scorpion

thewireguys, I like that product! What kind of solar setup have you used to power these systems? ilk, That is very intereting product. I wonder what the switching times are from detector/trigger to the product, and the wake up time, and the recoring time? _____________________________ I have used concrete before. I had to have a granite company cut a blob so I could hollow it out. I have used tree branches with product inside with a screw at the end. I just jam it in to a tree, and twist it in. I then pray no kids decide to go tree climbing!!

There are different things to consider when selecting port numbers. Those you connect over LAN, or WAN through an IE browser will have to put :2222 after the IP address. If you use port 80 then you do not have to :80 after the IP address. Selecting a port number, and it turns out to be the home port number of your router may cause some confusion. There are some cases where you cannot use port 80. It may be that the ISP blocks that port number, or you may already have a device that uses this port number. This will force you to select another port number. Another case may have to do with using cellphone remote view. Port 80 may work for browser viewing, or using the server software (Server S, Server E, or Video Viewer for AVTech, or what software your DVR manufacture uses), but you cannot remote view with the cellphone. This will cause you select a different port number. On advantage of being able to select port numbers is that you can have multiple numbers of DVRs at one sight. By giving each DVR a different port number allows you to see which DVR you prefer to view. In the case of 80 verses 2222 then try both. Do they work? Did it fail? The advantage of port 80 if it works is that you do not have to put the colon and the port number if you are going through the browser. If you change the DVR port number then you will need to enter that number in to the DVR remote software to connect.

AK357, Since you are always dealing in cutting edge technology lets see if you have anything new. Here in Palm Bay we are dealing with another round of Arson Fires. http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20100216/NEWS01/2160331/1086/Palm+Bay+calls+more+fires+arson What do you have that I can stick on a telephone pole, or a tree that will give me something get recording. It can be wireless, or I can get the cable company to activate a modem at the pole. Darn power company wants to charge $250 to set up power at the pole. Any ideas?

Yes! You have a good eye! Do you have a link on your website for it? I bet there are a lot of people who would like to see an IP camera that does not need port forwarding!

Tell them it is covert! The only problem that I can see is the liability. You own a business, and you are responcible for the health and well being of your customers. There is an event and the lawyer involved wants to see the video of the incidence. You do not have video and you have it posted that you do, and there for you get sued for negligence, or what ever popular "gotcha" a lawyer is using against you. Does this change the perspective of your question? If this is your own personel stand alone residence then I would tell them to go bugger off!

Hello! For body worn the "pager" cam is my favorite. You can stand facing a bar, but get video 90 degrees from you. You do not have to be looking at your target to video them. Here is my fence post cam. http://scorpiontheater.com/cvr.aspx Here is a textured pelican cased camera. http://scorpiontheater.com/game.aspx I use bird houses, dog houses, fake water pump enclosures with pipes pointed to the ground that go nowhere, and I have cut holes in those commercial light packs that you see on the walls to hide a cam. You can retro fit an orange cooler so that the cam looks out from under the lid, and you have full 360 degree view. Up and down is limited, but a truck with ladders looks great in some places where an suv would stand out and draw attention. My favorite is the motion detector cam.

