kensplace

Yup, marketing and conmen are rife now on ebay... As for the other laptop I was waiting for, it did arrive, but I needed to wait for a PSU and battery to arrive before I could test it. I was a bit concerned the screen support/hinge was loose on one side almost like it had been dropped - but figured for the price, as long as it works, I can live with it. Anyways, the stuff arrived, and the portable is faulty, it only powers up occasionally, and even then when it does it shuts down at random, works great when its on, but it's never on for long. Cant even get it to power on at all now... Just the one AC light on the laptop, but the batter charging light does not come on (apart from on the rare occaasions when it does fire up into life.) I thought about the hinge, and just out of curiousity, I went back and checked the old footage on the dvr, from when the courier delivered it. When the courier slid his van door open, guess what fell out and hit the road on one corner of the box? Yup, the portable. Ok its only a small drop, but portables are not meant to be dropped a foot or so onto a road, and then to land on one corner, concentrating all the pressure in one area. The driver never said a word.. Going to be interesting making a claim, wonder if they will try and worm out of it saying the box was signed for without me writing 'damaged' etc. What they wont realise, until I tell them, is it was dropped on camera. Hopefully that will be enough proof to get a replacement, or at least a repair or another one for parts.

Not actually installed one yet, but bought a couple of second hand optex redwall sensors, the ones I got are quite well built, pretty much all metal apart from the front sensor window, which has a rain sheild. Was not keen on the fact that the side panel that you unscrew to get at the connections is made out of plastic, which kindof defeats the purpose of having the rest all metal if you are going to protect the connection side with plastic... The side panel is tamper protected, so if the panel is unscrewed, you can detect that. They seem to be used quite a lot where I live (uk) I see quite a few on building sites, and the local park has them on both the fixed and the ptz cameras (although the local park protects the 'reachable' optex redwalls by having them in a metal wire cage, probably a sensible move) Wiring wise, they seem easy enough, nothing special, or difficult. Cant comment on the range/sensitivity as not installed them yet, but the local park has them covering large areas. The ones I got were used, and the paintwork was bubbling/coming off in places, so obviously the paint was not up to the job of long term outdoor use, even though they looked like they had been well painted. I just to sanded that off, and re-spray and at the end of the day, it would not have been anything other than a purely cosmetic problem. May be worth checking to see if the latest sensors offer masking detection, especially if you are going to use them in a high security application, and there is a possibility someone may attempt it.

Sounds like some footage good enough to show on America's Dumbest Criminals show ! Stealing from a surveilance store has got to rank as a pretty highly stupid thing to do....

Personally I would not use CCTV for detecting fuel leaks, with a large area (although I have no idea how large exactly, but 3 decks sounds big) you would need a lot of cameras to get good coverage of all areas that fuel could leak into. Even then, its dubious that a motion detection system on a dvr would pick up a puddle of fuel that is slowly creeping across the floor, as the motion is likely to be very gradual I would imagine (unless its spurting tons of fuel everywhere!). Plus, I would imagine a engine room has a fair bit motion in it anyway that could set of a motion trigger, unless you masked them out so it ignored motion there.but its possible some of those areas could be the areas that leak. If the monitors are likely to be turned off, or ignored then the system would have to be very reliable, and not produce false alarms often, as if the people on the bridge are already totally ignoring safety concerns, they will probably just start ignoring a motion alarm if it produces to many false positives. Personally, I would be more concerned about the crew on the ship, and the fact they are bypassing safety features etc, than fuel leaks. Safety is pretty important, and if there is a crew that is turning off monitors at night that should be left on, I would be getting a new crew before they cause a tragic accident. As for the leaks, as it is on a ship, and is probably covered by countless rules and regulations, not to mention the need to get it 100 percent right, I I would look into a specialist firm that does leak detection, I googled the following term oil fuel leak detector -gas and found one that may be of use (of course, it may not, I dont know the exact specifics, or even much about leak detection!) which seems to offer a leak-detecting cable that you can lay around problem points to sound a alarm when a leak occurs, and to pinpoint the leak. You could maybe lay the cable along the pipes and around parts of the engine that are prone to leaks. Maybe have one running around the base of the engine, as a catch all.

