Numb-nuts

Thats not the worst result I have seen from a DIYer, This is my most disappointing camera, it was cleared of spiders webs ealier in the day but by nightfall ....

A peephole camera has a great angle of view but strangely enough, I haven't yet found one that has backlight compensation. The main problem with these cameras is that someone facing the camera is backlit by the daylight and therefore silhouetted against the backlight, All you see is a dark figure . The best solutions I have seeen are those in intercom systems that have LED light support. Obvious? Yes but they work and besides most visitors will not want to attack your camera, those that do can be a dealt with by police as you will already have recorded their image, You can use a mini bard camera the has backlight compensation. housed in an armoured housing on the wall t the side of the door Here in the picture you see one I have to the side of my front door housed in a corner housing. It's caught milk bottle thieves, teenagers running a mock, people stealing my mail, and warned me of many would be criminals loitering near my front door. I am far from pleased with the performance but I have to say it's still been worthwhile.

Our community pool has a sign mounted to the gate that must be routinely repaired because people use the sign as a foothold as they climb over the fence. When I arrive with the police, I always ask them, did you see the large sign with big red letters that says the area is under video surveillance? Some say they did not see the sign and others say they thought the cameras were fake. In my experience, signs are not an effective deterrent. Your area may require signs for legal reasons, but I would not bother putting them up for security reasons. Best, Christopher Well thats your experience, but no type of sign could guarantee but better to have tried and failed than never to have tried at all, If people think the cameras are fakes then nobody and nothing will convince them anything different even a poke with a sharp stick probably wouldnt have any effect, point is there are those that it WILL deter and some deterrent is better than none. If someone is high om meth of course it's not going to deter them but it's worth a try wouldn't you say? Anyway we are getting a bit sidetracked here the from the main question.

Hey guys, recently I have had a lot of fault finding jobs, location fractures in Cat5 ( Usually the installer used CCA ) finding poor connections etc. The most recent was a installation on new equipment where the client wanted me to use the exsiting coaxial cables left by the previous occupants. When I opened the service duct to view the DVR end of the cables I nearly burst a blood vessel. Sitting there stickig out of the wall were about 100 RJ45 cables, some of which were used for CCTV and some for the wired network. In order to make some headway with this I ordered this tool kit pictured below. Like an RJ45 cable tester with a remote ID this one has eight remotes for either RJ45 BNC or RJ11, it acts as a tone generator tracer wand and cable length meter. All very useful functions for sorting out which cables were used for CCTV especially where not one single cable was labelled. Not a bad deal for about £50.00 and saves a load of time finding fractured conductors and locating the fault. Has anyone else on the forum used this kit? What do you think of it? update sorry about typo on price corrected now Also recently I decided to not take any risks with lengths of cat5 for outdoor use. I decided that once I find a supplier whose cable is really good I will buy it by the box 100ft or 305m. Well I now have that supplier and the price is quite good. Apart from being rated UV resistant for outdoor use this cat5 has firstly a cellophane wrap around the twisted pairs, then that is housed in a polythene white jacket and that again is housed in the outer PVC jacket. The twists are very regular and the cable is a little heavier to work with but had a solid feel to it and will radius quite tightly without danger. It's similar to that pictured below. It works great every-time and has not yet let me down Stripping it is a little more work too but it's worth every extra little effort as it saves me a lot of time and money.

Yeah your local supplier should have these ready made signs in stock or try ebay. I like the foamex board ones, I just attcch these with masonry nails into the mortar joints or wooden sidewall. Aluminium sidings you'll nees some self tappers and silicone. Available in various sizes and they usually are very effective deterrent. Whats the point in having CCTV if you dont let people know that any funny-stuff is going to be recorded so they might try somewhere else Of course if you don't like the look of them...you are not obliged The phrase overlook I have found useful. "my cameras just happen to overlook that area but they are watching my garden actually"

IF you have a spare HDMI thats the way to go. I have been impressed by the visual improvement that customers see when updating their DVR from Scart or even from VGA to HDMI If you get a DVR with realtime D1 recording the playback onto a TV screen, is a joy to behold when compared with CCTV a few years ago. HDMI is relatively embeded and like USB it will endure and can only get better as time goes on but now it's really good anyway. Obviously your cameras need to be reasonably goo too. 6-700 tv lines I have customers that having seen the output have purchased new TVs to go with their new CCTV system

