-Linksys Wireless-G Router WRT54G3GV2-ST

-Sprint Mobile Broadband Card PX-500

-Outdoor Enclosure

-Strain Relief Cord Connectors 1/2” and 3/4”

-Heat Shrink Tubes

-14AWG Replacement Cord

-1/4” Bolts, Lock Nuts, and Washers

-Louver Vents

-50mm Fan

I used the 50mm fan and one of many usb cords lying around to create a usb powered fan which will help keep the enclosure cool. To make a usb fan just solder the red with the red and the black with the black. Make sure to cut the other two data wires at different lengths so they don’t touch. That might cause some problems. Also cut the foil and shielding wires back. Before soldering the wires together slip two 3/32″ pieces of shrink tube over the small wires and one 3/16″ full tube over all the wires. Make sure to pull the tube back far enough so they don’t start to shrink while soldering. After soldering shrink the small tubes over the small wires soldered areas. Make sure to cover all the exposed wires. Then shrink the larger tube over all of them. This will make the wiring look pretty and its probably safer too. Sorry i forgot to take pictures while I was assembling the fan.

Ok now that I have my camera I can set it up with the router and air card.

I went ahead and purchased a static IP from sprint. I had some troubles with Camera # 1 while using Axis DHCP server so I thought a static IP would be more stable. My good friend Mike helped me figure out how to set up the networking info for the first time. Something I learned the hard way is that this router is set by default to Connect on Demand: Max Idle time 60 Min. Which means that it will disconnect the internet connection after 60 minutes if its not being used. And it wont reconnect unless someone or something tries to connect to the internet through the router. I changed the setting to Keep Alive: Radial Period 180 Sec. This will keep the system connected at all times and if for some reason the connection is dropped the router will try and reconnect after 180 seconds.

After getting the camera, router, and sprint card working together I was ready to start assembling the enclosure with the equipment.

I started by taking the enclosure apart.

Put the Strain Relief Cord Connectors in the enclosure. Wire the 14AWG cord to the GFCI plug. If I end up building another system I will try and remember to wire the plug up after drilling the necessary holes. It would be a little easier to work with if the cord weren’t hanging around.

With the first system I put both louver vents on the front door because there was not enough room on the back or sides. With this one I offset the camera placement so I could put one louver vent on the back of the box.

I used 1/2 spacers with one inch machine screws to mount the fan in place. I also drilled the mounting holes to mount the camera as well as a 2″ hole for the camera wires. I wish I had put the louver vent about 1″ lower because its going to be a little difficult to tighten the nut on to the bolt when it comes time to mount this thing.

I put the other louver in the front door. This should help give adequate air flow. To help keep water out of this enclosure I put silicone around the louver vents.

When I mounted the camera I used water proof foam tape around the base of the camera. Then i put the bolts through and tightened the nuts with washers inside the box.

Here are all the parts jammed into this little box. It all fits very well actually. One problem I found right away was that this box can get very hot. That is why I put the fan in it but on some hot days that may not be enough. For the other camera I built a wood kind of bird house looking thing to take the sun. In the future I hope to have a box fabricated with a built in sun hood. The camera has its own heating and cooling system.

I went to fries the other day and found a usb extension that has a 1″ long protrusion from the plug. The one in this picture is 1.5″ and it fit tightly. I found that most usb plugs protrude 1.75″ and that is too long to fit in this box. I used double back tape to mount the router.

So here it is a Mostly Remote Camera. It has remote internet but not remote power yet. I’m hoping to come up with a solar solution. A nice thing about having this router is that I can also use a direct connection when its available.

Now to find a place to mount it. With camera #1 I built a stand out of steel to put it up on a flat roof top. This camera may be mounted on a pole so I will need to come up with a way to mount it to that pole. I will use the 3/4″ hole for antennas in the future. I haven’t started on that yet.

OK so we decided just to go with the same mounting system we are using with camera #1.
And it looks like this.

This one turned out a little nicer then my first one. I also made the up rite poles telescopic so I can adjust the height.