kensplace

There are three different types of legitimate card that I am aware of, DVI version PCI Version PCI Express version Its also possible that there could be counterfeit cards which look similar to the real one, but differ slightly.

Decided to take the plunge and upgrade to a better mux, I ended up going with a robot mv96p (ok I know its limited to 512x512 display, but it records at full res so I can always grab important frames if need be) as it was going cheap It works a treat with the dvr, right out of the box, I got a pcb with it for the connector on the back, so I can interface the two together, just bidding on some 15 pin d-subs so I can make up the lead... But no hurry, as it works without the vcr pin being connected. The dvr itself is still going strong, but picture quality wise, the liteon tv drv is far far far better - when I get some time I will see if this mux is compatible with the liteon.

Its something I am toying with, I have a couple of solar panels, and am looking into knocking something up when I get some time. It does not look like a cheap solution though, to power cams and a transmitter you will need a decent size (therefore expensive) solar panel, and a battery. The battery is required as solar panels are not very effective at night, or during bad weather, due to lack of sunlight. No light equals no power, so you need to use the solar panel to keep a battery charged up, and its the battery that powers the camera. The solar panels put out a variable voltage and current depending on the sunlight available, so you will need a charge regulator to supply the battery with a suitable charge, and to cut charge when the battery is full. Just connecting a solar panel (with a diode so the battery power does not flow back into the panel) to a battery is not good for the health of the battery as the voltage and current are not constant nor monitored. Most solar regulators also disconnect power to the device under power if the battery capacity is exhausted past a certain point - which means you could suddenly lose the camera picture without notice. It does this to protect the battery from being over discharged, which can damage it. So you need to find a part that is designed to protect a battery, but that does not protect it - going to be hard to find of the shelf, you may need a custom circuit. Batteries are also likely to need replacing every few years, and the whole thing would be fairly large, what with a decent sized solar panel, sealed lead acid battery and regulator. The whole thing needs to be well designed also, to make sure that the solar panels have enough output for your location to be able to keep the battery charged up enough to power the cam (even during bad days where there is little light), this means a nice powerful battery, and a solar panel to match. Certainly not a cheap way to power cams... How you set the system up is more important than the resolution in most cases. A world of difference exists with different lenses, the field of view that is captured depends on the lens, to wide a field of view making a object to far away/to small, will not produce evidential quality stuff. Position the cams to point at strategic places, places a intruder is going to have to pass by, choose lenses that give a nice clear picture of that area, and no more than is needed, use the available resolution to capture important stuff, not a wide area. Wide angle lenses are great for a overview, so you can see what is going on, but you need closer shots to get real close up detail, unless you go multi-megapixel by spending silly amounts of money. Lighting, even camera set up, all plays a important role, cams work better with plenty of light, and most cameras work better if they are adjusted fully according to their use, rather than just plugged in and used 'out of the box'.

Confused how ntsc can be dominated with mega pixel cams, as NTSC is only 720x480 which is only 345600 pixels, or just under 0.35 megapixels. So all standard ntsc stuff is no where near megapixel, there may be some stuff that is capable of higher resolutions, but on a ntsc system, its not seen anyway, so does not count.. All the high res pics I see seem to be pretty static shots with good lighting, would love to see how they cope at high res full frame rate, on a dark, wet night looking at traffic etc. Plus information on how much bandwidth it uses, and how much it cost, etc

You need a pair of baluns (one at each end of the cable) for each camera. (unless your camera has a twisted pair balun compatible output, which is rare, but can be purchased) Or a box with multiple baluns in, at each end of the cable. If you run one long cat5 to a junction box, you could put the four individual baluns (or a box with 4 baluns in it whatever you have) into that junction box, then just use rg59 cable from each balun in the junction box to the cameras. Or split a pair of wires of the main cable at each camera point, put that into a balun then wire that to the camera (some baluns plug direct into the camera, some require a rg59 lead from balun to camera, depends on what you have). First option is definately easier and neater, and less hassle in the long run, and as they are within 20 feet of each other, its not much extra cable really.

Just wondering, has any one tried a polarising filter? I would try it, but I have no idea where mine has gone (one of the lenses I have lets me screw on a adapter which lets me use the filter). The block sunlight coming from a certain direction, you turn the filter to select which direction. They dont work for head on sunlight though, so your cams would need to be at a angle. Not sure if it would work, thats why I want to find that darn filter - but if it did, then it would be a good and cheap solution.

You did get baluns for the cameras and the recording end also?

Easy way to find out if its the mains from the lights interfering, try just sticking a normal table lamp in the room, then turning the tube lights off. See if the problem goes away, if it does, you know it is the lights... Course that would need to be done out of business hours. Does the problem persist if you plug a camera into the dvr or whatever locally, to rule out the actual display / recording part of the system?

