WRS_Mark

He ran 110V AC power up onto the steel roof using clear speaker wire to sealed junction boxes holding indoor use 12V DC transformers. Of course, the boxes were not sealed after a while of sitting out on that roof through temperatures of 30c to -45c weather and they leaked, shorted out the transformers. One even blew the prongs right off the transformer. I have managed to track down the AC wires to a few outlets, but it is a rather large building so locating the others will continue to be an enjoyable experience. A text book case of malicious hillbillyism if I ever seen one. 27 hours just to run new cables, install a power panel for the cameras and redo the connectors. Then probably another 12 hours to take out all the old coax and put up new cameras. I feel bad for the owner.

Well that sounds logical. Customers just love it when a tech has to make an annual service call just to set DST AND get billed for it.

It's actually a, well, HALF of a Bushnell binocular. The intention of the setup was to monitor the fuel tanks which can be seen in the background of the second picture. The original installer had some very unique ideas on pretty much everything for this 15 camera system. I even was electrocuted while fiddling with the BNC connectors at the DVR. And on the roof. It's been an interesting last few days.

I wasn't able to find much at the Nuvico website in way of (EDIT: I meant) DVR specs but you may wish to contact their technical support team just to see if they have any suggestions. http://www.nuvico.com/tech-support.htm Also, I found this page on their website to be somewhat troubling in regards to unauthorized resellers. Hopefully you didn't purchase your unit from anyone on their list. http://www.nuvico.com/unauthorized-resellers.htm I would definitely hold off on buying another camera if the DVR cannot take advantage of high resolution cameras to begin with. Is this the only camera which you have installed so far?

Yeah, the image is pretty poor for a very high resolution camera. As rory mentioned, it could be the DVR, something might be wrong with the chip set or you may wish to make sure to clean the lens and dome as sometimes there is a thin film inside which can obscure things.

You have nothing to worry about. My IR and low light cameras operate perfectly at even -40f/c.

I was running a mix of bullet and dome cams last winter at my home in Sunny-But-Frozen Alberta. On the coldest morning it got to -46c (ambient air temperature) and the cameras functioned perfectly. HOWEVER -and this is critical - if your camera loses power during such a cold snap for a while and you start them up while the temperature is so cold you may damage them to some extent. A customer of mine lost two of them to the cold last winter after they had been left without power for a couple of days and decided to fire them up while the temperature was around -30c. I don't know if it was the camera sitting in the cold or starting it back up again at such a low temp that caused the damage, but the moral of the story is invest in a UPS for those cameras alone and get another one for the DVR just to ensure the chip sets stay warm.

I vote this one!!!! http://members.cox.net/n4jk/d104.htm A thing of beauty.

http://www.avermedia-usa.com/surveillance/uploads//productimages/NV30005000%5B1%5D.pdf That is probably good information to go by. Although if everyone is going with Intel then why fix what isn't broke? I absolutely love AMD and build many desktops using their processors but always build my DVR's with proven components. Especially for a customer.

Noisy fans are unfortunately a problem with many 1304NET SATA DVR's. I usually just replace them with another fan of the same size when they begin acting up.

I went with this unit recently and it is excellent: http://www.ipphone-warehouse.com/AXIS-Power-over-Ethernet-Injector-5014-004-p/axis-poe-injector-5014-004.htm Cost a fair bit but considering it was for a customer with an operating budget in the tens of millions of dollars they understand that it is all about quality over penny pinching (if only all of my customers thought the same way).

If it didn't submerge the circuit board it should be fine. I did an expansion on an existing system this spring where I needed to purchase and extra capture card (Tekeyes) from a supplier I hadn't dealt with before so I figured I might as well try out their line of Discovery cameras. One of the weatherproof domes turned out to be not so weatherproof and I caught it when I went back a couple of weeks later just to see if there were any problems. Cleaned the water out of the housing (1/2" at the bottom plus condensation-dome was mounted to a wall), sealed it properly and the thing has been operating perfectly for the last 6 months.

I have mine out in the open, guarded by my English Mastiff. Sure, you can poison the dog but between the beast and the cameras isn't it just less work to go somewhere else?

Maybe I'm just looking at the wrong equipment but I still have yet to see a 4 channel H.264 DVR that can match let alone exceed the recorded picture quality of an EB1304NET-SATA (arguably one of the better "entry level" 4 Channel MPEG4 DVR's out there IMHO). Then again, about the only time I get to see them is when I go to repair either the system or troubleshoot an issue. While I am sure there are some very fine H.264 units out there (for a price), I suspect the ones I see are sold to customers just for that decal only. H.264 for many people equates to High Definition. Some I see even display amazing live picture quality but when you play back the recorded material, the picture is BRUTAL even with the recording quality set to Best. As pointed out in earlier posts, I'm sure this has to do with hardware that is not up to task. The argument that H.264 requires less storage space is a good one if you are running a 12-16 camera+ system. Otherwise, with the price of hard drives being so ridiculously cheap these days why would it even be a consideration on a 4-8 camera system unless you need to retain data for an exceptionally long period of time? Anyway, those are my thoughts. In a perfect world every customer I have would be happy to pony up the dough for a 960 FPS, 32 Channel Hybrid DVR/NVR with 18TB of Hot Swap Hard Drives and 16MP cameras everywhere PLUS pay for every minute I spend on site AND send me a Christmas card each year. But reality dictates otherwise -for me anyway.

