Numb-nuts

My comment about Transradio Transradio was a 'British Manufacturer' of coaxial connectors (in Sussex (or was it Surrey? ) who sadly stopped trading sometime after the late 1990's Their product was excellent, comparable to Greenpar, Bowmar, Tyco, Weidmuller Multicomp and all those American manufacturers. Not to be confused with the German company of the same name.

There is a self fix technique you caan aply in this case, the braid must be stripped back doule what is reuired and then bunched together, the remainder of the stripping is done but keep the braid extra length intact and twist it around the knurled part of the BNC twisting the ferrule onto it before crimping. You should find this cures that particular issue but frankly its a self fix for emergency, better to have a known good product and if one or two fail , well thats life.

Cross stitch!

Alternatively, if you want better quality output like VGA use a two way VGA splitter or HDMI splitter if your DVR has HDMI. Of couse you will have to find some VGA cables long enough to do the job. Another solution would be to put the DVR on your local network and have two outputs from your PC one showing your CCTV. Open in your primary screen set up the view and then drag the window to the second screen. I have done this last one many times using Hikvision DVRs and iVMS 4200 software (free with a Hikvision DVR)

Some fear of ladders is good as it concentrates the mind on safety. I don't understand those people that want to mount every cameras as high as possible. Okay some cameras in some situations require a high up mounting but frankly mount a camera too high and all you see is the top of a shiny head. (or hood). Cameras should be able to take advantage of height but don't go mad as height is NOT always the answer. Just high enough to look over objects like cars, bushes, dumpsters etc. Remember unless your camera will zoom like a PTZ and has quite a significant zoom ability, the higgher you go the further away you will be from your focal plane and the less detail you will see.

One supplier of BNC connectors has sent me this article from Wikipedia. It makes VERY interesting reading and contradicts many of my assumptions. Go to the article here if interested.

Me too! Perhaps I was a little too quick to make light of the situation, my only excuse is that I had no perception that such situations could exist other than in fiction. There are parts of the world where piracy exists (again which I could not perceive) so it must be that in Peshwar the 'thuggies' are no faerie tale but a reality most of us do not have to live with. It must be terrifying for your family.

It's not working, you need a new DVR!

Try looking on ebay!

That of course leads to the two or more other factors that affect BNC performance. The crimp ferrule must be a good tight fit and merely exposing 'enough braid to cover the length of the body contact is not enough. I always expose far more and before crimping twist it around the knurled contact to make it ALL fit under the ferrule before crimping. Then of course the worst offender fault that it's possible to encounter, non-mating center contacts. When inserting a center contact we should be listening for a distinct click when it is engaged into the nylon dielectric of the plug. So many of the cheap plugs fail this simple feature and fail for this reason alone. When crimping center pins, it is ESSENTIAL that the center conductor is no longer than in needs to be, to seat the contact fully onto the cable's dielectric, but no shorter than it needs to be to make a good electrical transfer. Part of the strain between the cable and the plug is taken by the center pin and part by the braid of the cable. To further reduce and strain a cable boot can reduce further the potential strain on the center and braid making a very acceptable and durable connection very much suited for military and industrial use, which engages quickly and efficiently, it's original purpose, When selecting BNC connectors and when installing them, you should be aware of these issues and be vigilant, but don't let these things spoil what is a simple operation for you. Crimping any type of connector has always held a fascinating satisfaction for me, from red, blue and yellow insulated connectors to PL259s, BNC and TNC connectors and even RJ45s and even cord end ferrules the feel of the crimping tool the strength and appearance of the finished connector all I find a satisfaction and fascination. I even like the feel of swaging wire rope, is this weird or what?

Well I would have to wonder what you have done to these people for them to target your house more than once. Frankly a bomb is not a typical neighbourhood dispute type of retaliation tactic that I've ever witnessed. Tipping garbage in your drive or dog mess into your garden I can understand as a get even type prank, but a bomb? No way, you MUST have some clue as to why they are trying to kill or frighten you. I don't believe the police aren't taking any action or aren't interested. It may be that it's you they are not interested in for whatever reason, however they will be making investigations as this is not a everyday thing and public safety is a serious concern to police.

