kensplace

Yes, there are lots of advantages to using 2 16 channels instead of one 32 channel. The main one is if you get a failure of the 32 channel machine you are dead in the water, no cameras being recorded at all. Whereas if one 16 channel goes down, you still have the other one, and can if needed rearrange the cables so you are still recording the 16 most important cameras. If technical, and the machines are out of warranty years down the road, having two machines (one working, and one that died) makes it much easier to find out what part is broken, as you can substitute parts from one to the other to test before ordering. Secondly, you will have two sets of controls, 32 cams is a lot for one person to handle. Thirdly, the data is stored on two machines, meaning if a hard drive fails, you only lose the cams on that machine, so if you are careful about making sure each machine covers some of what you need at least you will have some footage in the event of a failure. Fourth, in the event of a burgler trying to steal the dvr, it will be twice as hard to find/unplug/carry two machines instead of one. Plus its likely two good 16 channel machines will have better frame rates than one machine trying to handle 32 cams, but I gues that is dependant on what you get at the end of the day. Also, if you need to experiment or train someone, whilst the system is live, with settings, you can use the dvr with the less important cams on to experiment, instead of playing around on the machine with all 32 cams on, and risking getting it wrong and messing up all 32! Upgrades/maintainance, same as failures, with a 32 cam machine they all go dead if you need to shut down to upgrade anything, or whatever. On the 2 16 cam machines you can do them one at a time, leaving one machine still recording. Plus you have double the monitor outputs, double any remote capabilities, double everything really with two machines instead of one.

You can also get nasty suprises from electricity stored in uncharged capacitors, and a risk of implosion if you accidently break the tube whilst inside the set. Plus the chassis can often be live on tv sets.

People need to know the answer to the question askd earlier, what drv/software are you using. Kindof impossible to give an answer without knowing your setup.

Cool, nice one. Fancy honeywell not having any replacement atx psu's...

Do a google search for GSpot, once you find the gspot, download it and run it on a known working clean pc, that should be the same as the customers (ie same windows, geo etc) and then make a note of the installed codecs (view , installed codecs). Do the same on the customers machine and compare the two, see if the customers machine has any codecs on it that the clean one does not have. Never thought I would tell any one to search for gspot on google

Have they been installing codec packs/utilities so they can watch downloaded clips and movies on that pc?

Ouch, looks like you may need to use a form that the customer signs off in future, stating the layout of the system, camera locations, etc and that they are happy with the install/training/locations in general etc...

Have you had a look inside to see what type of psu it is using? (safety first, unplug from mains before opening..... Warranty probably void once opened...) Not sure what your machine is using, but some DVR's just use standard PC ATX power supplies that you can pick up in most places for next to nothing. Worth taking a look to see if it is a ATX power supply, if it is, the power ratings will be shown on the cover, so you can get a suitably rated equivalent. Take and post a pic in this thread if you are not sure. Course, it may be a custom job, in which case, you would need either a exact replacement, or to know the actually voltages/amps for each wire in order to get a suitable replacement (or hack one) As for honeywell not having the replacement part, thats just typical of honeywell in my experience. Useless they are....

when you said you temp mounted a power supply with extension cords, how far away was that power supply? If its fairly near then can you not run a cable from that? Or was it a 700 foot long extension cord?

Can you post the full specs for the system (motherboard make/model, hard drives make/model, same imfo for other parts such as graphics card, other devices, software you are running etc, operating system, config etc)

When I did a access controlled door at home, I did it fail-secure lock wise, so if the power fails the room is locked and no one outside can get in (without breaking the door window, its not exactly high security as its on a internal door...) or using a key to manually open the door. (door can be opened physically by key or via a RFID keyfob.) BUT any one inside the room in the event of power failure can open the locked door just by turning the latch, exactly as they would as if the door did not have a electromagnetic strike. Sort of a mix of fail-safe and fail-secure.

It could take a long time for her to notice something is missing, how often does she check the contents of the attic? If it takes a long time for her to notice, then chances are any evidence will have been long since lost, unless you religiously either . a: Daily review all the footage from when she leaves the house. b: Archives ALL footage, and is prepared to spend ages reviewing it, after something is noticed missing. c: have a system that reliably notifies her of movement detected within the house (via phone or email), and she always checks the footage Does she check ALL her possessions on a regular basis, I know that if someone gained 'peaceful' access to my house, and I did not review the footage of the time it occured, then there are probably LOTS of items I would not notice had gone missing for a long time. Even if I could not find them, I would probably think I had mislaid them... An alarm would help to indicate if someone had been in the house, so she could check the footage over. Changing the locks is a must, as if thats not done, the person would have unrestricted access to the whole house, without arousing suspicion to anyone in the area, and could spend as long as they want searching for and then removing the recording device.

You will need a huge and very expensive lens if you want to see anything at a distance of one mile (ie see what is going on, identify people/cars etc). Probably around 10 thousand dollars worth or more for a new lens to do that sort of distance. Lighting would be a problem, the longer the zoom the less light it passes. Controlling it would be hard, small movements = large movements at those zoom ranges. It would be a big system, definately not discrete.....

When you use view log to save avi files, click on the settings tab, there should be an option to save as exe. If you do it that way, the codec required and a viewer will be exported along with the video/audio files - that way every thing you need is contained on the cd, and will play without problems.

