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Cgcmgr, I think you should be fine. Check that the splitter has an internal dc-dc converter, which will change the 55V POE down to 12V for your camera. It should be stated somewhere in the sales blurb.

jtetterton, see if it's possible to turn the termination on the customer's monitors off (or to Hi-Z). That way you'll have minimal signal loss. Otherwise as Soundy says, you'll lose some of the signal, but could compensate by adjusting brightness and contrast a bit.

A likely reason why the TV picture is clear is that the TV isn't grounded. Check its power lead - if the plug only has two pins, then the TV is double-insulated (no ground), so there will not be a ground path through the TV, so no ground loop.

Another recommendation for Zoneminder. It's very flexible, and you can use most web browsers to remotely view the cameras, or configure the Zoneminder server. It's as reliable as the PC or server it's running on.

Power supply caps are always worth checking, because they take a hammering from the switch mode power supply. They also need to be in tip-top condition (low ESR) in order to smooth out the high frequency ripple from the supply. However, SpyGuy10's camera could also have faulty bulk decoupling capacitors. These are distributed around the circuit board(s) to help suppress electrical noise. Some caps fail prematurely, either through being cooked during soldering (burst seals), being poorly constructed (faulty electrolyte formula), or even by being counterfeit parts (really!). Sometimes if left on, the caps sort-of recover, and the camera will struggle back to life as the electrical noise reduces. But really it's time to get the soldering iron out. It's usually only seen when electrolytics are used: * Electrolytics dry out, leading to reduced capacitance and high ESR (equivalent series resistance). * Tantalum caps grow dendrites (internal metal spikes) eventually causing a short circuit. They ignite with an awesome amount of smoke (like a little volcanoe) - lots of fun when it happens to someone else. * Ceramic caps can develop cracks during soldering due to thermal stress, eventually leading to short circuit and failure. Tantalum and Ceramic caps are a good reason why you must fuse each of your cameras. Don't rely on the camera manufacurer to have fused them internally. Sometimes, on some models they haven't (hello LVC-332P, why are you on fire?)

Hey there. Any chance of a better copy of the schematic. It's a bit small to see clearly. Based upon what I can see, this EVF drives a small CRT (not the LCD listed in eBay). The circuits will be completely different, including the ICs. Did you get the one on eBay, or the one matching the schematic? For the schematic, I'm not certain that this needs 5 volts, it could need higher. You've checked the datasheet for that IC (KA something something)? What's its part number? The datasheet will say what voltage the IC needs, which is what you need to apply to pin 1. Video would go between pins 3 (vid) and 2 (gnd). There appears to be a 270K (can't read it clearly) resistor next to the capacitor connected to pin 3. It's too high to correctly terminate the video signal - if this EVF is the only thing connected to the camera, connect a 75 ohm resistor between pins 2 and 3 for termination. It'll make the video look better. Not sure why the horizontal signal on pin 4 is being sent back to the camera. At a guess, if it was connected to ground (edit: or maybe to the power on pin 1 - hard to tell. Need to see the datasheet), it would turn off the extra-high voltage to the CRT. It would allow you to turn the CRT on and off quickly, without having to wait for the CRT filament to warm up. You should be able to leave this disconnected.

Hello mimix. Maybe your 12V 150W power supply is faulty. Try connecting one camera to the recorder (use coax for this test), and use a different supply. From your pictures, it looks like the video signal is very weak and noisy. It might be a problem with your 12V supply, or your wiring. Maybe it is the recorder. Has anyone moved a computer, monitor, or TV near your recorder or camera wiring? Maybe you are getting interference from this?

Hi SpyGuy10. I'll take a punt at this, and blame dried-out electrolytic capacitors. How old is it? I'm guessing that the camera has been left on permanently (24x7), and has only been turned off to relocate it. If you leave it on for 15 minutes to an hour, the defective capacitors may recover, and the camera start working. You'll still need to either replace the caps, or the camera unit. It may fail again, but you might get some further life out of it. I have had something similar happen on some older cameras (Samsung SDC-311 - four of them!), where they needed ten minutes to "warm up" before providing a picture. I replaced the caps, and they worked fine afterwards. I tested the old caps, and they tested faulty.

