Bird Box Sound (1 Viewer)

[hillie]

Don’t know if this should be in this forum or the computer one.
I installed a single black & white camera, no sound, in a bird box, in February last year. No nesting activity but a blue tit roosting every night since. Fingers crossed this year.
I run i-catcher wildlife on my PC, excellent software by the way. This year I have already put up an additional colour camera (another blue tit roosting after 2 days) and intend to put up another 2. The colour cameras are day/night cameras with sound. Can anyone advise regarding setting up the sound for 3 cameras? I can plug a single camera into my PC but not all three. I thought of possibly getting a 3 way switch of some sort. Any advise welcome.

John

 

[nobby]

Hi John

What sort of sound card do you have?
I have a soundblaster Audigy card. This has outputs for 4 speakers. I connect the sound from each nestbox to a seperate channel. As far as I can remember Line in left and right are channels 1&2 and mic in left and right are channels 3&4.

If you have 4 speakers you can then connect each speaker to a seperate channel or as I have at present 2 speakers have 2 bird boxes conneted to each. I have made a control panel to switch the sound off and on to each box as required.

Most of the time I leave all the boxes turned on so I can listen to all the boxes but if I am making a video from a single box I turn the others off.

The best way connecting to your sound card is using a splitter cable that has a single plug and 2 sockets.

You can then connect to the sockets using a standard cable and plug with the nest boxes connected to the left and right channels.

You could use a switch as you have suggested but you will only hear 1 box at a time.

If this sounds a bit complex would a diagram help?

Brett.

 

[nobby]

John

Just thought of an easier way using 2 standard jack plugs. Just buy them and a length of cable or by a cable with 2 jack plugs connected then chop it in half.

Connect the audio from your nest boxes to the cable ends. You may have to connect the screen to the -ve or Eth from your web cams/audio.

Plug the jack plugs into Line in and Mic in on your PC. You should be able to control the sound using the software that comes with your PC.

Don't forget to turn the Mic gain on your PC off.

Brett.

 

[hillie]

Brett,
Thanks for the help. I dont have a sound card except the onboard one. I went into PC World and asked them if a sound card would work for my application and they said no. So I didn’t bother. I went into Maplins and explained what I wanted, but the man in there was not sure. He suggested a switcher but when he looked it had been discontinued. After looking around I went away with a 3 way switch and I will wire it up this week end to see what its like. But as you say you can only listen to one box at a time. Whilst in Maplins got a bunch of plugs and connectors.
I like your suggestions better. I have an old computer with a sound card which has four connectors so I will give that a go.
Any diagrams from your first e-mail would be appreciated but only if you have time. I’d like to try both set ups. I am just waiting for the cable to arrive for the last 2 cameras but the occupancy looks promising. Have you had anything to do with wireless? I see some cheap transmitters and receivers around but not quite sure of the quality.
Thanks again Brett

John

 

[nobby]

John

I would be surprised if even your onboard sound card did not have line in and mic in.

If you check my last post I included a small diagram.

Brett.

 

[hillie]

Brett,
Thanks for the reply. The onboard sound card has 3 ports but no text below the ports. When I plug into the port which is either "line in" or "mike" there is a lot of hissing. I will try your diagram and let youy know how I get on.
Thanks

John

 

[Chris Oates]

Multi input security video card is what you need

Like this one from Grandtec

We've used them at work when we ran out of multiplexer channels for CCTV.

CPC sell them website here

Look under computers/interface cards

I see Maplin also sell them website here