Many standalone DVR's that use hardware compression will use a lot less electricity than a PC DVR, especially if the pc one is using software compression, and needs a monster cpu to run at a good speed. A decent DVR with hardware compression can often use something like a 300mhz processor instead of a 3ghz processor often used on a pc, and the standalone does not need all the extra's a pc has built in as standard usually.

If you go the vcr route I would look for a timelapse VCR so you have the ability to record for longer than just a few hours at a time. Otherwise, you will spend the rest of your time at the house swapping tapes over and over each day. Better yet, get a DVR

Jpegs are compressed images also, the salesman was just talking crap if he said compressed video is not admissable but jpegs are... Both use compression and are therefore technically not the exact image that was captured...

Be careful Keep in mind that a short circuit fault condition going direct to a car battery can produce hundreds, if not more amps of current, which could easily set fire to the wiring involved (which could in turn set the car on fire, or kill off your electrics/engine management/lights etc whilst driving down a motorway....). Directly shorting a car battery with something that is capable of not burning up (say dropping a spanner over the two terminals) can cause the battery to explode violently - acid everywhere - nasty... Make sure you fuse everything with suitably rated fuses, and that all the wiring is well insulated and able to cope with the typical automotive problems (oil, heat, vibration (so it does not wear away the insulation).

If the camera is not near the dvr, then its less wiring to wire the PIR to the camera, and let the camera zoom to a preset alarm position when the pir triggers. Otherwise, its a extra cable for the pir near the camera all the way back to the dvr.

good point, probably could - never tried it myself I tend to do things by code if I can.. Old hangover from when it was the only way to do things I guess! One advantage of avisynth is it does it instantly, it does it on the fly, you dont have to make a new movie, or recode anything (dont know how long movie maker takes, but I would imagine it would create a new movie from scratch which may take a while) If movie maker does it, and its easier, go for it