I7 PCs!!!! I want this install! You are rich! I am glad to see that ROI is of the essence! What this tells me is that you are putting in an infrastructure that you can build on. This is great! You are way ahead of the power curve! I would suggest working on a multi store system. I prefer standalone units. In other words plug, and play. Nothing wrong going with PC based systems. I usually see other companies doing these mini enclosures. I hate this with a passion. They are shoved on a top shelf in a managers office without regards to ventilation. Mini enclosures are not known for cool ventilation. Note this is a CCTV computer, and not a business computer with a card attached. I would tell you to separate the business computer from the CCTV PC based DVR. Question! Does the main PC do any merchant service? If the CCTV board brings down the computer can you still operate? The prices are on your main computer, and all of the coupon data. Bring this system down, and you are on a cash basis with a calculator, and a pen. What is the volume of your stores? Back to standalone DVRs. If a DVR were to crash, and this is an important store, then you can have your supervisor bring a DVR from a lower precendence store to get your higher precedence store up and running with CCTV. Do you really want to carry a PC, and have to plug in a keyboard, and a mouse, and a monitor, and an internet connection, and all of your camera video inputs? What you want is a DVR product that comes with a CMS product. With the CMS software loaded at your home, home office, or your business office then you can watch mutliple stores at the same time. When gas goes up to $5.00 a gallon you can do a video tour instead of driving around to see how all of your stores are doing! You are wasting your time with cameras in the cooler. The lighting is usually a low wattage appliance bulb, or you might be using small walkins, and once fully stocked the camera view may get blocked. The only interest here is who is smooching who in there! I am more interested in FIFO, and cleaning the floor. You cannot tell theft from this view unless it is so blatant, but then you would see it with an external camera that is cheap and cheesy anyway! _____________________________________________________ Do not base your camera setup on employee theft, and watching the cash register! WRONG ANSWER! You will also want to guard against slip and fall issues. Note if a customer is walking from the parking lot, and she falls near your store front the destination business is responcible for her injury, and not you! Ask where they were going! Turn if over to their insurance company. Video will protect you! I might suggest putting a camera with a zoom lens to get up close on your walk in refridgerator, and freezer. During power outages how would you like to do a tour of the effected stores to see the temps?? Nice huh? Here is what you can do for you business owners on a budget. Put the most expensive camera above your budget at the front door, and the back door. Now use those one inch by one inch cameras for those overview areas such as seating areas and such. You do not need super high qualtiy video to show the irate customer pulling displays off of your counter. The police will "get it" when they see the video even though it might be poor in quality. I want a good camera out back to see the dumpster area. This covers employee theft, going ons out back, and such. Are your night time employees drinking beers out back? Look for bottle caps on the ground out back! You will be surprised what you will find! You will also want to use this system to gauge your schedule planning. Do you have one employee with a long line out the door? Do you have 6 employees doing nothing with one customer? This will allow you to get a quick pulse of what is going on in your store! You may not realize that there is a movie theater nearby, and your store is getting hit with a rush at 10 pm! Do you get a pre bar rush? Do you get an after bar rush? Draw a circle around your store. cut that big circle in to 4 quadrants. Now use four different color coupoons for each sector. When you watch lunch rush video, and everyone in line is holding yellow coupons then you know what area they are coming from. Is it a business area? Is it a residential area? Is it a commercial district? WHERE ARE YOUR CUSTOMERS COMING FROM? NOW YOU KNOW! What do you think of my ideas?

C7 in CA is from california. Send him a PM. memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=539

I agree with everyone that there are too many variable to give you over the internet answers. I would have no problem laying my power supply directly on the DVR without any interference. I find more problems with the actual wall sockets then with any other issue once ground loop issues are determined not to be the cause. You know the bars, and businesses that put up their own walls, and their "brother in law" or who have you does the work to help keep costs down. Check that the socket is wired correctly. Make sure that you are not on the same circuit as a compressor such as for an A/C unit, beer cooler, or standing reachin coolers, or freezers, and such. What is the total usage of all of the cameras? Yeah? What about at night when all of the IR illuminators kick in? What is the size of the power supply. I recently mounted 6 cameras with a 25 amp power supply! Wow! I know, I know it is huge. This is a 16 channel DVR, and the power supply is 16 channels, and I know we are soon to be going up to 16 cameras. This was installed prematurly, but to allow for growth. Most of the power supply may be in the 2amps, or 4 amps, or 8 amps. What size is yours? I have a question! How far are those camera runs? You might be pushing an environment where you may have to go with active baluns even with proper distances. I would remove a few cameras from the power supply, and then turn it back on, and see what the video looks like. If it clears up then you narrowed down the offending camera, or your power supply is too small. You can put those cameras back on circuit, and remove others to use this as a troubleshooting tool. You may have a camera that is in distress bring down the whole system! I would try to plug the power supply in with an extension cord, and go to another room to get a different power socket to see what happens. Take 5 minutes of your time to find out that it is in fact ground loop issues. GROUND LOOP ISSUES! HOW DO YOU FIX THAT CRAP? You cannot! It will always be there. What you can do is to isolate! On metal buildings, or warehouses such as seen in commmercial districts you can buy a sheet of plastic from hobby shops, or model shops, and cut the plastic in to the shape of the camera mount. This will separate the camera from the metal. For testing purposes unmount the camera, and let it hang by the cord, or use cardboard to isolate the camera. If the video clears up then you are good to go. You found the ground loop, and it ony needs insulation. HEY! DO NOT USE METAL SCREW! THEY WILL BYPASS THE INSULATION ON THE MOUNT! Do not forget that one camera can put interference on other camera channels through the video coax, or through the power supply. Power only one camera. If you have interference then go to that camera, and isolate it. If that does not clear it up then you have other issues. _____________________________________________________ If you are running long runs then switch to 24 volt ac, and use dual voltage cameras. What will happen as you get farther away is that the voltage will drop. The camera cannot pull 24 volt ac, and it will see lower ac voltages. The camera has a built in AC to DC converter (bridge rectifier) It will see 18 volts AC, and it will convert this to DC, and it will act like a 12 volt camera! You cannot run some cameras below 14 volts AC to 13.5 volts AC. This is a trick that is used for those mini warehouses where the equipment is in the office, and you run wire all the way around the complex. Swap out a balun with a different brand to see what happens. You might have got a momentary bad run of product even though the product is highly regarded in the industry. Poop happens! What do you think?