Theres a couple of options I can think of, the first is to run the cat5 the 200 feet to a junction box, then run individual cables from that box to each camera. The second is to have a the cable go into a small junction box near each camera, take out the two wires you need and run through the rest of the cable to the next box. The first option is a lot neater, and has the benefit that if any cable to any single camera is cut / chew / snapped etc then the other three will be unaffected.

Impossible to give a truthful answer, as to be honest, the country of origin of a product, be it china or taiwan does not give me any clue as to the specifications of either the camera's or the dvr card. But in general a dvr is a dvr, as long as it supports the right tv system (pal or ntsc etc, whatever your cameras and display equipment is) and it fits, then no reason it should not work. Course the easiest way, is to just check the specs, should not be difficult if you are familiar with cctv (which you should really be, if you are in the business of selling it to people) of both the cams, and the dvr. If they want to buy a product you are not familiar with, then I would make it clear to them they are buying just that, and that you cant promise what the quality will be like, as you have no idea.....

What are they currently use to control the telemetry coaxitron box?

Quick google search for "panaplus" showed plenty vendors selling it. Looks pricey for something that looks like it took about half an hour to write though.... Although writing something like that depends on knowing the protocols for the device, which are sometimes not public knowledge.

The iris just alters the light levels, and the depth of field (how much is in focus at once in the shot). With the iris fully open, there is less depth of field, meaning you need to focus on the area you want, and other futher away areas may be out of focus. As the depth of field is shallower with the iris open, its easier to see if the image is properly in focus, which is why when people back focus they open the iris fully, either manually or by using nuetral density filters of some sort. Close the iris, and the depth of field is greater, meaning more is in focus, but as more is in focus, its harder to know if the image will be in focus when there is more light and the iris is open more.

According to the web link,he has been found now, all ends well!

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 - some housings have worse windows than a house does, especially once they have been in use and cleaned a few times, those second hand pelco housings I got dramatically cut the available light, so much so, Im going to replace the plastic with glass. But at least outdoors in a housing, theres no light reflections from indoor lights...

So if the camera is lowered slightly, it disconnects straight away? If thats the case, someone could force open the padlock (assuming it is locked...) and stick a drill in, and the camera would not be able to see whats going on, as it would have no power. They could then walk away with a expensive camera system. Or is the locking system secure enough to withstand brute force attack?

Is this a day night camera, does it mention anything about a IR cut filter, just the specs say its a colour ccd and colour ccd's are not infra red sensitive, unless the camera is specifically designed to switch to mono at night. Its also a 1/4 inch ccd, which is pretty small, and the smaller the ccd the less sensitive to light it will be, in general. Have you shone that other led light at the camera, does it flood the camera with light (if it does, and it looks really bright, then the camera is ir sensitive). If it just shows, but is not like a floodlight then its not ir sensitive. Even a remote control could be used, point it at the cam and hold down a button, and see if it picks up the IR light really well. On the second row of pics the first pic looks like either the cam is to far back in a housing, or more likely the lens is wrong, as you can see what looks like the lens case around the outside. o idea whats going on with the second picture on that row, looks like it may be out of focus maybe, what is it meant to be showing? The third pic also shows something odd, like a reflection of something round.

any idea what specs the current cams are? resolution? Is the quality ok when viewed direct through a tv, or is it the same through a tv as when captured?

Generally a 1.2 amp power supply should easily be able to power 2 cams with room to spare for more, but its impossible to say for certain, as we dont know what camera you are using, and how what its power requirements are. It may have the power requirements written on the cam, (watts or ma required) or the info may be available if you search its model number on the net. In general though, it would have to be a beast of a camera to use more than 0.6 amp at 24v (unless you are also powering lights or heater or pan tilts etc, in which case you can easily find the psu is not up to it) If the camera does not state its requirements, and you cant find the info anywhere, you can check how much power its using with a multimeter that measures current (not voltage, you need one that does current, not all do) But in general, 2 standard cctv cams (with nothing extra hardware) should work of that psu easily.

