Numb-nuts

That sounds like the latest one by the Rubber band ! You're just cheap thats your problem

Tom if I cam across as defensive about my work, I wasn't trying to be, I was making the point that I am very precise with my connections etc, I always have been, but that this experience has shaken my confidence to pieces. In answer to your question, I do not use any converters, I use a two wire connection direct from the controller to the DVR to the PTZ, and a shotgun cable for power and video. They have all been checked and substituted to eliminate them as a cause. The Voltage and power at the point of delivery have been measured and all are okay too. Everything I have done was checked with the technicians at Y3K and my supplier and they agreed I was doing everything correctly and that the installation was eliminated as an issue. With the first two units, the data signal was reaching the boards but not being executed as the green LED was flickering directly a command was sent. I bought this unit back in February and it could easily have been in stock a couple of months, but then why the same with the second, a direct replacement unit from Y3K not my supplier. With the first two units, the boot up screen menu was distorted and partially missing at the right side of the screen so that the menu options could not be read. Every unit behaved the same on the bench as it did installed in the housing with a separate set of leads connecting it. The problem you describe about the ribbon cable burning out is interesting, but I would have noticed a smell of burning and at one time I was asked to check that the ribbon cable is properly seated and I did not see any sign or smell any burning. That is worth knowing though. Anyway if this next replacement doesn't work immediately or fails on me soon after, I am going to request a refund, I don't think I am being unreasonable. Y3K have said my warranty will re-start from the time I get a working camera for 12 months. They are being very reasonable and taking ownership of the problem. I think they realize that most people would have lost their temper by now, but I look at the whole experience as a learning experience, and I have learnt a few things now. I do not understand the data converters and when they would be used, how connected etc I have seen them on the internet though. Thanks for your input Tom

CNB ? I don't think we have that brand in the UK. Good job by the sound of it. NO the camera I ordered is a direct import by my supplier from the far East, not sure it might be Korea but everything I have bought from him has been good. He very quickly gets rid of a product if it performs badly. From the view I had of the picture on my tester it looked pretty good, but until fine focused in place it's difficult to tell. I am expecting good things after dark as I did away with the IR altogether. If all goes well and I expect it to, this experience is going to change the way I look at outdoor static cameras in the future. I have to admit I do like the ability to swap out cameras and lenses into the existing housing. More flexible. I also think that only initial setup is more work, but after that, all connections are present and varifocal lenses take seconds to set up. very fast changeover. An enclosure is for life, not just for Christmas

I have tested every single lement of the setup, every connnector every wire and connection and when it was sent away, they had the same faults I found. I must admit I thought there was something I had done to vreate the problems. Now I am fully confident that it is nothing I have done. I set up another brand of PTZ at the place where my instalation is and it worked perfectly first time. I had it operating all afternoon and it worked without question. I am now confident that all of these units were faulty, I am not sloppy with installation, quite the reverse. I had doubts about my DVR and my controller but now I am positive it is the FAMILY CURSE! I checked every wire and connection, today was a bench test and there was a completely new set of problems. If the fault were with my installation, the faults would be the same. It's take weeks to come to that conclusion but I always examine my work before considering other reasons for a fault. I am telling you its the Family Curse!

WOW, my new camera and housing arrived today and the housing is so heavy duty it's virtually bulletproof. The glass is like 6mm thick and there is an O ring type seal all the way around the opening. The heater is very substancial, I am using 12 V @ 1 amp The IP rating is IP68 and the manufacturer name cast into it is TransPac. I bought it under the Genie brand though It just reeks industrial quality. I also taped a bag of silica gel pellets inside as suggested and this cannot hurt at all. I usually reserve the silica gel for junction boxed Rory, I don't think I will need to apply any silicone to this beast. The camera has installed with no problems, I will attempt to re-drill the mount holes on the wall tomorrow weather permitting. I just need to fine tune the focus in situ. Can't wait to see what it's like in low light, the spec promises to be great in low light. Thanks for all your useful comments, they have been quite helpful and given me many things to think about.

I hate using caulk but I will have to consider using it in some situations I think. Today I ordered what I consider to be a very versatile body camera to replace the IR Bullet cam. Take a look and see what you think.I have had to order a heated housing but then I always knew I was going to do that because of the exposed position of mounting the unit. I also ordered the 3.5-8mm varifocal lend with DD It should fit the bill quite nicely. I didn't really want IR anyway as it reflects off the vehicles I want to monitor with this camera and there is a low level of street lighting too which should suffice. I can always tack up a PIR security light if the light isn't adequate.

The bayonet part should be obvious. Paul Neill and Carl Concelman are the 2 guys who invented it Oh now that we are on first name terms with the designers of BNC plugs, I will feel a lot more confident when crimping plugs on. I am glad nobody decided to try and bayonet Paul Niell and Carl Concelman You know there are a lot of metal things gone missing lately, a whole children's playground in my local park too.Wish they could achieve the same with the local moron teenagers.

