Numb-nuts

ever since you were a young boy eh? but it's useful to know right Ken?

No I am just trying to understand the designations and what I am buying wether it be single coax or siamese cable. I know that some suppliers quote CCA which is short for copper coated aluminium (aluminum) for the braid/shielding. This would be acceptable if the center is solid copper and not copper coated steel Do you know a good cheap supplier in the UK?

I wouldn't trust my life to my RJ45s just yet and they take me considerably longer than yours do. I need a lot more practice by the sound of it? I will buy a cheap bag of 100 and use my Cat5 scaps to practice. My CCTV test meter has a built in Cat5 tester so testing will be no probs and I have a crimp tool that is adequate. I have to be honest though I don't do much IP work just yet so mostly I would use RJ45s to plug into Baluns of one sort or another. Video, power and data baluns or VGA extenders mostly. It's all good practice.

I'm not keen on relying on other people to provide my access equipment and to consider my safety. With all respect to your pinion and in all honesty, my safety is something I would rather have full control over myself. I am not keen on working at heights but I do feel confident that these combination ladders will fulfill their role adequately and give me the best possible all round access and versatility. My reason for asking the question is to see if there is anything better on the market that perhaps I haven't considered, I have done a good few days on the internet researching and this seems to be for me at least a good all round solution. I may well invest in an additional pair of stabilizer arms though. You do make a good point though Rory, 'they do need a method of access to maintain the building' so that is a question I will address when looking at and estimating a job.

The Little giant is a great little ladder and very popular with decorators and builders who have large vans where they can roof rack all types of ladders. Me, I like to travel as light as possible. The drawback with the little giant is it's working height. Can't fault it for versatility, fact is they are very popular in the UK now. I have a remedial job booked for late january, all the dome cameras are mounted up high in a warehouse on the steel frame on little wooden angles. These is no support for a leaning ladder and a little giant ladder just wouldn't reach. The picture illustrates very well the function I need, at height in an open area without walls close by and nowhere to 'tie off'. I need to work at height outside where I can lean a ladder fully extended at height, to fix either cameras or floodlights, I also need some for of freestanding ladder indoors for industrial units or to access ceiling heigh for false ceilings. I already have a reasonable step ladder with hand hold if I ever need it and an 18 Ft lean to ladder wooden which I got really cheap £30.00 from a neighbour. Where I fall short in capability is the freestanding at height function which the ladder I illustrated seems to meet as well as the other functions. The rungs (which as you rightly point out are important) profiles are semi-round at the top and quite deep( an accessory plate to stand on is available, but safety rules dictate if the job is to take more than 30 minutes 'continuous use' a platform should be used. I NEVER spend more than 30 minutes up a ladder in one continuous period. I prepare as much as I can on the ground before I ascend any ladder. You have again rightly made the point that these ladders look precarious as a freestanding ladder, I echo your opinion but they apparently are very stable and if that concerned, a pair of telescopic stabilizers can be added for extra stability. Not cheap but if they improve confidence it's gotta be worth it. But according to others I have spoken to, they are very stable.

You are right, those EZ-RJ45s are easy to install and any cheap RJ45 tool will crimp them and the ends can be removed with a flush side cutters or a craft knife. Weight that against the cost of the special crimper and the ease of getting the connectors right its worth it for a small scale user. For a larger scale user such as a professional, it would be an added cost that cannot be justified when regular RJ45s and the crimpers are SO cheap. I have to admit to having struggled with RJ45s at first but I am now just about at the stage where I can terminate with them and be fairly confident that testing will pass the connector. I lost count of the RJ45s I wasted trying to learn to terminate with these plugs. I now use a method I saw on youtube, I have named the method the 'flower method' as the technician prepares the conductors by arranging them like the petals of a flower, before arranging them to insert into a crimp plug. Old habits dye hard and I like the idea of an access point in a junction box adjacent to the camera housing, using an IDC junction gives that access. As I've said a thousand times before, there are a million ways to skin a cat. Poor Cat!

What's wrong with terminating the Cat5 with a RJ45? If you have difficulty doing this that's okay, as there are some that are easy to fit. Using a patch lead with a punchdown terminal is not ideal as they uses stranded conductors usually and these are not suitable for use with punch-down terminals. You should be using solid core Cat5. however I prepare the camera on the ground and fit a 1M length of Cat5 with a RJ45 and the other end is run to a junction box next to the camera with one of these Cat5 junction boxes inside. That way I am not fiddling with RJ45 plugs whilst up a ladder, they can all be terminated on the ground in comfort. Happy Christmas all!

The whole point of a preset is to replicate exactly the view you set so zoom is part of that. I have heard of a PTZ with no presets (pretty naff) but just no zoom on the preset, phew waht a travesty, I suggest it's faulty and it needs to travel back all the way to China. Either that or telephone the customer support line, How is your Mandarin Chinese?

If this does what you need, then it's worth every cent that you paid. Looks like a nice piece of hardware.

