Jasper

4 WORDS - They are my parents! I am doing this job for them. I can't fire them! Ha, Ha. Anyway they know not to screw around with the computer system for anything but security monitoring purposes. It will only have software installed on it that is necessary for backup and maintenance purposes, so I don't have to worry about them. My main concern is should I go through the trouble of contacting Dell to find out the motherboard used on this system? In order to hook up the wire leading off the Geovison card to the reset jumper on the motherboard? Do you guys think the watchdog is necessary if you know nobody will exit the Geovison software and stop the recording? Or should I track down the jumper on this motherboard and connect it? From the other post I have read I am not sure that the reset feature is reliable itself. Has anybody else had unnecessary reboot problems by using the reset jumper wire connected to the motherboard? Thanks.

So, in your experience Windows XP is stable enough that you don’t bother hooking up the watchdog wires leading from a GeoVision card to the motherboard? Hope that is the answer? I can’t read the writing on this new motherboard to even see where I would even connect the PC reset wire. And the other wire that is supposed to lead to the motherboard front panel jumper, Forgetta-Bout-It….

Did you make sure the wires are connected the right way? Do you have a continuity tester that you can use to check the wiring? If you can provide more information of why you think it is the wires maybe somebody else can jump in here and help you narrow down the problem.

I don't know how I missed that cameras specs, but I did. And yes I would like a refferal of any kind.

Does anyone now where I can find the complete specs on this camera, like it Lux rating, S/N ratio, etc. I would like your opinions on whether you think this dome will work behind a bar, a small area that has three light fixtures that have 2 60 watt bulbs per fixture. I am still trying to use color cameras behind the bar if I can. Just don’t want to use those BW cameras if I don’t have too.

OK, thanks...

Might be cheaper to get a big yard dog or a small one, they are great alarm system and deterrent, just a thought. Get yourself a good sign that says “Premises monitored by Video Surveillanceâ€

Since I have seen this same post in severa threads today I was wondering what other domes you have experience with and why you like the Nuvico dome so much?

I believe this is the same information that I was able to acquire. I was really hoping to get an idea of the minimum lux rating and the signal to noise ratio rating. Thanks for the effort though.

There is probably someone in this forum from Australia that can help you. You might even be able to buy one from them, especially since you probably get more support than you would by buying by lowest price. I personally would avoid Ebay, seems several people have had bad experiences with products sold there. And there doesn’t seem to be much sympathy for people who buy stuff from Ebay and then come asking questions here. If you are just looking for the lowest price and don’t care about any support use Google and you will find a good price. Just don’t be surprised when you have a problem and you can’t get any response from the person you bought it from.

This problem probably has been resolved by now because the original post was August 21. If the person that posted the message is still around it would be nice to know what the problem was just sake of being curious. It can be so many different things and there have been many good suggestions in the previous posts, just wondering if you ever found out the problem and what it was?

You might want to check the power supply and make sure you are getting the proper voltage coming out of the power connectors that lead to the motherboard, your +5 VDC. If the power supply is not putting out enough power or is running a little high you can get weird problems like your experiencing. If you have an adjustable power supply you can adjust it while you have a multi-meter monitoring the power. I don’t know what the proper range would be for a motherboard in a computer, but I have usually run 4.96VDC to 5.10VDC on Video Game boards in Arcade games, which do use computer motherboards. I just don’t know the tolerances for a typical PC. If someone knows the proper operating range that the manufactures recommend for their motherboards please post the information. I would suggest buying an inexpensive Digital Multi-meter if you don't have one already. They are handy for so many different things it is worth the purchase. You can eliminate the power supply as a problem and go from there. Since this is your second motherboard and you are still experiencing the same problem it is probably the power supply and not the motherboard. A watchdog on your hardware can cause the reboot. Most of the time these reboot issues are a bad power supply not putting out the proper voltage. There is a lot you can check with a multi-meter that can help eliminate the hardware as being the issue. I would definitely eliminate the power supply as being the issue before you do anything else. When you figure this problem out, please let us know what was wrong, just curious.

You can also use MAC address filtering with the LinkSys so only the computers with a known MAC address you type into the router configuration can access network resources through your router.

I could guess, but I wouldn't want to be right. Don't want you to get in any soup. I have Google Earth though and could probably figure it out. Not! Sounds like a great experience though, something right out of a good movie.

So if they wanted to store more days and they have 2-250GB drives now and I add another 250GB or larger drive to a span they could store more days and they could come in and remove the oldest drive connected via USB and take it home for review? Is that right? By the way, how is the weather there right now? I heard about a storm developing in your area.

