dwolf 0 Posted March 10, 2011 Hello all,newbe here,hope this is correct place to ask my question,thank you in advance for anything you are able to help me with.1st question,why do some board cameras have more than one board?I've seen some with 2 and 3 boards.currently i own several board cameras that i picked up at auction.Some of these have 1 board others have 2. 2nd question,how to tell who manufactured the cameras,some are marked others which look to be much more expensive,aren't marked,only have # on board as well as pcb # and a tag with bar code.2 dual board cameras are also marked AC/DC, does this mean either or? I pluged 2 different 12vDC converters to one camera,one is 500ma the other was 180ma.The reason i tried both is the camera would power up then off continually,did this with both converters,i noticed when powered by the 180mh the camera got real warm,didn't notice this while using 500ma so not sure what temp was like.At 1st i thought the 500ma was over powering camera causing it to switch on and off,thats why i tried the 180ma. Reason i tried 500ma 1st,it came in the box with several cameras along with a 24vac power supply. also one dual board camera has small transformer on the board,haven't seen one with this on it befor.It works great using 12vDC 500ma converter.It has a verifolcal lens with powered shutter.This is the most awsome cam i've ever seen,clear pic. sees in the dark with no ir light source,like its day lite.It sees at night better than any cam i've seen in day lite.Hope i havent took up to much of your time,i've been all over the web searching for info. without luck Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dwolf 0 Posted March 11, 2011 While surfing this site,i think i found who manufactured at least one of my cams, Wren,i found one there which looks exactly like the cam i have that has transformer on board as well as having same housing as mine.Seems this cam is dual voltage,12vDC or 24VDC.I'm glad i found this site,i've looked for months for this info and found it here the second day on here.Now if i get answers to myother questions,i'll be one pleased dude,thanks Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Securame 0 Posted March 11, 2011 By dual board, do you just mean that it has two pieces of PCB? The "sandwich" you see there? Bigger board would just mean more circuitry, more space needed for all the "chips" and all the stuff the camera needs for working. Could it have been made "wider" instead of "two levels"? Sure, but since the sensors are usually mounted on standard size enclosure, then by making a different size sensor they would also need a customized enclosure. It is probably just easier to put everything on two pieces of PCB, and put them toguether, you will have a "fater" board but it will stary on the standarized size. Just my two cents... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dwolf 0 Posted March 11, 2011 thank you for your "2centc worth" lol,makes sense to an extent,some will work with out the second pcb attached,thats what puzzels me.Does the extra pcb with other componets installed make a better camera?why are most on one pcb? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SEANHAWG 1 Posted March 11, 2011 That is a Wren Camera. General Lock makes one just like it but I would bet that its a Wren. They make some excellent board cameras. You are correct in assuming that the dual boards are dual voltage 12V/24VAC. The single board cameras are 12V DC only. I am not sure why your camera was powering on and off. To me that sounds like an underamped camera, but you definetely should not be underamped with a 500mah power supply. Maybe its just a bad camera. You cant really overamp the camera. I have used 12V DC power supplies with a 5amps and it still worked fine. The camera will pull as much amps as it needs. You just dont want to go too much over 12V, otherwise, you can fry the camera. Good luck finding a full spec sheet for those cameras, I have gotten millions of those in over the past year and a half and havent got a full spec sheet. And I doubt Wren will give it to you either because they were made for a specific retailer. I do know that they have 330 TV lines. As you said, the picture is very clear, this is why I always say that TV lines is not that important when it comes to picture clarity. We have several 330 TV line cameras that blow away alot of 550 tv line cameras when it comes to picture clarity. Anyways, let me know if you have any more questions about those cams. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dwolf 0 Posted March 11, 2011 your saying the cam with the transformer is a Wren and is dual voltage,correct?The cams that power on and off are the cams which also have 2 pcb boards,but no transformers,these have screw terminals as well as the small plastic connector which the power/video connects to,the part on the end of the cable that plugs into board is bad on these 2 cams,this board is the one you can see where it has white tag with AC/DC and video + and - at top of board,these are the cams i wired to the screw terminals using 12vDC 500ma as well as 12vDC 180ma and they seemed to get warm using the 180ma,neither cam will stay powered up but a sec or to then off then back on.what manufactuer do you think made these?Surely these arent dual powered,looks lie wiring ac 2 this could be dangerous if one forgot to unplug them befor handeling cam?thank you for the advice so far,i appreciate it a lot. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
