2.4gHz Wireless Video Scanning.

So I've been looking at a lot of videos on Youtube about wireless video scanning or 'Wi-Vi' scanning. There's not a great deal of videos on there but there's enough to get me interested. There are a couple of methods that I've started to look at and hope to get some good results from them.

The first device is a 2.4GHz wireless security/baby palm monitor LCD receiver which covers the 4 channels that all wireless cameras operate on. Pretty simple to use by the looks of things. It has a composite AV output so the receiver can be connected directly to a DVR to enable recording as well as volume, on/off switch and power adapter port.

There are 2 holes on the top and one on the front which I plan to modify to enable me to connect an external antenna to it as opposed to the internal one which I'm guessing is a wire soldered to the antenna pad on the circuit board inside. There are larger 2.4ghz WiFi aerials on eBay for a couple of pounds which should work well. One Youtuber has made a pretty cool biquad antenna attached to his which seems to deliver good results when walking down the street scanning.

It has a handy little stand on the back which I'll use to somehow attach to the dash of my car so I can scan for wireless video while driving around. There is a video of this exact unit in operation Youtube and the quality seems pretty good so as soon as the seller has them back in stock I'll snap one up and give it a try. Of course I'll post my results as and when.

  

This handheld device will act as a great portable wireless video scanner for all 4 channels. All for about £35 shipped. Photos courtesy of DX.com. No copyright intended.

The second device is a 2.4gHz USB 2.0 wireless dongle which plugs into a USB port and allows you to view CCTV footage. I bought one last week off eBay for about £8 shipped so not expensive however the software supplied is completely useless and just does not work. Or at leas not on Windows 7 64bit which is on my PC and laptop. I managed to scout the internet and get a driver so the computer actually recognizes the dongle, some other drivers to make it run on Windows 7 64bit and another peice of software called Yawcam to actually view the singals that the dongle draws in.

The antenna on the side unscrews from an SMA female connector on the board inside so this will allow me to attach a larger, better quality antenna. There is a video out port on the side too and the dongle comes with an audio video cable to allow connection to a TV, monitor or DVR for recording.

So all in all a bit of a disappointing start and of course it is a more fixed way of viewing wireless video unless you fancy walking or driving around with a laptop. I do plan to get a Windows tablet after Christmas so I'll connect it up with a USB cable and look to put the software on the tablet somehow and use it portable. That is unless I manage to locate the palm device first.

From what I've already seen online I'd recommend the palm device to anyone wanting to snoop in on wireless video transmissions but the dongle is a bit too much trouble and I'd probably not recommend buying one. Stay tuned for updates!
Do you have either of these? Or have you tried your hand at wireless video scanning? Drop me a comment in the box further down the page and let me know!

Thanks for reading!

73's, Lewis M3HHY.
Manchester, UK.