Watchdog Camera Walks Through Barn

Watchdog camera walks through barn LIVESTOCK Handling 14-4-33 Running out to the barn in the middle of winter to check on pregnant ewes is a job Minnesota sheep farmer Bart Pederson used to hate. Now he just turns on his TV and sends his home-built robot camera on a trip through the barn. Pederson raises registered Montadale sheep. "They start lambing in January when it's usually below zero. They're in a barn, which helps, but they need to be checked every couple hours, even at night. "When I was a junior in high school I had to do a science project and got the idea of a remote observation system. The problem with it is that one camera by itself wouldn't allow me to see many of the sheep because of the way my barn is partitioned. So I designed a motorized apparatus to swivel the camera 360? back and forth and almost 360? up and down. It also travels from one end of the barn to the other, providing a perfect view of every animal in the barn. "One of the best things about the system is that it lets me see the sheep without them seeing me, which keeps them from getting jumpy and nervous. I can check the sheep without getting out of bed. "Camera movement is controlled by three windshield wiper motors powered by a 6 or 12-volt battery charger. Price of everything in the system was only about $75, not counting the camera. "I made the track for the system out of 1/ 8-in. thick, 5/8-in. dia. steel pipe. It's about 35 ft. long, made out of three sections of pipe hooked together. One of the wiper motors powers an old combine pulley that rolls along the pipe track. The other two wiper motors pivot the camera back and forth and up and down through chains and sprockets. "Any battery charger should work to power the system, transforming AC cur-rent to DC. I chose a Century 10-amp model because it was inexpensive. You can use the 6-volt setting if you want the camera to move real slow. I use 12-volt because it provides good speed the way I have the motors geared. "All motors are controlled from inside the house, which is about 300 ft. away. I use a Magnavox observation camera, which can be bought from Sears. Despite the mess of wires around the camera, they don't tangle up and there's no fire hazard because they only carry 12 volts. "I have detailed plans, complete with wiring diagrams and a materials list, which I could sell." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Bart Pederson, Blacksmith Farm Montadales, HCR 70, Box 399, La Porte, Minn. 56461 (ph 218 224-2662).

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