kensplace

Wirelesseye, you normally dont make me cough, but when you said your nvr can support unlimited cameras, well, I did..... Unlimited cameras? Even the worlds best systems, all networked together cannot support that.. Its a stupid statement, typical of what IP people come out with.......

Many manu claims in cctv are marketing bull.. Simple as that... At least as far as I have seen. Usually, the only way to find out if something is suitable for your needs is either to A:) Buy it, and find out the hard way or B:) Tell a pro what you need and get them to buy it for you A: always works eventually B: if you get a good pro will work first time, if not, at least you should demand money back.... If you want REAL day night, buy a top end b&w, and a top end colour, and use both cams. One cam will never do the job of two. Dont forget additional lighting also.... grrr at colon bracket coming out as a smily : )

Not many domes will be good at day night applications, as they usually wont allow for extra infra red lighting etc, and also may have a dome cover to see through that is smoked or tinted (unless you go for a clear dome, which kindof makes it easy to see where the dome is looking) A real ptz on a pt head will allow for lights that move with the camera, but they are pretty ugly to most people (not in my eyes though, I think they look great)). Domes / ptz are only of use AT THE TIME the incident occurs, as you cant move them after the event, so if you need evidence, and are not planning on sitting glued to a controller all the time, then I would go for multiple fixed cams. A PTZ as a fixed cam is ok, as long as you always return it to a fixed point once you finish playing with it. Not much real experience with domes, my ptz is a huge dennard 2000 head, with telemetry/matrix controllers etc. Its a beast that belongs outside a bank not inside on a old tv cabinet next to a window..... Just from reading, including stuff from derwent, who make the uniflood/miniflood lights etc, how domes can be a pain at night....

Smaller ccd sizes are usually less light sensitive, so larger is usually better (obviously a old half inch will probably not be as good as a modern quarter inch, due to techy improvements, but like for like, the bigger the better). Lenses get more expensive the larger the ccd usually, as quality should improve.

Like collin said, how could he alter your login, without knowing your password? Unless the customer has done something really sneaky, there is no way they could, and even if they knew your password, they should not have altered it, so whatever happens, I would charge them for it....

the auto-shutdown ones will more than likely be dc power supplies, they are usually switched mode, like modern pc power supplies. Like a modern pc power supply it will shutdown if its shorted out, the advantage of this is the speed at which it shutsdown can help to reduce the risk of damage to any faulty camera/wiring etc. Once the fault has been removed, and the psu has had time to recover, it will automatically be ok when switched back on, with no need to replace any physcal fuse. You can get ptc (i think they are called) fuses which are resettable, often used in pro ac supplies, but they blow like a normal fuse, ie not as fast as a switched mode would shutdown, but do reset after a rest/removal of fault. You could use a pc power supply to supply 12v cams, many of them, and they should shut down in the event of a short, but as they are not individually protected, all cams would go down in the event of one failure. You should be looking for a psu with individually fused outputs, or individually shutdown protected outputs.

Yes, if all cameras share the same single psu outlet without individual fuses then one fault could bring down all the cameras. Makes it easy for someone to short out one camera and kill the entire system. Individually fused ones should blow only the one fuse for that camera, leaving the others un-affected. Also, many individually fused psu's use resettable fuses rather than a blow-once fuse, so if some one did short one camera on purpose, the fuse would reset itself shortly after the fault went (not all psu's have those fuses though) Another point is safety, if you power multiple cameras from one outlet, then the fuse for that outlet would have to be rated at the combined current for all the cameras that are connected. So theoretically if each camera takes half a amp, and you have 16 cams, you would need at least a 8 amp fuse (probably a bit more to cope with start up current etc). If a fault occured that means up to 8 amps of current could flow down the fault before the fuse blew.. That would not happen with individual fuses, only half a amp max would flow. (or whatever the individual fuses are rated at)

Must still be something wrong somewhere, you should be able to get that resolution, the frame rate may drop, but you should not get a video lost issue even at that resolution.

