gazz

Could it be caused by a load of the infra red led's dying? I noticed a similar problem on one of my cams, great pic in decent light, at night it was grainy as hell where it used to be clear, i found out about 3/4 of the infra red led's had died, i put another illuminator ting assembly in that camera, all led's working and the picture was back to normal at night again, If the cam can't be opened up to have it's led ring replaced, then maybe an external infra red illuminator mounted by the side of the cam may help... tho it depends on the cost of a new cam of course.

Yup, i want to move some cheap cameras a little bit in my aviary, so i can adjust the position they point at the nests a little, to see the chicks being fed when the parents are standing so they block the cams view occasionally, the camera's are those round bodied ones, about the diameter of a deodorant can, and about 4 inches long, weigh next to nothing, I need no security, no weather protection, no over engineered so it wont break type durability, really the opposite of what most people want in a CCTV situation, a couple of hobby servo's will be ideal, cost about a tenner the pair, rather than 5 times the camera's cost for a proper ptz mount, I was also thinking of making a kind of turntable, the pan servo would rotate the camera mounted on the edge of the turntable around an axis, so it could position the camera anywhere around the perimeter of the nest site, that case the servo would be modified for continuous rotation, but i still need to translate the pelco commands into servo left and right commands. But it's the code he's put on the chip that does the magic, unfortunately there are a lot of people on youtube who are just showing off what they have built as a way to 'prove' they are better than others, i guess that's half of the reason youtube exists, but it's much better when people help each other out with similar projects.

Unfortunately i got pretty much the same response on electronics forums, they all say 'just buy a proper ptz mount' or use servo's and run wires back to a dedicated controller made out of bits of old computer joystick and sticky tape.... or even connect the servo's to a RC reciever, and use a RC transmitter to move them. The protocol is pretty simple, if you understand the programming languages, which i dont very well, but i figured i'd use an arduino, i'd need an RS485 'shield' which is basically just a rs-485 to TTL converter chip mounted on a board that plugs straight into an arduino, this gets the rs-485 signals safely into the arduino, i then need to faff about getting the arduino to listen to the commands, then translate them into servo movements and output to the servo's, The servo side is already present for arduinos, you just need to tell it what angle in degrees and on which pin the servo you want to move is on, and it'll do it, it's just translating the pelco commands into something the arduino can understand and work with. prolly a 5 minute job for someone who knows a programming language, but for me i may as well be trying to fly to the moon on my pushbike. anyhoo, the pelco protocol is: http://www.commfront.com/RS232_Examples/CCTV/Pelco_D_Pelco_P_Examples_Tutorial.HTM So need to figure out how to get say 'FF 01 00 04 3F 00' into something like 'pin1, servo.write(160)' tho that would just take the servo to 160 degrees, need to add the code to move the servo constantly untill a stop command is recieved, or untill the servo reaches the end stop/180 or 0 degrees is reached, but that code is already present too. There is one person on youtube who has done just this: But he dosent seem to want to give the code out, despite a few people asking including my self... and possibly you?? someone wanting to move a 1lb camcorder.

I seem to have done something wrong on this forum, on everyones ignore list or something? Last year i was after some new domes for my PTZ cams, as seen above in the thread, i was offered some, but when i tried to get them, nothing happened, i PM'd twice, offering to pay the going rate and postage even, but nothing. Thing is i really need a pair of clear domes for my sunkwang PTZ's, as i have found out that the angle of the sun at this time of year in the morning is just right, or wrong, so it is making all the scratches and nicks on my domes stand out even more, so much so that half the time the lens focuses on a scratch rather than the object i am trying to look at. I have resorted to running one of the camera's with the dome off as it's that bad, luckily the cam is located under a sheltered area, so no chance of rain getting in, but it's still not a good idea to run them domeless i imagine, not to mention the vulnerability, Please, can someone help me get some new domes for my cams, i will happily pay for them, i just need the standard clear ones, so hoping i can find someone like before who had swapped the clear for smoked ones to sell me some.

I already have some PTZ domes in the roof of my aviary, the rest of the cams are fixed, and i point them at the nest sites the birds choose so i can keep an eye on the chicks, i rekon the parents know when i'm watching tho, as they are very good at standing on the nest so they block the view of the chicks when feeding them... and that's the bit i need to monitor the most... so watch for chicks not being fed etc. So i thought i'd mount the fixed camera's i have on pan and tilt mounts, and i figured the cheapest way to do that would be to get 2 standard hobby type servo's (the type used in radio controlled planes, cars, boats etc) mount one ontop of the rotating part of the other, and i can have pan and tilt with the camera mounted on the upper servo, only problem is i want to control the servo's with my existing cctv system (concept pro VXH264, and the matching VA-KBTPRO+) So i need a way to convert the pelco commands to servo commands, I looked at using an arduino and writing the code my self to do that, but coding is not my strong point, and i need a few other boards to get the RS485 signal to TTL levels for the arduino to understand, before i beging ti interpret the pelco commands and translate them into servo movements. So i was wondering if anyone knew of a ready made, and preferably dirt cheap board that can take a RS485 pelco input, and output something a pair of servo's will understand.

last year i asked a Q about getting new domes for my sunkwang PTZ cameras, Someone said they had a pair of new clear ones, but for some reason i couldent purchase them off him, Anyone know of a place i can buy some new domes from.. in the UK,

ahh well, never mind i guess, i'll keep looking for a place to buy some from.

hey there, any ideas if they are the ones i'm after?? if so PM me your paypal addy and i'll pop some money over for postage etc.

