vmgtlexi

So, now that I am replacing my new (but totally crappy and malfunctioning) Samsung cameras, I need to bounce some thoughts around here. What are your thoughts? [*] Other than trial & error, how does one get a handle on finding reliable, long-lasting camera brands? [*] Do the installers among us have names that they absolutely trust for reliability and many years of steady performance? My general requirements are: - IR cameras - Priced less than $300 - varifocal approx 3-10ish plus or minus - Dual voltage 12VDC/24VAC I know this is open-ended, but appreciate any and all comments and suggestions on these topics.

I know! It just gives me a warm fuzzy to know that things I spend my time on will last 1,000 years all else being equal. Our house may collapse due to the decaying of time, but some archaeologist will find this PSU attached to the cinder block and say, "wow, this guy really installed things to last forever!"

I went with heavy duty plastic anchors only b/c my cinder blocks seem much more brittle that new cinder blocks. I tested both the tapcons and the plastic anchors on a new store-bought block. Sure enough, in that block the tapcons worked great. However, in my 50 year old blocks in my basement, when I started drilling the holes were really much more brittle (not structurally unsound, but just not as "tight" of a hole as in the new blocks). So, the plastic inserts seemed to be a snugger fit for my needs. I used 4 of them for my 12.5 pound power box. Each anchor claims a few hundred pounds of shear strength in masonry, so I should be good to go, don't ya think!?!? Just in case anyone else comes across this thread with similar questions, I wanted to share my results and decision.

One of my two new SCO-2080R cameras has been up for about 10 days. Over that 10 days, it has had power problems about 10 times. It powers down and then back up randomly. It stays powered down for anywhere from a few seconds at a time to over an hour at a time. This is only camera with this issue. I have a 9 channel 12VDC power supply that provides 5A. I only have 5 12VDC cameras attached to it; thus the power supply is not under very heavy loads. I have checked all the power connections and everything is tight. At the camera end, I even have the power connection secured tightly with many wraps of electrical tape. So, there is no risk of a bad connection. Video is below. Watch the whole 1 minute to see what it does. Simply amazing. Since the camera re-initializes each time there is video loss, this tells me that it's a power issue to/with the camera (as opposed to a bad video connection at the DVR). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jS2SXOKmM0

So, here are the big results of replacing my 12VDC 5A PSU with a 24VAC 12.5A PSU.... First, you should know that the camera in question in this thread worked perfectly for over 48 hours while on my old 12VDC PSU with only 3 cameras total on that PSU. In other words, when I removed 2 cameras from the load, this SCO-2080R seemed to work fine. So, today I installed my Altronix ALTV 248300UL3 PSU. It is 24VAC 12.5A 8-output. I hooked my 5 cameras up to it (all of which supposedly draw 1A or less, even with IR on). Within 5 minutes of everything being hooked back up, this SCO-2080R (the one that started this thread) experienced power loss!!! All voltage measures good on both ends. So, despite being hopeful that this was an issue of the camera being under-powered, I don't think we can say that any longer. Effing Amazing. I QUIT. And, Samsung is about to get an earful from me.

Thanks. I saw the Tapcons at Home Depot today. The instructions say to use a hammer drill. I don't have a hammer drill. I have a nice Ridgid drill/driver, but not a hammer drill. Sounds like in your experience my drill should be fine as long as on slow speed. I bought some Tapcons anyway, along with some 77-pound rated plastic anchors with #10 screws. I got the Tapcon drill bit too. My cinder blocks are hollow, I think. Seems that would provide less support for Tapcons and more support for the heavy duty plastic anchors. Anyway, this box is only 12 pounds. Probably either solution will work since I'll have 4 anchor points for the box. Not sure which route I'll go. Will need to study it some more.

Once your EHD500IR is up and running, I would very much like to see some sample images. That is a camera I am considering. Best of luck with everything.

True day/night cameras aren't magic. They cannot create light where this is none. They still require some small degree of ambient light to present a usable image. I agree with Soundy. If you can have a night light or something like that, a "day/night" camera might work. If you do not want to, or cannot, install any ambient light and it is basically a totally dark area, you will need IR. IR images will be in black & white; just so you know you will lose color. Also, with some powerful IR cams in smaller spaces, there can sometimes be too much reflection off the subject causing a white-out of the person in the image. But this usually only happens on very powerful IR's when the person is too close to the camera. If you absolutely must be able to see what's going on at night and reliable ambient light is not possible, get the IR.

In an effort to try to give back to this online community, I wanted to share my findings on this issue. It appears to be entirely a DVR issue. When I view the camera in "Live" mode or directly through a monitor, there is no pulsing. It is only when viewed in playback mode that this pulsing exists. The camera in question is set to D1 and 15FPS normal and 30FPS event. It is also set to record at superior (best) quality. As a test, I changed the "normal" FPS to 30FPS. In this scenario, the pulsing almost entirely disappeared. I then changed the "normal" FPS to 7.5 and the pulsing became horrible. The rendering of the image (which is somewhat of a "complex" image of my porch paver stones), probably adds to the mix a little bit. Maybe this is the nature of the beast with my make & model DVR and/or H264 compression. I am inquiring at the manufacturer's tech support to see if this is considered normal (it probably is). But, the good news is I can not blame the cameras on this. So, if anyone else later comes along and discovers this thread with similar issues, you might fiddle around with the record quality, FPS, etc. settings. I hope this helps someone, because I know this forum has been a GREAT help to me. Big thank you's all around! EDIT: The solution above refers only to the "pulsating" effect I was having; it does not refer the "wavy lines" that is the title of this thread. The wavy lines are probably due to a power supply issue. Just wanted to clarify.

