btrotter

Thanks for the feedback. I guess over-engineering is better than under-engineering

I made the assumption that disk IO would be high with as much as the system is writing to the disks. In thinking that, I figured a RAID5 would allow the computer to write faster, hopefully shortening the queue length. With Zoneminder, everything is stored as a .jpg, and if I have 6 cameras recording 24 hours a day at around 10 frames per second, that would be 60 .jpg images being written every second. I assumed that would benefit from more IO. I did an htop on my computer and saw that the CPU is definitely getting hit pretty hard, so i am going to make sure to get a lot of processing power. Maybe a quad core computer.

You guys are a great help. I do not do this for a living, so learning from pro's is a plus. I have a 6 camera CCTV system on my house running through a PC based Zoneminder system which is where i learned what I do know about it. It is a low-tech system but is very customized and pretty slick. I can monitor the cameras through my mobile devices and have it set up to record both onsite and immediately upload events offsite in the event a burglar steals my DVR. My neighbor knows about my CCTV system and asked me if i could build something for his business, which is why i am reading up on some of the more professional grade components.

Got it. Thanks guys!

What do you mean about using the "voltage calc"? By the way, thank you for your help.

With that in mind, it sounds as though I am better off just going with 24V, especially since the CNB cameras handle 24v and 12v.

I have installed a number of CCTV cameras in the past, but they were the ones which required a plug. The cable I would run from the PC to the camera would have the BNC connector and the 12v plug in the same cable. Looking at the CNB cameras, it looks like it has different power requirements. First it can be either 24 or 12v. From what I have been able to figure out, it looks like you would use 24v if the run was going to be a considerable distance from the power supply, otherwise 12v would be perfectly suitable. Can someone confirm or comment if that is the only advantage of 24v over 12v. The next thing is, what physical hardware is now required to be able to run power? I saw that if 24v was used, I could run cat5 cabling and use two of the pairs of cable to run power. It didnt list this as an option for 12v though. So what type of cable is required to run 12v? Can it still run on cat5 cabling, or are the amps too high? I assume you would run all this back to a wall-mounted multi-power supply which can provide around 500ma per channel? Looking at the CNB power consumption, it is listed as 300ma, so the amperage should be enough. It is mainly the physical cabling I am wondering about. Thank you.

Soundy, I had did that already. Looked on their site and didnt find any dealers listed. Kind of irritating. They list the dealer to stay away from, just not the ones to patronize. I will email them to see what they say. On this site, there are Google ads scrolling on the left side of the screen, but I assume those are just Google ads and not vendors recommended by this forum?

If this question is not allowed, please delete it. I looked through the partner list for this forum and visited each of their sites, and none sell the CNB cameras i am looking to buy. So that brings up the question of, which online retailers are legitimate professional businesses? If I do a search on Google for the CNB camera i am looking for, there are a lot of places selling it. Then if i do a search on the retailer, I keep finding a lot of negative press about many of them. Then i go to CNB's website and see a warning to stay away from a specific online retailer. So that brings up the question, who can you trust online?

I am going to help a friend install a CCTV system in his office. My idea is to install a handful of CNB dome cameras and come back to a DVR card installed in a computer. I am still debating on exactly which camera and DVR card to use, but i also need to source a computer to use. My first thought was to just grab a cheap desktop PC off Ebay that has an open PCI port, a pretty recent processor and around 4gb ram in it. I am going to be installing an Ubuntu OS and using Zoneminder as the software. Are there any recommendations to make on PC selection? For instance is there something in particular which will greatly improve the performance? My thought was to install three 500gb sata drives in a Raid5 since that will help drive speed. Then max out the memory (at least 4gb). Is there anything else which would be beneficial?

Thank you for the reply Rory. That helps a lot.

I have been reading through the forums and picking up a lot of good info, but I am having a hard time with a few things. #1: I am trying to tell the difference between these two cameras: VBM-24VF VCM-24VF I think it has to do with the housing somehow, but I cant find a good answer. I want a camera that can be mounted directly under an eave of a building. I do not want it to be on the "stalk". I want it mounted directly to the soffit. Which of those cameras is the most suited for that? #2: I am not able to find anything on the CNB website when I search for either of those cameras about. I can only find anything on a 21VF, but not a 24VF. Is there a reason why the 24VF's are not listed? #3: I see the lense is from a 2.8 to 10.5mm. How do you adjust the lense to get the angle you want? Is it a manual setting inside the housing? I am used to cameras that are either 3.5mm or 6mm lenses, and have never used a vari-focal lense. I would like to use the 2.8mm lense on a parking lot to get a wide angle, and a 6-10mm setting to aim at a doorway to capture more detail from faces. Thank you for your assistance.