In part 1 I talked about equipment selection and in this part I am going to explain how it all went together. Now this isn’t a step by step guide and you will need some basic knowledge of networking to configure the router and get everything working, but hopefully this will get you started or at least give you some ideas.
The box is from RS, part number 756-0007, Euromas Polycarbonate Enclosure, IP65, IP66, 200 x 120 x 90mm
I attached two aluminium strips into the bottom to act as mounting rails for the router. The router sits across the rails with the antenna cables exiting through a gland at one end and the network cable coming in through a gland at the other.
The POE from the incoming cable had to power both the router and the camera and to achieve this I had to use a separate splitter and then power both devices from that rather than use the POE feature of the router.
The camera mounted on the ‘lid’ of the box with a hole cut out for the cables, and copious amounts of silicon to seal the camera base to the box.
The final configuration shows the camera and router box mounted on the arch. This configuration means that it is quite easy to undo the four screws holding the box together to gain access to the router.
Having put the box together I didn’t get round to mounting it on the arch until almost the end of our cruise to France. The results have been amazing. The router is better than I could have imagined. It actually has two separate wifi interfaces so it can connect simultaneously to marina wifi and provide onboard wifi. The 4g also works well, providing good connection even in poor signal areas. The Cctv is excellent providing great images although I haven’t got the internal recording to work. And finally the router has remained connected to the Internet throughout the winter allowing me to keep an eye on the boat remotely.
An image from the camera taken during the winter at Felixstowe Ferry.
A very pleasing result and with a total cost around £500, much cheaper than commercial solutions.