Even if you could have 100 cams connected to a single pc, which at present, due to the design of the pc hardware I dont think is possible, due to pci bus limitations, I would not recommend it. Dont think I have ever seen anything that will record 100 cams on one device (certainly not at full frame rate), it may exist but never come across it yet. Whatever you choose, either pc based, or standalone hardware solutions, you will be better of with splitting the project up into groups of cameras, with 100 cameras one person will not be able to monitor them. Having the recording split over several machines will also avoid having all your eggs in one basket, if you have a hardware fault, you dont want to lose the recording capabilities of ALL cameras in one go. If its split over several devices (be it pc, or otherwise) then if one fails, you still have the others, and if any important cameras were on the failed device you can swap them to a working one until the repair is completed. With a large system like this, you will need something that is capable of splitting the cameras into groups or zones, so you have say a zone for each floor, or area you want to protect. Standalone hardware solution would probably be a large matrix system, which lets you select which zone you want, then which camera in that zone, then when selected you can also control the camera (if fitted with telemetry and zoom/pan tilt etc). Similar with a pc based system, a pc for each group of cameras, but as you mention it depends on how scaleable geo is for multiple pc systems if you want central control from one station, no idea on that score. Hardware based will allow selection of any cam from one point with a decent matrix system. If the system is to be monitored (rather than just recorded and reviewed after any event) then the system must provide a method of allowing several operators to control different cameras, as if you stuck a 100 camera display in front of one person chances are someone could be murdered in one of the screens and they would never see it, as there is just to much to look at. Four cams is pretty easy to watch, eight still possible, but not as easy, it gets trickier, and much easier to miss things with 16 cams, and anything above that would just be asking for trouble. So several displays would be needed for realtime monitoring, unless you only view screens that have motion detected on them or alarms triggered, which could reduce the amount you need to look at (unless all hell breaks loose and motion occurs on most cams!) As far as recording goes, either multiple pc or dvr solution, with frame rates depending on your needs, its not going to be a cheap system, as thats a lot of cameras to record, and unless its monitored realtime by more than one person, reveiwing the footage would probably be a full time job for more than one person.

Depends on a number of factors, the gauge of the wire, the power drawn by the camera, and length of cable. The more power the camera draws, the bigger the voltage drop will be. Just measured a 12v baxall cctv cam, it uses 200ma, or 0.2amps at 12v so a typical camera does not use much power, obviously some camera's may draw more, some less. There are a couple of online calculators for voltage drop, one is http://www.gweep.net/~sfoskett/tech/poecalc.html There is nothing stopping you from using more than one pair of wires for power, if you have spare pairs, as the more pairs you use, the less the resistance,and the less the voltage loss. Not really done any 500m runs with cat5, so cant say for sure how it would go, it also depends how sensitive the camera is, some dont mind running at a lower voltage, some hate it!

Totally depends on the proxy, and what it is set up to allow OR it could be something simple like activex is turned off in the browser, or javascript or whatever geo uses, or the could only be allowing certain content through. Check your browser to see if it has the features enabled that are required for whatever demo you are using, then if no joy, I would try asking the people who set up the proxy to see if they can allow the sites you require. If its for the protection of the business then they should have no problem with it, unless they do have a problem with it, in which case they would not allow you to do it anyways.

ps, dont forget if the cable runs are long to work out the voltage drop, to make sure the cable you run is ok for the length. The longer the cable, the more voltage is 'lost' on the way to the camera, if to much is lost, it wont operate. If the cable runs are not particularily massive then you should be ok, but worth bearing in mind if a long run. The manufacturer/supplier of the cable should be able to give you specs on voltage drop for the cable/lenght of the run.

As long as you have the same pair at both ends for power, and another pair same at both ends for video then that will be fine. Make sure you obsvere polarity, positive at one end going to the same coloured wire for positive at the other end, and so on. Just make sure you dont mix wires from different pairs, the video must be transmitted over a twisted pair to ensure the signal is sent without interference. Make sure you dont buy *shielded* twisted pair cable, standard unsheilded cat5 or cat5e should be fine, the NVT (balun makers) state that shielded twisted pair should not be used, as it severely degrades the signal on longer runs. Its not important which pairs you use, as they should all be rated the same, but if possible I would recommend picking a colour pair for power, and a colour pair for video, and using the same colour pairs for each camera you wire up on a different cable. Logic behind it being, its much easier for people in the future if they know that you always used red/black (standard for power if those colours are available as a pair) for power, and that the same coloured cables are always used for video. Makes fault finding easier, if things are all laid out the same.

1) As stated earlier what would be more cost effective, CAT-5 or another 1000 or 2000 feet of siamese wiring? Cat5 should be available cheaper than siamese, normally you would have to figure out the cost of the cat5 + Baluns, but if you already have enough baluns then that additional cost does not matter. Bear in mind you will need 2 baluns per camera. 2) If using CAT-5 cable, would I need to have a special power adapter to get power to our cameras? What is the average cost? As long as the camera's are low voltage (NOT MAINS, for your own and others safety never use mains with baluns, or over non mains rated cable.) then the cat5 cable will cope with the power for the camera, just like siamese cable. Just dont exceed the volts/amps rating for the cable. Low voltage 12v or 24v cams should be fine, whatever you used to power them over siamese can be used for the cat5. 3) Would I be able to just run a single CAT-5 cable to the camera, and then to our pc DVR system, then just hook up the baluns to both ends (for the video) and then just use the other left over pairs to run power? - Yes, thats the normal method for using a pair of baluns, one at each end, and another pair of cables for power. If you dont already have sufficient baluns for the cameras that are left to be installed, then the question becomes, whats cheaper, siamese cable, or cat5+2 baluns per camera.