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My thought process going forward on this, was to enable someone, who was very low "tech savie" (I include myself also), in the Construction industry, to be able to watch, only overnight , for maybe 8 hours. I wasn't trying to sell anything, I am merely trying to help out my brother, who owns a Construction company here in California. He has around 30 employees on the road all over the state. Maybe 2 or 3 "foremen", who could be trusted with this. He loses thousands of dollars each year to theft of his construction equipment. (generators, ladders, tools, etc.) He will put 8 workers in a small motel for weeks while they are working in a strange town (strange to them). Every time, and I mean Every time, he will have theft. So much so, he has to budget that into his bidding process. The owner of a Commercial building, while under construction, will hire Security guards, so most of this theft happens at these motels, while his workers are sleeping. Just trying to find the easiest solution and maybe save my brother some headaches , as he is getting tired of spending so much time on the phone with local Police, who are overworked themselves. I appreciate any suggestions on this, but have to remember who would be the "end user". Thanks!!

In theory perhaps. There is a reason that power companies transmit electricity in AC form. Another reason for 3-Phase power and not 1-phase being transmitted. Top of power lines (residential areas) are normally 12,000 volts. You would always want to transmit the highest voltage possible in AC form, then step-down at the end to the lower voltage, and DC current. When you run AC through the power supply, and rectify it, you lose current through heat, etc. In my job, I deal with 480VAC 3-Phase dozens of times a day, so when I get to work on small DC power supplies, I take the gloves off and stop sweating. If you look back in History, Edison wanted DC for us, Tesla/Westinghouse wanted AC , Edison lost, and we never looked back.

Borrowed a friends' Plextor PX-M402U USB capture device to try out. Records in many formats, including DIVX. Recorded to hard drive for several hours. Wrote to DVD in DIVX format. Looked so good I went to Tigerdirect and bought one for myself. Spent the huge sum of $100 (before the $50 rebate) for a new one. From now on I got to split my conversations between my CCTV friends, and my "techie" friends !! Come to find out, one of my "techie" friends won't use anything but Plextor when to comes to CD/DVD drives and devices. Learn something every day. Never even knew about "DIVX" until last week. Turns out my techie friend has dozens of movies on his LAN hard drive. I've seen them myself, and didn't question where/how they were stored.

Something I learned a long time ago , "Better to be judged by 12 .......than carried by 6".

Yes, I was thinking about only 1 channel (input) DVR. I went to my local Electronics store to see some this weekend. Many to choose from. Not many that record in MPEG-2, though. Any suggestions?

I normally use a UPS ahead of any power supply for CCTV. Then plug your Altronix unit into the UPS. Go to Tigerdirect.com and check for their UPS systems. When you generate 24vac, you are doing so from a transformer which is wound for that purpose. 120vac(or whatever input) to 24vac, or sometimes 28vac on a different "tap". When you generate DC voltage, you do so from a DC power supply, which takes AC in, rectifies it, then transforms it to 12 volts( or whatever voltage you need). You then have "positive" voltage, and "negative" voltage. Constant voltage, no "hertz" as in AC. UPS generates 120vac (or close) from batteries, doing the exact opposite.

The IP camera part might be out of my "knowledge base", but my thought process , going in this direction with the laptop, is that I would like to break this down to the least amount of hardware. I am doing this for my brothers' company, a Construction company. I could buy him a simple Avermedia MPEG4 DVR, and 2 cameras, but my problem would be the daily phone calls from his foreman trying to explain why he can't see any video. His foreman does keep a laptop, and is sort of knowledgable when it comes to Microsoft Office, etc. But my idea was simply; 1 laptop, 1 camera, view camera on laptop screen, PCMCIA card for input, record for 24 hours max. The "KISS" principle would have to apply here. How does your idea work around this?

You can always increase the wire gauge to attain the desired voltage. Just because we normally use 18 AWG , doesn't mean someone can't use 16AWG, or even 14AWG, to attain a voltage drop of less than 5%. Find a "voltage drop" table, which will show ; amp draw, wire length,wire size, etc. to see what you need. You might even make the initial wire run larger, then find you can use the smaller 18awg from a terminal point to the actual camera itself.

Agreed!! Always better off going with a higher amperage PSU than what you think you will ultimately use. Spend the extra $ , and you won't be sorry you did. Here in the USA , make sure your power supply is "UL LISTED".

Any "decent" PCMCIA cards that exist for laptop recording? One channel into card, preferably MPEG-4. The reason I am asking this, is that my brother who has a construction company, often has his workers on the road. His service trucks are broken into many times, while his employees are staying at hotels. I would like to set his foreman up with something very simple that would watch from inside the room to a parking lot, etc. Laptops are very common tools nowadays, plus most newer designs can write to CD/DVD. Maybe a better idea out there??

