Rich Harley from Suspicion Industries sent in some pictures of a vehicle that they just completed. This is what I call a office away from home! I know where to go if I ever start a career as a super secret spy! Instead of a limo could I rent this van for an evening?
“Here is a rather large home project we have completed – a surveillance
vehicle or mobile office. The project took around 9 months to finish
and we have pictures and build information to document progress. The
van has:
* onboard power system/batteries (10 hour runtime), plug sockets etc
* lighting
* onboard computers x 2 + TFT wall mounted monitors
* wireless router
* desk + chair setup
* furnished walls and floor
* climate control
We’ve also added a Pan-Tilt-Zoom Camera connected to the computers
for surveillance or recording use. Our aim is to hire the van to
individuals/small business, or perhaps to sell the vehicle outright.”
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Its just a van with 2 computers, a camera and and airco.. Sure, it looks great.. But anyone can make it. Not impressed.
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not so much discrete with the plate in clear 🙂
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I have that exact same keyboard and mouse it was £3 off ebay lol
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I didn’t notice the plate, good eye. I am sure that is the dealer plate of Suspicion Industries though. When the customer gets delivery they would need to get their own plate.
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Looks like they should have invested in a level the monitors are not square to the desk or each other.
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At first I wondered about the use of this vehicle and I’m still not quite sure about it.
But whats really nice are the 10hours runtime
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I hope they used SSDs, harddrives will NOT appreciate the vibration of driving around, and they will fail miserably very quickly from the abuse. Very clean install though, neat stuff
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i think that this could be a good basis for any sort of major improvement, like the ones in spy movies. Very interesting the overall uptime. A rotating plate would be interesting 🙂
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this isn’t one of the best project ive seen on this site, i could do this same project for about £450 if you bring me a transit van, or much less (around £100) if you supply the inverter and pc’s to.
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Hi there
We built this van – thanks for your comments! The van was actually completed quite a while ago, we’ve just been toying with surveillance spec options recently and recording hardware.
iride: Indeed, plates will be swapped for any potential customer or operation. The camera works great in night vision too..if that’s spy movie enough for you!
Brian: Yes I probably should invest in some nicer keyboards and mice! I’ll get on it…
qwijybo: I did the best I could! Can’t say I or anyone else complained too much 🙂 We’ve learnt a lot since building this about general construction/design.
roula: I believe the applications are quite numerous: IT skills training at local sites/schools, surveillance, photography events, mobile computer workshop etc. We’ve interest in hiring the van for these things. The battery is 260AH – upgradable of course..
jim: I wonder if you are joking? The power system (inverter, battery, wiring etc) alone cost £4000 (not sure of current exchange rate to $), let alone the base system.. furnishing etc.
Here’s some other stats if anyone’s interested:
150 Carpet tiles, 9 litres of glue
40m of electrical wiring
75Kg of battery
Over 600 screws
300 man hours
48 high intensity LEDs
60m of insulation
Give me a shout if anyone would like any more info about the build.
Regards
Rich
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Do I get a discount, because it has a wacking great dent in the drivers side rear quater, or is that just to make it look like all other vans in the UK?
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THey should replace the backlights in the monitors with LED’s to squeze a bit more life out of the batteries.
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Eric: Normal hard drives do much better than you would think in a mobile environment. The hdd in my car pc is a standard sata drive and it has been running smoothly for 2 years. I am not arguing that an ssd would not be better suited, just stating that the normal drives are more durable than you give them credit for.
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And still, I think its highly overrated. It’s just a van with 2 computers.
“skills training at local sites/schools, surveillance, photography events, mobile computer workshop etc”
Of course, computers are really expensive. No school can afford them. Let them pay for a van and ask extra for the gas. That was sarcasm.
