UMDRanger

You see the diagonal lines, thats the problem. Camera is a GANZ 3024 2-4mm, in an outdoor housing, serviced by 18-2/24-4 siamese with NVT in the camera and a balun at the headend. It was orginally powered by 24 VAC transformer. I noticed the problem and thought maybe a ground loop or something. I tried different transformers on different circuits. We have swapped the AC transformer, camera, NVT, and balun; pulled new cable; and today I switched it to a DC 12v transformer. It is a temp install covering the construction of a pool. The camera is mounted on the side a deck, approximately 2.5 stories up. (thats real fun on the ladder... even moreso today in the rain and mud )Wire is ran under the deck, under a door into the house where it goes through an exercise room and then into a bedroom closet where the DVR, monitor, and power supply are. (this is the same job as the Dedicated Micros DVR problem I asked about 2 months ago... the job from hell it seems). Total length of cable is approximately 50' It runs along 110v about 1' away with the cable being on strung along the floor near the wall (see electrical outlets) in the house. It passes about 7 feet from what I am guessing is a 220v outlet for a tanning bed, which is off. I pulled the cable to the center of the room, away from all the outlets... and still had the problem. If viewed at the camera via a spot monitor using the supplied plastic video line clip the image is clear of all the interference/distortion. However, once it gets down to the DVR closet, and viewed through the balun/24-4 then it gets the interfernce when viewed on the spot monitor and when passed through the DVR. New cable does not appear to be damaged, nor did the old one. Am using 18-2 for power, blue pair for video, orange pair is not used (which is our SOP, and we have never had a problem with this before). I am stumped, my boss is stumped, the homeowner wants to buy the setup once we fix the problem and the contractor is done using it... so we'd like to get it tracked down. Thanks for your suggestions.

There is a way to reset everything to factory defaults on the DM DSII. It is on the first screen of the installer menu.

Thanks Rory for the terminology correction. I'll probably just pull some coax since that doesn't give any problems. I moved the current cable away from the otherwise 1' from the outlet, and had no difference. Thanks all.

Not applicable as it shows up when plugged directly from camera to TV monitor via balun. no Is embedded OS stand alone Dedicated Micros Digital Sprite II 9 camera unit. I have done focus/aiming by using RG-59 from the camera to the spot monitor, and there were no problems. Baluns are so much easier and faster than crimp/twist on BNC. And we have switched over to using siamese for about a year now... with no problems like this. Only need to pull one cable, instead of two. Plus, we can junction off the other pair, when the client wants to add a camera. It is unshielded. There are 2 twisted pairs, of which I use one for video. yes, and as said above, the problem is seen on the monitor when passed through the siamese.

American Dynamics Intellex has POS searching from remote. Might work?

We got a new one in today. I got it programed... and then it started doing the same thing as the old one. Needless to say we were not happy. I again called tech support, dealt with the usual "it's your power supply" and "it's not our fault" mentality. The rep had me reset to the default settings, and no problems. We then went into programming, and when I got to the recording rate. "Oh, well thats your problem!" the rep tells me. While the instruction manual says I can set the recording level as low as once every 90,000 milliseconds (as the customer wants only once an hour, he had to settle with once every 1:30min), apparently tech supports in house tests a few weeks ago found that anything above 6,000 milliseconds causes the unit to become unstable due to the low recording rate, and reboot. And after 5 reboots an hour, it goes into a protective mode where it sits and waits to be manually rebooted. Known problem, but who knows when it will be resolved (manual updated, or units made stable). Nice.

My company almost always uses Dedicated Micros Digital Sprite II DVRs, and with great success. However, today while working on a project I encountered a problem. First of all, the client wants it in time lapse mode, so I've got it set to variable recording the single camera at once every 90,000 milliseconds. He really wanted it once an hour, but I couldn't find a way to do that. Anyways I got that set. A contractor is time lapse recording the progress on a pretty wild project at a nice house. But my problem is that while I am in the Installer menu, the unit keeps rebooting. Kinda hard to program the damn thing when it's rebooting from disk every time I open a menu or try to change a setting. My off the top of my head guesses: 1. unit is defective, or has curupt software. 2. power spikes in the outlet. 3. power spikes caused by the camera transformer (used) on the same 4 outlet recepticle. 4. static discharge generated by me being on the carpet with no shoes (really nice house) Any thoughts? I'm kinda stuck out here on this one, the rest of the tech/installer side of the company is gone on a company vacation for a week, and hard to get a hold of.