The us has lots more legal gun ownership, and more illegal gun owners in general. Saying that, even in the uk, it depends on the area how you view the level of violence. Where I live there has been one double shooting at the pub down the road, with one death, one serious injury, and since then the pub has been torched... add to that a drive by house shootout, no injuries this time, add to that a brutal murder to the rear of our property (couple of streets away less than 1 mins walk), add to that a shooting in the knee at the pub just to the rear of our house, add to that the sofa set on fire just next door outside our house, etc etc etc... And guess what, they still have not installed ANY cameras in these areas, but spent god knows how much putting a whole LOAD off cctv cameras looking down backlanes about 5 minutes walk away. Weird aint it..... The uk seems to have lots of people who just dont care about cameras, they are that stupid they just dont care...... CCTV does deter a LOT of people from doing silly things, or even serious crime, but it will never stop a idiot, or someone high one drugs or seriously drunk.. I love the cameras, when they are working, or pointing the right way.they give me a sense of security (real or imagined) but due to the amount of coyboys in cctv in the uk, many people know that the cctv camera is not always going to produce decent footage, or even be working (heck I even saw a camera in tescos (a major supermarket) the other day that didnt have a bnc cable plugged in...)) Its rare to see decent footage of cctv stuff, and oddly when you do, its more common (at least when I watch the news) to see someone who could not care less the camera was there in the first place when the did the crime. I think it all depends on the location, the laws, and the people, the actual camera's deterent is variable on those factors. PS - I expect violent crime to rise dramatically in the uk in the next decade or so, totall lack of common sense from parents/judges/legal system, combined with tv, and lack of manners, and a weird lack of morals will lead to a future I dread to think about.. Cameras were not around years ago, but people were a lot nicer, now there is a lot less respect and law abiding'ness around, yet loads of cameras... Ahh Im rambling, but its hard to type when other half is rambling on and boring me senseless, so hope it made sense CCTV good - but not actually anything that makes a difference (at the time, obvously its a godsend after the fact) other than to those easily put off...

Earthing should be easy, you earth something for protection.. But in cctv its a different matter, in fact its positively confusing....... Should you earth the multiplexer if it has a earth tab? Should you earth the coax? Should you earth the baluns? Thing is, if the plexer has a earth nut, why do many sites say DO NOT earth cameras as this will cause them to be a magnet for lightning strikes and offer less surge protection? If a camera is supposed to 'float' then there is no problem when the cam is connected to all double insulated equipment... BUT what about when the camera is connected via a capture card, such as a tv card, or a geovision card? Those cards are EARTHED to mains earth (as far as I know), as they come into contact with the pc case, which is mains earthed - thefore the cams are no longer floating. Is this safe..... It may work, not bothered about that, what Im wondering, is: Is it safe...... Im lost on this issue, cant get my head around it. Then there are ups issues, a ups will supply mains even if its earth fails... So previously earthed equipment will run at full mains with no earth..... Reading up on it just confuses the issue, with lots of conflicting advice.

run dxdiag, see if any direct x files are missing or corrupted, reinstall direct x if they are.

Yup, according to task manager, its at 100 percent cpu usage pretty much permanantly

Mine doesn't have it, but my mobo is ancient, bought it around the turn of the century.....

Powering back up after a power failure is normally a option in the bios, but not all pc's have that option available. I guess you could maybe wire a capacitor across the atx power on switch terminals, so when power comes back on a brief current flows (to switch on) then once the cap charges no current flows and the pc is just 'on' Not tried it, but probably should work, either that or it would blow the board if the cap was to large. Once the pc is powering back on, just make sure the software is in the startup folder, and any services it uses (if applicable) are set to auto start, then it should just restart again on power up. PC's take longer (usually) to power up than a standalone will, as a standalone does not need to load anywhere near as much rubbish as a windows pc needs.