They are all Chinese to me! Condensation is all very well but they close these units in an arrid dry environment where the hmidity is strictly controlled. Also the fact that there was salty type deposit in the camera where the water had pooled, leads me to believe the water was from rain infiltrating the casing. I have sent the camera back to the vendor in Northern Ireland, whom I trust completely and instead of replacing it I am going to buy an external housing and a low light varifocal DD lens and body camera. I think it will probably withstand the weather in the exposed position the camera occupies better and I can put silica sachets inside too.. I don't feel it was a poor camera, I just feel my choice was poor given the exposed exposed location. IP66 bullet cameras are not made to be left out in an exposed position. They are meant for an outdoor but slightly sheltered mounting like under the eaves of a roof. This camera is mounted at the gable end of the house at second floor height adjacent to the guttering between buildings, facing in the direction of the wind, in what I call a wind corridor. I will select a good heated enclosure with fan. I understand what you are saying Rory, it makes perfect sense that nothing is absolutely waterproof unless it is cased in rubber.But the exposed location was the problem not the camera. A mast in a field you would not expect to see the IR bullet camera, but you wouldn't be surprised to see a couple of enclosed cameras up there in the wind and rain would you? I am finding these things out the HARD way!

Where are you based, country and region? If it's outdoor watching over the door Foscam is a cheap and easy to install camera and the W18904F is wirefree also, it will be about £65. If it's indoor there are a larger choice oof cheapo cameras that will work well for you and give you a reasonable picture but not great. The Compro IP55 IP60 and IP70 are cheap but surprisingly good for the money all being under £100. You can get control software to bring all cameras into a single application that is simple to learn and use. It's called Vitamin d and the good news is the single camera version is free and available for Windows and Macintosh. It's not the only one, but I haven't tried the others. When you add more cameras you pay an additional license fee. One word of warning, spending a little on low cost surveillance equipment is probably a complete waste of money. I would rather have one good megapixel camera than a dozen trash cameras that I will look at and always be disappointed with. On the other hand analogue DVR's nowadays can be viewed from mobile phones and you can record evidence quality and good quality aanalogue cameras are relatively cheap. (540TVL or above) It's your money your choice. Good luck

I can't imagine anyone complaining, we need more threads like this especially in the UK...... please!

You are welcome here, everyone has something to offer.

Well I am willing to try anything once, or I'd never learn anything but it will have to be on my own equipment. I think I'll experiment a bit on my own PTZ camera when it comes back from the manufacturer, AGAIN. I use bootlace ferrules in any connection that have screw-down terminals, no more intermittent connections etc. In most cases I have to trim the ferrule a bit to make it go fully home but it's never a problem. A bootlace ferrule plier can be bought for as little as $10 on ebay and a ratcheting one from about $25. 0.25 mm (violet) ferrule can terminate one UTP conductor (double it over) 0.3 mm (pink or Turquoise) ferrule I have never used so can't tell 0.5 mmferrule(White or Orange) can crimp onto two or three UTP conductors if carefully stripped and twisted

At IFSEC this year I picked up a couple of sample baluns that have video, power and RS485 over a single Cat5 cable. They claim to be good for 12vDC and 24AC up to 300 m. I am not sure how reliable they would be but if I get an opportunity to try them I may do. Simply plug and go. Doubtful.

Well after the amazing response from everyone--- NOT I decided to get the ladder out and climb up. The camera is full of condensation so I removed it and replaced it with a spare I had in the drawer. It has only been up 3 weeks tops and is an IP66 rated so I am surprised it got water in so quickly. When it is replaced, I think I'll have to protect it in some way with a plastic bag or something else. Maybe I'll wrap self amalgamating tape around the back plate area. Any ideas welcomed.

Chav types are rarely brave enough to risk their behaviour being caught on CCTV. If they are you'll have the evidence you want, if not problem solved. It is probably better to have most of your cameras on open view, and signage to support it as Campbell says. Damaging or attempting to damage them is criminal damage and will be recorded. and will be covered by insurance as chavs rarely have a pot to p*ss in worth suing for and they know it. Useless information BNC stands for Bayonet Neill-Concelman (don't ask me )

Good Luck! You might find a medium or low resolution board camera which you can change to a long lens to narrow the FOV I may have misread that maybe a shorter lens with wider/ closer FOV

Have you any installation methods you use, that contribute to making your installation more reliable? I doubt these are groundbreaking or unique, but I find they work well for me! When I use CAT5 cable to power a camera, I now always twist the stripped ends together and crimp a bootlace ferrule onto them. For me at least it makes the connections in screw terminals and connector block, far more reliable. It also minimizes the chance of a stray strand shorting out (my eyesight isn't what it once was). I started doing this when connecting to a PSU / distribution box and caused the power to flicker on and off if the cables were touched at the DVR end. This was too delicate and unpredicatble. Now if I touch the cables on their way into the PSU box, there's no power flicker, the power connections now have real integrity. I do this with all connections at the power box and in connector strip. Slight trimming is sometimes needed after crimping. another I am sure many of you probably do this anyway When finishing off a RG59 BNC crimp I always use the strain relief boots from RG58. They are very tight and although they grab the cable very tight, I smear a little washing up liquid as a lubricant on the cable and close the cable in the crimp tool jaw, behind the strain relief and pressing down on the plug with my thumb, I draw the boot up onto the ferrule. When the lube dries, the boot is REALLY solid and provides superb strain relief. I started doing this because some of the strain relief boots I used were a bit loose. (yes cheap ones) Last One When making connections (in a junction box) , I now lubricate all connections with Electro-lube or Contralube. Since I started doing that I have never had to return to check the connections because of condensation or scale. I would imagine that this would also apply particularly in coastal locations where the salty air can be corrosive. If I have one in my box (I try to always save them), I also place a sachet of silica gel in the junction box.