I will ONLY use the URM70 for small patch leads no longer than 1m as I use a lot of passive and active balun receivers, as I now use Cat5 in 99% of my installs. The beauty of using the URM70 is that its more flexible since it has the stranded conductor and of course as I mentioned, I only need to buy the one size BNC crimps. ON THE BNC FRONT TODAY: I think I may have found a 'dependable' source of BNCs and RJ45s both of which I use a lot. I use the RJ45s not only to connect but also to test cable before wiring after a long cable run in fact I now do this on ALL cable runs. RJ45s allow me to do this quickly and cheaply since even the good ones cost just a few pence each and the existing and the new tester I have makes testing 8 way cat5 a pleasure. The BNCs are a little more expensive again, but cheaper than the US branded ones I have been using before, which were 100% reliable, but heck customers don't want to pay for anything these days and they don't give a damn as long as the system works, you can use tin foil and sticky tape for all they care, the bottom line price is ALL they care about, MOST don't know or deserve the trouble we go to to ensure a good job.

[*] Shame I hope you didn't lose out by not dealing with them again! When I install bnc crimps, i ensure they are NOT going to be subject to any movement so they are either enclosed in a box or tied down to something that prevents pulling. If they will be subject to repeated engaging disengaging like on a test piece I like the solder or compression connectors, like test leads for my field test monitor. For the task of making patch cables to baluns, I am going to try using URM70 which is identical to RG59 except that the center core is stranded instead of solid. Any thoughts.

Welcome, sorry nobody was polite enough to respond until now, most seem to join this forum for their own personal gain or to boost their ego, most of us are here just to be sociable.. .

Don't "assume"that the HDMI will definately work with your CCTV there are lots of cases where older TVs won't work with a DVR. But if your TV has a VGA input then it's wirth taking the risk because you can always revert back to the VGA input. If it doesn't have a VGA input then budget for a VGA or HDMI computer monitor as a contingency plan. The so called eyeball dome cameras are a good indoor / outdoor option, they generally come in two sizes 3.5 inch and 4.5 inch both work fine. The problem with packaged systems are that they are general purpose and the cameras are not suited to the location they will go in specifically the best you can hope for is a 'compromise', this is the reason so many of those use eyeball dome cameras because they are versatile and cheap too. Last time I looked there weren't any 2 channel DVRs on the market unless you were considering those supposed mobile DVR units. 4 channel DVR with 2 cameras great you will find a good realtime D1 @ 25fps recorder at a budget price without difficulty. Why you want a micro spy camera you haven't said but it's a rare thing to need such an item and thiose that do need one usually know the reason and waste no time in saying why. If it's just a fancy and you don't have a genuine requirement for one then don't waste your time or money. If you genuinely need a spy cam then what is it's intended location and why is it required? I generally say to clients that if they need such a device is it something recurring they should contact police about? If it's not, then perhaps they should rethink their reasons. If it's to spy on someone, then think again if it's not legal DON'T EVEN CONSIDER IT.

Wrong app?

Dahua is perfectly sound brand but in the UK unless it is rebadged QVIS, its probably a grey import. The QVIS one you show is probably a cheap copy at that price also they do not mention a model which is a clue to a fake. I was once sold a bvunch that siad VIS on the DVR but soon discovered they weren't QVIS, weren't even re-badged Dahua, they were some cheap Taiwanese rubbish with a fake logo on the front. The only good thing about them was they looked like QVIS but the clue is the LACK of a model number or name. Genuine UK QVIS security products are abundant through official channels and bona fide installers. We are QVIS Gold approved installer and have been for 3 years.