That's a real beauty you found there Soundy. Do you reckon it's real - not a dummy camera? I guess the building it's in is moderately old. There's a local Burger King here in an old bank, which has cameras of similar vintage from when it was still a bank. They add nicely to the decor. I'll see if I can take a photo next time I'm there.

Hi erraville. Which two cameras are having problems? Only the two circled ones in your photo? My guess is that you're getting interference from the wires in the white pipe. Over what distance do the orange (camera) and white pipes run together? Where do the wires in the white pipe go? They appear to be three phase plus neutral. The diagonal lines could be from a switch-mode power supply. Do the three phase transformers supply a factory with a large motor connected to a variable speed drive? Or other big power supplies? You could try to use twisted pair instead of the coax. With a balun at each end, it might be able to suppress the common-mode interference from the wires in the white pipe, but I'm not sure. Coax with a 90% braid might do the trick as well. Your best bet would be to move the cameras away from the transformers, and keep their wiring away from other power wires.

Hi again funkedup. Dealextreme is an interesting site to have a look at. They have 3watt Luxeon/Cree style LED modules, or "InfraRed IR Drop-in Modules" to fit into torches. These LEDs give a red glow, so not ideal for stealth use, unless you want to mess around with filters. It should give you plenty of light for the Sunkwang. I've been tempted to use these with my CCTV cameras, but haven't found the time

Funkedup, it sounds like you're after a Watec 902h camera. These are black &white only. It's available as either a small cased camera, or a board camera. Low light is claimed to be 0.0003 lux. I've bought one to see how well they work, and their low light claim appears to be true. Another neat feature is that it doesn't use sense-up, so moving things don't get motion blur. I got mine second hand, no idea what these are worth new. Try Ebay? Also, the CCD imager on them suffers from dead pixels. Buying a camera with half a dozen dead is considered acceptable, so it pays to check before you hand over your money. There are other cameras available. Some can do colour. Have a look on some of the video astronomy forums.

The gates at 1 and 6 are just begging for some tightly focused cameras. You'd get some excellent face shots. I can also be nice to have cameras looking at the house, so you can see what the visitors are up to.

Yes ak357, 75 ohms is what the DVR is expecting. However Barney's camera and monitor are a dedicated system. The designer may not have followed standards, especially if a different impedance suited the cable better. Also, think of it as kind of a lock-in to make sure the customer (Barney) only buys genuine Image King replacement cameras/monitors Hopefully the camera is 75 ohms, but he will need to measure the monitor resistance to determine this.

Hi Barney. If you still have the old monitor, measure the resistance across its video input. That will tell you what the camera impedance should be. Is the camera lead shielded? You could try connecting it directly to the DVR's BNC barrel to ground it. Check with a multimeter first to check for stray voltages - some manufacturers (hello Philips, I'm looking a you) do crazy stuff. How many wires does the camera lead have, and what are their functions? This will give us some idea of how the designer intended the camera and monitor to interact. No disrespect to your plan to re-use the old camera, but you will be impressed with the quality of even the cheapest camera in comparison. It could be worth while to replace it.

Hi again Lancillotto. I know this is a stupid suggestion, but have you tried swapping over the RS-485 leads? So that the tx(+) on the DVR goes to data- on the dome, and rx(-) goes to data+ ? This won't harm anything - it will invert the RS-485. The problem is confusing. You have three DVRs using the same Pelco D protocol that can't talk to the dome, but the dome does work, and does work with the Siemens controller. By the way, you have checked that the dome still works with the Siemens controller? In case the dome has become faulty. Siemens usually makes (or at least sells) good equipment, so I can't see how they would ship a dome that won't work with Pelco protocols, when they claim it does. The problem is surely something simple?

Hello Lancillotto. Could you please go to the DVR's PTZ Setting page (Call the Menu -> Camera -> PTZ Setting) and check that the: Camera model is Pelco-P, Camera ID is 3 Also please check that you have RS-485 ticked in the "PTZ Advanced" page, otherwise it will use RS-232.

