The meadowcam idea has hit a fairly vital snag at the first hurdle. The camera and the box set up seems to work reasonably well but the pc to which they connect (which currently runs the pondcam) seems incapable of running both and keeps crashing. Until i can get the pc sorted out i will need to try a new method. I think that relying on rechargeable batteries, CHDK firmware and a lot of legwork will be the most straight forward approach.