CCTV uses copper, not aluminum. Copper core, with 95% copper braided shield.

I must digress, the 50mm lense viewing the parking lto entrance does not work well at night. Sometimes I get a viewable pic, mostly not. And yes the Intellicam one is just a general overview. Between all the cameras, it has the best lux rating, so I am pleased.

I had OS 4.0 (067) which was "old and buggy", so I downloaded the update off the website for 4.3 (007), but the DVR never read the disk. Turns out my boss had a update disk in his office. It took him 4 times to create a disk the DVR would read he said. So I installed it 4.3 (005), and like I said it worked fine at the shop. DM tech support said they first thought it was software, but after updating that, mostly likely culprit was the power supply. Thanks for all your help and suggestions team!

This morning at our shop the condition reoccured. I called tech support and apparently we had gotten an older unit (yet we ordered it less than a month ago), with an old software that was buggy. I updated the software, which solved the problem... until I powered down the unit and went to install it. Had it all programed at the shop, unplugged it, brought it to the site... and it just kept rebooting itself, even when in just viewing live. New software shows up in the properties though. So it is going to be exchanged. End of story.

It seems to vary. I had no problems on the user menu, but once I got into the installer menu and started setting the static IP, it started to reboot. This rebooting continued on recording and quality setup menus as well. The unit was not plugged into the ethernet port on the wall yet. However, my helper for the day, a new guy, unpacked the unit while I was mounting the camera. He found the RS485 cable that is included with the DVR and he figured it was the cat5 patch cord and drove it into the ethernet jack on the DVR. I got it out... eventually. And put an actual cat5 patch cord in, but like I said, it wasn't plugged in. Haven't called them yet. They are on my todo list for tomarrow morning when I troubleshoot and try to program it at our shop. humm. I have not checked the outlet, and there is no UPS. Not sure how I'd check the outlet as I rarely touch 110. I doubt the homeowner would like me tearing apart the outlet to meter it though. Basically the DVR is for the concret contractor to use to watch (and record for advertisment) the progress on a swiming pool being made on the side of a steep hill overlooking a river. It is a temp installation, and the homeowner and contractor didn't like my idea of running the wire nicely. They insisted on running it their way, accross the floors and dangling So there is no UPS, the internet access is controlled by the household's computer wiz.

If each branch only goes to one PTZ, then select the "terminated" setting on the PTZ. If you can't find a termination switch, google the PTZ manual to find out how.

The end of each "loop" needs to be terminated at the last PTZ by use of the termination jumper. You can "daisy chain" them as you mentioned by going from one to another, on and on. Or you can do what you have done, and have the signal loops branch out from a single source. Just be sure the junction is good so the signal hits all the branches, and be sure each branch/loop is terminated at the final PTZ. More elaborate systems such as those using matrix controllers, least for American Dynamics, will use a dedicated junction box, so the commands come over one data line to a junction box somewhere else on site, then this junction box will send branches/loops (power and data) out to PTZs in it's area.

Buy kevlar body armor, and bring your Glock Rory makes it sound like it can be the wild west there sometimes.

How about a small wired network (cheap $50 router) located in the rafters, connected to the geovision PC in the rafters, with a LAN cable routed to floor level. He can show up with a laptop, plug into the network and either use Geovision remote viewer software or the windows remote software. Being on the same network he could save the needed video to the laptop.