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@Rich Harley, thanks for getting back to us all.
i did forget to include carpets, glue, battery, and lighting in my original quote which adds about £550 to the total, but i have made a breakdown of what i would expect to pay for the hardware used. i havent included an air-con unit as i personaly wouldn’t include one in my build, for the fact it would kill the battery life by more than half.
here is my breakdown –>
3000w inverter on ebay aprox £150
2x pc with 19inch display aprox £200 (cheep pc’s)
40m square mdf aprox £85
insulation fiber fire resistant aprox £65
5m 240v 13 amp cable for inverter extention aprox £3
15m power cable for inverter aprox £10
15m cable for led lighting aprox £5
48 led’s aprox £20 (@ aprox 40p each, that seems like overkill tho)
variety of screws aprox £15
carpet tiles aprox £100
glue aprox £30
battery as specified aprox £400
this all totals to just over £1000, half of the total is from the bits i didnt original count, and also build time is not included in the price.
i will mention i used to refit caravans for a private business untill the recent resession, and all the stuff we used to buy was from internet sources, except wood and insulation bought local.
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I just purchased an old Ford F250 cargo van that is completly bare on the inside. I am also going to make tech improvements. I am intrigued by your mobile spy hut. No doubt that anything imaginable could be accomplished with opportunity and funding. what I like is the fact that it is completed and not just a concept or idea. Kudos to all of you who worked on it! BTW if it is nothing more than a van with two computers and some electronics in it, it still has two more computers and electronics in it than almost every other vehicle on the road. I LIKE IT!!!!
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Really cool one. I like to have these kind of office. Thanks for sharing this nice concept.!!!! keep writing more! 🙂
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Needs a “FREE CANDY INSIDE” sign to make it epic.
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has a big dent on the side.
also not a very discrete color.
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Inspector Gadget’s Van!? lol… but apparently im the only one who see’s this I guess LoL
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very nice build. Not too good for secret spying though since the world now knows its registration.
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If you plan to use to computers, I would HIGHLY recommend the software at “synergy2.sourceforge.net” or any equivalent. Been using it for two years now, so I can use one keyboard for all my 4 computers.
Nothing fancy with the exterior, though that’s okay on a surveillance truck.
I’m missing some pictures for the interior though. There is no proof that you actually have the computers INSIDE the van. I would also like to remind you what Eric and Chris said, you can ONLY use SSD’s on a car, anything else would be short-lived.
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Desktop computers on a van is a bad idea, they aren’t built to stand vibrations. At least you should switch the hdds to 2.5″ laptop hdds with acceleration sensors, otherwise you’ll have a headcrash in no time 😀 I’d switch the desktops for laptops. That should also make the batteries last longer. You should also consider to buy an umts router so you get internet without w-lan. If you put some advertising on the roof you could hide a laser micro and a camera in that…
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Your all a bunch of wankers. Build your own van!
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Kind of an oxymoron… a bright red van that is “Stealth Surveillance” more like, hey look at me, i am spying on ya.
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Hi all
Rich here again – thanks for all your comments! Although this has mainly been talked about as a surveillance vehicle, all the people we’ve hired it out too so far have just wanted the mobile office features – no camera’s or anything. So we’ve been prepping it without the camera’s the last few weeks, which extends the battery life nicely!
@Steve – No you don’t! 🙂 The price we have the vehicle for at the moment reflects the damage (which is only aesthetic anyway).
@Macka – Good idea, but I don’t think this wouldn’t make enough difference to the battery life to be worthwhile.
@Cormac – the plates will obviously be changed for a surveillance vehicle sale. Most of the work we are doing at the moment is just with the mobile office market, so the registration isn’t an issue.
@not_random – thanks for the tip, I’ll check that out. I assure you, the computers and seating and furnishings are all inside the van! Send me an email if you’d like some more detailed pictures.
@rincewind – that’s kind of the setup we have the moment, although you can’t see it in these pictures. A UMTS router would be useful and very easy to do, but our location means the internet would be dead slow anyway. Definitely something that’s easily upgradable though.
@drew – 🙂
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This is a gay mans truck. Like Tom Cruise in tights.
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AMD processor…fail.
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lol, doin all that surveillance with windows,
hope you dont get any viuses spying on folks,
meanwhile ill sit over here on my linux box all discreet like