RecycledEl

I thought of that, but did not suggest it. There is no guarantee this camera will be checked regularly. A 64GB card may be recorded over every 14-34 hours, depending on the resolution. It will not help find out who dumped the trash several days (or weeks!) ago.

How does that work?

Let's do the math. Let's say you need a 12V, 5A power supply. That's 60W. There are 24 hours in a day, do you need 60*24 = 1440WH per day. (120AH per day) A typical car battery has ~40AH reserve capacity. You will need some way to charge the battery. A solar panel rated at 40 watts assumes you are using active cooling and mirrors to get more juice out of it. If it just sits there, during a sunny day, in a good location, it will produce 40*4=160WH per day. So, to get 1440WH per day, you need 360 watts of solar panels. This ignores inefficiencies in the system, and it ignores cloudy days. That will cost of a solar panel is under $1 per watt, not counting the cost of installation, charge controllers, and deep-cycle batteries. -=-=-=-so-=-=-=- My first suggestion would be to find a system that saves power. I wonder if there are car-based DVRs that record to 2.5" hard disks, and only support 1-2 cameras? -=-=-=-also-=-=-=- How often will you check it? A remote internet connection so you can log in and see if the door has been kicked in may be useful. If course, that adds to the bill.

I just ordered a few mics off eBay. Search for "security mic." They plug into the same power connection a CCTV camera does, and plug into an RCA cable. I have to admit: I was confused for days. I kept looking for an adapter from mics I already owned to my security DVR. I finally realized they need a different kind of mic. (I'm not saying an adapter is not available, I'm saying dedicated mics make more sense in my case.)

There are hundreds of all-in-car DVRs out there. Almost all do circulating recording if you turn that feature on. I pay under $100 each from DX. Be careful...these last about 6 months in my truck due to the rough environmental conditions. Also, you need to buy a memory card. There are DVR boxes designed for cars that take standard external cameras and record to a SD card. They look like car stereo amps, but act like security DVRs. Prices range from $30 for 1 input to $100 for $inputs.

Hello, This is my first post here, about my first security DVR which is on order. I just ordered a DVR5816M-02A from DX (part number 142676) - Model: DVR5816 - Material: Aluminum alloy housing - Operating system: Embedded Linux - Video standards: PAL/NTSC - Video compression: H.264 - Audio compression: G711 - Video input: 16-CH BNC input - Video output: 1-CH BNC output - Audio input: 8-CH RCA input - Audio output: 1-CH RCA output - Recording modes: Manual / timing / alarm / motion detection/video detection/stop - AV video compression: H.264 / G711 - Video resolution: D1(704 x 576 / 704 x 480), HD1(704 x 288 / 704 x 240), CIF(352 x 288 / 352 x 240) - Search mode: Time / alarm / motion detection / refine search(to second) - Playback rate: CIF 380/440FPS - Playback channels: 1/4/9/16 - PTZ: RS485 - Network function: TCP/IP, UDP, DHCP, DNS, IPFilter, PPPOE, DDNS, FTP, Email, UPNP, Alarm Server, ARSP - 2 USB interfaces - Support 2 SATA interfaces, each supports internal HDD up to 2TB or 1DVD-RW - Support 16 channels sync playback - Support TV,VGA sync output - Support dual encoding streams - Support multilanguage - Support IR remote control and mouse control - Interface: 16 x Video input + 1 x video output + 8 x audio input + 1 x audio output + 3 x USB + 1 x RJ45 + 1 x VGA + 1 x Alarm input / output + 1 x IR extension port + 2 x SATA - Language: English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Brazilian, Russian, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, Korean, French, Czech, Hebrew, German, Finnish, Bulgarian, Swedish, Romanian, Greek - Package includes: - 1 x Recorder - 1 x USB mouse (120cm-cable) - 1 x Remote control (2 x AAA / not included) - 1 x Software CD - 1 x English user manual I see these DVR58xx models commonly in direct-from-China mail-order shops. It seems the 16-camera version is the DVR5816, and the 4-camera version is the DVR 5808. There are letters after that designating other features. (There's a 4-camera version too.) Does anyone have any experience with these DVRs? I hope to set it up inside an apartment to deter the landlord from stealing (which she does regularly.) I only need to connect a few cameras. She has disabled cameras running off my PCs, so I hope to set up many cameras and alarms (defense in depth.) It runs off 12V, 5A power. I have several 12V 17AH UPS batteries laying around. I am good with DC/DC converters, so I plan to step the voltage up to 38V, then down to 12.0V, with a display to show me the voltage and current. The power system will need to fit in the case also. I need a locking metal box to lock it up, with minimal openings for good fans. Any recommendations? I'm thinking about one of those locking ammo cabinets that sit on top of small gun safe. I can bolt the cabinet to my solid-oak-table that has several hundred pounds of shelving sitting on it. The DVR itself is 14x9x2 inches. The batteries will add quite a bit of room. The DC/DC converter will need to be mounted somewhere (because these run off 12.0V, not 13.6-14.4V, right?) I hope to connect one camera to my peep-hole viewer to catch the jerk that rings my doorbell at 2am every other night. I ordered one of those cameras from DX for $17-$18. Other wired cameras will be mounted to furniture. I am avoiding wireless cameras, as they are hackable, and I don't want people watching the inside of my apartment. (Don't tell me they are secure; I'm a ham and a college Comp. Sci. Prof.) I know this DVR has a sensor input...I would like to wire in a door sensor, like home alarm systems have, so it will trigger an event when the front/only door opens. Has anyone done this? Is there a how-to guide? I've never wired an alarm system. The alarm system and sensor connections were a major selling point. This system takes 8 microphone inputs. The mic inputs are RCA connectors. I've tried searching for "RCA microphone" with the predictable result of RCA-branded mics in museums. The only mics I have dealt with have 3.5mm plugs. What kind of mics do these need? I'll route the VGA output of the DVR into my switch box for my VGA screen. That's easy. This DVR supports very specific resolutions, but the cameras I see (and that I have ordered) support other resolutions. For example, one camera I ordered supports 580x480, another supports 510x492, and another supports 588x488. Can I assume that analog cameras will scale due to the nature of the analog signal? These are all NTSC cameras. I will need to set up a system to back up video off-site, but that will be a difficult task for much later. (My landlord is VERY good at avoiding cameras and deleting videos in a hurry.) I'm worried about it being hacked, but my web hosting is more secure than the inside of my apartment. Another option is to plug in a USB HDD as a backup, and keep it in a second locking cabinet. How much video would I loose if she pulled the cable? I plan to have it record constantly, and to mark events for later review. I hope to make it email my cell phone every time an event occurs, so I can check the video. We'll see if that works. This system supports "16" cameras, but only 4 at D1 resolution. I think it also supports up to 4 IP cameras. I hope to play with IP cameras after I get the system up and running. That will be a long time off. --RecycledEl