Not sure what versions you have, but my 8.1 version has a backup option, in the view log, that can make a exe that is exported with the avi files. Copy the backup directory to cd and you have a complete package that can playback the files on the cd on any compatible pc.

CCD timing signals are something most people involved with CCTV would never need to be concerned with, only people who actually design the camera systems/subsystems (ie the original manugfacturers of a product) would be interested. Other than that, they could be of use to a repair engineer, but pretty unlikely as most repair now consists of just replacing a board... They would not be of interest to anyone designing a cctv system for installation, as all the work involving the timing is done at the design stage when the camera is manufactured, and its internal to the camera.. If you really want to know more, a good source of info is the datasheets/articles by the people that make ccd's and related interface IC's. For example, texas instruments datasheet http://focus.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/vsp2260.pdf, a google for ccd timing signals, or shd timing ccd, etc will give lots of links. Heavy reading though.....

Try editing the ini file for the protocol, geo has a ini file for each one, containing the commands used for each command. If you know the commands needed, then you could alter one of the existing spare ones to suit, maybe even try adding a new one. Have modified a ini before, so it is possible, but not tried adding any new items yet.

Find it a bit odd that your trying to sell a device to camera manufacturers that apparently is great at doing what current cams cant do very well, yet dont even know who makes cameras.. If you dont know even who makes them. you are likely to know even less about camera's and their systems, so unlikely to be in a position to say what the current systems can and cant do......

If stuff is stolen during office hours, then you could maybe look at http://www.loc8tor.co.uk/index.asp Hide a tag inside something 'stealable' and wait for it to go missing whilst at work. Soon as its gone, probably into someones bag or desk drawer, use the locator to find out who stole it - and catch them in possession of it. Only problem is, I dont know if you can turn of the tag's beeping (unless you open it and cut the buzzer connections) - as you would not want the item to start beeping and alert them something is up.... Mind you, if they were to remove the object far enough, it would not be trackable. PS - never used one, just found out about them today, no idea how good they work, but thinking about getting one at some point, seems a neat idea....

Anyone know the going end-user rate for a fastar digital commander dvr? or even ballpark figure for a branded, linux based standalone, 8 camera, full pal resolution recording at full 25fps per camera, 2.25 gig hdds, NAS network attached storage expandable, ethernet capabilities, built in telemetry control (not sure what protocols yet) Im guessing it would be rather costly to buy new? Just curious, as (fingers crossed, one will be arriving soon.....another bargain if it does arrive...) Never heard of them until now, they are current models, UK based, seem pretty good, but I wont know till I try it I guess... if it arrives that is...

Yippeee! They got back to me, with the control software needed! Installed it, and its looking excellent so far, but obviously a few minutes is not long enough to get to know a system. Quality is looking excellent so far, very good - kindof can see why they use these things in casinos..

I have been using a ECS board for years, never let me down... But that board, from a google search appears to be using VIA chipsets, and via is the kiss of death with GEO if I recall correctly, but it is far to early in the morning for my head to work properly

10 camera system. 26 big pole mountings so cams can be moved to different locations as needed. Wireless system. Good cameras (mainly look like metal mickey cameras) Installed, tested etc, continous 365 monitoring (at a existing, already built command center) The cost..... Wait for it.... 724 Thousand UK pounds... Which would be over 1.4 million US dollars. Any one got any ideas how a 10 camera wireless system could add up to that much?

Metal Mickeys, made "friendly" to the UK public as they were used (may have been modified to have broadcast quality cams inside) in the latest UK series's of big brother. Sold by forward Vision. Really annoyed as one sold on ebay for about 100 dollars once, working - and I missed it.... Grrrrr. Look like really, really nice cameras, and whats even better is the company seems to be pretty open about support/protocols etc, pretty rare in the UK. http://www.fvcctv.co.uk/products/index.htm Not 100 percent sure its those cams, but it looks like it could be, they are mounted so high up, I would need bionic eyes to check properly! Some of the cams look like normal ones in housings, those are fixed, not ptz. Funding is 'official', from the tax payers no doubt, project not direct from the council but through several organisations, that I am convinced seem exist just to line their own pockets. As for poles, its poles, mounts, the whole thing - big ones, custom built apparently in some cases. Cam sits on top, small wireless antenna on the side. Most are fairly close to each other (the layout of the cams is lousy, could have been thought out much better).

It did arrive, no software though, so going to have to wait until visimetrics gets back to me with a download link for the control software. Hopefully sometime soon - thats if they bother replying at all..... Going to have to wait until I can figure it out more (ideally with the proper software) before commenting on the quality, as the config at present may not be at its best, a bit like the out of the box config for geo is. Build wise its very solid, and looks new apart from a small dint at the rear on top and a tiny one front corner, probably over zealous postal workers at some point in its life.... 1U rackmount, nice stylish silver, front display (small lcd, not much use really, but still nice), solid buttons,plenty of fans (but very noisy), 2 hard drives fitted (only 900 gig in total, not as much as I was led to believe, but still a bargain for the price so not that fussed the seller got it wrong) No idea how to login yet via telnet, get the login prompt but stuck at that point without more info. The web interface just shows me status messages, so I guess a download is needed to control it fully. Just sitting waiting for them to reply, which hopefully wont take much longer, seeing as they claim to have the best support....