You won't be able to reach the DVR from outside your lan without the DMZ setting DMZ De Militarized Zone. Your firewall is still in place just you have made the DVR reachable from outside the LAN. This could be a potential risk but unless your Router has a static IP address and if you used a DNS service to redirect traffic to the router the chances of a security issue are quite small. and only to the DVR the remainder of your devices, would be protected by the firewall. If you have a cloud device you should also be quite safe. Well done for finding your way through the heel-on-wheels port forwarding can be for newbee's to port forwarding.

Thats the idea... SDI is an acronym for Serial Digital Interface i.e analogue methods transmitting a digital signal I think...

Well it happened, my current field test monitor / CCTV test unit finally started to play-up to the point I couldn't use it reliably anymore. I am beginning to suspect the battery is faulty. SO that coupled with the fact that I am attending a IP CCTV training course next month at the Norbain Academy, made me decide to buy one of the new generation of CCTV field Test monitors. MY one has the usual 3.5" monitor display, PTZ analyzer/controller and test card generator, and multimeter and in addition it now has the added bonus of SD Card record video sand still images from the camera. It also has a tone generator and tracer and display zoom upto 10 times (not sure yet what practical use this would be). It also now has video signal level test, Ping Tester, Port flicker, POE tester. There are other models but I can't see myself requiring Optical power meter or TDR (which I believe means Time Domain Reflectometer) and visual Fiber tester all of which I think have to do with fiber optic use. I have never used Fiber Optic yet so I think these for me at least would be unnecessary. If I ever do I will call in a contractor. I don't think I know enough about this skill. Most useful in my opinion is the addition of still image and video capture to both keep a record and to show a client the views from cameras and the presets on PTZ cameras. The additional IP features I can't judge as yet as I am not IP trained but I am hoping they too will be invaluable tools. I don't think I would ever buy a field test unit without multimeter which has been so useful over the years for fault finding. It is larger which is a big of a culture shock but no doubt I'll adapt to that soon enough. It works on a menu system, mine came without an instruction book but I have asked them to send me that, it's the obvious way to learn how to get the best out of the unit. Oh yes I forgot, some clever designer included a LED torch into the unit also. I can remember many times an extra torch would have been rather handy. All in all I am very pleased so far and imagine this untit will be of equal usefulness to me in the coming years. If it last as long as my previous one has, I will be very contented, Model HVT2603

Thats a fair comment, I found out that when my original meter started to play up I was virtually up the river without a paddle however I had to buy a field test monitor anyway and I knew I was going to be doing the IP training so some sort of upgrade in that direction was on the cards. The only other device that appealed to me is way out of my price range, that 7 inch hybrid test field monitor supplied by Genie. Genie CCTV's SDI07HY Circa £1000 - £1200 GULP!

THATS EXACTLY MY POINT its all a false economy. But human nature being what it is...

In other words although locally you are recording very strong video images, unless you want to bring the internet to a halt or to wait forever, the sub stream is sent at no better resolution than analogue might send because the practicality is that there isn't the bandwidth available now or in the foreseeable future to remotely view streamed HD images. These are better sent as a file and opened at the receiving end losing that virtual realtime benefit. This is whay recording is done locally rather than across your network.

If you are looking to install it yourself, certainly analogue systems will be easier unless you have a networking background.

Well I have seen these items plus an inline voltmeter reader for POE, but frankly I haven't had the knowledge to know what to buy, this new device has all that my previous tester had, plus a few extras that will obviously help with IP work although to what degree I have yet to discover. What amazes me is that the designers of these new cameras haven't all added an analogue port to all the cameras to allow for camera positioning. If my last tester hadn't started to play-up, I would have waited until after the training course. Now I can order a replacement battery without panicking about not having anything to position cameras with. How would those 'shyteforbrains' designers like to climb a ladder clutching at their tablet or laptop while trying to hang onto a ladder for their life and in the rain and wind? Not to mention holding tools like allen wrenches spanners etc. Like to see them climbing ladders with that lot under their arm. It's up and down the ladder time again or walkie-talkie time again. OVER ! Oh well HD SDI is starting to look attractive now. end of rant...