Superimposing text on cctv footage...... The wiki page for avisynth is at http://avisynth.org/mediawiki/Main_Page Go to http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=57023 for the downloads, for this example I downloaded version 2.5.7, which appeared to be the latest non alpha release. Download and install AVISYNTH Whilst installing, I selected Associate AVISYNTH with notepad Associate AVISYNTH with Media Player 6.4 (play) Add Avisynth script to new items menu. To make things easier (so the pc knows what to do with the files, rather than you having to manually select the right application by hand) I left the install directory as its default (C:\Program Files\AviSynth 2.5) and clicked install. Now create a folder C:\avitest and put a avifile that your computer is capable of playing in that folder, make it one thats at least say 5 seconds long or so - if you want you could download the one I used - link below. http://www.lsblogs.com/hosted/cctv/test1.avi Now open up notepad and enter copy and paste the following into a blank new document. [note if you use your own avi file, replace the file name with your own in the following examples] # Some text in the upper right corner of the clip with specified font, size and color: AviSource("c:\avitest\test1.avi") Subtitle("GEO Motion Detection Example", font="georgia", size=24, text_color=$ff0000, align=9) and save it as C:\avitest\example1.avs Now open up my computer, and find the avitest folder. It should have the two files test1.avi and example1.avs in it. Play the test1.avi file to make sure it plays ok. Now, to see the results of the avisynth script. Play the example1.avs file in your windows media player - you should be able to do this by right clicking on the example1.avs file and selecting play. If it worked, you should see the original clip - but with text superimposed. Try a second example, with two sets of text. Open up notepad again, and copy paste the following into a blank empty document. # Some text in the upper right corner of the clip with specified font, size and color: AviSource("c:\avitest\test1.avi") Subtitle("GEO Motion Detection Example", font="georgia", size=24, text_color=$ff0000, align=9, first_frame=1, last_frame=50) Subtitle("Go Dog Go!", font="georgia", size=24, text_color=$ff0000, align=5, y=150, first_frame=60, last_frame=200) Save it as example2.avs then play the that example2.avs file to see the results. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ If you didnt get the results, make sure you can indeed play the original file - if you cant, then the scripted ones wont play either. Second, make sure you have installed the avisynth without errors. Third, check you pasted the contents correctly into the example avs files, and that when you saved them you did save them as a .avs file Fourth, shout if still having probs.... --------------------------------------------------------------------------- How does it work? AVISynth is a scripting tool that lets you do some really cool things with media files, what you have seen above is only the tip of the iceberg, you can play clips backwards, rotate, blend, sharpen, merge, dub audio, combine clips and all sorts! This particular example uses the subtitle function, which is explained at http://avisynth.org/mediawiki/Subtitle The first example does not specify any start or end frames, so the text is just applied to the whole avi file. In the second example, the first subtitle command shows the 'geo motion detection' line starting from frame 1 and keeps it there until the end of frame 50 Then it will continue playing normally (no text) until it reaches frame 60 (first_frame=60), which is where the second subtitle (go dog go) is told to start. That text stays until frame 200 (last_frame=200) Hope that makes sense? Still half asleep today, so not that hot on explaining, shout it stuck There is a lot of info on avisynth on the net, so you can ask in specialist areas for lots of advice if needbe, its a cool tool - and free...... Remember also, there are loads of functions, it will take a long time to learn them all (I have only scratched the surface myself, keep meaning to find time to learn more!) Experiment with the examples, use different fonts, colours sizes etc. Read the page that explains what each parameter does, as there are others not used in that example, try them, see what they do! That one command alone will allow superimposing of text both for demos, and for when you need to send files to the press with your company name all over. Im fairly sure you can superimpose images to, but its been a long time since I last looked at avisynth.... I know you can 'blur out' logos, so you could use that ability to blur out faces in certain frames.... Its a ideal thing for someone to knock up a program to create scripts, I would do it, but not got any free time at present. Saying that though, its easy to add simple bits of text by hand like this.

Scrolling LED display signs are quite eye catching, and can be used to let the customer know what is going on in a display at any point. Look on ebay, you will see loads of them. You can get ones that are programmable via a tv style remote control, and others that you can send the text to via a serial port on a pc / portable whatever. A display showing different lenses would be interesting, set up a range of cameras with different lenses on, from wide angle to long range zoom, and let them see what the difference can be with a different lens. (maybe allow them to press the buttons on a multiplexer to switch to different cams, or wire up the alarm inputs on a multiplexer/dvr to buttons for '3mm lens, 8mm lens etc) If you sell pan tilts or domes, let them control one, so they can see it moving around, and the results on camera. If you sell covert stuff, put a sign up saying, can you find the hidden camera.... Or something like that... Let them see if they can find it. Get some footage from your cctv system of different setups, save it as avi files and then superimpose text over it explaining what they are seeing. (pm if you need info on how to do that) so you can play recorded clips over and over showing different setups/lighting, cameras/lenses and have on screen what they are seeing as a nice text line somewhere. (you can also do some effects to make things prettier).

Yes, they should display fine, but obviously in black and white.

Actually, the police got it wrong yet again.... If your camera has is capable of being moved/zoomed etc remotely, which a PTZ camera obviously is, then you fall under tha Data Protection Act, and would technically have to register your camera, comply with the scheme, and pay the fees.... Normal domestic cctv usually is exempt, but PTZ's are not... at least as far as I understand what I have read, Ludicrous isnt it... see http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/library/data_protection/practical_application/cctv_system_and_data_protection_act_-_when_the_act_applies.pdf for a bit more of a explanation. You definately cant have your camera pointing at anyone elses property (ie windows, paths etc) as that would be an invasion of their privacy. As for the roads, I would assume you dont have any reasonable expectation of privacy in this area, PLUS I am sure a good lawyer would be able to make something out of the following judgement http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/showbiz/2939471.stm where it clearly states there is 'no law of privacy' If you were pointing them at the road side to 'spy' on someone, or to gain information about someone in particulars movements, then that would be wrong, but if they are just recording a crime as it happens, then I would love to hear the police explain why capturing a crime as it happens on cctv is illegal. But Im not a lawyer, so if needbe get legal advice as it could fall under human rights laws etc.