I agree with everyone about upgrading your ISP service plan where your DVR is located. Unless you are doing quality control on an assembly line, or there is fast arm movement that can cause you to lose cash flow then I do not see the need to have 30fps video. The idea is to see what is going on, and if you have a problem then you can retrieve the video from the DVR that will give you 30fps of video. Think of the internet like a hose. You can only put so much water through the pipe. Install a larger pipe, and you can shove in more! Here are some things to look at for others who are reading this post. If you need to count every leave in a video shot then change the frame per second to a lower number. You can have 7 frames per second, and you can select the highest quality video selection on your DVR. This will give you a series of very clear pictures of video, or snapshots. The pipeline can send more "data" to give you a clearer picture, and not have to push 30fps. Or you can choose 30 FPS, but lower the quality selection of your video. Take the DVR off of Best, or High, and put in on normal, or low. You may not need to count every leaf in a video frame, but you want to see fluid movement. This wil give you the 30fps, and will prevent you from getting that "jumpy" video, or a series on snapshot. The quality is not as good. Just like a teeter totter. You can choose one side, or the other, or you can try to balance in the middle. What do you think? __________________________________________________ In the old days you could spend $400 dollars for an 80 GB hard drive. It was cost effective to use motion detection even though motion detection had its problems based on the quality build, and price of the DVR. In todays price you can buy a terebyte hard drive for an easly spendable amount, and upgrade to 2 TB with more cash. Storage is no longer a problem. IDE HD may still be more expensive, but SATA prices appear to drop, or add more storage capability. I would not worry about motion detection unless you are dealing with legacy equipment. One of the failures of motion detection is that it can be triggered on outside cameras by a momentary cloud blocking the sun, or changing of time as shadows creep in, and other "false Positives". I do like to set up DVRs with both 24 / 7 recording, and motion event recording. This will allow me to narrow down a time frame. In other words if there is an event during the night then I have to watch video from midnight to 6 am, or I can look at the motion event and see a trigger at such and such time. This narrows down my search a little better. I still have 24/7 video to allow me to look for clues in the background that may not trigger the motion trigger. Setting up motion trigger can be tricky too. Some DVRs allow you to detect from one square of movement, or to change it to two squares of detection before there is a trigger event. Time settings can be changed also to help cut down on constant movement such as a tree branch ect. You have to decide what is best for you based on your budget. What do you think?

I think you may have found a new source of income by selling this device!! LOL!

Thank you very much! I really appreciate! I look forward to helping others with your manuals!

Hello! Can anyone direct me to French, and German language manuals for AVTech, and CPCam DVRs? I would be interested in any language. Thanks in advance.