As for the moment I use my geo card on my pc (till I get a spare pc just for it) I use avg free, and with geo running the scan takes so long it starts a new scan before the old one has finnished, so if I go away for a few days several scans run concurrently! Will have to turn of the daily scan Interestingly, the emails are slow when geo runs, downloading emails with incredimail takes ages, so what I do is get task manager up, and right click on the gv1480 entry and select priority, then change it to below normal. Geo still seems to run as normal, and the emails speed in a full speed.

What about digging a hole in the middle of the road ,mounting the camera in the hole (in a suitable casing) and putting heavy duty perspex or something over the opening so the camera can see through. Angle the camera so its not pointing directly up, and implement some means of slowing the cars down, ramps, barrier, signs etc.

ok looked again, and the more I look, the more I realise beer makes schematics harder, so the advice given in general is ok, but for that specific one, well, its maybe not the best, as my head is spinning but the experiment, and no.nc/c stuff is still the same.

caught me drunk again, hey its still christmas (ps merry christmas everyo ne) Hopefully the following info will help you Where it referers to C on the instructions think of that as "common", and one side of the strobe to it, usually the positive connection from the 12v power. as for NO an NC, they are as follows NO is Normally Open, ie its not usually connected to the C (common) so if you wire that to the strobe nothing will happen until you power the relay coil, at which point the strobe would light for as long as the coil had power (you do realise that the strobe would only come on for a short time, usually the pirs dont latch the output) The NC is the opposite, normally closed, so the two contacts are normally touching, ie the strobe would be always on, until the sensor powered the relay, turning them off. Its only 12v, experiment with a multimeter on continuity setting, or ohms reading, watch or listen to what happens, its a good way to learn (and safe without load on 12v) If you want the strobe to stay on, you would need a timed relay module.. so one wire to C and one wire to NO should do it. ie power to C, NO into strobe, other strobe wire to ground. seriously though, play around, its something you will learn fast, through doing. saying that, thats one weird module, the pos and neg are probably where power needs to be, but hey im tipsy.. Experiment, learn, and enjoy

Not used the equipment you are referring to, but in general, these are my feelings Firstly, most decent dvrs should not be noisy, even with a fan, as the fans are usually quite small, and not that powerful. With, or without a fan, many dvrs will suffer from overheating, as adding a fan is not going to always solve the problem, sometimes they are added more for effect than actual cooling, with little thought about airflow in the design. Even if its a good design, and a decent fan, the typical life of a dvr is going to rely on the hard drive, and they will be heavily used in a typical dvr... If your worried about the life, then get one with a decent warranty (which is pointless if you rely on the dvr for security, as if it fails, its failed, and if it fails when you need the recording...............) or monitor the temps and if needbe add extra cooling, or replace the hard drive on a regular basis. noise should be the last concern, as you should be able to put the dvr in a remote location, say another room, and control it remotely. Failing that, whats worse, a small amount of noise, which you will quickly learn to ignore subconciously, or the risk of premature failure of a device you may need the most at the exact moment of failure? Fanless or fanned, they can and will probably fail at some point, best advice I can give is to either add extra cooling, or if fanless, make sure you keep a close eye on the temps. Ignore what friends say, especially when they have that system, unless they have tried other ones, or are a expert in the area. He/she will be biased as they wont want to admit any flaws in what they bought. Go for a system that suits your needs, not your wallet. Obviously there is a balance to be made, but if you get a system that is cheaper just for the sake of it, and find at the end of the day it wont give the footage you need to get all your stolen belongings back, then it would have been more than just a waste of money. Need to be careful here, just because they dont look like they are invading does not mean you can invade with non intrusive looking one, you still need to respect local privacy laws and common sense. Remember also, it only takes one neighbout to point out to other neighbours the dome could be looking into their property and they cant tell if it is, if that happens you could get a lot of angry neighbours. If you go dome, do your research, not all domes are good.