Thanks, it is good to know that the computer won’t be running at 100% all the time, 50% would be great. I plan on running 720x480 on 5 cameras as well. 1 camera 30fps, 4 others around 15fps or more? If I can store at least 7 days or more using a 250GB hard drive the business will be happy. The cameras will be recording at least 16 hours a day 7 days a week and motion activated recording when the place is closed. I forgot about the real-time display, that was a factor when I picked out that card although now it doesn't seem important at all since the reviewing will be done off site anyway. I am surprised though that the computer monitor would not produce the better display. Why isn’t a computer monitor the best choice?

I haven't taken into account the quiet factor as I have several hard drives in my system (SATA and PATA) and what I hear over the top of all of them is the system cooling fan. As the hard drive manufactures are cutting down on the production of PATA drives and ramping up production on SATA drives there are some real bargains out there right now on the PATA drives. I just bought a Seagate 250GB drive for $70 with a five year warranty. I too have had problems with Maxtor drives, but have had good luck with Western Digital and Seagate. I have used Western Digitals primarily though. I recently bought a 500GB SATA Hitachi and it runs quite a bit hotter and does not perform as well as my Seagate 400GB drive which has 133GB per platter compared to the Hitachi’s 100GB per platter. I would avoid buying another Hitachi 500GB drive just because of the heat issue.

I don’t have enough PCI slots for all those Hybrid cards even if I had or was willing to spend the extra money. I have the GV-1240-8 channel card. The system I ordered is a Dell, Pentium D 820 with dual 2.8GHz, 800FSB, 1GB Dual Channel (DDR2) SDRAM at 533MHz . 256MB ATI PCI express x16 X600 SE Video Card. I believe the system has 3 PCI slots, 1 PCIex16 (Video Slot), 1 PCIe x4 and 1 PCIe x1. I plan on using 2 250GB 7200rpm drives on USB for swapping the drives in and out for review offsite. Rory, How many camera’s total?, What resolutions and total fps are you recording for each camera? MPEG-4 quality setting? Bit-rate? What did I gain with the 1240-8 card over the GV-800, just sound capability?

Oops, I thought I was getting hardware compression with this card. What would I need to give my GV-1240 card hardware compression? Can I expect a 100% CPU utilization with a dual core 2.8 Pentium D proccesor if I don't get the harwdare compresion card? Thanks

Rory, Why would you want SATA anyway, unless it is for RAID? The prices on PATA drives are very cheap now and none of these drives can fill up PCI bus unless they are in a RAID arrary. Of course this will no longer be true when those SATA drives are put on a PCexpress bus and put into a RAID arrary? Just curious

WHAT SCOTT SAID: I'm just waiting for Ebay to start selling something useful, like Illegal Aliens or something I can make a profit off of. That made me laugh so hard! You guys are funny!

I am surprised that you are using a 100% of your CPU when your capture card is hardware based. This should take quite a load off the CPU. How much memory do you have? What video card are you using? How many cameras are you currently running on the card? What is the overall FPS you are recording for all cameras combined? Is there any other unnecessary software running on the system other than what is required for the security system to operate? Did you figure out why your CPU was maxed out? Any word back from GeoVision?

This camera is going to be mounted high where it is not easily reached replacing an existing camera that has never been messed with. The ceilings are 10ft, so someone would need a pool stick or something to disturb the angle or screw around with it. Also it seems like the domes have a little less light sensitivity then the bullets due to the tinted domes. I will be using domes mounted to a low ceiling though located just above the bar where the bartenders can be seen clearly. I also want to get an idea of the how this camera looks before buying any domes just to have some type of reference using a high res 560tvl compared to a 420tlv or 480tvl. I am a little concerned that this camera will have a narrower view than the camera it replaces due to it's fixed 4.3mm lens because the camera the camera it replaces has wide angle lens. Shouldn't make that much of a difference though I would imagine. That camera your using looks great to me I am hoping this one looks as good as I have not seen a sample image from this camera like I have from yours. I wonder what type of light sensitivy this WZ15N will have without the IR being on? They only give the lux rating as 0 because of the IR emitter’s being on the camera. I just need to get the proper pre-made cable now for that camera and I should be able to sample it in the next week or so when I receive the computer and Geovsion 1420 card

Has anyone used the WZ15N yet in this forum? If not I just ordered one to try out. I came across this thread after I ordered it and was wondering if anyone had used this camera, especially in a low light situation. If not, once I get this system installed and get some video recorded I will try and make a sample available for others in the forum to see.

No go ahead state the obvious. It is not so obvious for a lot of people in this forum, I for one at this point. The people that know the information already can go, oh! I already knew that, the others will go, oh! I did not know that, that's good to know. So, many others are appreciative about what is obvious to others in this forum are not so obvious to others. I wish I could just remember everything I have forgotten that I once knew. Sometimes it’s nice to be reminded of what seems so obvious. Thanks