Foal monitors vs baby monitors urgent advice needed!

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no_no_nanette

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Help! Need some advice from the usual wise people on the forum.... Have just got a quote to put up cctv in my mare's stable so that I can monitor her from the tack room as she comes up to foaling (I'm planning to sleep over in the tack room) - and it was over £600 - lots more than I had expected! I seem to remember that someone on the forum has used baby alarms/monitors for their mares, which are about 1/6th of the cost ... what do people think? You can get infra-red wireless cameras and miniature monitors for about £145, which also have a built-in mike, so you can hear what's going on. Why wouldn't these work as well as a combined foaling alarm and cctv system? What do you think?
 
If you go on to Ebay you will find loads of security cameras and accessories - none for £600.

How far is the tack room from the stable. Would it be more worth your while just to do an 'every 20 mins' check physically??
 
I just googled for a cctv camera came in under 100. Baby alarms I found useless as every time the mare made a noise I went to check it. Tried them for one season about 15 years ago, now always use cctv.
 
We had new ones last year which are great ,came from a guy off ebay.
Cameras where £89 each but mega digital ones.
We had extras so we could have four on one monitor which is a normal television we already had and it came to £230 for cables and evrything.
Only bought two cameras though.
The dear bit was the quad box.
 
Went to back of H&H and have already found a brilliant small company that will rent or sell incredibly good value cctv kit. So that's my first purchase ... and I'll combine it with a baby alarm, so am off down to Boots. Thanks everyone, as usual such good advice; I'm finding it pathetically difficult to make decisions at the moment on these perfectly simple issues, how sad is that - I think my brain has gone as soft as the mare's has!
blush.gif
So it was very useful to have everyone's input, big thanx!
 
Ive just brought a cctv camera for lottie's stable it has a cable and will go in the corner of her stable round into my lorry, were im sleeping.
ive tried it out and it was very simple to set up and its fab quality and has very good night vision, it cost me £99.99 from maplins, i will try and get a link for you
Helen x

ETS - here is the link
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=46565&source=2001&doy=5m4
 
I have IP cameras in my foaling boxes which are hardwired to a hub which is wired to an adsl broadband router (the distance was too far for wireless). I have a laptop in the feedroom and some free downloadable software (IPproview) which enables me to watch and manipulate all the cameras in one go.

It also means that no matter where I am in the world, if I have internet access I just type in the IP address of the camera I want to look at and I can see it instantly.

The cameras were about £120 each, the hub about £30, the router was free and I just pay for the broadband. If you have broadband and a PC it's a low cost but very useful solution.
 
Helen, this is great - even cheaper than the guy in H&H, thanks so much. I can't believe how much difference there is between the quotes that I got - the man who wanted to charge me £600 was recommended by a local stud, who said that he was very reasonable! Phew!

Looks like our mares are going to be neck and neck in the foaling stakes ... maybe we can exchange text messages, from our sleeping posts in horsebox and tack room respectively, on their progress!
 
That seems very expensive - do you have an 'other half' who's good with electrics etc? Our cameras range from £50 for the basic yard one or £200 for the posh infra red ones withthe great zooms, but to be honest you onlyneed a basic one for cctv - our posh ones our for security not foal watching.

Then you just need a co-ax cable (not expensive) and a cheap monitor or some tv's will work too...I'd say you could do it for less than £200!
 
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