Of course Rory, I double up the price from .03 p to 0.6p each. What's the point if you can't make a profit? I pay less than that when I buy 1000, I only buy the Takbro ones as I do when I buy crimp forks or rings. They stay crimped if you use the right size. Can't say I like the idea of handling greece, I think if I used it it might get everywhere and I'd have to end up cleaning everything especially the lens. I like the new compression BNC plugs, but so far there are very few top branded ones available so I will just continue with my Tyco, Greenpar Amphenol and Multicomp. My crimper was expensive and I don't want to make it redundant just yet. I found out the hard way how poor the cheap far-eastern crimp-plugs are.

I would concur that using a combined balun for power and video is worthwhile. At most you might save a few ponds by just using a video balun, but you could end up spending the money in time taken over fault finding if you go the other route. But to answer your question directly there is nothing to stop you just twisting the remaining three pairs into two pairs for power =ve and -ve. I would say that if you do this decide on a wiring colour convention and stick to it rigidly. When you twist the pairs together, terminate them with a bootlace ferrule before fitting to a screw terminal, you will get a better connection, but you will need a pair of ferrule crimpers (from about $10 - $50 typically)

I am not sure if it would give you a reliable picture or if it has any detrimental effects, but what have you got against poor old passive baluns? I believe the idea of baluns, is to correct the impedance of the line or was it signal? I am sure someone will tell us.

If you want to use as a cat5 cable tester, continuity tester, voltage, current, impedance, VDC & VAC all in one with a colorbar generator for setting up monitor color and PTZ control with a 3.5' screen and 12v out to camera, (phew) then there are a few on the market. It just depends how much you are willing to spend and where you live. You will get what you pay for, but because they are supplied to a limited market they aren't cheap, typically between £200 and £400 (work out the $$$$ for yourself please, I'm tired) Do bear in mind, the better the item the more value for money you are likely to get out of it. I paid just over £200 for mine but I did risk ordering it from China, but it's been worth it's weight in gold. I have seen this in the UK for as much as £350 and no lower than £280. CCTV is just an occaisional sideline for me but it has paid for itself in saved time and frustration, over and over. PS I have no commercial connection with the supplier of this product before anyone makes a snide comment

can you say what the camera id make model and post a picture of it ? It's sounds likely to be the camera and unlikely to be the card, but let's not make assumptions just yet!. If I were an electronic genius I would probably know the answer but sorry, I don't so let's try a process of elimination. 1. Have you tried the camera on another channel? This would be easy to try and might eliminate the camera as a problem what happened? 2. Have you tried another camera in place of the camera in question, and on the same original channel? What happened? Have you checked the voltage at the camera, under load (i.e. with IR sensor blocked) and compare it against what it should be, and say what rating your power supply is and if it came with the camera? good luck

You can do what I do when I want to camouflage a bullet camera, I have some PVC pipe from (dare I say it) B&Q and cut enough so that just 1-1.5" over the end of the camera. I don't attempt to seal it at the viewing end and you can usually buy plastic or rubber end-caps. I drill a mounting hole in the end or the side as appropriate. The pipe gets a coating of military khaki and then a few dabs of the various greens and browns have knocking about and the whole assembly gets hidden in or near wall creepers or a hedge.. It its to camouflaged on a building you can use black and greys. All you are doing is creating a disguise jacket that you can paint. I have dome this for mini bullet cameras as well as big 72 LED ones. PVC pipe is available in many diameters. You can use your ingenuity to make it fit but you seem rather practical so I doubt this would give you a problem. Generally for safety from tampering or vandalism, your cameras should be at least 10 ft above the highest point a person could climb up. Not always possible, practical or desireable but aim to have 10 ft from the highest standing. We were talking about night lighting a while ago and the subject of security lights at night came up. The idea is to get colour images at night and also the sudden light coming on attracts the intruder to look towards the light, so try and fit one near your camera , get the idea?

Swann are more like ugly ducklings I hear...

See what happens when you let a woman loose with an idea and a credit card? Being a woman you will have to accept a certain amount of ribbing, but then you knew that didn't you? Seriously though, without experience to call upon I think you did well to accept that you may have to change a couple of the cameras to suit the locations. Your purchase was a lot better informed than my first purchase @ £ 19.99 in Aldi. My friend's son still has that and it works as it did when we fitted it to his house. It's adequate for someone not really interested in CCTV. For the uninitiated over the big pond, Aldi is like a down-market version of Wallmart,( if thats possible).