Specifications

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the center of the board. It has a PCI slot for the capture card and is one of the smallest form
factors available.
Memory—AMPO 512MB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM 533 (PC2 4200), $40.00
This is the amount and type of random access memory (RAM) necessary for this
motherboard and application. Although less RAM would minimize cost, this amount will
allow for buffering of video in memory. Buffering of video will minimize the amount of
time that the hard drive will need to spin and reduce power consumption.
Video Capture Card—Hauppauge 980 Personal Video Recorder, $130.00
This video card has onboard compression and is well supported under the open-source
operating system Linux. This solution for video capture removes the burden of image
capture and conversion to the MPEG video format from the CPU and thus helps to minimize
power consumption. However, the fact that the card requires a PCI card limits the range of
motherboards that are compatible and is slightly more expensive than other video capture
solutions.
Case—12 VDC Weatherproof Enclosure with Mounting Plate, $150.00
This enclosure is weather rated and was intended for use with outdoor electronic devices. It
is large enough to fit all of the computer components. An internal mounting board can be
configured to support a mini-itx motherboard, power supply, and hard drive.
Hard Drive—Western Digital Caviar SE WD2500JS 250GB SATA, $80.00
Given a reasonable MPEG compression, this size hard drive will be sufficient to hold seven
days worth of digital video. A desktop hard drive rather than a low-power laptop hard drive
is used in order to minimize the cost.
Hard Drive Swap Kit—SanMax PMD-96I Black Mobile Hard Drive Rack, $20.00
The hard drive will be mounted using this rapid swap kit to support easy removal.
Camera—Color Infrared Day/Night Sony Super HAD CCD Camera - $120.00
This camera provides an excellent picture during the day while using almost no power. At
night, a high-efficiency infrared LED array activates automatically, which allows video to
be recorded while still consuming very little power. It has a rated night-time seeing distance
of 50 feet.
Power Converter—Automotive 90W DC-DC Power Supply, $80.00
This power converter takes a 12 VDC input and produces a regulated 12 and 5 volt output
necessary to power the motherboard, hard drive, and camera. The converter has an 80 to 90
percent efficiency rating.
Batteries—4 Interstate SRM-27B 12 VDC batteries, $350.00
These are deep-cycle marine batteries designed to sustain cycles of full charge to complete
discharge. It is estimated that four batteries will power the system for seven days under
nominal conditions. Temperature, battery usage and discharge, and charging rate will affect
the total running time.