Something different, my crazy story

[MacUser 0]

Here's a little something different I put together. Keep in mind this was before I found this forum. Sorry if this is a little long but hopefully this saves someone else (do it yourself types like me) the pain I endured.

 

My last home was in a nice neighborhood, all the neighbors were friendly and watched out for each other, 3 of them had keys to my house and I had keys to theirs. A little more than a year ago I had a new home built that was in a less developed area, neighbors not as close and a bit more quiet. With the economy and not having neighbors I knew so well I started thinking about putting cameras on the house just in case as I started to notice that homes were being broken into more, especially with all the foreclosures in Florida. I frequently travel and am gone long periods of time so I wanted to be able to monitor/record activity at my home and access the system over the internet.

 

My requirements were that everything had to be compatible with an Apple computer which consists of a Quad processor MacPro w/6G Ram, 1T HD and 300G HD. I didn't want a stand alone DVR system as I had other ideas for the total system later on. After a few months of looking at tons of PC-compatible gear I finally found a program called SecuritySpy that runs on Mac's.

 

What I decided was that I wanted all cameras to run through a PCI card in the computer rather than adding another device to the setup, I ended up purchasing an Active Silicon LFG4 card with an adapter so I could run 8 cameras. Camera selection was enough to drive me crazy, it sure would have been helpful had I found this forum first. I ended up getting some Speco CVC-627W cameras as they weren't too expensive should they not be enough for what I needed and I could always upgrade to better cameras later on when I had more time.

 

So, off I went into the attic in the hot Florida summer with my rolls of cable, not really having a good plan on paper, just an idea in my head of what I wanted to do. After losing a few pounds in the attic over a weeks period of time I had all the cable run close to were I wanted them to come into the house. But, how the heck was I going to do this without dying in the attic, falling through the ceiling, or just using a hammer to knock a hole in the wall making a complete mess of my new house? Well, I ended up paying an electrician to come out to look at what I had, money well spent as it took him all of 2 minutes to tell me how he could make it happen without demolishing my house. We pulled a few pieces of the soffit off and using a long fiberglass pole we got the cables out of the attic and into the yard at one location. Using a string with a nail attached he dropped it into the cinderblock wall and down it went, inside the house he cut the drywall and knocked a hole in the cinderblock where I wanted the cables located in my computer room. Back outside we attached the cables to the string and pulled them into the wall, presto, nice and neat and no demolished walls.

 

Installing the Active Silicon card was a snap, installing the drivers no problem, attaching cameras easy as it gets. Fire up the computer, start SecuritySpy and start playing with the settings. Looks pretty cool except for the vertical image jitter on a couple cameras and only a couple cameras are getting decent FPS (more than 3FPS). To shorten this up a bit, turns out that using the adapter card really kills the FPS you get on the cameras and the vertical image jitter is a known problem being worked on, my (expensive) solution was another PCI card instead of the adapter, problem solved, didn't want to play around with this as my time home was limited.

 

Next step was to call a computer whiz buddy and have him show me how to set up the DSL modem so I could access all this from the internet. That took all of 10 minutes for him to figure out, call someone not on my internet connection to check if it worked and presto, nothing exploded.

 

After having this up and running for 6 months now, testing different settings and seeing what needs to change here's what I found. SecuritySpy is a cool program, my hat is off to Ben Bird for the only decent Mac-compatible application.

 

Active Silicon PCI card, expensive (around $900) compared to PC compatible cards that are less than half that, but when you are the only game in town you set the price. They are based out of the UK but it can be bought in the US from Saber1 Technologies which was easy to deal with, no problems there.

 

Speco cameras, not bad so far, sufficient for what I was looking to do. DO NOT mount cameras on the soffit, at least not this type as it's not stable enough when it's windy out. Cameras will be mounted to the wall soon. Daytime images are fine and video is not bad provided you use the de-interlace feature in SecuritySpy. The IR on these cameras works decent if the subject is fairly close, otherwise it's worthless such as viewing your unlit backyard or driveway. Right now I'm testing a Speco IR-300 inside the garage, and next time I'm home I will test them outside.

 

Everything is connected to 2 APC UPS units right now, I currently have a power box which I will install to run power to all cameras and IR lights to eliminate all those power cords. The only power issues I've had are with the Verizon DSL modem, not much I can do about that, and it hasn't been that bad.

