Vivotek FD8362 Webcam - a nice upgrade!

The Controllable Christmas Lights for Celiac Disease have provided entertainment for bazillions of Internet surfers around the world as they have viewed (and controlled) the display. The webcams are wireless PTZ D-Link DCS-6620G's ... not too shabby back in 2005, but certainly getting dated by 2011. While the wireless PTZ (and small form factor) are very handy for placement (especially at the neighbor's house), every year they get more hot pixels and the general image quality looks worse every year. Plus one of the webcams has a broken gear wheel so it won't move up/down so I have to do that manually.

During Halloween/2011, one of the three webcams "bricked" - i.e. stopped working. I mentioned my predicament to my friend Jon Wade who has been a long-time supporter of the website ... and he decided to donate a webcam! After some research, we decided on a Vivotek FD8362 as a reasonably priced webcam with decent image quality. It shoots HD 1920x1080 and is much, much higher image quality than the D-Link ... although not in the same league as my Canon 7D DSLR ;-)   It's also designed to be placed outdoors ... but it is not wireless. The best way to get Ethernet to it was by drilling a (small) hole in the baseboard in our master bedroom ... so I certainly was concerned about the WAF - Wife Acceptance Factor. But she said OK!
So it's all set for the Christmas season (HO-HO-HO) and will also Watch my Grass year-around! ;-)

A big thumbs up to Jon Wade who lives in Steamboat Springs, CO for helping out with a webcam.