That's pretty cool. Thanks.

Indeed. Bargain basement shopping when it comes to CCTV products most often results in spending that same amount you would normally spend on quality equipment PLUS what you spent on the junk you thought was such a bargain at the time PLUS the additional labor required remounting everything. Close to half of my business is replacing the crap that people and less reputable suppliers have installed because the buyer was getting such a "great deal".

That looks good. Thanks for posting it.

I don't like mounting a camera directly above a doorway simply because all you get is the subject's head or top of their baseball cap in the picture. Instead, I go with a two camera setup placed so that the subject is viewed from the sides in a crisscross fashion.

In order to access the Web Viewer with IE on Vista you have to first right click on IE and select "Run as Administrator" before you can access the system. I found this to be the solution starting about 4 months ago. With IE8 on XP, you must open IE8, go to Tools, Internet Options, Security, select "Custom Level", then adjust Active X control settings so that you may download and open the Web Viewer. Hope that helps. PM me with specific details if you continue to have troubles and I will get back to you as soon as I am available.

Reverse polarity is a bad thing. Some cameras, however, can deal with it for short periods of time. If you haven't touched the camera since you posted this maybe try it again. I have seen it when a camera (in this case a Discovery Camera - 480TVL IR armor dome as I recall) all of a sudden returns to operating condition after an event such as the one you described if it has been left alone for a while. If it still doesn't work, it's a paper weight.

I would suggest something along the line of a Avermedia 1304MOB DVR and a good quality, low light capable box style camera with a rubber or silicone mounting to quell vibration. Even a good quality bullet would work. I installed one in the tailgate of my truck (Ram 2500 diesel) a while back (wired directly to the monitor), and it sent a perfectly clear image regardless of how rough the roads were.

Could be your Hard Drive causing the momentary record stop. I noticed the problem with the EB1304NET I was using at my home did this from time to time. It seemed as though it would suddenly stop, the screen would flash and the same message appeared. Switched out the 500GB Western Digital Caviar Blue with a 500GB from Seagate (can't remember the model number) and the problem never occurred again. Since then I have yet to hear back from any customers who have had the same experience using either the WD or Seagate drives. As for the "vertical blinds", I did notice this on an EB1304NET which I installed in June, but only during reboot. No idea what is causing it and the DVR functions perfectly otherwise. My customer is a personal friend and he claims that it hasn't occurred for a couple of months now, so we are going to leave it alone and see how it works out before I send it off for warranty. It is the first time I have seen this and I'm not sure what is the cause. The only unique thing about it is that I went with a WD Caviar Green 1TB Hard Drive this time.

Hi, I received a request from a client who needs to install a 5 camera system inside a church. While I have been performing installations for a few years now I have stuck exclusively to analog systems and have just started with IP cameras and only the Mega Pixel cameras as they are the only ones offered by my supplier. For this application I will be using a PC based Hybrid DVR/NVR with Avermedia 240FPS hardware. Because I have been using the same supplier exclusively for three years now and they do not supply anything other than the Mega Pixel IP cameras I would like to know if any of the PROFESSIONALS on this board could point me in the direction of a North American (Canadian would be great) supplier of good quality IP cameras? Indoor domes (4 of them - the other camera will be an ACTi 1.3MP which will be pointed at the stage) would be preferred as they are going to be installed in the daycare part of the church. Wireless transmitting will be taken care of by Air802. Thanks a lot.

You will need a deep cycle marine battery to power the DVR if you plan to use the system for a long time. Car batteries do not respond well to constant charging and discharging. I built something similar to what you are looking for this summer using an EB1304NET SATA DVR instead of the 1304 MOB. It cost me a fair bit for all of the hardware but it works flawlessly.

Instead of installing spy cameras why not put up highly visible cameras instead? The reason being is that it is far better to make your home an unpalatable target to thieves rather than to act as a trap. As an example, my home is a couple of blocks north of a bar frequented by young people. I have footage of the drunken idiots doing all sorts of drunken idiot stuff (vandalism, urinating on vehicles, etc.,) captured by my low light armor dome on one corner of the front of my house and the low light bullet on the other corner. About a month ago, as an experiment I decided to install a 4-9mm vari focal IR camera at the corner facing the direction the drunks returning from the bar come from. All of a sudden they are passing by quietly and the neighborhood in general is quieter at 2am on a Saturday. While catching thieves, vandals, common half wits on camera can be fun it is still far safer for you, your family and property (not to mention the time it saves) to have them move on by an bother someone else.