This is sort of the same reason I started building my own power supply panels when I need both voltages. I will have a Siemens 24v 140va transformer, and a Sola 12vdc 9A power supply in the same panel. Although I fuse everything, using DIN mount rail fuse holders with "trip l.e.d." features, I keep the voltages separated in the panel. Terminate everything onto DIN mount terminal blocks.

So, do you believe that most, if not all LPR cameras are of the WDR type? Has anyone here actually taken a LPR camera apart to see what makes the difference? My DVR capture quality is set at its' highest, which is actually only around 15fps at best. Wondering if capture frame rate also helps in the scheme of things?

I also have a separate checking account, which I use only for Paypal and not much else. Many times, though, I change the Paypal payment to Visa, in the payment options menu. Been "burned " only once by someone with my Visa. Got a bill for $5000 for "diet pills" all the way from China. Visa took care of it immediately, and didn't cost me anything but time to change a few details online. I am 6' tall and weigh 180 pounds, so didn't need the diet pills........not yet anyway. Get "phished" every day . Some are actually very professional looking, believe me.

From someone who has never installed a Geo card at all, I am wondering about the Audio Inputs . Does Geo record the audio if need be, or are the audio inputs for 2-way audio over the internet? I have Capture Cards on my PC at home, for use in converting my old VHS tapes to DVD or CDR, but that audio goes into the same Temporary file to be able to be burned onto a DVD. Thanks

You need help fabricating that Battery Box Pole Mount, let me know. Just need dimensions and some sort of design idea(s) on how you want it to mount to pole. I work with Stainles Steel quite often, not too much Aluminum, though. Will trade for help in getting my Video Server up and running when it comes in!

Been playing around with this myself. Bought 4 IR filters, 1000nm, 900nm,830nm, and 780nm. The 900nm seems to work the best for blocking out natural light, yet letting the IR from my Illuminator in. Put up two test cams and setup DVR . I bought the 37mm Schott Glass filters. The 37mm filters fit my Tamron 5-50mm lens perfectly. For the test, I am using Sony SSC-M383.

I have been using Paypal from the start-up. Ebay since 1998. Get "Phishing" emails almost daily from sites, that I must say, are exact replicates of them both. Whomever is doing it , they are pretty good. When I get an email from either one , I send it to "Spoof@ ebay.com" or to "paypal.com", and wait for the return. If you also try to send someone money, who doesn't give you an accurate email address, or an out-of-date address, Paypal will go through fits . Never been scammed yet on Ebay or Paypal to date, but I guess there is always a 1st time!!

Just wondering what type/manufacturer of small video server (1 to 4 channel) that people recommend. Would like to view video remotely , WAN, using IE. Anyone ever use the inexpensive type like the "9100A", as sold on Ebay? Or is something along the lines of the Axis worth the extra expense. Thanks

A friend of mine had installed several Extreme 46N's at his business a few years ago. He has purchased additional 12VDC IR illuminators. The cameras are operating on 24vac, but when I tried to switch them to 12vdc, they would not operate. I need to get these on 12vdc, if that is possible. All items were purchased already by friend, so I had nothing to do with purchase. Are these cameras "switchable"?? to 12vdc. Thanks

Thanks!! Just found a bunch on Ebay. Never run into this situation before. I might have to build, for my friend who owns the business, a 24vac/12vdc panel, to integrate things if he decides to add more IR's. Thanks again.

Wow!! That first camera you list has some fantastic specs!! Will you be at the ISC West show in Las Vegas?

Are you able to tell us the DVR and camera model number on these videos??

Just a quick question to ask those on this forum who are more knowledgable in the area...what actually is the "filter" which is mechanically/electrically moved out of the way of the CCD in "True" day/night cameras? Is it an IR glass filter of a certain NM range? I have seen them up close, but no one I have met can actually tell me what they actually are. OOPS!! 2nd part of question: What is its' purpose? Thanks!!

I have worked in Industrial Manufacturing for almost 30 years, so most of my experience is with much higher (480 3ph) voltages. I always trust fuses over anything else. Even with such low voltages. For the last 3 years, I have been building my own CCTV control power panels, simple ones that include both 12vdc and 24vac in them. I always use the "DIN mounted" style fuse holders. Mostly Allen Bradleys or Square D's. They take the normal AGC Bussman style fuse. This way, you can open the fuse holder up, take power off a camera, work on it, then put power back to camera without taking wires off, etc. Just a thought!

Hi All, Just wondering if anyone uses the smaller bullet cams, infrared, with 2.8mm wide angle lenses?? Never really had to deal with that wide of an angle, as 90% of what I use is mostly 3.6 mm to 6mm lenses ( built in). I have a customer, who I can't talk out of, who wants the widest angle I can get, but he wants it in a smaller, "bullet style" IR cam, or, perhaps, a small "dome style" camera. Thanks!