Hello!

[Dee_Ann 0]

Hi guys!

 

I'm new here, obviously, and looking to learn...

 

I'm trying to learn something new, I need a new career and with the way things are in the world now, I see that there is going to be a big demand for people that can do surveillance stuff.

 

So, that said, I began to dabble and have found it's not only fun, it's intellectually stimulating!

 

I've got a fairly decent setup in my home. It actually started because my former room mate (she passed away 8 months ago) and I were scared witless of a few men that were stalking us, one of them was her boyfriend who had done violence to her and threatened both of us with violence. I already had one OLD little camera but it couldn't see at night. So I got on ebay and started building a new system of cameras that would let us watch the house, inside and out, day or night from anywhere. I snipped almost everything on ebay for pennies on the dollar, I have less than $1,000 invested in everything.

 

I've been building on the system all year and it's gotten to be pretty extensive.

 

I can give a basic list of what I've got here.

 

(2) Ultrak KX1630CU multiplexers

(2) Ultrak KSX3208L Matrix

(1) Ultrak KEGS5000 keyboard

(30+) ADCA330CN cameras

(4) ADCA470CAFN cameras

(2) ADCSHR2412 cameras

(2) BV-7115H "Digital ID View" cameras

(1) Computar H10Z1218AMS 12-120mm f1.8 10X zoom lens

(2) Computar T6Z5710M-CS 5.7mm-34.2mm F1.0 6X zoom lens

(1) RS485 decoder board Mod# PT0057 (securitycamera2000 dot com)

(12) weatherproof camera housings

(3) 24VAC 4amp power supplies

(4) high intensity IR lights for entrance way night time illumination

(1) US411L H.264 Network 4ch DVR with 1tb HDD

(LOTS) of displays all around the house. In every room of the house I have multiple displays so I can see everything, everywhere at all times.

(2,000') of Siamese RG6 Quad shield / Cat 5e cable (AC power and lens control is supplied through the cat 5e) I use compression type BNC fittings that I put on myself.

 

And half a dozen or so OLD crummy cameras (in a junk box) that I would consider to be "toy" grade and probably a bunch of other stuff I forgot to mention.

 

As of now, I have no way to control the Computar zoom lenses.

I did figure out that I can (and I did) run wires from the lenses to the inside and I can touch them to a 9vdc power thing and make them zoom in/out, iris open/close and focus in/out.

But that's a MASSIVE pain and oh so unsophisticated.

 

So, I ordered an RS-485 PTZ decoder for one camera, for starters, to see if I can make it work. If I can, I will do the other cameras as well.

 

Also, the camera with the BIG zoom lens, the 120mm zoom, I need to be able to PTZ that one so that is the camera I'm going to try that decoder on. I also have ordered a Pelco PT280-24P Pan/Tilt gadget. It says it's for indoors but I'm mounting it under the eaves of the house and going to enclose the unit in rubber to keep stray rain out.

 

So that camera will be the beast. It will pan, tilt, zoom and all that other fun stuff.

 

The other cameras with the smaller zoom lenses, I have no need to pan/tilt them but I do need decoders so I can zoom/iris/focus them, they will stay in fixed positions.

 

My problem now is, I know nothing about how to do the RS-485 stuff.

 

I also would LOVE to have my KEGS-5000 keyboard control the two KX1630CU multiplexers in addition to controlling the KSX3208L matrix AND PTZ my cameras.

 

There are connectors on ALL the units for RS-485 but some of them are larger or smaller and it looks like cables will have to be hand made. I also don't know how to connect them. In series?

Cable then like a daisy chain? The KSX3208L has connectors on it for connection to the PTZ system but how do I do those, being that I will have at least three PTZ decoders I need to control.

 

Oh, and I guess it would be helpful to mention that I have *some* electronics background. I used to be a technician in a refinery so over the years I learned a few things. I'm not totally stumbling around in the dark but I'm a long way from being an expert in this. This started out as a survival necessity and I sort of got carried away with it and now I realize that I can use this as an opportunity to learn a new career. I love to learn and I love to do things on my own.

