Anybody know how to set up a cheap security system, to look out my peephole?

I'm trying to set up some sort of motion activated camera system to look out the peephole of my door. I tried to use a webcam and some free webcam software I found online, but it does not work very well. The webcam is too big to look through the peep hole properly and ends up making the field of vision mostly black (I hope that makes sense). Also the motion activation was sporadic at best. I tried adjusting the sensitivity, but can't find that sweet spot. Either it starts recording when there is nothing there, or it misses stuff. Probably has to do with the fact that the webcam is not giving a good picture.

Has anybody done something like this and can give some advice? Should I be looking for some sort of pinhole webcam or do I need to look into a DVR type system. I really prefer to do this on the cheap. Are there some other alternatives to the webcam I can use in conjunction with my laptop that I haven't thought of? Thanks.

what particular webcam are you using? if it's fine with you, you can try opening it up just like this guy did
http://hotwigati.wordpress.com/2007/01/22/peep-hole-camera/

else there are cheap peephole webcam available. as for the software there may free / opensource available, just google it.

hth

Thanks for the link! I never thought to rip the webcam apart. I'm going to try that now and see if getting it closer to the peephole gets me a better image.

Using some Windows freeware. I tried linux which works better with my old laptop, but I couldn't figure out how to use that motion software the link mentioned.

Always a pleasure to help. hope you don't mind opening your webcam apart

are you familiar with linux? if not, i would suggest you stay with windows. there are several nice freeware for windows that have additional features that might be useful for you. dorgem (runs even on windows9x), yawcam (w2k and up), ispyconnect. as an alternative to motion you can check zoneminder for linux.

hth

What if you put the camera out in the hall?