Lloyd

"If its placed outside it would have to be in a housing, and that still looks through glass, or perspex/polycarbonate whatever the housing uses" I was going to ask about that.... I was wondering if camera housings used a 'special' glass. Altho I admit the window I am shooting thru is a thermo pane... two layers of glass. But I do want this camera to be inside. No housing to buy, no heater to run, and the shot is exactly what I want.... there will be more cameras in the future. Rory, I like your idea about the rubber ring and near the glass. I don't have a reflection problem during the daytime, but can get it at night. The ring might fix all or most of it. Computar Viewfinder = over $200 ..... no can do. Using the FOV calculators I find on the internet, they all put me near or over the 100mm number. Now that you see the application and criteria, I am willing to listen to suggested options for camera and lens. After a very long search on the internet, there are very few choices for a lens in the 100mm area. Any ideas from you? Do you feel the choice I showed here would be a large improvement over my camcorder, or am I expecting too much? Don't send me to Extreme, they have prices that are too high. If I spend too much, the wife will kill me and I will never get to see the video anyhow.

LOL ... no, I am sure the town authorities and road crew wouldn't do that. This camera is gonna be inside. More cameras and IR will come in time. I get a very nice shot of the far 1/3 to 1/2 of the driveway... and I want that. The lens I show is 20-100mm varifocal, if I am not mistaken, that is not a fixed lens. ( But I'm awful new at this, so correct me if I am wrong )

I'd use an online 'power supply calculator' ... Google will get you many ... example: http://www.vbutils.com/power.asp

On June 10th I ordered this same/similar UPS unit from Dell... an APC ES 650VA 120V. I just got it plugged in and it is charging at this time. The order form, shown below, says the words, "Dell only". I see NOTHING on the unit or installation instructions that refer to Dell specific ...... but .... I see it refers to it as "Back-UPS DL650T", and your link is for a "Back-UPS BE650R". Is this a unit made specifically for Dell, and are there many differences? The only thing I've found so far is that your BE650R link shows that it includes, "CD with software, Free trial of anti-virus : firewall : email privacy : system recovery and online backup software, USB cable, User Manual, Wall-mounting template". Dell's DL650T included only installation instructions, and phone cord. Your BE650R mentions a USB cable. Dell's DL650T has no place to plug in a USB cable. What is the USB communications used for on the BE650R?

I did the testing today ... not very good results. The camera powered up with a grey screen. There is a darker grey horizontal line across the screen. It's wide ... about 1/5th the total screen height. It slowly floats from top to bottom. That's about all it does. No change on the screen when I pass my hand in front of the lens. ---- I tested the focus and zoom functions with 12VDC. The zoom motor did not run. The focus motor does run, and the gears rotate ... to a point. There is a shaft with multiple gears on it that is acting like a slip clutch ... and it's slipping. I tried to rotate the focus by hand expecting to see a little gear slop as I changed directions. The assembly appears tight .... doesn't want to rotate at all. I think the gears would do there job if the lens was free to move. I plugged the iris contol into the camera, and turned on the camera. The iris motor made a small movement and stopped. That is what it does everytime power is cycled on. Not looking good .....

OK, I'll put the camera back together, and remount the lens. I'll test it with the iris plug removed from its jack, and away from bright lights. To test the video, do I run the camera output to the 'RCA In' on a VCR or TV? What is the voltage on the video out of this camera? The camera came with a short section of cable with PL259 at both ends. I will cut one plug off and put on a new BNC. From there, I can convert to RCA.

WOW! Lots of good info! Thanks! Cover removed ... All looks well, nobody living in there .... no 'dark brown' smell .... I founds some pots. VERT. SIZE VERT.CENTER'G HOR. SIZE BEAM FOCUS GAIN HI PEAK'G SETUP The tube looks fine. Here is a pic of some data on the tube. I didn't know if that would help you identify it. I have no problem working around exposed circuits, etc. All three lens motors are tagged on the motor end caps as "DC 12V". Thanks for the explaination of the iris control. I think I understand it now. The iris motor is smaller then the other two motors. Do you have a guess as to how much current the iris motor draws? I have an older color CCTV color camera that has an auto iris output. ( Javelin Model JE3362 ) It's spec says, "Video: luma video signal (Y only) 0.7V p-p/high impedance" "Power: DC+12V (40mA max)" It would be great if I could get this color camera to work with the big lens. The Javelin camera data: Image sensor: He98241 2/3" single layer MOS color image sensor. 576 (H) X 485 (V) pixels. Horiz. resolution: 340 lines or more. Minimum illumination: 15 lux. Lens mount: C-mount. Think I could get these two to play nice together? What would I need to get my lens to mount on this C-mount camera?

