scorpion

What decision did you come to?

First go to Home Depot. Go to the Electrical section. If you are lucky, and you can find a "worker", then ask them for a low voltage ring. This is a device that will allow you to cut a hole in the wall, and put in a trim ring. It has two flaps. The one on the top will tighten itself against the drywall. All you have to do is turn the Phillips screw clockwise for it to tighten up against the drywall. On the bottom is another flap, and it also tightens against the drywall by turning the screw clockwise. Take the trim ring, and place it on the wall. You will want to place it the same distance off the floor as the electrical plates. I will guess, and say that the center of the electrical plates is 14" inches from the floor, then I would want my trim ring to be at this same heigth from the floor. Take a small level, and place in to the side of the trim ring to make sure you have the trim ring level. Mark the inside of the trim ring with your pencil. You will now need to make this mark bigger for the ring to fit into it. Take the level, and draw the horizontal, and vertical lines to make the box a little bigger. If this "drawing" matches the appearance of the trim ring then take a drywall saw, and cut out your drawing. SAFETY! What is in the wall? Take a studfinder, and use this to verify that you are not going to stab into a 2X4 with your saw! Look at the wall. How close are you to an electical box? Go around to the other side of this same wall. Yes, you must walk all the way around your whole house to get to the other side. If it is just a matter of looking around through a door the better! Is there an electical socket on this side of the wall? Use a measuring tape to be more accurate! Is there a shower, or a sink, or a hot water tank? We would not want to punch in to the wall, and then have water spewing out!! If you feel that you have taken all of these precautions then go to the next step. BE DOUBLE SAFE! Drill a very small hole. The smallest bit you can find. Drill where you are going to put the trim ring. If you hit water then at least it will not be 100 gallons a second pouring out. Grab your locking pliars, and go out to your water meter, and shut off your water main. OK! You have not hit water! Take your drywall saw, and make a hole big enough to stick a flash light next to the hole. You will want to look inside just to be double sure. Take your drywall saw, and cut out your drawing. Once you have the trim ring installed you can use an F connector plate. F connectors are the threaded cable connectors. Use a small piece of cable to attach to the wall plate, and to the device that you will be hooking up to. You can get an F to BNC connector at Radio Shack, or your local electonics store. http://www.radioshack.com/sm-standard-f-connector-to-bnc-jack--pi-2104080.html

This will be a tough one at this price. You will have to search through the advertisers here on the forum. You will want a 4 channel AV Tech DVR with at least an 80 GB Hard Drive. If you need remote viewing, then you wil want the networking feature. If after you cannot find an advertiser/business owner from this forum then I would be more than glad to help. I have not started advertising here on this forum so I will not "take advantage" of your request for a DVR for my gain. Our showroom is in Florida, and this is where we would be shipping it from. SpyTown has helped me on occasion, and he is in New York. There are some excellant people here on this forum that advertise here! Good Luck! PM me if you need more help.

How big are the pistons on this thing? WoW! How many cameras will you put in this compartment? Do you already have a wireless network set up for the boat? Do you have a wired network already established?

Will the camera be powered locally, or will it be powered off of the long cable run?

You can use audio RCA for video, and vise versa. Price/quality will obviously make a difference.

I am not quite sure what you are asking for. At the Home Depot, Lowes, possible a network/computer store look for these: Wall plates that have square holes in them. The connector snaps in the hole. You can shove four RCA connectors in a "four hole" plate. http://www.leviton.com/OA_HTML/ibeCCtpSctDspRte.jsp?section=10422&minisite=10027&JServSessionIdrootlxln0001=surqqd46t2.p7vGpx0Ka34Ip6jQolfJpwTDpAaUp7vGpx0Ka34Ip6jQolfJpwTDpAaUahmKa30-&LCPROD=BtTkAwiCXzhUv2EEvU5LPkGL:S&LCPROD_pses=LCPROD%3DBtTkAwiCXzhUv2EEvU5LPkGL%253AS%7E Here is what an RCA to RCA connector that snaps in the wall plate looks like. http://interlectcid.com/CatalogMain.asp?t=&b=SCP&id=1221&p=1

I am waiting for the odds to go up so that I can bet against myself!

Boats, and ships are out of my league. My first concern is the explosion possibility in the engine room. I know you do not have gas leaks, or fumes, but I wanted to ask if we have to take this in to account. We may need to put the cameras in to a "case" so that if there are fumes any electical low voltage will not cause damage. A picture of the area would be of help. I did not know how large the ship was. I did not know if this is a walk in engine room, or under a bulk head. I do not know any of the Coast Guard, or other maritime laws that may cover this kind of installation.

Hello! Would you be kind enough to describe your situation? Will this be for a residential, or for a comercial building? Are you protecting cash, and diamonds, or do you have teenagers throwing rocks at your house? Do you have a budget in mind? Is security of the essence? What are the two cameras outside looking at, and what are the two cameras on the inside looking at? I look forward to your post!

Thanks for the heads up on the PTZ! I just ordered my first IC Realtime Flex 8, and I give this a good review as well!