I agree in theory with what you say about sticking to one profession and specialize. Would that mean not installing speakers, and only specialize in installing flat panels, and projectors? I would say not. When a company starts a new business, or moves to a new location they will need to get an alarm system. This is also the go to guy for video surveillance. They are both security. Most customers may pick one or the other. Businesses have no choice. Install an alarm, or pay the higher insurance rates! Some will choose a standalone video surveillance system (Standalone DVR, or a PC based DVR) because they enjoy the thought of "no monthly recurring fee". Others will go the video route, but may select guard tours, or a higher level of video interaction. This is done by Alarm Central Stations, and companies that specialize in video tours, and video guard. What is the trigger to alert you to watch video? Did an alarm go off? Is there perimeter security? Is there just a simple burglar alarm system? I would even suggest doing electronic access. That is part of the physical security. Some companies will install electronic access, and only see the system again when there is a failure, or an add on. Other companies buy the card printers, and are active in making new employee cards, and decommisioning pass codes as employees exit, and programming new passcodes for entering employees. Cheap systems may require onsite visits to program, and IP based systems will allow a "security company" to remotely program the system from their offices. Only THE business owner will no which is good for him. I see those who install internet wiring. I also see them lose jobs because they do not install telephone systems (whether PBX, or IP based). If a company is going to come in and run network wiring, and they can set up the PBX, or IP based voip telephone then that company is going to get the bid. The idea is to be flexible. There will be days that you may not earn money on CCTV, but your income will come from elsewhere. There will be days that the "other" will not make any money, but CCTV will go head over heels pulling in some serious cash. It is the start up company that struggles. You are taking your own cash that was destined to do something else. It may be a 2nd mortgage on your house that has to be repaid, or it may be your retirement money that you are investing, or you could be pulling money from grandmothers, uncles, friends, and topping off every credit card you have. If you have a venture capital company backing you up with a million dollars then I doubt one would come here for help. THE QUESTION IS: How do I make the company earn money, and pay that money back in a timely fashion while earning an income at the sametime. What am I good at? Sales? Installation? Business management? I do not have a clue, but I am going to do it anyway? The idea is to surround yourself with people who are greater then you, and to become a great company. For the uninitiated I would tell them to go work for a company, and see how it is done. Make your mistakes there where their balance, and counter balance quality control will prevent you from embarrasing yourself to your customer if you owned the business. See what works, and what does not work. What tools do they use? What procedure works, and what does not work. What makes that lead technition just standout? What makes the sales dept roll in the contracts? As a business owner you will where several hats at once. The more hats you wear the more things that will slip through your fingers. A small company can gain from guerrilla marketing. Think of the "crazy joe" auto sales commercials. They may be annoying, but they sure are selling alot of cars! What can you do to get yourself noticed? What can you do to get in the news paper and get the recognition at no cost to you? Will you be residential based, or commercial based? From the start will you be doing the obcene large jobs, or small jobs? What do you think/

Are these in size that can be emailed?

Thanks vin2install! I am trying to measure what impact facebook will have on my "presence" in the local area, and a national "presence" as well. During the building boom we doubled our population. I know homes have been lost, and jobs have been cut, and I do not know how many people may have moved away. All the people who came from NY, California, and from Miami will have found our prices to their liking even if it was overpriced at the time, and I see those individuals staying. Facebook allows me to see where people live. I want to reach out to the Melbourne, and the Palm Bay community to let them know that I am here to help, and support them. It is amazing how a large population does not even know that I exist! I am interested to see what impact having people see "me" that have not "seen" me before! Is this Guerilla marketing, or SPAM at it's lowest?

Here is what I would do based on a low budget solution. On the wire controlling a PTZ I would install a relay. Both keyboards can control the PTZ. When the higher precendence keyboard needed to have full control of the PTZ then the relay can be engaged taking the other keyboard off line with just this one PTZ. If you install the relay on the line with the lower precedence keyboard then you can take it offline, and it would not be able to control any PTZ. You would have to turn the relay off to allow it to interact with the PTZ again. It may be better to put a timing circuit that allows the relay to engage for a set time frame and then release the relay. This way no one can forget to turn a switch off leaving the relay engaged, and the lower precedence keyboard locked out from a PTZ, or all of the PTZs depending on how it is wired in. ********************** How are you at designing circuits? http://images.google.com/images?q=or+gates&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=Y5Z-S9W5PIq1tgeZuryyDw&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CCUQsAQwAw http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OR_gate http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NOT_gate http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AND_gate You can take 74 series ICs and create a logic set up that allows both Keyboards to pass a signal to one PTZ, or a group of PTZ. The circuit will allow one keyboard to take full control. You can use a digital relay to be controlled by the IC circuits. What do you think?

Excellant ideas Harrar! You have touched on a few tricks of the trade! Now that this information is out to the general public they will have no use for us installers. LOL! OK I kid! He wants the PTZ to be controlled by both stations which would require them to change protocols on the fly. I believe he wants to control the PTZ from both stations as a global setting, but wants to have one station to have precedence over another station.

Wow! It was just a lucky guess on my part about some kind of virus! Glad I hit that nail on the head! Glad to see you up and running! Note to others: The malware will rework your antivirus programs to circumvent them. They will appear to work normally, but they can be "broken". You will notice that you cannot go to well known websites that have great scanners. The infection will redirect you from those websites, or disable the scanner from performing. These guys are getting trickier, and trickier! Make sure you run the scanners to completion. It may run for 30 minutes and say that it has not found anything, but when it finishes up you may see one, or more infections! I would go back with some different scanner to make sure they cleanned out everything.