Good to see ya back. Yes .... it appears the camera imager is in place and whole. I see a light shine back at me. This is a B/W camera? Now as far as the lens goes .... Are you confident the focus and the zoom should be fed with 12VDC? The lens can actually says, " DC12V ". One would think if labeled on the outside of the device, it would reference the feed voltage for that device. Do you feel I should go ahead and test the focus and zoom functions with 12VDC? If possible, I would start with a lower voltage as you mentioned earlier. Now the iris ... "If you're curious to see what's what, you can probably do a quick check with a test meter to confirm the connections (red would almost certainly be +Ve voltage, and White the Video connection." I guess I don't understand the "White the Video connection". If video is on the white, then to operate the iris motor do you apply 12VDC across the red and the shield? Is the voltage reversed to change directions ... like the focus and zoom? If the camera is controlling the iris motor with the red and shield, what is the purpose of the white (video) wire? Somehow I think I got this part wrong ....

Yes. In the photo with the two plugs .... the lower plug labled "plugs into camera", appears to control the iris. The other plug appears to control the zoom and focus.

No, I have not put any power to it. The only taking apart I have done is to remove the lens from the camera, and remove the can cover off the lens. The focus and zoom are controlled from a plug connection. I have nothing to plug it in to. I may have to make a controller. The camera may give some hints as to how the auto iris is controlled. I'm pretty uneducated in the camera/lens area. Cooperman is the man with the answers.

Ok, I'll try again .... You wanted to identify the camera first. Here are some pics: If you would like more pics, just let me know. I have a very limited on-line file storage area. So once your see these pics, save them if you want to view them again. Then I will remove them to make room for more. Now, to answer the rest of your questions in your last post .... "If you remove the lens, is the imager inside the camera a shiny circle?" Yes. It is circular, looks flat, and appears to be a 'lens'. "Have a look at the back of the camera - do you see any small holes / adjusters marked 'T', 'B' or 'F' ?" No, I see none. "If the lens has two accessible 'pots' marked with "Alc" and "Level", then it is a conventional AI type auto iris lens." No. .... if by saying "accessible" you mean, "Can be adjusted thru a hole in the can cover" There is one hole in the can cover that is meant for providing screwdriver adjustment on a pot located on a small pcb mounted inside the can. That is the pcb that is connected to the 2-wire shielded cable that plugs in the back of the camera. "You could use a basic regulated voltage selectable power supply unit, and set it initially to 6v DC, just for initial testing." I don't have alot for regulated power supplies. I know I do have a 12VDC regulated supply ... A little digging around, and I may come up with something else. What would the current requirement be for testing the motors? "From what you've described, it sounds like the Zoom and Focus motors are each driven with a pair of conductors (so four wires in total)." Yes, it appears that way. I see 3 motors total. One is smaller then the other two. Those two look identical, and are fed from an identical looking pcb. Looking at the 3 motors and their gearing, I see three separate functions. The three motors and their associated gearing lead to three separate gear rings. Here is a pic showing all three rings. #1 = Focus? #2 = Zoom? #3 = Iris? The small motor runs gear ring #3, and its circuity has the cable that plugs into the camera. Gear ring #2 has the red & orange wires feeding its motor's circuitry. Gear ring #1 has the yellow & brown wires feeding its motor's circuitry. I noticed that all 3 motors say, "12VDC" on the motor end. And the can has a sticker that says, "DC12V". (shown on one of the pics above) Ok, enough for now ....whew ...... Thanks .....

Hey Cooperman ..... Check your PMs. I sent ya a PM with lots of pics. Let me know if ya didn't get it.

Ya, this is a very interesting lens .... OK, I will get some info together, maybe a pic or two, and get back to you. I haven't applied voltage to anything yet. I'm going to follow those wires around a little more first. A closer look is in order here before doing anything. I'll see what I got around for a power supply. Thanks for all the help! I'll be getting back to you.

more info on the lens .... When I removed the lens from the camera, I found a sticker that says 12 VDC. The lens wiring has a cord, and a group of 4 wires coming out of it. The cord is a shielded 2-wire cord, with a plug on the end that plugs into the camera. (focus?) One wire is red, the other is white. The shield is connected to the plug also. (ground?) The group of 4 wires has a plug that does not plug into the camera. (zoom?) The plug converts it to 3-wire, cause two of the wires, orange and brown, are soldered together on the same plug pin. The other two wires, one red and one yellow, are on separate pins. I would guess that the shielded 2-wire cord controls the focus, and it is done by putting 12VDC across the red and white wires. Reversing the 12VDC reverses the direction. Hopefully, there are internal endstop limits. ( Ya'd think there would be!! ) I would guess the other plug would control the zoom. ( How'm I doin so far? ) Now the zoom ... This is where I am confused/cautious ... I can see a couple of possibilities for how this could be connected. 12VDC arcoss Orange/brown and red = zoom one way .... 12VDC arcoss Orange/brown and yellow = zoom other way .... But if that is true, what polarity is the 12DVC connected? Hmmmm ..... any help there Cooperman?