 

I know I'm in the minority here and probably the only woman on here so please be gentle on me, I know I'm invading Man Land here but I where else does one go to learn these things?

 

I would really appreciate any advice and or guidance you guys can offer, I'm new, I'm green but I'm eager to learn..

 

Thanks so much!

Edited December 24, 2010 by Guest

[Soundy 1]

Toys toys toys!

 

Welcome aboard!

[Campbell 0]

Hi...

 

*BOGGLE*

 

A standard residential set up would take up... what maybe 5 or 6 cams tops. You have over 30! Forgive me for asking but how big is your house?!

[Dee_Ann 0]

Hi...

 

*BOGGLE*

 

A standard residential set up would take up... what maybe 5 or 6 cams tops. You have over 30! Forgive me for asking but how big is your house?!

 

LOL!

 

My house is a little under 1,000sq ft. including the garage.

 

Um, yeah, I'm a little camera happy. I have 6 cameras for the front of the house and I can see my entire yard, my front porch all the way down the street (intersection to intersection) and one camera is zoomed in to one intersection so that I can see individuals sitting in their cars at the stop and sign very, very clearly identify them.

 

I have two cameras in the garage and pretty much each room of the house, even the hallways with the exception of the bathroom which has no cameras at all and never will. Ewwwww... No need for that!

 

I have four cameras on the two sides of the house, I put them in a "cross eyed" setup so that there are no blind spots (I do this inside and outside, front and back) and in the back yard I have oodles of cameras in trees and on the house, even a tool shed. I can see everything, everywhere at all times. Another benefit of them is that I can see where my dog (I had two dogs until recently ) is at all times and what she's doing. If I see her doing stupid things like sniffing the kitchen counter I can do my little throat clearing thing. She hears it, freaks out and comes to see what I'm doing. She gets busted and she knows it. Or eating charcoal briquettes. She has taken a fancy to them lately. Sheesh..

 

But it really started out because my BFF / room mate and I were scared of some men that had evil thoughts on their minds about us.

 

I added a few cheap cameras and a four channel B&W multiplexer but it was sort of lame so I looked for better. Then I sort of started climbing the ebay ladder of addiction and I used my nifty sniper tools to win some incredible deals on some very high tech surplus stuff for insanely cheap prices. It was so cheap I was like "Why not?"

 

Now it's sort of become an obsession, like an OCD sorta thing.

I find it to be fairly simple to connect this stuff up, the worst part of it is crawling around in the attic running cables. That is NOT fun. Not even a little bit.

 

My problem now is, I'm struggling with a whole new thing, PTZ and I'm drawing a blank..

 

I'll post something about my PTZ problems in the appropriate section in a bit.

I also have some photos of some of my stuff I can post too.

 

Seriously, I think I can learn this and I think it's something I could do, for a living.

I hate the part about running the cables. That's best left to an agile young man with a lot more energy than I have. But the rest of it, I'm catching on and it's kinda fun.

 

Oh, and I just added a second Ultrak KSX3208L Matrix so I now have two of those. I would like to have a third. I would like to have two more KEGS5000 keyboards and I'll patiently wait and watch ebay and pick up some more. Eventually. Oh, and more displays.

 

Maybe I've gotten a bit carried away with this stuff but I really think in the end, I can make something of it. In the meantime, it's fun..

[rory 0]

All I can say is .. WOW!

Now THATS alot of cameras .. like hoarders CCTV style

But if it makes you happy, its definitely not a bad thing to like doing ..

Im sure even some of us could learn something from your install

[Dee_Ann 0]

All I can say is .. WOW!

Now THATS alot of cameras .. like hoarders CCTV style

But if it makes you happy, its definitely not a bad thing to like doing ..

Im sure even some of us could learn something from your install

 

 

Hehehehe!

 

It's like sitting in a glass house but the windows are like those two way mirrors, I can see out and around everything, everywhere but no one can see in.

 

The plus side of this is that if there is any monkey business in the neighborhood, I have recordings of it. Every couple of years there's a rash of robberies, usually they will go through and get into all the parked cars and boats looking for things to steal. About 2 years ago they hit everyone and got an arm load of fishing poles and a few handguns. I couldn't believe my neighbors kept loaded handguns in their unlocked boats and cars!