The law is different in every part of the world, here in the UK you would be exempt as a domestic user but good sense says that making potential intruders AWARE they might provide evidence of their identity or crime is an added deterrent

If you stop talking in code we might understand and offer a pointer to what it might be TTFN

Again, he's right. Call your ISP and ask their advice or if they have an alternative port for sending yourself emails. I have no doubt that before long you will be driven to despair by all the emails and false triggerings and stop the emails altogether. But in the meantime...

Yeah I pay about £90 a year with £1 million liability as for terms I wrote my own on every contract. I cannot be responsible for what the system captures or not Title to the goods does not pass until final payment is received Warranty is voided if a third party works on the system during warranty there are about three more which i can't remember at the moment I write these into the quotation and not the invoice so if the quotation is accepted along with it goes the terms

And the PTZ is it dual Voltage? Most PTZ cameras work off 24VAC. The fact that the majority of static cameras work off 12VDC and that yours worked gave me the clue. Did you check the voltage of the PTZ power suply before throwing it out? I don't think you did? Now double check the voltage of the PTZ unit on it's manufacturer's site before you do anything else PTZ cameras tend not to be dual voltage, they need 24VAC to run their motors. Also don't forget to check what current rating your PTZ camera needs before buying a replacement power supply Happy hunting...

HI all, I have a particular issue with a large screen 50" TV The dvr will notdisplay on the HDMI channels. I tried several new HDMI cables none of which solved the problem I then tried the cable to the sky box which I had seen working with the TV and used it with the DVR which did not display again At this point I am thinking the DVR is at fault. Upon returning home, I tried the DVR on my own 32" tv and it displayed the HDMI without problem and on all HDMI channels. I then tried all three cables I had used to try with the other TV and they were okay too. I have since tried the DVR with two other HDMI TVs and it works. I would have by now concluded that the 50" TV (which had just returned from the repairers) was the culprit but for the fact that I tried the same HDMI channel that I had seen showing his sky TV box. Any suggestions, this has got me confused now....

what voltage are you using 12VDC or 24VAC

Yes I tried that it didn't help turns out the TV has some problems anyway so it's the TV and the cleint won't accept thats the problem so I brought in another TV to show him. He thinks I should supply the new TV in the price because it won't work with his. He's at least as stupid as Vector18

RG6 shuld carry your signals as it's 75 Ohms but you may have difficulty termination RG6 with BNCs, they are likely to be solder on types and the cable is quite a bit thicker than RG59. You wont even get the crimp ferrule on the cable from RG59 BNC crimps, but some form of adaptors may be necessary to result in a 75ohm BNC termination to the cable at both ends. This is not uncommon as RCA fem to BNC plug are very commonly used in the PnP systems we see on the budget market. NOt sure whay you're not getting any video output though too many things could be the mater. Are you sure you havent plugger in the loop out ppoints instead of channel video in? (Not all DVRs have loop out)

A 4 camera system with a $9000 budget, you should get something quite excellent, Doesn't seem unrealistic to me. Axis is a great brand, why not contact them direct and ask them to design a shopping list for you? You can do that with others like Arecont and others Lilin, you are bound to get a decent system. The other thing, I think it's better to keep computer and recording NVR seperate. One goes wrong you lost them both? enough said

I just googled that and having read about the DDC memory loss I am convinced you are on the right track and that merits some investigation. Monday morning I will be looking into that, Thanks again.

thanks, that one more suggestions than I had to look at before, well suggestions that are physically possible anyway I am embarased but I don't know what an EDID emulator is, 5 more miniyes of searching the internet and I'll find out...thanks I am not sure there is a software input selection as in the past the input can be swapped about at will VGA - HDMI - BNC-out etc. But it is something I have considered and asked the manufacturer who says its an automatic selection, whichever output is utilised it's automatic. I tried changing the output resolution, starting at the lowest and raising it slightly every booting but no change. (Obviously I was able to use the BNC video out to do this)

You are probably right, it wouldn't occur to a foreign gardener to get electrical adaptors. woooould eeeet? no disrespect meant to foreigners...

