survtech

Orion makes pretty good LCD monitors.

Most systems like that have the power for the camera built into the monitor. What you will have to determine is which wires carry video and which carry power. Then you can obtain a female connector and attach the power wires to a power supply and the video wires to a monitor or computer video card. Watch your polarities since those cameras usually use 9-12VDC.

The heater alone should do the trick.

The Pelco Camclosure is an integrated camera and enclosure. It is too small to fit a standard box camera. In fact, you would need a relatively large dome enclosure (back box) to fit a standard box camera, at least 8". We use the Pelco DF-5 series regularly but we only use it with relatively small cameras like the Pelco CCC13xx and C10 series', the Ikegami ICD505/508 and the Sanyo "cube" cameras. A lot depends on where you want to aim the camera. The more horizontal the aim direction, the smaller the camera has to be or the larger the dome has to be. This is especially true with longer lenses, ie. 5-50mm.

How about using a clear fish bowl or a vase? Seriously, buy a dome from a cctv supplier, if that's what you want. Why try to reinvent the wheel?

CCTV Focus - http://www.cctvfocus.com/

Here is a wiring diagram for a typical CCTV motorized zoom lens: http://www.pentax.de/downloads/cctv/uk/technical_help/Wiring%20for%20Std%202%20&%203%20Motor%20Zooms.pdf

Pinhole lenses don't give nearly as good a picture as standard lenses, even good board camera lenses. They require more light and generally have poorer overall focus. Generally speaking, the larger diameter the lens, the better its overall focus and light gathering capabilities.

Pelco's TW30xx active hubs work pretty well and don't require adjustment for distance. http://www.pelco.com/products/default.aspx?id=496

The NVT active hub would most likely handle most of the runs, but only you will be able to judge the picture quality on the 2000 ft. (+) runs. They might need active transmitters and receivers to get high quality video free from artifacts. Also, there are less expensive alternatives to NVT that perform just as good. You also might be able to get by with active on one end only for the longest runs if you use CAT-6 instead of CAT-5e. Using two pairs of CAT-x would probably be sufficient for 3W cameras, but you might consider using 3 of the 4 pairs for safety's sake.

You should have a fallback solution at those lengths. In tests, we have found that any runs much over 1000 ft. of passive-passive tend to show problems with the color burst and other high-frequency components of the video signals. This causes "color fringing" around bright objects and other artifacts. Using passive-passive, the 1100 ft runs may have acceptable image quality; the 1400 ft. runs may be marginal and the 2000+ ft runs would be unuseable. It might pay to plan on using active hubs at the receive end for all cameras, or even active-active for the longest runs.

I agree with Kiwi. Since the secondary of the transformer in a 24VAC power supply is completely isolated, both from the supply input and from ground, the only ground reference point would be inside the camera(s) themselves. In fact, I ran into a situation that I thought was a ground loop but was an unused power cable that got crimped between two metal studs during construction, shorting the common (black) wire to ground. That screwed up the video on more than one camera that was attached to that supply until we disconnected the offending cable. And most 24VAC power supplies actually deliver 28-29 volts under low loads. Most cameras can handle at least 30VAC with no problem.

Solder-type BNC's are a royal pain. Crimp-type would be easier.

For RG-6, you can probably use a BNC designed for 18 gauge solid wire if the RG-6 stranded is 18 gauge total. The only thing is that as the strands get smaller, it becomes more difficult to assemble the connector since the more flexible center conductor sometimes bends before the center pin snaps into the hole. I used to have to pull the pin through with a pair of needle nose pliers when I worked with stranded RG-59. I also sometimes had to cut one strand off to get the wire to fit into the center pin. I would also bet that compression fittings and 2 piece BNC's would be near-impossible to assemble with stranded wire. You will probably have to use 3 piece BNC's.

The enclosure should be rated for harsh environments. And you should maintain adequate spacing between low voltage (CCTV) and high voltage wires or the low voltage wiring should be in a separate metal conduit or tray.

I would suggest powering the cameras separately from the video to the cab. Then the only cables that will flex as the cab moves would be the video. Use stranded RG-59 or equivalent for the video and make certain the cables are run properly. Alternatively, you could use any spare "pairs" in the control and communication cables for the cab with baluns at each end. Be careful if there are power cables in the same bunch.

Yes, but you should use BNC connectors that are designed for stranded wire. Again, as long as the wire is 100% copper it will not be a problem. Manufacturers of PTZ's that use separate cameras use stranded RG-59 or RG-179 to connect the camera because regular solid RG cable would eventually break as the cable flexes during pan and tilt operations. The same applies to any application where the cable has to flex such as elevator traveller cables. Usually, solid conductor wire is used in CCTV because the cable doesn't flex in normal use and solid conductor wire is cheaper and easier to terminate. But stranded works just as well - sometimes better for certain applications, like the one you are contemplating.

Are you using the CAT-5 without baluns or active transmitters/receivers? That would cause ghosting. You have to use some device to change the 75 ohm unbalanced signal from the camera to 100 ohm balanced for the CAT-5 and back. Baluns and active devices do that.

Not the whole floor, just the area that is not recording. To somewhat alleviate this, we do not have all cameras in a given area on the same DVR and PTZ's are always on different DVR's from the fixed cameras. That way, we can often "fill in" with one or more PTZ's if we lose one or more fixed cameras in an area.

You can use RG11, but it is darned expensive. No matter - RG59, 6 or 11, it still has to be 100% copper conductors and that is a lot of copper. West Penn makes 100% copper RG11 - Types 811/4811/1130/25811. 811 (the cheapest of the bunch) runs around $600/1000 ft.: http://www.westpenn-wpw.com/index.php?option=com_cable_finder&func=SearchSec&section=COAXIAL_CABLES&col_1=RG11%2FU+Type&col_2=CCTV&col_3=&col_4=&col_5=&col_6=&col_7=&col_8= All RG58 is 50 ohm, not 75 ohm!

4000 ft. max. using RS422/RS485. I would run passive-passive no more than 700-800 ft., passive-active (either way) no more than 1,500 ft. and active-active no more than 3000 ft. The shorter for each, the better.

In casinos, many DVR systems use separate RAID storage in DAS with each server. Occasionally, you find systems that incorporate internal RAID in a box with encoding and processing fully integrated and a few systems, including Dallmeier and Sanyo, use single-channel recorders with built-in hard drives. We use a modified Honeywell Enterprise DVR system that has outboard 8-channel encoders, four per server, and one or more 24-bay RAIDs attached to each server for storage.

You are correct. RG-58 is not suitable for CCTV. There are some other 75 ohm cables, including RG-179/West Penn 825 mini coax, which is usually only suitable for up to 100 feet. Also keep in mind that there are numerous configurations for cable, especially for RG-59 and RG-6. Many are suitable for high frequency (RF) only. These usually use copper-clad steel center conductors and aluminum foil shielding. For CCTV you should always use cable that has 100% solid copper center conductor and 95% or better pure copper braided shield.

As far as IT people taking over CCTV, they too will have to learn different skills or they will fail. Most have no clue how to set up. aim and focus cameras and there are still a lot of mechanical skills needed. Many IT people lack those skills.

It all depends on the design of the power supply output buss. First of all, don't parallel fuses. Tolerances in them will probably cause each to blow, even if you are drawing less than 2 amps. If there is a single regulator connected to multiple fuses, you could replace a 1 amp fuse with a 2 amp one, as long as your total peak load for all cameras doesn't exceed the maximum allowed by the supply (leaving at least 20% wiggle room).