 

So far we haven't had any vandalism that I know of but it will happen, there are a bunch of young boys around that are about to become teenagers and they are already practicing for trouble. I caught one of them shooting my satellite dishes with a BB gun while my dogs were standing right by them. I was around the corner and he didn't see me until I heard the pop and the ping of the BB and the Wicked Witch zoomed down on him. I think I made a believer out of him. So yeah, there are some demon spawn boys around here and in a few years when they get older I strongly suspect things will get wild around the hood.

 

Hopefully they will think twice because they all know, Big Sister is watching..

 

Anyway, so yeah, I'm the official neighborhood "kooky old lady" because I have a bunch of satellite dishes too and one time I told a neighbor I was talking to Martians on them. It just took off from there. I'm already the oddball for being a female that messes with electronics, I'm pretty much alone there. I only know one other woman that knows her stuff and I'm telling you, she knows computers and would shame just about anyone with her knowledge and skills. But of my friends, I'm the only one, they have no clue what all this stuff is. I wish they would show some interest in it, I could soooo teach them, it's really not THAT hard to do.

 

The way I see it, this is a skill that will be in increasing demand.

My daughter lived just outside of London, England a few years ago for a few years and she said there are like 200 cameras every 5 feet there. Well, maybe not that many but a LOT. And what's really freaky is that what would be private cameras here, are all tied into Big Brother there. Even store cameras are all tied into "The System", so any camera you see in any public place is a Big Brother camera.

 

She said it's like stalkers because you can be walking along and cameras will start following you, stop when you stop, etc.. She said it was creepy at first but people told her that's just how it is there, get used to it. She did object to the camera that was aimed directly at her bedroom window on a pole that was just 30 feet away from her house. She complained but her complaints went into a black hole. So she just kept the blinds drawn at all times.

 

I see the US going that way, fast. It's a messed up world and there's some BAD people out there and paranoia is high. I am certain of it, the CCTV industry is growing like mad and there is no end to it, it's only going to get bigger, faster at an exponential rate. How much is too much? Where does it stop? There are no limits and it will just grow and grow into an unstoppable force and before long we will be under the never blinking eye 24/7 just like all of England is.

 

So rather than fight it I might as well get on board with it and see if I can make a living at it. I'm pretty sure I can do it. Maybe I can take a course in this stuff. I'm willing to be you have to be certified by someone to do this sort of thing professionally.

 

I might have high expectations but at this point in my life I need to find a career and I just have a feeling that this is a good one to pursue.

 

[Soundy 1]

I'm already the oddball for being a female that messes with electronics, I'm pretty much alone there.

I dunno, to me, that's kinda hot

 

The way I see it, this is a skill that will be in increasing demand.

...

So rather than fight it I might as well get on board with it and see if I can make a living at it. I'm pretty sure I can do it.

From what I've seen so far, I'm pretty sure you can too

 

Maybe I can take a course in this stuff.

The problem in any fast-growing industry like this is that as soon as people realize there's a demand for learning it, you'll get all sorts of "courses" popping up that will drown you in the basics, but not go much beyond that... so you get a ton of n00bs with their little "diplomas" out flooding the workplace, with enough knowledge to crimp on a BNC and connected a camera to a standalone DVR.

 

The trick then, if you REALLY know your stuff, is to pick up where they leave off. And you'll probably find you learn a lot faster just doing things hands-on. If anything, a general electronics course would probably be more useful than "CCTV training".

 

OH... and maybe a good networking course, since that's becoming more and more a part of CCTV. I took a 5-day intensive course on OS/2 Warp Server from IBM once, about 15 years ago... one whole day was dedicated to networking, about 60% of it to TCP/IP, and the knowledge just from that has served me very well ever since. A good grounding in the basics of IPs, routing, netmasks, DNS and DHCP will go a LONG way.

 

I'm willing to be you have to be certified by someone to do this sort of thing professionally.

Depends mainly on where you live (or more specifically, where you want to work). BC doesn't require any certification or education for CCTV work, although most aspects of alarm work require it.