Using Skype to remote monitor your boat.

[Air O'Nautical]

This my friends boat but, I would like to do the same.

Use an old computer laptop with a camera and set up Skype to auto answer.
Video call your boat and see what's going on.

You will need to have shore power, wifi and leave the computer on.
Almost free way to watch and listen to your boat.

Neat for those that stay in the water over the winter or live a distance from the boat.

Cheers,
Mark.

 

[spfortjohn]

Another cool way would be a Drop Cam. I use one on our house and it just plugs into an AC outlet and picks up the wifi.

 

[Air O'Nautical]

Another cool way would be a Drop Cam. I use one on our house and it just plugs into an AC outlet and picks up the wifi.

Is a drop cam account free??

Their site says "free live streaming" is it really a free service?
If so, $150 to buy with free streaming service is a good deal if you don't have a old extra laptop laying around (like me).

Thanks, I never heard of a drop cam before.

Mark.

 

[spfortjohn]

Free steaming. You can pay a yearly fee for it to be recorded if you want. You can also set it to notify you of movement in the field of the camera. You can log on with your Phone or computer and get live video and sound. Has very good night vision also. I am going to put a couple on my beach house when we close on it.

 

[matthewmiller01]

Cool idea.

 

[Alex F]

Dropcam looks interesting. Does it require port forwarding?

 

[spfortjohn]

No it just gets an ip from your router sends video to their server and you log in and view real time video. It has about 3 sec lag time

 

[Alex F]

That is nice. I guess the real "catch" is that in order to get good view of what's going on you need few cameras and then choose the recordings duration plan. $100 for a year (7 days recording) is not bad at all.

However, the con is the size of the cameras and the fact that they're indoor use only. If this is not a show stopper for you, then it's pretty good setup.