grow room, my question is this: it seems like they all have an IR capability for night vision...wouldn't that screw up the dark cycle for flowering? Is it possible to block the IR emitter or do they have an option to not run the night vision mode?

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I've been running the Foscam wireless cameras for over 2 years in both veg and flowering areas, with the IR on during the dark periods and have yet to have any so-called hermie issues related to having the IR on (default but can be turned off). There's not enough power/light output in these cameras to worry about imo.

looked in to this myself a while ago most IR camera's work by picking up IR which your plants will give off a small amount of even in there night cycle, fancier camera's have a bulb/LED's giving off light in the IR spectrum, those are what you want to avoid as they might possibly trigger the hormone change that plants go through from dark to light, though they need to put off a fair amount of energy to do so, these sorts of camera's are mostly used in security systems and are prolly out of your price range anyways
the issue is the streaming to your iPhone, if it's on your home network someone outside your home can crack your network, use a scanning tool, find IP's internally with weird ports open and boom they see you've a camera on a grow, how plants you have, and at what stage they're in
if you want it so that you can check on them from outside the building the grow is in then you've 100's of security issues to consider to stop the above happening
or you can try get a camera with a bluetooth connection to check from out side the tent but this again has security issues
or build an arduino setup and have a hard wire coming out and physically connecting to a monitor (screen, tablet, smartphone)
TBH it's just easier to accept that when it's dark they're just the same as when the light is on, only you can't see them.

Good point by @Fluff Up on security, that's a different can of worms than the original question. If you use a DDNS service or you have a fixed IP and open ports to allow traffic in, you should know what you're getting into or not do it at all. There is no such thing as 100% security, security is about managing risk, putting in deterrents, and reducing risk to what you're comfortable with.

The most secure way to do it is to not open the cameras or any other device to the Internet. That requires a router that supports VPN though, so unless you have one and know what you're doing with it and you're not in a legal location, don't. If you go for it, use the highest security option for your wireless setup that your camera will use, use complex passwords, mac filtering to only allow known mac addresses, make it an internal network which can't be routed/accessed from the Internet (e.g. 192.168.x.x). Then you connect through the VPN (create a VPN connection on your phone, tablet, computer) to get inside your network, then connect to your camera, or of course if you're on-site you just connect to the wireless network your camera is on. Again though, while this is the most secure option, nothing is 100% secure when exposed to the Internet.

No not a particular model yet, I really only started looking when I noticed they all featured IR night vision capabilities and I just was worried about possible light output.

The security issue is one that I guess I didn't put enough thought into. The room is in a shed about 200 feet from my main house, and I was going to run it off of a laptop that would physically be inside the shed, but my non-IT savvy self sort of forgot it will still be connected to the Internet through my wifi, regardless.

I'm often gone for work for a couple days at a time and I just wanted a way to look at them and daydream while I'm sitting around on location. Ideally I wanted one that had NO night vision capability, but after about the 20th one that said 'IR capable to X feet' I just decided to ask haha. I suppose I will just have to keep going a couple days at a time without seeing my girls.

The info was much appreciated by the way thanks!

If one went the Arduino route, what would that involve?

Ad-hoc network....then dump to the interwebz...

Seriously though....if you hardware is capable running this.....you could even run your Ad-hoc thru a VPN port, which would be even better.....

an arduino prolly just adds complication without any benefit to security
@Abiqua Ad-Hoc via VPN cunning, you still need to keep your encryption as top notch as available tho

Fluff Up said:

an arduino prolly just adds complication without any benefit to security
@Abiqua Ad-Hoc via VPN cunning, you still need to keep your encryption as top notch as available tho

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That's true only if all you plan to do with your Arduino network is security. Automated monitoring and control of various aspects of the growing operation would be the main reason I'm interested in Arduino; in which case you could think of the security functions as a nice add-on.

automation is totally possible I watched a friend spend the last 3 years go from a franken-board to a professional kit in an sweet box which he's now selling
not gonna tell you anything about it & give away trade secrets tho
if all you know about arduino is that they take input and make output then in about a year you can have a very functional franken-board

Fluff Up said:

automation is totally possible I watched a friend spend the last 3 years go from a franken-board to a professional kit in an sweet box which he's now selling
not gonna tell you anything about it & give away trade secrets tho
if all you know about arduino is that they take input and make output then in about a year you can have a very functional franken-board

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I'd buy it if it has the right capabilities for my needs.

Fluff Up said:

an arduino prolly just adds complication without any benefit to security
@Abiqua Ad-Hoc via VPN cunning, you still need to keep your encryption as top notch as available tho

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use Linux

ttystikk said:

I'd buy it if it has the right capabilities for my needs.

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Set up a live stream on your own server and port thru VPN on your smart phone or just send encrypted SMS?....Pi would be easier to setup initially...jmo

Camera's and arduino's, tend to be expensive and not as streamlined as other avenues....

well this has had me thinking, you can buy a bare board cell phone that connects direct to an arduino board, their's the pcDuino http://www.amazon.com/pcDuino3-Dual-Core-Allwinner-Arduino-Interface/dp/B00JFOY8RI?tag=duckduckgo-d-20
you SMS the cell phone board this sends a wake command to the pcDuino, using something solid like Linux Tails configure VPN connect on start up on the home network and then you've got your connect
or if you had a dual sim board you could switch between the 2 sims on boot and use data on the cell network to check remotely
prolly want to setup an auto shutdown after 5 minutes or something

I had no idea deep technical shit like this happened on this site. Interesting...

good growers are nerds, stand to reason this would happen
also infinite monkeys, infinite typewriters
@heckler73 is that Cstnd?