Jeromephone says: "how about take a certain model camera and see who can sell it for the largest markup" The Apprentice CCTV Addition! YOU'RE ALL FIRED!!!!!!!!! GET THESE TECHS OUT OF MY OFFICE!

Let the Iron CCTV competition begin!

Why would you want to ground your cameras? Here is a post with some thoughts on ground loop problems. http://www.cctvforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=8494&highlight=ground+loop Are you just asking in general? Are you having problems with your video? Can you describe what is happening? Here is another post of camera problems. http://www.cctvforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=9120&highlight=ground+loop and this one http://www.cctvforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=8614&highlight=ground+loop I hope this helps some. My answer: Do not ground your cameras. If you are bolting to wood, on concrete then you should be fine. If you are working on a metal building then you will want to isolate the camera from the frame, or the metal covering.

Blowrabbit, I am your father, said Rory!

How far was your run? What kind of cables were you running? Just curious. Thanks!

Do they have phase couplers such as the devices that are used for X-10? http://www.x10pro.com/pro/pdf/xpcr.pdf

Hello! How did your system turn out? Give us some details! Thanks!

You will not be able to do it for $500.00. You "can" buy stuff for $500.00, but you will soon find that the limitations will stop you from getting the video that you want. First question: Is the $500 just for the camera plus your recording equipment? Lets just do two cameras. One in your room, and one outside. Where you think you will be mounting the camera measure the distance to the back of the cars. Do not measure from the building to the back of the cars because we have to take in consideration the height of the camera. Put the measure tape up at this height, and get the true measurement. You will want to buy an IR camera that throws the IR double the distance of your measurement. There will be those who will tell you that I may be wrong on this selection, but we are not buying expensive cameras, and we are just making do with what we can on a budget. This means we are buying cheap cameras, and not the professional cameras that I would normally tell you to buy. These people who chime in will be right, because you do get what you pay for. Get yourself a bullet camera with 380 Lines of resolution (LOR). 12Volt. The IR with the distance that you have measured. 3.8mm lens is good for the "15 - 20" feet that you have said would be could enough for your video. Avoid audio microphones built in to the camera. If it comes built in to the camera do not use this feature. For your bedroom: First decision! Do you want an obvious camera (this I recommend), or do you want a hidden cam? If you want a hidden cam use a PIR motion camera. BE prepared to be arrested as a pervert when the first female finds out that you have a hidden camera taping your "escapades" if you know what I mean. Use a visible camera. I have to tell you that you will need permision from the "home" owner to bolt things to their "house" (or Frat House). You can always throw a 4" X 4" pole in a pot, and put it on a balcony if you have one. Kind of like what you see with sat dishes on apartments. Ok. You have a wire running from your outside camera to the inside of your room. I will let you design a way to have the wire come in without drilling holes, and yet still be able to close the window. You do want to think about winter time! I would suggest a piece of wood about 2" tall, and as wide as the sash of your window. Drill a hole big enough to get the connectors through the hole (what we call premade cables). Caulk this hole so that bugs cannot get in, and the weather stays out, and your HVAC stays inside. Push your window down upagainst the wood. Now your window is secure from the weather, and elements. What about physical security. Find a way to "lock" your window. This will be your design. Do not take super long drywall screws and drill them in to the sides of your window. The home owner would not like this. At least ask their permission if you do. How are we doing so far? Recording device: VCR are cheap! $50.00 - $100? Ok you buy cheap, you get cheap. I would not recommend a cheap VCR if security is of the essence!!! LISTEN TO ME! Buy a high end one. Your life may depend on the video recorded. Ok, you went and bought the cheap wally world one anyways. Now how do we plug two cameras in to one VCR??? You will need a device called a multiplexor. You do not want a switcher. A switcher gives you one camera at a time. First camera one, then it switches to camera two, and so on till camera number four, then back to camera one. A multiplexor will give you all four cameras at the exact same time! We call this a quad screen. Take the output of this, and plug it in to your VCR, and then plug the VCR to a TV. You will want to buy 7 tapes that are 8 hours. You will mark them Sunday through Saturday. One tape for each day. What is today? Ok. Put in that days tape, and press record. If you need to look at past history you can go back a week! Problem! You can only record for 8 hours! This is ok if you turn it on before you go to bed, and it runs out of tape by morning. If you want to record 24 hours a day then you need three 8 hour tapes for each day. Now you have 24 tapes, and you have to put in a tape, and push record 3 times a day. Don't forget to do it every day! HOW ABOUT A DVR? This is a better choice! You will not be able to get two cameras, two power supplys (one for each camera), two cables (power/video), and a DVR for under $500.00. Even though this is out of your budget, go ahead a spend a little more. It is not like this is going to waste. Even when you are not in school you can still take it home, and use it there. If you move out the frat house, and get an apartment with that cute girl you can use it there. Don't forget her dad is going to visit every weekend just to ruin your day every weekend. Oh! Sorry! Maybe I was the only one that had this problem! Anyways I hope this is of some help. Look at some of the advertisers on this forum, and tell them what you want to do. You can refer them to your post. If someone from the advertising banners, cannot help you then PM me, and I will see what I can do for you. There may be some lease to own systems out there. You may pay more in the long run, but you can spread your costs out over time, rather than paying a lump sum up front! Good luck!