NotoriousBRK 0 Posted March 11, 2011 1st question,why do some board cameras have more than one board? A) Because some board cameras have more than one board The number of boards in the design means very little. In the camera industry there are companies that make practically every component in the camera, some that OEM key components and then add their own "flavor", and some that just whitelabel and resell the components of a larger manufacturer/OEM provider. Also, as technology evolves, you can fit more components in less space, and integrate more things together. So, you could have a manufacturer like Sony (who makes their own imagers and ISPs, plus has general electronics manufacturing experience) produce a board camera that is one board with a minimal number of visible components. It would be the sensor, ISP, power circuitry, etc. all on a 2" square (or smaller) PCB. Another company might OEM a sensor/ISP module (board) from Sony, and then build their own daughter board assembly to manage power and maybe provide some additional features and functions (motion detection or image "enhancement" functions), a balanced output to be used on a twisted-pair cable and so forth. At 1st i thought the 500ma was over powering camera causing it to switch on and off,thats why i tried the 180ma. Electronic circuits don't work that way. The circuit draws as much current (amperage) as it needs, and no more. You could hook a 5000ma (5A) power supply to it and it would still draw just whatever it needed, leaving reserve capacity in the supply (to power many cameras from a single source, for instance). A bigger problem would be using a supply that had more voltage than the circuit was rated or designed for. A cheap way to do voltage regulation is to throw off the excess voltage as heat. So, even when you have a camera than can run on say 6-24VDC, it's often best to supply a voltage closer to the lower end than the higher end of the scale (I'm simplifying a lot of things here). Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SEANHAWG 1 Posted March 11, 2011 your saying the cam with the transformer is a Wren and is dual voltage,correct?The cams that power on and off are the cams which also have 2 pcb boards,but no transformers,these have screw terminals as well as the small plastic connector which the power/video connects to,the part on the end of the cable that plugs into board is bad on these 2 cams,this board is the one you can see where it has white tag with AC/DC and video + and - at top of board,these are the cams i wired to the screw terminals using 12vDC 500ma as well as 12vDC 180ma and they seemed to get warm using the 180ma,neither cam will stay powered up but a sec or to then off then back on.what manufactuer do you think made these?Surely these arent dual powered,looks lie wiring ac 2 this could be dangerous if one forgot to unplug them befor handeling cam?thank you for the advice so far,i appreciate it a lot. The one with the Dual Plugs is a Wren for sure. The one with the single cord with the screw terminals is an older model Wren I believe, but it could also be a General Lock as I have never gotten any documentation for that camera before even though I have thousands of them here at our warehouse. They are definetely both dual voltage for sure. A rule of thumb on the Wren board cameras is if it has 2 boards, it is dual voltage, the single boards are 12V DC only. It may be different on other brand cameras but thats how it goes for the Wren cameras. The one with the 2 cords that has a seperate power and video cable is a better camera in my opinion. The other camera with the single cord is still good but the wires often come loose from the little white connector that connects to the board. Luckily, they have those terminals on the board that you can connect your power to in case that happens. but for ease of use, I would recommend just using the power and video cable that is attached to the camera for testing purposes. The cameras will get warm no matter what power supply you are using as most security cameras do that, some even hot to the touch. As far as your cameras turning on and off, they shouldnt be doing that with the 500mah power supply, that should be enough to power it, but you can always go down to your Radio Shack and pick up a 12V DC 1 amp adapter and that will power it for sure. Perhaps your power supply is going bad, I dunno, but it sounds like a power related issue to me if both of them are doing that. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
