Video signal switcher

[irman]

Originally Posted by bigbear99

HDMI switchers? That's what I bought!

Not any good for my purpose where I just have a plain video signal coming from a cheap day/night camera.

The suggestion from *sj08054* is almost exactly what I need except for the fact that I really would like to know how to build one myself ... (for the amount of 25 bucks, I am tempted to disassemble the bugger !)

I *worked* out the rest by adding a timer to the motion detector circuit so the video signal stays on for whatever time I will decide on later, in order to *see* who is coming on our property thru the two entrances we have.

Thanks again for all the help and if anybody can help with how to make something like that switcher mentioned above, myself, I would really appreciate that.

Just a note:
I could have bought a complete system for about 200 dollars or so and then add cameras, but so far, as a hobby project, using automotive bullet cameras, which are dirt cheap, I have spent less than 50 bucks ...
and it was fun project !

As an after-thought, I now am thinking of adding rear view and side view cameras to the car of my better half ... Could be a fun project also, or ?

[sj08054]

Originally Posted by irman

Not any good for my purpose where I just have a plain video signal coming from a cheap day/night camera.

The suggestion from *sj08054* is almost exactly what I need except for the fact that I really would like to know how to build one myself ... (for the amount of 25 bucks, I am tempted to disassemble the bugger !)

I *worked* out the rest by adding a timer to the motion detector circuit so the video signal stays on for whatever time I will decide on later, in order to *see* who is coming on our property thru the two entrances we have.

Thanks again for all the help and if anybody can help with how to make something like that switcher mentioned above, myself, I would really appreciate that.

Just a note:
I could have bought a complete system for about 200 dollars or so and then add cameras, but so far, as a hobby project, using automotive bullet cameras, which are dirt cheap, I have spent less than 50 bucks ...
and it was fun project !

As an after-thought, I now am thinking of adding rear view and side view cameras to the car of my better half ... Could be a fun project also, or ?

If you don't want to spend the $25, you are not going to want to go with the Arduino route. The Arduino route would involve getting a video switch board and monitor the incoming voltage from your camera input. Since Arduino works up to 5v so you will need to reduce your 12v as well. Next you will need to learn some coding. Spend the $25 unless you have the time and patience to learn.

[bigbear99]

OP, you should have said what kind of switching, what kind of connectors, you needed. There are switchers for most any inputs. RCA video jacks? no problem. Many switchers don't care if it is video or audio? The electronic switches used are pretty generic, and many have high bandwidth.

When I think of video, these days, I think of HDMI. My days of cables with RCA jacks are long gone. Gave away all my stereo+video three line cables.

Not sure why you think an arduino is the solution. If you want to rotate among cams, you could do it with pretty straightforward logic chips and a 555 to send out the timing pulse. No programming required.

[irman]

Originally Posted by sj08054

Spend the $25 unless you have the time and patience to learn.

I am almost sure I will do that sj ...
Thanks for the encouragement.
Once I *see* what is inside, I will probably figure out what was used to accomplish the functionality.

Thanks again to all who contributed. I learned a lot !


The next project ?

The unit that sj08054 suggested gave me the idea to use the same switcher in a camera set up on my wife's car.
Last night, nothing to do, I drew up the schematic and am now figuring out if it all will work ...
My reasoning.
I am using motion detecting thingys and a timer to trigger the additional cameras on the security system.
I used a 12 vdc signal, because easy to supply voltage.
Reading up on what that video switcher from Amazon can do, I can use the back up lights as the trigger for the back up camera and the directional lights to trigger the side view cameras. I had to do some cheats, to get the pulsing signal from the directional lights changed into a constant signal source, but that was easily solved. BTW, the radio system (double height unit) in my wife's car does already have a trigger actuated video input available ... We bought the car used ! It does have a ceiling mounted video screen to watch movies !
Wish me luck !