 

Future additions are some IR illuminators outside and in the garage depending on how well they work, or if I have time a home automation system where I can control the house lighting. 2 more outside cameras for areas not covered now.

 

I purchased a TrendNet TV-IP422W (not installed yet) for use in my safe room. From what I found reading reviews people are 50/50 on this camera being worth anything, but for what I am looking to do with it I'm hoping it will be fine, and keep in mind that finding Mac-compatible gear is a pain.

 

What I am looking into now is how to get good (facial images) video of people at my front door without having a camera that is obvious, I'm looking at making that one a bit more discreet like the Netmedia SC53. Peephole cameras don't seem like a good option, and would be too much work to hide without a lot of work such as the KT&C KPC-S190DV. What I don't want is wiring sticking out of my front door inside the house. I would like to see pictures of anyone who has done either camera and what your thoughts are.

 

If anyone has questions or helpful suggestions I'd be happy to hear them...especially if it makes things easier for me.

[scorpion 0]

Would you check this article, and see if I have it right since you just finished doing the very same thing, and give me some feedback?

 

http://scorpiontheater.com/wiringdrywall.aspx

 

 

You could hide the cameras inside of a bird house.

 

For facial recognition then avoid 4mm lens or smaller numbers.

 

6mm lens do not have the distance distortion like the wide angle cameras.

 

Look at the IR distance for your cams, and cut that in half, and this will be your usable distance.

 

Measure from your camera to include the heigth out to the area that you will be watching in the dark. Take this measurement, and double it, and this will be your IR distance that you need when you go to buy an IR camera. The environment will have an effect. Tree canopys may help deflect the IR, and help illuminate the area. Think of the photographer who bounces his flash of of the ceiling to difuse the light some.

 

Here are some concealment ideas:

http://scorpiontheater.com/game.aspx

 

AVTech DVRs for MACs

http://scorpiontheater.com/javaapp.aspx

[MacUser 0]

Thanks Scorpion! Good article and right on the money, I sure could have used that info 6 months ago. My install was slightly different, instead of dropping the wires down a wall with studs we ran them inside the cinderblock as my computer room wasn't set up to locate the computer/wiring on an inside wall. This was a design issue, taking into consideration the attic and inside walls/doors/closet, the computer had to be located along/near an outer wall. I'll be home in a couple weeks and will email you some pictures/diagram as I have to install a couple more cameras.

 

One thing to think about and I have no idea if it makes any difference, my inside walls have metal studs rather than wood, would there be any interference issues? Also, adding a couple pictures to your article would be helpful to the do it yourselfer who may not be that handy or know what you are talking about. Other than that great info!

 

Thanks for the other info too, I'll show you a picture of my front door area (think vestibule) and see what you think, it's a typical Florida front door, screened in. I'll probably mount an IR light to the ceiling for this, camera selection is still up in the air.

[scorpion 0]

Thanks Scorpion! Good article and right on the money,

 

One thing to think about and I have no idea if it makes any difference, my inside walls have metal studs rather than wood, would there be any interference issues?

 

I'll show you a picture of my front door area (think vestibule) and see what you think, it's a typical Florida front door, screened in. I'll probably mount an IR light to the ceiling for this, camera selection is still up in the air.

 

For a camera I would look for something like this with vari focal

 

http://avssys.net/?s=product&sub=camera&cat=outdoor&p=vnd49ir

 

With metal studs the install gets really tricky is some cases. Interference is not an issue at all. The hole that you make will determine whether it will cut in to the wire / wires over time as there is expansion / contraction.

 

For those that do not know there is an AC copper pipe insulation that you can stuff in to the header to protect your low voltage wires, and then spray foam insulation from a can to seal it.

 

This is for others who are reading this post:

With cathedral ceilings then it gets very hard drilling down the wall and then you come in contact with another horizontal stud call the "firestop". A regular wooden stud is easy to drill through useing 12 bit attachments

 

http://www.irwin.com/irwin/consumer/jhtml/detail.jhtml?prodId=IrwinProd100181

 

But metal studs are a whole different breed!!! I just punch a paddle bit hard into it, and then drill. Plan on having that bit sharpened!! Be aware of construction techniques as there may be a power wire running horizontally through the vertical studs, and you might encounter one breaking through "firestop" metal stud, or a wooden stud at that.

