Numb-nuts

I would add to that, it would be increasing the system's integrity which is important because a faulty system is only marginally better than no CCTV system at all.

I set up an IP camera for just such a purpose recently albeit watching over a car. I hasn't caught anyone but there have been no more attempts to damage the vehicle or slash the tyres It was an IP camera a Foscam 18904W outdoor camera 6mm lens with IR ( various lenses are available just message the seller) and I used free software called Vitamin D. The software has the motion detection built in and can distinguish between people and animals and light changes . Another word about the IP camera, it is wireless so you'll need to have a wireless router but that means you will only need to run power (5v dc, supplied) to the camera itself. I would recommend buying a stronger camera bracket, the one supplied isn't good enough It is so good at determining motion between people light changes and people detection that it never captures the headlights of cars passing etc but capture usually only when people are in the frame.

Can anyone recommend a PTZ Control keyboard with 3 axis joystick but most importantly a small footprint. Some that appear to be quite small on screen are actually really huge when you look at the footprint size. Price is also quite an issue as I have to strike a compromise between price and size. UK Suppliers only please or Make and model numbers then I can search the UK suppliers for a specific model. Thanks in advance

Can anyone recommend a PTZ Control keyboard with 3 axis joystick but most importantly a small footprint. Some that appear to be quite small on screen are actually really huge when you look at the footprint size. Price is also quite an issue as I have to strike a compromise between price and size. UK Suppliers only please or Make and model numbers then I can search the UK suppliers for a specific model. Thanks in advance

Have you thought about drilling a very small hole on the wing mirror surfaces and using heat glue mounting a pinhole camera behind each? You'd need to be fairly confident and be prepared to figit about with the fitting, but when successful you'd get a great view of the side behind the mirror, the front wings would be unprotected of course. Depends how determined you are? Personally I prefer the idea of having cameras look through the car windows and recording only upon motion trigger. I doubt the offender would be expecting such a measure to be in effect. Don't forget the recorder may have some drain on the car's battery so you may need to add a second battery and a charging relay. These aren't that expensive if necessary. any trailer caravan supplier will have these and the second battery is the one that will power the recorder allowing your mother to start the car when she needs to. Good luck with this and hope you catch a big fish.

I want to talk about the technical concern of syncing sound and video thats all.

Thats interesting, what do you consider to be real time? Personally I record at between 6 to 12 fps which is ideal for evidential purposes and is not so poor that fluid motion is lost. I hear talk of computer video editing and often hear that 25 - 100 fps is desirable. Most DVRs that I have seen record at a Maximum of 25 fps so is that what you mean as real time? The DVR the council uses records at around 6 - 12 fps and is accessed via the 3g network so file size is an issue, however if it is just a matter of the frame speed keeping up with sound files, I can always loan them another DVR as well as a microphone that they will have to attend to download evidence. I think I'll do a little trial run to see if that is all that is needed to achieve synchronization of sound and video. If I do some testing at differing speeds until I find the one that is the optimum. PS AK, your little crawling ant drive me crazy

I searched for DDS CCTV and found the website you referred to. They don't appear to be that much better than any other supplier, however they do appear to have a comprehensive range of equipment. It rather depends on what you are looking for and how they suite you. I usually make a test purchase to see if I like a supplier. Suppliers attitudes are very important. I have a well known supplier in Edgware Road London who has cost me a great deal of time wasted and the last two items I have purchased were both faulty and had to be returned and although replaced, I am still not satisfied that the item is functioning correctly, I have been using this company for a while but I now find them too risky so have stopped. I have PM'd you with a list of online suppiers that I think are worth a look at and all of whom I have dealt with. Their equipment is first class and their ranges are fairly comprehensive.

A good point, but not what I asked. For one thing, I think that adding signage might be a good thing, it will either encourage offenders to escalate their behaviour in which case evidence can be obtained, or warn offenders off altogether. Police and councils take this sort of harassment very seriously due to specific high profile tragedies such as the Fiona Pilkington case. I am merely attempting to assist by loaning a microphone for free and assuring it can be used effectively. Staying on thread, does anyone have any technical advice for ensuring recordings are in sync with the sound?

If you can get them all to wear badges with their names on, you'll know who they are! examples: Jehovah's witness, Milkman, Long lost uncle Bill etc etc.

It'll be fun to see how accurate my camera positioning is or isn't. Thanks for sharing that info.

Aside from gathering evidence of Anti Social behaviour and criminal damage:. My neighbour has expressed an interest in watching the activities of the three birds nests in the trees at the front. We have formulated a project of adding some bird boxes and other measures to encourage as many species as possible and installing cameras to watch the nesting boxes and mini cameras inside the nesting boxes when the young are hatched. Also last time I called a drain unblocking service they put a CCTV camera down the drain to find if the ceramic drain pipe has broken or is just blocked. After unblocking, they were able to see all the way to the public sewer. The same type of CCTV is used in surgical procedures such as endoscopy. (Hopefully the surgeon's drains never get blocked ) I watched the Bomb squad sending a robot to look over a suspect vehicle and a CCTV camera served as the robot's eyes to look over and into a suspect vehicle before deciding what to do. I know that factories, especially food factories use CCTV to monitor machinery and manufacturing processes, especially where machines have been troublesome. Farmers use CCTV during Lambing season, Calving season, foaling and zoos monitoring females of all species about to give birth Monitoring nanny or babysitters. If you want some fun stick a coin £1 0r 25cents to the paving slab (sidewalk) with strong superglue and watch people trying to pick it up, but don't break a rib laughing or you'll be watching the ambulance arrive too. Fire engines in our city all have CCTV and record everything around the fire appliance. Arsonists are often identified at the scene of several fires and the fire brigade intelligence units examine the footage from arson with similar MO 's etc. They look for individuals in crowds who are at several fires, We've all seen police car-chase videos, and insurance companies give motorists discounts for having CCTV in their cars (Accident cams I think they call it) Military units now use UMDs (unmanned drone) for reconnaissance in war zones like Afganistan etc rather than send personnel and these send back wireless footage, police are now using UMDs for crowd control at sports events etc (cheaper than Helicopter. Police helicopters have CCTV a sort of manned PTZ with IR heat cameras. Addendum: I just got into bed and thought of another. Victoria Stillwell the dog trainer uses CCTV for various purposes in her training of dogs. You know "It's me or the Dog" on TV. Back to bed now I think. Can't think of any more but there must be hundreds

good luck hope i all pans out for you.