Thanks for the response!! Got any info on the wiring of that lens?? The cord from the lens plugs in the back of the camera. I would have to know what the requirements are ... voltages, AC or DC, etc. And what wires do what function. I assume both the zoom and the focus are involved ... correct? I got an old camera, but not as old as the Motorola, I could use to test it with. The camera spec sheet says it has a 2/3" image sensor". The included lens is a 25mm, f1.4, C-mount, and the box says, "1" format". Will the Fujinon lens mount on this camera? When it comes to cameras & lens, I have very limited understanding. But I can learn. Thanks for the help!!

OK, I found some print on the lens cover .... Fujinon TV zoom lens C5x20A - SND2 I found nothing on Google that would give me info on it.

Do you have a link for that "geo fake card URL"? I believe my Geo card is a real one, but I want to check it out.

After much thought, I built a PC for the GeoVision GV800-8 board I had decided would meet my needs. The case: Antec Solution SLK1650 Beige Steel ATX Mini Tower Computer Case 350W Power Supply. I love it. It is roomy, but not huge. Everything fits well. It has a large rear fan. The top and sides are independent, and easily removed. The motherboard: Abit IS7-E2. Known brand, handles a P4, Intel chipset, and chipset cooler is a large heat sink with no fan. The heat sink does not get hot, and there is no fan to go bad. It supports two SATA drives and EIDE drives as well. It has onboard sound, and onboard lan. I own 3 of these boards and have no complaints so far. They are rock solid. The CPU: P4 2.8 GHZ, 512 Cache, 800MHZ FSB, with hyperthreading. Mfg part# RK80532PG072512 This is one of the most powerful P4 CPUs available with the Northwood core. It runs much cooler and uses less watts then the next generation of P4 ( Prescot ) ... also known as 'Presc HOT'. The CPU cooler: MassCool 9T488B1M3G. It is a little overkill for this processor, but a very nice unit. The fan is not real quiet, but I should be able to drop the fan speed considerably, and that will quiet it down. I am presently looking into temperature sensing fan speed controllers. The Video Card: eVGA 256-A8-N341-L2 Geforce 6200 256MB 64-bit DDR AGP 4X/8X. This is a DirectX 9 compiant card, and should give enough power to do the job. It has a large heatsink with no fan. The heat sink gets warm, but not worrysome hot. No fan to go bad. The Memory: 1 Gig of Corsair DDR400. ( 2 X 512 Dual chanel kit ) HDD is really dependent on the needs of the user. I think that covers the essentials. I had some troubles until I got the Geo settings proper. ( Thanks again Rory ) I still had some problems until I got the DirectX 9 compliant card in place. That really made the diference!! I put the card in yesterday, and so far it seems all of my problems just .... went away. A prebuilt PC may be cheaper, but I am please with my decisions on what is in this GeoPC. However I am a GeoNoob, so I may have overlooked many pitfalls yet to be discovered.