I agree with Rory, go with a Geovision two camera input card. I have a GV-800-4, 30fps on each channel, and it is more than I need. But after having my car broken into so many times... I wanted the best I could get. My setup 1- main entrance. I just replaced the cheap color dome with a nice B/W I got in a gamble on ebay. (Really... buying on ebay is a gamble. Sometimes you get good, other times you get the shaft). An old box style Philips LTC 0330/21 B/W with a 3.5-8mm auto-iris lense Personally I was dissapointed I'd be loosing color and going to B/W, but I get much better resolution and night vision than I ever did with the cheap color. 2. My play room where all the computers, guns, and financial documents are. Enter this room, and I've got you twice on camera, and most importantly, I can see exactly what you've messed with. 3. Parking lot general view. This is the Intellicam ACD-200N which is color and b/w switching. I park right below it so I can see general activity near my car. I hid it in a plant, and on some of the videos you can see the window ledge... an indication that I haven't gotten around to repositioning it yet. 4. What good is the general view if you can't make out a way for the cops to track the suspects? Thats why I have a parking lot entrance view as well! I have moderately priced box camera with a 50mm zoom lense aimed at the center of the closer parking lot entrance. Unfortunately the other entrance, accross the lot is not covered, but I figure the criminal will loop through the parking lot rather than turn around. I am also fortunate that I have light posts casting nice lighting conditions. I tried to upload the videos on my youtube account, but kept getting errors "failed; unable to convert to video clip"

I have the Intellicam ACD-200N I believe. Intellicam is no longer around I understand, but I think I only paid around $100 for it. I have it overlooking the parking lot covering my car from my apartment window. I always park right below it, so I am good to go, but it covers quite a few spaces. I might be able to upload some screenshots after work today. I'm not sure if anyone carries it anymore, or what products are comparable to it. But I am sure you'll get a lot of great suggestions here.

Been a while since I posted last. Will need to hit the Intro thread next I guess. Anyways... I have a Sensormatic/American Dynamics/Tyco Speeddome ultra IV I got last year. It boots up, does it's homing check, and waits for controller data. CR LEDS LED 2 Green, blinks. LED 3 Red, blinks during homing/start up checks, then remains solid. LED 4 Orange, stays solid on. From what I've gathered from the manuals, blinking red means the software is working. So I am assuming a solid red means the software has a problem. Anyone have any ideas? I downloaded the latest driver firmware, but without the USB device, not sure if I can upload somehow via Geovision... which is still offline.

I'll PM you my email for that program. Thanks. I've got it sent on some 18/2 on a cable length of 4' for testing, so the diff between 18 and 20 shouldn't be a factor. I've run them several hundred feet on Sensornet protocol on a few different guages of wire at my old job (retail security) where we used whatever we could get our hands on. GV-Net is set to the Sensormatic protocol and specific dome. Looking forward to trying the RS-422 method...Thanks man.

I am using the base board wiring option. Camera boots up, the software version and camera specs flash accross the screen as usual on Sensormatic boots, it does the bootup homing pattern where it turns. It completes the homing pattern with the camera at the 45 degree down angle as it is supposed to, and from my previous experience using Sensormatic speeddomes... is now ready to recieve commands. However when using the geovision GV-Net, configured for the Sensormatic dome, the dome is not responsive. Every few seconds you can hear the motor or fan kick in. Not sure if that is normal or not as I've never been this close to them in an unenclosed space while in operation. They have always been in the ceiling mount, in a retail store so you know how quiet those places are even at night. Thanks for any suggestions you have.

You could try Rory's posts here on several cameras, or check his website. It is the bahamas security link on your left. If you search you might even find a thread with a bunch of screenshots... unless it got deleted.

Man Rory you need to take up one of these guy's offers and come to the US. You're the man, and truely an expert in the field. You'd have no problem working here or hell, starting your own business here.

I have never worked with Pelco PTZs so I can't comment. When I worked security at Target I worked at several stores. I never had a problem with any of our outside PTZs which are Americann Dynamics/Sensormatic/Tyco. Our biggest problems were water spots in St. Paul, and condensation freezing and freezing rain in Duluth. Outdoor PTZs have heaters/coolers in them... I'd check to be sure those systems are functioning.

You know, I've always wondered how to keep it clean when I was working retail security. Nothing pisses you off more than trying to zoom in to get a license plate... only to see a distortion. I'd think the rainex would be a great idea. Let us know how it works.