I just plugged in the last computer out of this group. I just got to desk top, and what do I see (?), a cartoon cursor! Oh boy this one is going to be fun to clean! This one had no blocks on it what so ever. It is amazing what people (employees) will do even when told what not to do! I feel sorry for the people out there that do not know what "magnet" is. That will be the first thing I remove along with all the other P2P. How come no one shuts down these "free" game sites? I wanted to mention the games, but I would say something like "frenzy fish", and those kind of games instead. I would throw in a new hard drive, but I will wait until I pull a couple of the files that I need first. It must be hell being an IT guy at a large company.

I have some computers with an AMD Duron processor running window 98. The system is right click blocked, it has no control panel, and in the browser I can click on tools but they are greyed out. I deleted Spybot Search and Destroy believing that the program was part of the system blocking. I am still locked out. With a step by step approach I am comfortable to go in to regedit, and make the changes that will allow me to regain control. I have admin rights. I went to C:\win98 to see if I could find the control panel icon. I found setup and ran it. It helped some, but not enough! I went in to windows, and looked around in system, and system 32. My next step is to reinstall ie6. Any help anyone? Does anyone know of any win 98 tweaks, or "treats". I will be setting some computers up for product demos using some kind of media player, and triggering DVR Alarm inputs, and triggering product lighting such as cabinet "hockey pucks". Later when I get some cd drives installed I may try XP. I believe these machines will run them. Thank you for your tricks, tweaks, and help getting back control!

Where is the DVR based on this motherboard? This board is the size of a stick of gum hence the name. http://www.gumstix.com/platforms.html the fastest verdex motherboard with double the memory Processor: Marvell® PXA270 with XScale™ Speed: 600MHz Memory: 128MB RAM 32MB Flash Features: USB host signals CCD camera signals Connections: 60-pin Hirose connector 120-pin MOLEX connector 24-pin flex ribbon Size: 80mm x 20mm Specifications: http://docwiki.gumstix.org/Verdex Linux

Thanks for the heads up. I am aware of all of the limitations of privacy, and such, but then again I find customers that buy video extenders for the DVR monitor out so they can see it with another tv!!!!! Oh boy! What can you do? Educate! Educate! Educate! Pray that they listen! I guess the FCC finally got fed up with the 1.2 violation, and started enforcing the rules already on the books.

I sell the Micro Cam III, and the outdoor version. You really have to educate your customer before they use these products. I carry them because I have a showroom. I am more expensive then R.Shk, but then I offer service as well. I only carry them because if I do not, then the low end customers will go to something similiar to a Sams club, or what have you. The micro cam III is really popular with the RC crowd. They are used on planes, and rockets, and cars for the view! They are real popular with "my mate is cheating on me" crowd. You will have to warn your customers about the possible interference of the 802.11X , or known as wireless internet, (WiFi). This is on the same freq of 2.4Ghz. Do not buy these products because you think you might sell them. Sell them because you know it will bring in a new avenue of cash flow. I do not sell the whole range of products. I onlly sell the two wireless types, and that is it. I do not like the 4 wireless camera system because it is a switcher, and not a multiplexor. I would rather use 4 seperate cameras, and use 4 seperate receivers to hook up to a DVR, (or a multiplexor W/ VCR). In all honesty I have to say for what they are (cheap), they are pretty good products. Don't try to penetrate 4 walls, and expect it to work, but I do find that they work when used as for what they were designed to do. Just because it say 300 line of sight does not mean it will work at 300 feet. You have to do a live test before you do an install! The energy level has to be above a certain thresh hold in order for the receiver to pull in a signal. Do not recommend these to convenience store owners. They usually have those six foot refridgerators with the two doors that slide side to side. All of these compressors clicking on, and off will just kill the signal, or at the best you will just have a lot of interference in the videos. You will have to recommend that the products be plugged in to ups battery back up to clean up the power to make them work great. If the camera is working off of battery power than you may be lucky to get 8 hours out of a 9 volt battery. If you use the $10 lithium 9 volt batteries then they might last 20 hours. You need to tell the customer that they will have to change the battery every day for it to work. I recommend that they use the wall wart that comes with it. Please note that the connector is not standard. If you run wire through an attic you will have to cut off the transformer connector, and reconnect it at the camera end of the wire. You cannot hide wireless cameras in silk plants! Some have a wire in them to help give the plant it's shape. This will interfere with the signal! I order mine through the Petra catalog there fore I can pick, and choose what I want to sell. I find that it is to expensive to sell 5.8Ghz compared to the Swann microcam. Do not order wireless cams (non Swann devices) from this dealer (PM for details). The kits will not work in the same room let alone trying to penetrate one wall! They are really trashy! They just do not work. In my opinion buy the Swanns, and sell them! Do you have to buy a minimum order in order to purchase? If you have too, just buy the the two that I have described. OK, I take that back they have some IP cameras, and I would probably sell those to. I hope this was of help!

Thank you Rory! System Key: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\ I was amazed at how many items were listed here. I switched values to 0, and everything came up! run, and all items in settings. Thank you again!