No worries. I consider the 24vAC to be another signal, so reckon that it may as well go down a pair to minimise crosstalk. The lack of baluns is the real killer here.

Apart from the lack of baluns, the original poster has also mis-wired the 24vAC. They need to connect the blue and orange wires to one phase of their 24v supply, and the remaining white wires to the other phase. If they do this, the twisted pairs will cancel out the interference from the AC supply. What pattern on the screen is problably being caused by a switchmode power supply. Maybe from a nearby PC, a TV, or nearly anything. It will be coming in with the 24v power, and will be coupled (crosstalk) onto the video signal. Without baluns, the video signal is unbalanced, and is very susceptable to crosstalk.

Hi RoyB. You could have two problems there - both the ground loop and low voltage. The ground loop is when you have two or more ground lines between the camera and DVR. In your case it is probably the power supply ground and the video ground. The twisted pair relies on the video signal being balanced, with the same signal strength on each half of the pair. The ground loop sends part of the video signal around a different path (the power ground), making the twisted pair unbalanced, and vulnerable to noise and interference. The ground loop also acts as an antenna, which increases it's ability to collect interference. The way to get around this is to break the loop, using either separate floating power supplies (floating in that the negative terminal is not connected to ground), or to fit isolating baluns at either the camera end, or at the DVR. Separate supplies wouldn't be practical for a 44 camera install. Whether a camera is affected by ground loops depends on it's design. Some use isolated power supplies inside the camera - they chop the 12vDC into AC, then feed it through a transformer, then convert it to regulated DC. The transformer isolates the power supply ground from the video ground. Susceptable cameras don't use a transformer, they either use a linear regulator, or switching regulator and inductor. You can check cameras by testing for continuity between the camera BNC shield and the power supply negative pin. If there is continuity, the camera could have issues with ground loops. Low voltage problem: Cameras don't always draw a constant current - sometimes there are surges, which combined with the resistance of the CAT5 cable will cause the voltage to sag at the camera. The multimeter will be averaging out the voltage that you've measured - it could be briefly dropping low, causing the camera electronics to glitch. You could try adding a (at a guess) 1000uF 25volt capacitor across the power supply terminals at the camera, and see if there is any improvement. Remember to connect the capacitor around the right way - it's polarised! This is a bit of a bodge - it would be better to run heavier wire. Anyway, Good luck!

Hi RedVenom. What is the warehouse using for lighting? I think Shockwave is on the right path with the filter question. I had similar effects when I removed the IR cut filter from a colour camera. It didn't like the fluro lighting - everything had a blueish tint.

Hi Fiona. I don't have one of these, but from the spec sheet, it looks like a very nice camera. Definitely track down a lens. I'd be interested to hear how it compares against the WV-CP484 if you were able to compare performance. The '924 has better low light performance, at least on paper. I have one of the '484s, and am very happy with it at low light (and the automatic back focus is nice).

Sony make Exview CCDs (dunno about the WDS bit). They're good for low light and near infra-red. If these are the ones I'm thinking of, they eventually develope stuck pixels - the CCD array is a bit delicate. It could be other problems with your camera; a poor quality lens or badly designed electronics. I've had a few cheapish high resolution cameras that have been walked all over by more ancient but higher quality models.

Hi Rory. So have you seen what these 900 TVL cameras look like on screen? From the CCD dimensions, they must be a widescreen format. Not quite 16:9, but wider than 4:3. Does the image appear squeezed on a 4:3 display?

Hey there. If it's a hard disk caddy, then it might be a cheap and nasty tubular lock (not that all tubular locks are cheap and nasty - just these ones). Pretty much any key that will fit it will open it. The keys were used on floppy disk holders, and as the key board locks on AT format computers. Failing that, it is very easy to open without the key. The lock normally also operates a switch to power down the hard disk. Then again, it could be something more secure. I also haven't heard of a lockable DVD drive.