This was very interesting.

since most housings are metal cased, you will need a housing has an antenna outlet that allows you to couple up with a wireless camera held inside it. You cannot just get a wireless IP camera and place it in a housing as this will severely reduce the range if it allows a connection at all. Most wireless IP cameras come as IP66 rated outdoor cameras with IR built in so you needn't bother about housings. Range will be entirely dependent on conditions, distances and camera specifications and of course your router antenna. An outdoor hi gain antenna connected to your router could be an option worth considering to maximize wireless range. Come to think of it there's nothing to stop you using a traditional housing and fitting an outdoor antenna to a wall or mounting pole both at receiver and at camera. Look a bit messy with more than one camera on a single mounting though. see this link Good luck...

FAULTY POWER SUPPLY CHAPS I was so careful and meticulous in my wiring because of the upheaval I had to go through to re run wire or re-do connections. I knew that it had to be something new. The only new element I introduced was a new dedicated electrical spur and a dedicated PSU. Having removed the mains cable from conduit running all the cables, I removed one camera from the PSU wiring it to another PSU and bingo the picture has stopped rippling for that camera.. I then powered down and introduced the other camera to the same PSU and neither camera picture ripples. Today's Lesson NEVERassume if sonething is new, that it is not faulty. Here endeth the lesson. Thanks for all your suggestions chaps it at least gave me a direction. I have telephoned the PSU supplier and they immediately accepted the PSU must be faulty and offered to replace it.

Sorry guys, I have only just got out of bed and I'm not doing anything today I haven't the energy, Fact is that as soon as the cat5 cables enter the house they pick up a dedicated electricity cable which runs with them to the DVR and PSU. To remove the power cable will involve a lot of re routing. I also find that I haven't got a spre pair of passive baluns so have to order them too. I will get onto it through the week and report back what effect these suggestions have had on my camera output.

Not just yet, got diverted, a problem with my network. Sorted now. It's nearly 4 AM here so I am going to get some sleep now and I will try one or two things when I get up again probably around noon. 3 things I will try Yes, the power to the PSU runs in some conduit for about 3 ft with the cat5 cables so I'll run it away from them and see if it makes a difference. Re-wire the connections at both ends and replace the passive baluns. Run the camera in isolation i.e. remove the other camera and run this one only (to see if there is any issue with channel bleed I will post the results as it may help someone else in the future

There's no grounded part to the camera end I checked again just to be sure. It is mounted to a brick wall with plastic wall plugs and woodscrews. If it is as you suggest, bleed from another channel, would that be a fault with the DVR or the passive baluns or even running cables together?. I just realized you could be referring to the left side of the frame, that it a bulkhead light which I have yet to move as it is supporting a doorview cam which is useless in low light. I have decided to replace it with a mono camera with low light capability then I won't need the bulkhead light on. Lesson I learned was that cameras that are covering the same area from different angles need to have similar light sensitivity! An expensive lesson. I do run the cables together when they enter the property all the way to the DVR, surely that can't cause interference? Tomorrow I'll run the camera in solitude to see if it makes a difference. Thanks for that Soundy, I'll let you know what happens.

]I have just acquired a PTZ camera and will be controlling it via a 3 axis control keyboard. I know they match up with Baud rate and both allow us of the same protocols so I know they should work together (in theory). While reading the manual and setup instructions for the dome, I had to open the dome to access the dip switches to make settings. I noticed the manual was saying about terminating the RS485 at both ends and on the dome there is a 3 pin open/close jumper option. The manual is very unclear on this and as I don't want to be climbing the ladder to reset anything, I was wondering if anyone can explain this so I can be reasonably confident I made the right setting before I install. Anyone explain this? In Fact anyone got any advice re practicalities of installing a PTZ dome? Here's what I have planned for; 1. Because of the height I will be working at I have created a plywood template for the mounting holes. 2. Also because of the weight and value of the unit, I am using no 6 carriage screws into brickwork 3. The run to the DVR is about 15m so I am using RG59 and a cat5 Exterior grade cable for the power and RS485 4. I have set the Protocol to Pelco D and the baude rate to 9600 (only a short run anyway) 5. I will be making the connections in an IP66/68 junction box mounted close to or behind the dome. ( I always do this) Would I be overreacting to run a lightening ground wire and ground rod because of the exposed position of the dome ?

If I were upto no good and saw this baby looking at me I'd think the space police were after me

The simplest way to avoid voltage drop is to supply the power to the camera locally. Obviously this is not always possible. As for the video signals, I would risk using passive baluns and if by some chance you get difficulties, you can always replace the baluns with active baluns. A word of caution. If you are supplying local power to each camera, you may encounter ground loops due to the varying earth potential of different mains circuits. So far touch wood, I have never encountered this but have read of these problems here numerous times.

My brain hurts !!

Well I knew it was either on or off but was that Yes to OFF or Yes to ON