Thank you TomCCTV! Hey Rory! What is wrong with Facebook? They have the best in spyware, malware, and viruses! You are an expert at removing this junk! Just think how slow we can make your computer drag!

It is a matter of verifying that you have video on a computer on the local LAN. Then it is a matter of setting up everything based on your ISP. Some telcos it appears better to get an STATIC IP from them rather than trying to set up everything with a regular modem. It may be easier with a cable based ISP. I truely do not know as it will be based on your location. I assume you checked the port forward on the router for you DVR. You may have to find a box that needs a check ( or to remove a check). It will say something like "block anonymous connectons" or some wording to that. Allow for pings also.

Hello! I am not sure what you are looking for. No matter how you connect up two keyboards you are going to get "interference" from the two. Do you have two separate "stations". You might set up a multiplex system so that only one can control the camera. If this is on a budget then there is not much that you can do. You will have to let them decide who has precedence, and just wire them in parallal. Some keyboards have a DVR input, and then the output goes to the camera. I do not know if this keyboard has this feature or not. I wonder if wiring the first keyboard in to the DVR input would work a little better?

Hello! above advise is great! Also the lens selection is going to be more important then the actual camera. Package deals will usually have wide angle cameras. The real problem is knowing how far your car is located from where you mount the cameras. Anything past 20 feet on a wide angle lens is going to be too small due to distance distortion. Wide angle lenses are in the 3.8 or 4mm range. 2.8mm is fisheye like your door peep hole. There is nothing wrong with these type of lenses. They are DESIGNED to create large peripheral view, and not to look in to the depth. You may need 12mm or higher to see a good face shot of someone on your car. You will need to put some serious lights on your house to light up your area. Just because you can see around your car at night with your own eyes does not mean a camera will "see" in the same environment. Your brain is a computer that adds to what you are viewing. Cameras do not have super computers to add to the video. (If that makes any sense). If you do not add natural electrical lighting then you will need to use IR lighting such as what you see on bullet cameras. Measure from where the camera will be mounted to the farthest point on your car which may be the back bumper depending on where, and how you park in relation to the camera. Double this distance. This is the rating of the camera that you need in IR distance. If your car (at the farthest point) is 40 feet from the camera then you need a minimum of 80 feet of IR throw! For example. The camera packages will have bullet cameras that have 30 feet of IR throw. The cameras will be effective at 15 IR distance. Think of a triangle shaped like a ramp. Close to the camera the IR is very strong. The IR can go 30 feet, but the stregnth of the IR is so minimal not to be useful. Makes sense? Get an IR throw that is even more stronger then the 80 foot throw. Now for the hard part. For facial recognition you will actually need to use IR illuminators in several different locations pointed at your car. You need to think like a photographer. They have those umbrellas that have lights, or flash in them. This diffuses, and spreads out the lighting. They may have down lighting to look like sunshine bouncing off your hair. They have back lighting, and they have side lighting. IR is just like a flash light. If the guy is not standing in the "beam" then what will he look like? IR looks better if you can point it up in to a canopy of leaves, and branches, and have the tree bounce the IR back down. It will scatter the IR light like those photo umbrellas. This is why DIY setups are not as effective as a system designed with "security is of the essence". The biggest problem is going to be your budget. How much is your car worth? You may be willing to spend more now then you would have prior to your car being vandalized. Use all 4 cameras to point at your car. No matter what why they look you will get the face. The IR from all of those cameras will enhance the IR nighttime shot of the other cameras. Get those cheap cameras closer to get better field of view with the wide angles, or with the short distance IR. Is this enough info to get you started? What do you think?

I would tell you to set yourself up as a burlar alarm company. It will give you a better standing if a customer is selecting between a couple of different companies. Low end customers will be drawn to the "trunk thumpers" who are unlicensed. It will be up to you if you want to drop your prices to match, or to use low end products. If you can tie in with a home builder / custom builder then you can put in structured wiring, intercom, central vac, alarm pre wire, or whole systems, audio, video, home theater wiring, and wireless networking. You can get more customers by working with them during the building process. You will find that they will want you to set up the stereo equipment, computers, and to hang flat panels on the wall, and to hide the wires. If you cannot pull alarm pre wire, then the builders may not work with you. You may not make a lot of money, but it will sustain you untill the big jobs come in. What do you think?

Glad to hear everything is working! Do you have a manual?