bigglebowski

What cameras were on that quote? Server? Is that because of unusual install circumstances like having to wiremold all the wiring? $300 per does seem low but maybe not for indoor, retail pricing of many of the new Acti models are going to be under that price.

You can relate this to TV with HD and SD. Many people out there just simply dont care that much about the higher resolution picture over the standard def that they are used to. In most cases they already have the HDTV (which looks worse than a CRT did for SD) since that has been all you can buy for the last several years. They simply dont want to pay the extra fees in STB or even care to have the features of DVR since it cost extra. Certainly the satellite and cable providers would love to dump the redundant SD channels from the lineup to get that extra bandwidth back. Much like SD, analog cameras are here to stay for a while.

If you put all of your requirements together to make a single solution your choices are very limited, if you break down the requirements you have more options. Wifi: Any IP camera can be made wireless if you add your own wifi radio. There are way less choices for IP cameras with wifi built in that go outside. Covert: There are limited choices in covert IP cams you have more choices by modding a non covert camera into your own hidden enclosure. Low Light: Many IP cams (not just domes) are available with IR lighting but many of these will not be covert as they have a red glow that will be seen when looking at the camera. There are LEDs that are high enough wavelength that they will not be visible but may need to be added separate like with an illuminator. Network over power lines can depend on the wiring at the panel, outlets that are on the same leg usually work well together. Getting rid of the light switch would have no effect on this.

Assuming this is going to be analog, any outdoor rated camera preferably one that is labeled "vandal" so it will take some abuse. Should be able to use coax with power (siamese) should do if there will be movement than a higher quality cable will have better flexing ability. For the monitor I have seen inexpensive rear view cam type monitors that are ready to be mounted in vehicles that can do split or quad screens. Something like this if you want to keep it cheap: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Erisin-ES315-7-Digital-Quad-Split-Screen-Monitor-Sunshade-Reversing-Camera-Kit-/130867271813?pt=US_Rear_View_Monitors_Cams_Kits&hash=item1e784c1885

I have not used that particular balun but I have seen that picture posted here, as long as the matching transformer is inside there you should be good. Who knows on the cat5, I have used VERY cheap grade cat5 on some much higher resolution projects like HDMI and high res RGB and have NEVER had a problem. Since there is no brand name on the box its hard to tell for sure. Usually when you get cheap cable whether cat or coax or other the materials are just cheap and break easy or the jacket material is crap. So if they use cheap plastic for the jacket you can assume the metals may not be good, like copper clad instead of solid copper. If the cable sticks to a magnet you know its copper clad steel. There is also copper clad aluminum where you will just have to scrape it to know for sure. Proper cat5 cable should be solid copper only.

Computers are certainly evolving, here is another concept of moving away from big box style systems: http://xi3.com/xi3_brochure.php They also make a vesa mount that you can attach it right on the back of your monitor. Still will have to go back to traditional mechanical disks for storage, even if there was not a limited number of writes with SSD, $1/GB is a bit extreme. Makes for great OS drives though.

Your choice... Trendnet and Zyxel might be the less expensive brands to look into. Some of the 4 port models are a lot less expensive than ones with 8 ports. There are also some 8 port switches where only 4 of the ports are POE and are still less expensive.

For a 4mm lense the IR goes out to 35 meters doesnt that seem like BS? They do have quite a lot of LEDS though.

Check the spec tab on the page, it says record resolution is 1080 and 30fps for ntsc, 25 for pal. Not sure why they bring up pal/ntsc. It must relate to refresh rate in europe vs usa for a display monitor. Pal/ntsc settings probably are locked in the mode based on what region it is sold in.

While I am not familiar with this particular system I have NEVER heard good feedback of Swann by someone that owned or used one of their systems. Based just on what I have seen on this forum Q-See/Dahua seems to be one of the few budget systems people are happy with. Looking at this page: http://www.swann.com/s/products/view/?product=1541 Says 30fps PER CHANNEL It would be interesting to see how quickly respond since it should be an easy question to answer.

60mm is slightly larger than 2" but if that fits here is what newegg sells in 60mm fans. I guess check specs on air flow volume for ones that move the most air in CFM. This is just a keyword search so some of the the results are not just fans. This is about the size of a cpu heatsink fan, so there will be some of them. http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&N=-1&isNodeId=1&Description=60mm+fan

I dont buy cable online because I get it from a distributor locally and they dont stock budget cable. Not sure if you are in the US but the big hardware stores carry cat5 now or an electrical supplier will have it. Cable just like the rest of this stuff comes in a variety of quality, but I would bet the least expensive cat5 will be better than what you had. One thing I will mention, most cat5 you find may not be rated for outdoors, which is generally not true for coax. If most of the cat5 is out of the weather I wouldnt worry too much about it. Since most cat5 is designed for indoor it does not have the jacket to stand up to the UV abuse of sunlight. Covering it up in places that are exposed will only help extend the life. Have you ordered baluns yet? Just making sure you order some that are actually baluns.