Not that im interested in buying, but I have always wondered why so many sellers specify adamantly only us or canada only, is there a reason they exclude the rest of the world?

im sitting using my girlfriends portable, a old compaq evo running windows 2000, and it works fine with geo control center remote desktop and remote dvr watching around 10 cams on average. No problems at all.... Graphics are fine on it.

You would need a 12v coil relay, with contacts rated for the strobe light, ie 240v for uk mains, or 110 or 120 whatever the us mains is, and however many amps the lamp is. If its a 12 or 24v strobe then obviously just get a relay that can handle at least those volts and the amps for it. There are quite a few premade relay control boards on the market, even on ebay that would do the job if you want a simple solution, or you can buy the relays themselves from any decent electrical component supplier. As its for a customer your best of getting a premade board to protect yourself from liability issues, and for safety, as its easy to screw up with mains, and you may not live to tell the tale if it goes wrong.. Plus, even if you can make one yourself, there a usually a load of regulations about what you can sell to people, and if its a mains strobe I would go premade. Low voltage is a different matter (usually, but still I would check your local regulations, its illegal for me to make a 12v ir lamp and put it in my back yard on a permanent basis in the uk without informing builing control and paying a large inspection fee, the world is going crazy.....) Cost wise, on ebay Im sure they are available for about 10 to 30 pounds new, roughly doulbe those figures for us dollars, but then again electrical stuff seems to be cheaper in the us than in the uk.. Not able to recommend any particular product at the moment, as had a few to drink, and been waiting all day to get on the net, but other half kept me away, saying its christmas but if you need any pointers on something suitable them pm me to remind me in a few days, and I can hunt around for some links when sober

dc and ac should both loose volts the same, unless Im missing something.. AC just suffers less in cctv as ac is almost always 24v, and dc 12 - so dc is less to start with. Combine that with the fact that DC cams that require 12v often actually require 12v (or close, maybe they feed a 9v reg, so 11 would work, depends on the cam) whereas 24v cams have lots of headroom as they still only need 9v or 12v to operate, and the 24v ac is rectified to dc then fed into a voltage regulator to get the 12v or 9v or whatever the cam needs. As 24 is coming in, there is lots of room to loose voltage via volt drop before a problem is noticed. Plus, 12vdc supplies (good ones anyway) should put out pretty much 12v exactly (or 13.7 i think) for the non regulated ones, but 24v ac ones can easily put out 27 or more volts under a light load, as they are almost always cheaply made, usually nothing more than a box, transformer, fuse, connectors and hefty price tag - they wont have any voltage regulation, and the voltage they supply will vary according to the load connected - unlike a regulated 12v supply, which sticks at 12v

Never used one, but looking at that page, and the specs on it, It appears to be a seperate psu, with the cam just needing 12v at 2a. Now I have had a fair bit to drink, so not going to say if its safe to pass 2a at 12v down cat 5, but my gut feeling for 2 amps would be thats a lot of current, and without doing some sober research I would not try it. Gut feeling says 2a would need bettter cable for power than cat 5, but could be wrong, its nearly christmas, and not going to do research

What do you mean by motion detectors? PIR, motion detection on a multiplexer, motion detection on a dvr, or pc dvr card/software? If, which I think you are, talking about a pir (passive infra red) detector, as used on alarms, then they are basically a switch that triggers when the ir changes enough to trigger them. Its basic electronics to wire up one of those to a suitably rated relay or scr (silicon controlled rectifier, think of it as a relay with no moving parts) to control a strobe light. If its a low voltage, low amperage strobe the pir may even be able to control it directly, but usually you would need to use the pir to trigger a buffer, ie a relay or scr or equivalent to operare the strobe. If your not familiar with the above, you could maybe get one of the security lights that has a pir built in, and wire up the strobe instead of the bulb (assuming both are mains, and the strobe does not draw more current than the original lamp) - BUT if your not familiar with basic electronics I would recommend getting somone experienced or qualified (experienced preferred, sometimes exams alone dont teach real world lessons) to do it for safetys sake, as mains can kill easily.