Here is a animation to explain - Image of a moving car captured by a camera, with a lampost on the left for a fixed-point reference. As the car is moving fairly fast, it will have moved between the time the camera captures the first field, and the time it captures the second field. (remember a full frame picture is usually made up out of two feilds, odd and even lines) The animation shows field one, then field two (one field will be all the odd lines, the other all the even lines. You will just have to imagine there is a blank line in between every line in field one and field two) Then it shows them as a DVR rendered them de-interlaced (where it kindof merges the images, but you still get a ghost type effect on fast moving images) Followed by finally the normal interlaced frame which is basically just the odd lines combined with the even lines from field one and field two - this has the jaggies as the car in field on has moved by the time the camera captured/sent field two.... So the car will be in a different position on the odd lines than it was on the even lines, if that makes sense.... as you can see there is a tradeoff, you either can display de-interlaced, but get the motion blur, or display interlaced and get the jaggies or displlay just a field, in which case only half the resolution... (thats not clear on the example though, its just a example!) Some DVR's allow you to record both fields, and then give you the option of viewing either just one field, or both fields interlaced, or both fields de-interlaced - this is a good solution as you can switch views to get the best one depending on the content of the image.

Yellow is 12v DV so power only 12V DC cameras.. I use one myself for testing cameras, but if you use one for a real camera, that you rely on for security, remember that they shut down on a short-circuit, so all a thief would need to do is short the power and the camera is dead, and remains dead until you manually restart the power. Also - remember a pc power supply can put out a large amount of current (enough to easily start a fire under certain fault situations) I would recommend putting normal fuses between the 12v power from the pc supply, and the camera being powered, as although the psu will shut down on a dead short, the fault may not produce a short, but may draw say 15 amps or whatever, enough to set something on fire. A standard fuse should be used to stop that from occuring. Use at your own risk...

Ok, what is a prescriptive easement Not only do I not understand them, I have never heard of the phrase before in my life.... Has whatever it is been explained to the neighbour? (Im curious as to what one is, in these circumstances) Secondly, your lawyer forgot to renew a TRO (what is a TRO?)... Surely if your lawyer was under instructions to renew it, and your explicit wishes were that the lawyer should take care of that, then the lawyer is negligent, and you could maybe think about suing... Bear in mind, I am not a lawyer, you would need to get professional advice, but the lawyer is supposed to be the pro, and if they screw up - well they are insured against claims against that sort of thing..... Third, you say you have cameras, is your neighbour aware of the reasons why you have cameras, and what exactly they see? Maybe he is just peeved and paranoid thinking your spying on him, and decided to play what he thinks is the same game back on you.... Is it just a lack of communication, or is he really nuts?

You would probably need a IP68 rated system, IP68 is a rating where the product is tested to work 'long term' underwater, under pressure. Most stuff, including the pelco mentioned is rated at best at IP66, which is not designed for underwater use. You have to remember that its much easier to 'airtight' or even waterproof something at normal pressure levels (rain, spray etc) than it is to completely seal a product so it can withstand the extra 'underwater' pressure - and the deeper it goes the more pressure it has to withstand. Also, most weatherproofiing is designed for withstandings medium term punishments (ie it does not rain for ever) but when its in a pond, it has to be permanent... Do a search on IP ratings, and BS. EN.60529 to find out more about the different types of ratings. A IP68 system will probably not be cheap so one of the other solutions would probably be more realistic.