Did you find any clear domes by any chance???

not sure if these cams are clones of others, they are branded sunkwang, i've seen a load of pictures of domes that look similar, unfortunately in the usa, postage to england will be the killer, This is the dome, the O ring is still in place, but any dome like that as long as it's 4 inches by 2 inches with a lip will fit, as it clamps in place in the lower housing,

I bought 2 sunkwang v106 ptz domes last month, they were second hand and thus had scratched domes, (paid £100 each, so i don't feel that hard done by) the domes are polycarbonate i guess, scratches really easily, but with them being vandal domes, i guess they need the strength more. on both of them, at some time the internal black plastic cover that goes over the camera, which clips off to access to dip switches, had detached it's self and rubbed on the clear dome as it was rotated, also some sun yellowing and exterior scratches. i have them in my aviary now, so don't need the vandal proof properties anymore, worst is they will get pecked at by a randy canary who falls in love with his reflection in the dome the domes measure 4 inches across the top opening, then a little lip around the outside of about 1/4 of an inch at most, and they are approximately 2 inches deep. Anyone know where i can get 2 new domes matching that size cheaply, im in the UK, so that makes things harder, i've been thinking of getting some of those naff fake domes just to see if the clear dome will fit, but from what i can see from photo's, their domes clip in place with tags, i.e. no lip around the top, or possibly find someone who bought cameras with the same size domes, then changed the clear domes for smoked/mirrored domes and still has the clear domes sitting around taking up space???

whats this concept account you mention? i have actually had a little sucess, but not using their software, looking on the net i came across some tutorials on getting cms working, and one of them was for vitek EH series dvr's, they use almost exactly the same GUI as the concept pro, Their instruction manual is a carbon copy too, so i guess one or the other have re-badged this dvr, anyway, the EH-CMS software works!!! now i'd still like to get the concept pro's CMS software working, just because it bloody well should, but i guess i can just keep on downloading CMS software and trying it out, there is another that works, but i cant remember it amongst the ones i've tried that dont work,

i have a concept pro VXH264-16 dvr, bought second hand. the big thing concept pro go on about is it's ability to work with central monitoring software, something i'd find interesting as the screen shots of the cms software i've seen are a lot better than the built in web based monitoring. so i downloaded the 'CMS standard v1.0' software from concept pro's site, but i just cant get it to connect to my dvr. i can connect to the dvr via the web based interface, and via the remote agent software, both on the home lan and from the internet, But i enter the exact same details in the CMS software, which are the ip addy, port and log in details, But the cms just wont connect, tried the local ip, internet ip, the mac.dvrlink.net DDNS thing, no joy. i've downloaded a few other CMS's and tried them, but again, it just will not connect to my dvr, i read somewhere that the dvr needs something turning on in it's menu's to enable the CMS to work, but i've gone through all the menu's and can't find anything relating to this, Anyone any ideas what i'm missing? i contacted concept pro, and was just told they do not deal with end users, great,

I have a concept pro VXH264-16 dvr, and like most dvr's they expect you to use the mouse to control it, But just like my swann dvr, i find the mouse extremely sensitive, it's pretty hard to click on small icons... like channel selections when choosing files to burn etc. There is of course no setting in the dvr that can adjust the sensitivity of the mouse... that i can find, wondering if there is something like an installers menu where things like this can be adjusted? the dvr has an RS232 port, but it just says in the manual its 'for factory use only' any way to use that perhaps to get into the guts of the software and adjust things like that?? i also have a lovely 19 inch 4:3 touch screen monitor i'm using on this dvr, lovely picture, but of course i cant use the touch screen part this touch screen has a RS232 interface, would be lovely if it could be used with the dvr with a little hacking, but i guess short of finding a new touch screen controller that can output a mouse signal, with no drivers needed, i'm out of luck?

yup, disabling the IR on the nest cams is best.... problem is i need to go in and pop the sun shade off, then unscrew the front and hope i can reach the plug, if not unscrew 2 tiny screws and pull the led ring off, then put the cam back together, all the time the parent birds will be dive bombing me as they think i'm after the chicks.... i had to be super quick when i rung the chicks yesterday. im in the UK BTW, i'll try and find a supplier of spider spray, then find out if there's a number to ring or website on the can to find out whats in it and if it's harmfull to birds, If it was a month later... i'd get a load of conkers and put them around the cameras..... or maybe i can fix up a white light and have it turn on every hour for a minute or so, letting the birds see the spiders and eat em