Yes, understood about removing the DVR from the mix... that's why I said I will "hook the camera directly to the monitor" thereby removing the DVR from the mix.

xellbuy- I use this cable on one of the cameras that exhibits these symptoms. I am 99% certain the other cables (installed three years ago) are similar; definitely copper. http://www.cablestogo.com/product.asp?cat_id=317&sku=43114

Sean - good tip. I will check the "live" view tonight on my monitor with the cam still hook thru the DVR. If it pulsates in live mode, I will then hook the camera directly to a monitor, thereby excluding the DVR from the mix. Great idea.

Sean- Both of my SCO-2080R cameras exhibit this symptom. The other cameras (Nuvicos) seem to do it but very hard to tell for sure; it is certainly not as pronounced on the other non-Samsung cameras.

Rory - Cables as follows: RG59 siamese cable with 18/2 power

Sens-up is already off. A video engineer contact of mine suggested I check for the coax cable possibly touching a ground source....eg, possibly ground loop interference. Rory - why turn off the time/date overlay??

PS - I looked at the other identical Samsung SCO-2080R during the same time frame as the video linked in the post just above this one. That other SCO is running in B&W IR LED's on at night. And, it ALSO shows this pulsating effect. Sean suggested I should check if the pulsating shows up in B&W IR, and it apparently DOES.

Here's last nights footage of the "pulsating". Presumably, the 24VAC dedicated power supply "solved" the "wavy lines". So, on the grand scheme of things, I am making progress. Also, I looked back into my DVR's recording for this camera and location. The pulsating has apparently been happening since the camera was installed a few weeks ago. So, even though the "wavy lines" just started last week, this pulsating symptom is not new. I wonder - I see a slight pulsing in all my cameras, though none stand out as obvious as this one. I wonder if it's just a matter of the cameras/DVR trying to render a low-light image; in other words, maybe this is just "digital cycling" of the images at night. Anyway, since the 24VAC power supply has (for 1 night anyway) gotten rid of the "wavy lines"/broken images, I am hopeful that I won't have to uninstall these cameras for repair. My new Altronix PSU box should be in soon. Once I install it, and have several days or more of testing to assure all of my problems are gone (or mostly gone), I will repost. I am hopeful that Tom, et al get the "gold star" on my problems for strongly suggesting power issues. Thank you for being outspoken about your analysis! Anyway, here's last night's video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7tVdoM_GSI h7tVdoM_GSI

Good question -- I will set it to "Auto" for tonight's test. That way it will switch over to B&W and fire up the IR. Then, I can see if it only occurs in color. As Gilda Radner used to say on SNL, "It's always something".

Hi Sean, This is the original video, and the same pulsating is visible. The "lines" that you see in this first video are now gone (presumably resolved by better power supply?). However, the pulsating that you see in the middle area is what I still see (that is, the pulsating is the only remaining "concern"). I can try to get an updated video up later today. But this gives you the idea....just imagine that this image is "clean" except for the pulsating in the middle, and that gives you an idea. THANKS! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKCfkLKXayk

Here's an update. As usual, I appreciate any input: For the Samsung SCO-2080R that was having the "wavy lines" as shown in the video early in this thread, here is the latest.... As you recall, the problems only appeared at night. So, last night I had this camera on ITS OWN dedicated power supply (ie, it was NOT being powered by my 12VDC common power box). The power came from an Altronix plug-in transformer that runs 24VAC with 50VA (2A) output. According to the manual this is the perfect match for the camera. I DID NOT experience the "wavy lines" or broken image at all last night. The image stayed pretty much "true", with one point of concern... Generally around the center of the image at night I can see a pulsating of the image. It is almost as if you are watching someone's heart beat pattern and it's being displayed as a pulse within the image. As Tom pointed out before, he saw it in my previous video link on YouTube. But, now that I have the correct/ideal power input, why do I still have this pulsating?

Shockwave - On my main monitor, you can see the color better. But, this image was taken from my remote network access and likely degraded through that process. Also, it is a very dark red paint on the wall of the porch and the floor tiles are dark too. Probably at night they give a "B&W" feel even though there is some color.

I turned off my landscape lights. Here is what the porch looks like with the camera in "color only" mode. The very tiny bit of ambient light you see is from a powerful gas light in my yard about 20-25' away. I also looked at the lens and did not see any hint of the IR lights being on. I am convinced there is no IR usage when the camera is set by the user to be in "color only" mode. However, I hear your suggestions and appreciate the thought process. These are all great ideas, and are very helpful to me in checking all possibilities. So, I am greatly indebted for all of the ongoing discussion.

That being said, I am really HOPING that being on a dedicated power supply eliminates the problem....because putting in a more powerful PSU is much more appealing to me than trying to un-install these cameras to send them in for warranty work and/or trying to hunt down and solve a ground loop issue. Keep your fingers crossed.

I meant to attach the photo referenced in my post above....here it is: I don't see any evidence of IR.

The way the manual presents the info about IR, it appears that if the user sets the camera to "color" being on all the time, the IR does not ever come on. And, I have the camera set to "color" only. Also, in looking at my current night image of the camera, there is no indication of IR being on. The light on the porch is from my pretty powerful landscape lights. Here's a snapshot. If IR were on, I would expect to see the IR reflecting off the many white surface, like I do in my other cameras. I am pretty sure this camera never has IR come on. So, there would (hopefully) not be excess current draw for this camera. Anyway, the "big" test is tonight. I have this camera on a dedicated Altronix 24VAC 2A plug-in wall transformer. So, it has: 1) plenty of power and 2) is removed from my common PSU. So, if it has the "wavy lines" again tonight, I can start to feel pretty certain that it was not my PSU causing the problem, and it's more likely a camera or ground loop issue.