To all those past and present, that I didnt get a chance to say hi to - HI!!! Welcome to the forums, hope you have fun, they are a great set of forums. One thing, can I ask a big favour, when people post, the answers people give often depend on the country you live in, so it *really* does help other people to answer you in more detail if you have fill in the location field in your profile. Things like the TV system you use (PAL, NTSC, SECAM) depend on the country you live in, mains voltages, privacy laws etc all depend on where you live, so if you dont fill in your location field, no one knows where you live, and you could get really bad advice, or none at all, if people dont want to risk it, not knowing if the advice would apply. Cheers folks.....

Wow, they are tiny!

Dont forget if you go it alone, you would be the sales guy, the marketing guy, the purchasing guy, the cctv tech, the installer, the everything! you would have to support all the things you installed yourself, as well as sell and install them, so you would probably need to hire people, which costs money..... You would need to convince some clients that you would have the resources available to be able to support them, and that you will be around in the long term. Can you offer good prices, a established company may be able to bulk buy things to get better prices. Course, once you get established, you may make enough money to hire people, and bulk buy, and rapidly expand, but dont forget the how hard it will be doing everything yourself until you get to that point. What if you fall ill, and you get a support call, you need to make sure you cover all you bases.

The external tank camera is a sony XC-999 camera, 3.5mm lens. The camera also has two “bladeâ€

A quad is for combining 4 cameras into one screen, ie 4 small images (camera 1,2,3,4) making up the whole picture. You can see al the cameras, but they are recorded all at once, so each one is only one quarter of its real size. If you record the output from a quad onto a VCR or DVR, and play it back, it would play as it was originally recorded, and be viewable, but each camera would be only 1/4 of the screen. A switcher is a simple switch, you manually switch to a camera when you choose to, some can be set to automatically switch through the cameras every so often. When one is being viewed/recorded, the others are not... If you record the output of a quad onto a VCR or DVR and then play it back, it would show you the cameras that you had selected at that time, or that it had switched to automatically. A Multiplexer records however many cameras it handles (ie a 4 channel multiplexer can handle up to 4 cameras) each camera is recorded FULL screen, but they are recorded timelapse style. For example, it will record camera one, for one frame, then record camera two for the next frame, then record camera 3 for the next, and finally camera 4. Then it starts again with camera 1. As it records full frame, you get the full detail, but at a reduced frame rate, the more cameras the multiplexer is handling the more reduced the frame rate. Intelligent, decent multiplexers can have motion sensing, or alarm inputs, so that when a event occurs on one of the cameras it is given priority over the others, so gets more frames recorded during the event. If you record the output of a multiplexer onto a vcr or dvr and play it back, directly (WITHOUT using the multiplexer again to decode it) it would show up as a fast moving sequence of different camera shots, pretty impossible to tell what is going on! To play back the multiplexer recordings, they need to be played back through the multiplexer in play mode, where it seperates the camera shots, and only displays the ones you want. Simplex multiplexers can only not play back whilst still recording, nor record while playing. Duplex multiplexers can playback whilst still recording, and record whilst playing. Be aware that you usually need a compatible DVR or VCR to work with a multiplexer (not always, but often) as they rely either on a electronic signal or a signal in the video signal to sycn frame switches. A Quad multiplexer, errr, that could be either a quad, or a 4 channel multiplexer, you would need to check with the supplier, as they are usually one or the other (BUT multiplexers can often display quad views whilst still recording the cameras in multiplex full screen) Multiplexers can also vary in the speed at which they can record, the extra features, and even in how much of the frame they record (some cut parts off) Hope that helps.

24v ac is easy to convert to 12vdc at the camera end if required, but its very difficult/impractical to convert 12vdc to 24vac at the camera end, so using 24vac gives you the option of using a converter at the camera end to power local 12vdc cameras/devices if required.

You could always resell them as authentic looking dummy domes