 

_____________________________________________________________

 

I was curious as to how you ran wires down an exterior cinderblock wall??

 

Normally they have a poured concret layer at the top of the wall. If it is open then you are at the lowest point of the attic space, and you are crawling on your belly with your face full of insulation!! Was this wall under a Lanai where the roof line extended past the wall giving you the heigth that you needed in the attic?

 

I am impressed!

[MacUser 0]

I was curious as to how you ran wires down an exterior cinderblock wall??

 

Normally they have a poured concret layer at the top of the wall. If it is open then you are at the lowest point of the attic space, and you are crawling on your belly with your face full of insulation!! Was this wall under a Lanai where the roof line extended past the wall giving you the heigth that you needed in the attic?

 

I am impressed!

 

Thanks! Yes I was face deep in the insulation and doing my best contortionist imitation all while trying to avoid too many head wounds on the nails holding the shingles down. Good thing I was in the attic as the neighbors would have had to give their kids earplugs. No, the wall was not near the lanai, space in the attic was really limited the closer I got to the back of the house, and I mean really limited. Once you see pictures you'll probably say, "yep, that guy's nuts" I'll PM you with a small floorplan.

 

Luckily I was smart enough to take plenty of pictures during construction of the house, that was a real help so we didn't end up cutting existing wires or plumbing. If I would have had the time I would have pre-wired everything before the walls went up, that would have saved me loads of pain. The metal studs used on my house had pre-punched holes in them, a nice feature for builders and homeowners as all wiring will be run at a standard height. If I was really smart I would have dropped a nice PVC pipe down inside the cinderblock during construction with a curved piece where I wanted the cable exiting the wall.

 

As for running the cables down the cinderblock, I'll do my best to explain. I had run all the cable to within a couple feet of the soffit from inside the attic, the electrician had a nice fiberglass pole we used to tape the cables to and pull them outside. Once that was done we went inside and measured how many feet from the back wall I wanted the cable outlet on the side wall, then added the width of one cinderblock plus a little extra for the drywall. Then going back outside we measured again to double check.

 

If you notice that when bricks or cinderblock are put together they offset each one by half, and cinderblocks having what amounts to 2 holes in them you should be able to drop something down them. That was what we were hoping, and luckily we guessed right.

 

We already had the soffit pulled off, so we tied a nail to a string and dropped it down inside the cinderblock, no poured concrete at the top, just the dried ooze from construction. Then, back inside one of us listened for the nail while the outside guy jiggled it around, this was to make sure we would be putting the hole in the right spot. On the inside wall we cut a rectangle as you would for putting an electrical outlet, then knocked a hole in the cinderblock, presto, we were right on the money. I doubt that is the best explanation, once you see the pictures it will click. I'll get a good picture as well as the inside wall location.

 

You mention the firestop, on new construction in Florida at least from what I've seen, the firestop and studs are basically 1x2's on the outer walls of the house. Insulation is thin on outer walls, maybe 1/4" thick at best. Running the cables inside there would not be too much trouble but where you run into a problem is drilling through the firestop at the top of the wall. There is literally no room to use a drill without making a mess of the wall, you can't get to it from the attic, and from outside you can't see what you are doing, doing it from inside the house would only create a mess that you would have to patch up later, assuming the house is already finished like mine was.

 

Thanks for the recommendation on the camera, if I used something like that I would have to find a way to hide it in something outside, I have an idea for it but don't know that I could get the camera high enough. I would like to avoid pointing the camera at a high angle if I can, I would prefer a straight on shot.

 

My front door area being screened in and having a ceiling height of at least 10' I was thinking something like this; http://www.smarthomeusa.com/ShopByManufacturer/Netmedia/Item/SC5/ as it would fit neatly in a junction box and I could mount it at face level. Thoughts? I want this camera location to be as discreet as possible. An IR illuminator mounted inside the screened area would work just fine from what I've seen of the one I've been testing. [/b] I may end up just mounting the camera on the wall and make it obvious, but I'm not in a big rush so I have time to think this out.