Kiwi

You need to use the utility supplied on the CD to set the IP. After that you can do most things from the commnd line. Support is supposed to be supplied by whomever you purchased it from. There is another thread on that subject somewhere. The user guide can be found with a bit of google searching - it's generic.

That software looks OK (and it's relatively inexpensive) so there is no reason why you could not start with one computer and see how it goes. IP cameras give you plenty of flexibility for future changes too.

Hi, and welcome. You could look here for a recent post on using a Java viewing client, http://www.cctvforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=13273&highlight= I assume you are referring to a Mac being used for viewing a remote image server or DVR. If you also intend to use it as an image server, DVR, or network video recorder, then you might be breaking new ground!

In my year on this board I do not recall this HD issue come up before. Setting "master" by jumper should override the cable's choice of "master" on the drive, don't see that the ATA interface has any bearing on, or knowledge of this. My 782 works fine with the several drives I have tried set to master, not to imply it's the same design as the 760. Trying to get in contact with AVtech should be interesting. If you can do that you've truly accomplished something!

What sort of grounding (to earth) arrangement have you got for the cable run?

On the front panel it's 0000 The manual will tell you, but I think it's either the "up" button or the enter button, keep forgetting as mine has been running non-stop for months. On the network, the default pw is admin

It is sensible to add a fan. Whether one is absolutely needed or not is unsure, but in my experience if there is a overheating problem you will get hard drive fail errors and it reboots, with no permanent damage done. You may also want to select an HD that does not overly exceed the minimum performance requirements as it may require more cooling. My 782 had a fan installed but due to the restrictive fan grill it didn't do anything useful, hence the HD errors. I changed it for one twice as thick and cut out the grill. Also added a small fan under the HD tray. Cut a round hole in the tray and glued it in place. Works great now. Can't help with the power connection but someone here with a 760/761 burnt out their power board by installing a 1/4 amp fan, so would suggest great care. Those little fans are about 1/8 amp.

Everything is normal except the HD not working. When you attempt to power off there should be a message on the screen asking for the password. The beeps are normal, if not annoying. It goes without saying - try another HD, make sure the connector is not upside down (just in case it's not keyed) and the power connector is working.

Yeah, that's the way I understood it - so you need an alarm or indicator device that tolerate being powered on for a period of time.

Yeah, if the camera's BNC shield and power "gnd" are connected together at the camera, and then your power supply (-) and DVR chassis are also connected together 40m away then the benefits of a balanced twisted pair may be not be fully realized. I guess that means use a single isolated power source per camera.

No doubt the most common question ever asked here... In the DVR network settings did you correctly set the gateway and netmask? All I have is TCP from internal 80 to external 8080 and it works fine. You could try DMZ on the DVR, but set the DVR port (in the DVR) to other than 80.

I think the purpose is just to give you an impression of the activity, not evidence for a court case. I find it's plenty clear enough for that. For users who have a lot of daily activity, 4x larger files could be a problem too. Still, it should be configurable. I use a php viewer (sfpg 2.0.0) on the target web site so that I can quickly review the pics thumbnailed onto the page. Rumor has it these DVR's use embedded Linux, and perhaps hackable.

Umm, don't be openin' up anything that plugs into mains, OK? That last item does not have an alarm. Check on this site: http://www.homesecuritystore.com/ezStore123/DTProductList.asp?p=2_1_1_1_0_0_195 (hope it's ok to post that?)

Not sure if there aren't other ways. I can get an image from my Arecont at the command line using "wget", an http utility. For example this will save an image to the current directory with the name image.jpg: wget "http://:8008/img.jpg -O image.jpg"

No, you would need to reset the DVR to factory defaults if you forgot the admin password.

I think you are far better off using IP cameras rather than mixing up proprietary video capture hardware and software with your own. The IP cameras use standard internet protocols and don't need any specific hosting software.

The wireless doorbell I used has battery power at both ends, I guess that's why it was cheap ($11.) The pricey ones have mains-powered ringers. Works easily to 100' line of sight. The terminals you mention on your existing PIR, what are they intended for? i.e. what's the configuration and voltage/current rating? It surprises me no one makes a battery-powered PIR with remote wireless ringer.

Hmm, I used a cheap wireless doorbell to do something similar for a remote gate. Mine rings and triggers my DVR. A minor issue is that you just want a momentary signal to the transmitter, not the several-minute period the light would be on, otherwise the noise will drive you bonkers. If the PIR had no auxiliary output there is a current sensor available that will detect anything over 0.4 amps AC and provide a solid state switched output.

I think he means the camera wire length could be up to 1000' PS, I'm getting errors back from the message board after every post. Well, almost every post, something about SMTP.

Wouldn't it be easier to use an IP camera and just request an image with http? Windows command line ap "wget" works great on my Arecont for downloading images on demand.

Wow, it really is "the wild west!" That sort of crime should be a hanging offense to match, whether he hit someone or not. The clerk was really lucky the robber was not expecting him to open fire, yet it's damn fortunate he had the presence of mine not to wait. Sadly, this happens here too but the clerks are not allowed to either own firearms or use them. One was shot and killed three weeks ago in Auckland, even though he complied. In fact if a clerk here did what happened in that video he would be prosecuted. The robbers would get a short sentence since they "missed."

I think plates in many parts of the world are like this. The reflective material is diffuse so angle should not be so much of an issue. It's the huge amount of IR from the incandescent motorcycle-style combo tail and brake light that is the problem. The street light is probably sodium or mercury, pretty minimal in IR I would assume. The camera is more sensitive to the IR than the human eye so that's why it's washed out in the plate area on video. A more extreme IR filter may help, as might a wide dynamic range camera, but since the brightness is localized auto exposure will still try to adjust for the entire scene and keep the plate washed out. A solution might be to add a second, parallel daylight color camera on the same scene which would be better suited for that level of light.

Well, from the theoretical point of view clearly extra current capacity is not going to help directly with voltage drop. But as you have noticed and survtech has pointed out, 24 VAC transformers and older style (or cheaper) 12 VDC power supplies (based on line frequency transformers) tend to have poor regulation and so often output a higher voltage at lighter loads to make up for it. So that gives you a bit of extra headroom for wire losses. Modern general purpose 12 VDC switch-mode designs have excellent regulation and normally nothing to allow for voltage drops. Over the entire current range it might not vary more than 0.1 V. Next to ensuring voltage drops are minimized, the ideal solution is to use a supply with an adjustable voltage output if the wire voltage drop will cut the voltage supplied to the camera below its minimum allowable value.

I think after tossing the grenade into the room, the original poster has long left...

Thanks for checking on that, Steve! Also, I used "javaw.exe" instead of "java.exe" as the JRE to eliminate the pop-up text window on a PC.