Tailbone215

Contact the elevator company used by the property owner and have them tag a spare pair of com wires in the traveller cable. Using a UTP cable piggybacked to the outside of the traveller cable is inviting trouble, as you are now finding out. There is a thread on this very subject in this forum. Search back and you'll find it. There was a recommendation of an alternate cable that yielded good results. Though more expense, try using the original traveller cable first.

Home Depot sells 1/2" and 3/4" filler plugs for weatherproof electrical boxes, which is standard for what you need. Your dome most likely has a 1/2" threaded knockout port. You can also use "Duct Seal", which is a non-hardening putty that will keep insects and moisture out of your dome. This stuff works great.

Nice project and it seems to work really well. Thanks for sharing.

Had a job where nearby variable frequency drives were playing havoc with noise. This stuff did the trick. I agree, wouldn't use it on basic installs. Probably could have ran EMT, but that would have been miserable.

For IP cams just use shielded CAT5e cable. Worth every penny. http://www.cablestogo.com/product.asp?cat_id=303&sku=27432

Easily cured with a simple relay. I didn't think it worth mentioning. All of the shortcomings are way too easy to get around, but I do agree with everyone that it is best to get the right stuff the first time around. If I ever run out of options with the POTS stuff I can always fire up my rack mounted Lambda 0-50V 0-100A lab grade supply.

I think a lot of these places follow the Haitian building codes? They might be able to withstand a 250MPH wind, but will disintegrate when the ground starts rumbling. Most of these places never took into consideration earthquakes when building, they never had to. Haiti opened everyone's eyes to this. The US builds lots of crap housing, but they can withstand a moderate quake with minimal damage.

It's probably not any more dangerous than any other switching PS designed for CCTV work. The issue is it is not recommended as each "channel" isn't fused or protected in some way. The other issue is most switching supplies are optimised to work under a certain minimum load. If you don't maintain minimum load you can have flakey crap happen. If you have a lot of expendable time and don't mind wasting money you can get yourself a fancy fuse block, housing, and whatever else you might need to get this to work safely. I would rather buy what is recommended and needed for the job so all I have to do is unbox, mount, and fire it up.

JB Weld is the only approved adhesive in the inner-city! Works on mufflers and Cadillac converters too!

Beam clamps are easy. Whether you use them to mount a junction box first and the camera to the j box or just using them to mount the camera directly. The other thing the beam clamps do for you is no drilling of structural members. This may sound goofy, but in some areas the building inspectors are very strict about this. Unless you want to get a structural engineer to sign off saying that the holes you made are ok, just just the beam clamps and walk away with no worries. Just my 2 cents. You got it! We all know a hole for a 1/4 x 20 bolt isn't going to cause any structural problems, but it surely will cause a lot of grief as you mention. Love beam clamps as they prevent a lot of this misery. Also, I know most of these installers are also using EMT or other suitable conduit instead of draping the cable over the support beams.

Nope! Too much drilling even if you wanted to use them. You definitely don't want to be drilling structural steel supports such as these. They make a whole series of beam clamps for every application. Learn how to use them and your life will be a lot easier. No drilling required, you go between the gaps of the beams. Trust me i've done it many times and is the quickest and cheapest solution OK, I am assuming you're using a large fender washer as you run the risk of having the toggle shift and fall between the gap? I've seen this done before without the washer and it surely was a comical sight.

Nope! Too much drilling even if you wanted to use them. You definitely don't want to be drilling structural steel supports such as these. They make a whole series of beam clamps for every application. Learn how to use them and your life will be a lot easier.

You might want to use beam clamps for this type of job. We use them for mounting boxes and conduit. Works great and gets you out quick. http://www.hvac-runner.com/3-8-Top-beam-Clamp-85.html

You're going through a transformer with the wall warts and it is isolated from ground. Not much of an issue even with switching supplies.

Sounds like it might not be recording. Are you sure it is set up correctly and recording? I'm not familiar with that unit.

You've pretty much covered it all. The other issue is the unsuspecting installer that will inherit this mess might get bit by 120v when thinking they only have low voltage lines in the conduit. Then again, a good installer never assumes anything and uses caution before they test for voltage. Too many weird oddities out in the field.

Nope, not at all possible. If you had that much potential energy come down the line it would have fried whatever was hooked to it. You got bit by the oxidation bug with this connection. You had the perfect environment for humidity to attack connection. Nothing serious to worry about, just cut off and reinstall whatever type of connector you like. BTW> has anyone ever tried a dab of dielectric grease in their twist-ons to prevent these problems from happening in the first place?

Could you please tell us again what type of connector it was? Anyway I'm glad you got it figured out and working. Seems that connector/connection was at "End of Life" and was ready to fail. You just accelerated the process by touching the cable.

Let all of us know how this cam works for you. If possible, please post images from it. I'm on the fence right now with this one as I haven't seen any live views from this model. Seems cheap enough. Thanks.

Simple way to do this is to get a a self adhesive label and a paper hole punch. Make enough to cover lens and screws. Peel off with tweezers when paint dries.

No disrespect meant, but one should be familiar with the products they are selling and to what targeted segment. This experience comes from hands on work in the field and knowing the basics of the business. The problem right now is there are too many "unauthorised resellers" and drop-shippers ripping off customers. This gives all of us a bad name. I'm glad you're asking questions, but keep in mind that you will put yourself and your potential customers in a miserable situation if the proverbial crap starts hitting the fan. I've seen too many people get burned.

I like LED Lenser products. http://www.ledlenserusa.com/product_info.php?modelNum=8420

I like the idea, but keep in mind these photocells have a very large lag time of 15-45 seconds. I'm not sure this would be best if you want instantaneous ON.

What exactly are you trying to do?

They have that one on eBay in the UK. http://cgi.ebay.com/220685885093