fred3

I run a computer and networking business in a rural area. So, I end up being the go-to guy for things electronic. With the computer and networking integration of surveillance cameras, I naturally get called in to deal with camera systems. I've worked in the electronics and video industries so I know enough about a lot of things EXCEPT practical things about camera systems. This is the kind of thing that YOU deal with every day and I rarely deal with. I have to replace an 8-output 12vdc box that's failed. There are 2 in the facility and I replaced the other early this year. The old boxes come with female barrel connector outputs. The new boxes require that I add pigtailed connectors. So, I bought those separately. The other end goes into a manufactured siamese cable. As I recall, I had to adapt the other output pigtails to match the siamese cable end. And there are so many of those )#%)#%(& barrel connector types. For example, theses: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00N8C49OA/ref=pd_bxgy_23_img_3?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=XVJPVRWX6RXRMCN5W9C9 The seller says they are NOT 5.5 - 2.1 exactly and won't work because the center conductor pins/sockets are a bit greater than 2.1mm (but are clearly not 2.5mm) ... and only that they *will* work together. I take it that cameras have a 5.5 - 2.1mm male power plug. So may I assume that all (or most) siamese cables come with a female 5.5-2.1 socket at the camera end and a 5.5-2.1 plug at the other end? If you had to buy pigtails for a power supply, what would you buy? What are these things called. Well, OK, I know they are barrel connectors but what about types / sizes? I can either buy things at a local tiny Radio Shack shop or I can obviously buy on the internet. But the latter requires knowing what to buy, what it's called, etc. So many times (like the link above) they don't even call out a type/size, etc.

I provide a computer and networking service and occassionally am asked to deal with surveillance camera systems. I recently replaced a Q-See QT526 with an apparently close equivalent in the QT5816. The camera side is working fine but the backend operations are raising questions. - First, it appears that accessing the recorder on the web doesn't work with a typical browser like Internet Explorer, Google Chrome or Firefox. I've only been able to get QTView to install and work. It appears that connecting onto the local network will download it from the device. I'd like to be able to instruct others how to connect but obviously that would be better with a bare browser than having to install QTView first. What is normal and what do you recommend? - Second, playback over the web seems dreadfully slow. (I've not tried it on the local LAN but don't expect it to be different). Even at x32 with a single channel being reviewed it runs at less than x1. Is this to be expected? How to get around this? Both of these weren't issues with the QT526 as nearly as I can determine. So these appear to be "new problems" for the user. Thanks in advance!

I'm working on a Q-See QT526 DVR system with Q-See cameras and camera power supply boxes. The system was installed a few years ago and exhibits some intermittencies with "video loss". I'm a capable tech but have little experience with the system components in this application. So, I'm looking for guidance in going about troubleshooting. Such things as: "What is more likely to fail intermittently: power, power connections, video connections, DVR video channels, cabling?" The system has what I think are called "Siamese" video and power cables with identical BNC connectors at each end and DC power barrel connectors at each end (which are different at each end). These are white-colored manufactured cables that *appear* to be of good quality. ONE BNC end appears to have been replaced on one of the 16 cables. The use of barrel connectors on cables only causes me a bit of concern but I have little experience using this type of in-line connector. There are short barrel connector adapters going from the Siamese cables to the camera power supply box connectors. (This particular power supply has 8 barrel connectors each on the left side of the box). I have to wonder .. why are these necessary? Wrong cable or...? If you had a "video loss" on a system like this one, how would you assign probable causes of failure? Here are mine: BNC connectors - 33% Power connectors - 33% Power supply per camera - 10% (but looks OK in this case) Cameras - 24% (just because I don't know any better). Since the cables look "good" cosmetically and because the power seems OK (but is it?) then I can imagine selectively replacing cable end BNC connectors if an intermittency shows up more or less consistently. Is that reasonable? I've otherwise done some of the obvious troubleshooting things like swapping power connectors, swapping DVR ports and swapping cameras. One or two camera locations (i.e. cables I suppose) remain questionable nonetheless.