Same reason I am buying them from china in the first place, and not from some distributor in my country: It will be presumably 30-50% cheaper from the original manufacturer, than these other suppliers. Right? You might reasonably think so, but it's not that simple, anyway good luck tracking them down.

Every supplier on Aliexpress is 'the original manufacturer' according to them. You are not meant to know who the original manufacturer is, they don't want you to know. The manufacturer doesn't want to be bothered with you, they simply want to get on with manufacturing. Anyway, whats so important about buying from the original manufacturer?

There are a million different ways to skin a cat, each in it's own way effective in correct circumstances.

or better still if the camera is that cheap just bury the camera and have done with it. Echo what Hardwired said!

Lol!!!! Well put!! That's how I was last week. Please don't have a varifical lens you're tryna adjust!! Lol Well it's either that or spreading grease on the ladder sides to make coming down a bit faster.

I wish I'd met your friend first! If he were in the UK I would tell him Should have gone to Specsavers!

Any smaller than 3.5" for a test monitor and you could develop a permanent squint. Even 3.5" is quite a struggle but you can mange with that. I manage fine but if I were bying again, i'd try and get a 5" screen or bigger. It's very good to have a tester screen , as one of you has said I also use mine to test cameras straight out of the box so I never have any wasted time with DOA, but I have only ever found one DOA camera and one lens and they didn't come from a regular supplier. Believe me when I tell you I used to be up and down the ladder like some demented Yo Yo before I had my tester for analogue cameras. now I am facing the same problem with IP CCTV unless I invest in further equipment. Of course some IP cams have a BNC output too, but not that many.

If I were in your shoes I would find a distributor near you and ask them to assist you in planning and quoting. They need to be able to offer telephone support in case you get into trouble. Good luck, hope it works out...

Luke if you have a zoom camera i.e. with RS485 and controlled by RS485 then you can set it to one of two presets and in conjunction with a separate motion PIR set on a very narrow target (the back door) you can set the DVR to control the camera to zoom in on the back door as a alrm command "go to preset 2" for example. The problems with this are that you have to identify a auto zoom camera that CAN be controlled by RS485. Often the RS485 in such cameras only controls the built in electronic menu and not the zoom setting. If you do manage to get a suitable camera, you will need to preset the back door coverage first and the wider angle second unless you use a ptz camera, and third, setting a PIR alarm trigger will be a lot of fiddling at the width of a doorway, you'll have to blind most of the PIR sensor using black tape to narrow the angle. If you decide that a PIR and a indoor mini PTZ could work for you but frankly this IS probably outside your budget. Given your other cameras, I would simply go with a single close-up view of the rear door. It's a losing battle to try and make cameras do something they were not designed to do although very innovative and adventurous as I know you are. If I can help with any equipment let me know.

Nice, neat clean and tidy. Just what clients want. You will go far with that attitude. I notice that your camera installations are all very tidy, well dome. Have you thought of adding warning signs now to make the whole thing very visible as surely the idea is to deter rather than capture, but capture evidence as a last resort? BIG A3 size or CCTV warning notices work wonders, most thieves simply go for easier pickings. One thing I notice is that your DVR is not protected? You should consider getting a steel enclosure for it so that the unit cannot be removed or damaged

I have been installing analogue CCTV for a while now, I am confident enough to start seeking my own work supplying and installing instead of sub contracting my time only. I need to learn about IP technology and I need to seek formal training so that I can learn about networking and IP systems. I hear you all talking about bandwidth and Poe and other terms and while I have an inkling what you are talking about, I have to accept that I am not going to manage to fumble my way into this field of expertise. I hear you talking about NVR and management software and there are variations of that too. What route regarding formal training should I follow? Your various advices would be appreciated very much.

Tavcom do offer several online courses since last year, which they launched at IFSEC 2011. They do have seminars running at IFSEC each year, 2011 were booked solid weeks before the show. The general impression was that they were very good indeed. They do master courses leading to recognized qualifications. Obviously as everyone here that knows of Tavcom will know they are NOT cheap, but they are known for giving value training. So far as I know, you do not have to be UK based to do their online courses. They apparently have online tutors available to assist where a student needs further clarification and assistance, there is also the option for telephone support. Tavcom also supply a lot of hard to find tools-of-the-trade that are useful to installers that want to do more than simply plug n play. Case in point, collapsible focusing targets (NORMAN) for setting up focus and field of view.

Thanks guys, that two lots of very interesting advice. I wasn't sure if there were something else I should be studying before the Tavcom Courses but Tavcom had figured quite strongly in my future plans so that endorsement simply strengthens my direction.

Unfortunately only this still was published but the high winds in Scotland produced enough free energy to do this to a wind turbine

For all but the shortest runs say upto 30m you should start with 24V AC and a transformer at the camera end for 24Vac to 12V DC (regulated) The reason is that AC volts suffer less loss than DC volts and you will get a nice clean voltage at the camera without loss. This is especially important if the camera is an outside camera with IR and the current it draws increases as the IR trips in. Make sure your transformer can output at least 650ma @12VDC, better still 1 amp. Of course you could use 24V AC cameras in the first place to eliminate the problem!