Unless you are doing the install yourself, why did you enply someone that doesn't know what they ae doing to install the CCTV? The answer comes down to a single word MONEY Those that buy cheap, buy twice and give everyone else a hard time about it, why won't some people ever listen? I have earned lots of money sorting out the mess that some amateur who was already doing a job for the client offered to do the CCTV install cheap and abandoned it oe=r made some excuse why it won't work. If you can't do the job yourself for any reason, I wouldn't criticise you for that, but to get some rank amateur that doesn't know what he is doing and as if that weren't bad enough to get one that doesn't speak the same language too? I am not sure that offering you any advice would be worth bothering , for a start WOULD YOU LISTEN? I DOUBLE DOUBT IT! The only helpful advice I can offer you is kick that idiot out of the house ( you can make him understand that can't you) draw loads of money from the bank and hire a professional CCTV installer( who speaks the same languages as you do). Trying to make something useful of it at this time is a waste of effort. Sorry if this sounds a bit harsh, it's simply the truth whether you like it or not the truth sometimes is not welcome... Why would I get a TV repairman to fix my refrigerator? ANSWER.... I wouldn't Finally, I hope you see sense and take my advice, you will be happier in the long run. best of luck...

Then they would get an invoice from me just the same, including the cable replacement I was intending to do. SORRY....! Actually none of my clients are like that because if they behave in a that way, I drop them like a hot potato. I've have done this twice before been out to quote for a repair, "I'll think about it" okay while you think about it here's my call out bill think about that and chew on it.! When they phone back a week or two later having had all the other techs in the area looking to fix the fault on a no fix no fee basis NOBODY in the district wants to work there. They call me and say sorry I'm fully booked. All my clients end up as pals but they understand I have to charge.

Actually what I showed was a TEMPORARY - REPAIR and no mean permanent! It is just to keep the client in business (Recording/ monitoring) then I return to totally replace the cable. I dont charge for the temporary repair as a seperate item but it does get included in the follow up replacement cable. WHAT, AM I TO WORK FREE? NO CHANCE! No I only do a temp repair to get the client 's system working again, I tell them in no uncertain terms I have done a Temp repair but the cable needs replacement and I will return when I hhave a slot to replace it. To leave it the way it is would be risky I actually have a client that is an ice cream vendor and they receive their dry goods such as ice cream cones in cases with loads of Desiccant sachets. These used to get thrown, now the get saved for me and these go in junction boxes or a couple in camera housings. Gotta go eat my dinner g'night all

The day you are faced with a cable fracture and can locate it but can't replace the cable yet either because of weather of urgent appointment, Knowing where the break is, you can do a temporary repair until such time as you can return to do a cable replacement, leaving a happy client! "I found the fault and have done a temporary repair, but I'll have to return and replace the cable" Makes good sense to me! +

Admit ? Shout it from the rooftops YIPEEEEEE AWESOME not warranted for my use though

I don't know about cool, but let me see I absolutely love my iroda blow torch and cheap gas soldering iron. Oh of course I couldn't manage without my cable pulling rods but be careful, the threads snap it placed under too much pressure Mine are 10 x 1m rods in a tube I need a replacement set now as mine are now in a tragic state. Oh and of course my conduit bending spring and conduit cutter ( no burrs like a hacksaw) A set of slipjoint pliers are essential for me too. I use the mini ones to close jelly splices and scotchlocks, great job. Well yes I do have a couple of custom lead I made one is a 4m length of mini G59 with power, at one end a BNC and 2.1mm X 5mm DC plug for the camera, plus at the other end a BNC and the power plug to the meter, not sure of the size bu its smaler and it has two pins which I soldered the power to and heat shrink insulated. This DC plug doesn'r sit poking out, the lead goes 90deg paralel with the side of the meter to the BNC. I use this for clients while I adjust the position of cameras, I will make a much shorter one, I also have a 6" cable with a DC socket at one end and a pair of crimped ferrules on the other to power body cameras ( works a treat usually but not always) I plan to use it with microphones.