Did you mean to say that without the "not" I highlighted??? Like I said in another post its not that the wires you have will NOT work, its that they are far from the best way to run video and power, you have PROVED this correct? It works but it just does not work well. The shorter the distance that the signal and power has to travel the more likely this will work without issues, stretch it out and the flaws will show. I know a guy that used some speaker wire back in the day to hookup an extra TV in his house. Did it work, YES, did it work well NO. Replaced the wire with a piece of coax and then all channels worked perfectly. I am not the one that said the device you posted "cat5 bnc to RJ45" would not work but I will say that a similar brand name device that has the features that that one does should cost five times what those do. Some of these devices are not in fact baluns but just physical connectors. There should be some kind of transformer built into them that "balances" and "unbalances" the signal that transmits across them. Because video cables are usually 75 ohms and cat5 is not so it essentially makes the cat5 balanced. So if you used a device that is not a proper balun then you are right back to where you started with a potential poor picture. One of the main reasons cat5 cabling is used for situations like this is the nature of the twists in the cable makes for a less noisy medium for signals to travel over it, much like coax where it has a shielding conductor surrounding the signal wire. When you take away the twists or shield you can run into problems. For whatever reason unlike any other low voltage type equipment the CCTV business is just full of junk products and ultra cheap solutions for people doing DIY projects. Perfect example of this is the cables you got, you went to return them and its not even worth it for the seller to pay for the postage to get them back. Sometimes you install one of these products and they work just fine, but then there are times where you cant make chicken salad out of chicken sh...

Even if the 100' cable was with power wires it seems a bit high, but that is local pricing I guess, then again it could be a premium brand of cable or burial grade or plenum grade to make it more expensive. I dont buy cable online but I noticed that the price shipped for proper CCTV coax runs about $200 for 1000' roll shipped from some online retailers that would sell direct to end users. Many sell in 500' length rolls too for about half that. Some sell premade but unsure if they buy them that way or they make them by hand, which may be better. With the Cat5 since there is 4 pairs of wire you would use a single pair for one cameras video lead. Usually you would use at least 2 or all 3 of the remaining pairs for power this depends on the total distance to the camera and how much the load is.

Use the "baluns" that tomcctv referenced since they will be easier to use and you wont have to worry about putting on RJ45 connectors if you dont have those tools. These will install with a simple screwdriver and you can use the spare pairs for other cams or for power leads. You dont want to just use basic wire to run video as it should be coax or cat5 with baluns. Will it work, yes, you have proven that with poor results which may not be resolved by simply using larger wires. The reason for the 3 separate wires is they are using one of the wires for both the power ground and the ground for the video which is the outer foil/sheilding of coax normally. This is not uncommon with cheap cable and you will find that generally the equipment you hook everything up to will have a common ground anyway.

Coax used for cable tv and cctv/video are essentially the same thing. They differ in that cctv and video cables benefit from being made with solid copper center conductors and copper sheild/braiding. TV coax will rarely be all copper including the center conductor being copper cladded steel. Both are 2 conductors and is 75 ohms. You could use TV coax for cctv its just not ideal like the cable you have, it passes a continuity test but thats about it. Use 18awg wire if you need to improvise power cables but dont use it for the video. Either use coax or cat5 with baluns which will be easier to terminate the cables without special tools.

Of all the magic he is trying to pull converting 12vdc into 5vdc has got to be the easiest thing to do. A voltage regulator is one of the most basic circuits you can build.

Thats what they do wireless networking, look at the airmax products tab on their site. I meant as an alternate suggestion for the bridge you posted. http://www.ubnt.com/

Look into a company called Ubiquiti, they have some well performing low priced gear that should be able to do this project assuming you have the line of sight. They also have a forum that you should be able to find similar projects to yours, or you can post a layout for them for help. Depending on the layout you should be able to go with a point to multi point configuration. You may find a mix of PTP and PTMP combinations to do the job. I am talking about the wireless networking gear and not their IP camera stuff which seems like it may be more residential grade at this time.

Have you ever tried using a power supply that was not one of the original ones? Might also be worth trying to isolate some of the cctv equipment if possible, maybe shut down both power supplies and DVRs and test a KNOWN GOOD camera straight into a monitor. Then you could test the known good camera on some other lines to prove the cables good/bad.

You mention the 2 separate power supplies it would be interesting to know if the bad cameras were all on the same power supply. Can see if you can find the power wires for one of your problem cameras and isolate it with a substitute wall wart to see if there is a difference.

Can you try hooking the bad cams straight into a monitor to make sure the DVR isnt creating the issue. If there is something that happened at some point like new electrical/electronic devices maybe try powering them off (wifi device). If its possible pop breakers one at a time to see if you find a circuit that is creating the problem and go from there. Also can you substitute the power supply while testing a particular camera. Do you have a single transformer type power supply powering all cameras and does it feel hot (too hot) to the touch. Indoor cable kept away from moisture should last many years, outdoor rated cable should be good too. Certainly outdoor weather conditions over the years will increase the odds of failure over time, but could be decades.

Just curious what you mean here do you not pass the savings to the customer or do you charge what "equivalent" brand names would cost but supply Dahuas. I charge what I feel is a fair price for what the customer wants or needs. I don't figure my prices saying to myself an ACTI camera costs about 500.00 and an equivalent dahua camera costs about 300.00 so my price will be 200.00 less? Who would price give estimates thinking in that way?? But nice try trying to make me look bad. No intention of trying to make you look bad. I didn't understand why selling one less expensive brand over another that is more expensive somehow net more income. I would think it would be proportional percentage between brands sold. No offense intended.

Look into a company called ubiquiti, they have great products that work over longer distances than you need but line of sight is going to be important. Maybe its possible to put up a tower? They do have some 900mhz stuff that might work in your no LOS areas.

Same experience here, isnt it great at dusk or dawn to have the came switch back and forth and the 1-100 settings seem not to help at all. The camera is great in color with good light and great with no light and IR lighting but in between meh.