Hello ... first post here. I am new to GeoVision, and have a question/problem. Should the recorded avi file be as smooth as the input, or is a certain amount of jitter normal? I ask this realizing that cards have frame rate limitations. So far, I have been told the output should be smooth. I am using a GV800-8 card, using one camera, and can't seem to get a smooth output file. I have tried about everything I can think of, and am becoming discouraged. I'm not trying anything fancy, just the main system and viewlog. This is a new card purchased in December of 2005, v3.01. The OS is XP pro, DirectX 9c, with SP1 installed. The PC is new, ( I built it ) with the following specs: GV 800-8 card w/v7.04 software ( I did a successful upgrade to v7.05, but it did not help the problem ) MB - Abit IS7-E2 Chipset - Intel 82865PE (MCH ) + 82801EB (ICH5) CPU - P4 2.8 Northwood w/hyperthreading - 800MHz FSB Ram - 1 GB @ 400MHz Video - GeForce4 Ti4800se ( Not DirectX compliant card, but I did try a GeForce 6800 card and it did not help ) HDD - Western Digital WD1200JB - partitioned into a 20 GB system drive, and a 92 GB data drive - NFTS both drives ) I have also tried using two different HDD for system and data, and the results were the same. I have tried the GV800 card in another similar PC, and the results were the same. The camera I am using for input is a camcorder. I am using the RCA video out jack from a Samsung SCW71 Camcorder. ( no tape in the camcorder ) It has a 22X optical zoom, and I am shooting thru a window, using full optical zoom, to a target about 1100 feet away. It has been great on my VHS recorder using extended play. No jitter at all. The picture also comes into the GV800 jitter free, it looks excellent. But any playback I get from the GV800 has jitter. The saved file played back on another PC is also jittery. I have tried using the video out from a VHS player and recording TV onto the GeoVision system, and still have the jitter in the recorded file. So I feel I can not blame the camera. It is not the motion controls fault, because the results are the same when I record on continous. My present Geo settings are: ( but I have tried every combination I can think off ) Video Source = NTSC_M 640x480 No audio has been set up or connected. Performance = Record Master .... using GeoMpg4 System Configuration/General Settings: Enable Directdraw Overlay ( Disable makes not difference, and yes I did a system restart ) Enable De-Interlace Render ( Disable makes not difference, and yes I did a system restart ) Premotion Record = Extra Total Frames = 90 .... Frames/Sec = 30 Post Record = 5 sec Camera 1: Record Quality = 5 Frames/Sec = High Record Video Upper Limit = Set Upper Limit = Frames/sec = 30 Here is an example of my VHS recording converted to a wmv file. Quality is poor, because I recorded VHS long play, played back on another VHS machine, captured on a PC, and saved to a small mpg file. ( I only have 5 meg of online storage available to me ) VHS_Example Here is the same video captured with the GV800. GV800_Example Any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!

YES!! That did it alright. Thanks alot Rory!!! You made my day! This forum ROCKS! I been pullin my hair out for a couple of weeks now tryin to figure this out! The View Log still has a little jitter, but the saved avi file is jitter free, with pre record on. Now I can start playin around with the other settings again to see what this thing will do. I am still wondering what to expect as I connect more cameras in motion detect mode. Like I said in my previous post .... "So with that in mind, does that mean if I want to set up 7 more cameras for motion detect only, that I will always see the jitter even if only one camera sees motion and records?" I thought the available frame rate would not be used if the camera was not recording. You know.... if I had 8 cameras hooked up and activated for motion, that I would have plenty of frame rate if only one or two were recording. This does not appear to be true huh? Or does the software handle things different when there are cameras hooked to the activated inputs?

Turning off pre record did not help .... but ... I think the "Camera/Audio Install menu item ... then the Activate button" is the problem!! All 8 were checked. I thought that area was for audio only. Without the pre record I don't get much of a recording, but from what I've seen so far ... I think you hit it right on the head. I have turned pre record back on, and will report back the results. But yes indeed, all camera inputs must have been on. In the main screen monitor button, I now only see camera 1 as a turn on option. No other cameras show in the configuration screen either. So with that in mind, does that mean if I want to set up 7 more cameras for motion detect only, that I will always see the jitter even if only one camera sees motion and records? TESTING .......

To disable camera 2 thru 8 am I correct it is done by: System Configuration > Camera 2 ( thru 8 ) > Monitor Control ... and uncheck the "Rec Video" box? Then when I start monitoring, I use the main screen "monitor" button and set the check mark by camera 1 only. I have now stopped the pre record, and am testing. If the problem is still present, I will post a longer example.

Thanks to the admins for moving the thread. Yes, I think I have proper hardware. I just need to get a DirectX 9 compliant video card. One is on the way ... should be here in a day or two. But I do not feel that is the problem, because I tested it with a compliant card. "What are the settings on the other camera inputs?" I just checked the other camera settings. They were set on record on motion. I unchecked the 'record' box. They shouldn't have been doing anything with no input... I figured. They are off now .... sure would be nice if it was that simple to fix. I only have camera 1 input in use at this time. All others are not being used and are not connected. I did test it with camera 1 on motion detect, and camera 2 on continous ... both connected to the same camera. A little AGC adjust, and both came into the card just fine. Problem still was present tho. I don't see any jitter when there is no motion. The recording is there, but nothing is moving.... just as it should be.

Opps, looks like I started this thread in the wrong area. It should have been in the "DVR cards and software - PC based" section. Can an admin maybe move it? ....