IP Camera over powerline

[mgb 0]

I've got a small job of adding one camera to a historic home where I'm told cabling is not an option. The customer wants an ip camera that is wireless.

I explained to the customer that a power source will still be needed and said there is one near by.

The camera manufacturer to be used (icrealtime) doesn't have a wifi camera and I'd rather not rely on wifi for an outdoor camera anyway.

I'm thinking about using a pair of trendnet powerline network adapters along with a Poe injector so in the end I just have a single cat cable at the camera.

 

As far as I see this should work fine and simple.

I've seen some talk around here about powerline adapters but I haven't seen where anyone simply said they used this setup and it worked fine.

Any opinions are welcome

Thanks

[Lesst 0]

I use the Trendnet EoP adapters quite often, and if they work in your test they will work for long periods of time with no problems. I just came from servicing a camera system in an old home used for an attorneys practice. I made a decorative box that had the wall plug wire into it which had my EoP and PoE adapters inside, and then ran out the CAT5 inside wiremold painted to room color up to the camera mounted in the corner, then slid the box under a piece of furniture. This system has been up solid for over 3 years.

I can't believe that only one manufacture (LevelOne PLI-3110 = $200 +/- USD) makes a powerline product with a PoE out, but it's expensive. I hope Trendnet will make one for under $100 USD soon, please. They work between brands too, as they follow the HomePlug AV standard. I have used the Western digital Livewire with 4 ports out to a home TV, Netflix, PCTV, setup connected from a Trendnet at the router.

 

I use the EoP TPL-304E with a Lan Power LP-2115 PoE adapter plugged into the “bonus” outlet on the Trendnet for its relative compact size.

[vector18 1]

I have set of actiontec powerline plugs in my apt and I localy powered an IP camera and plugged the ethernet part into the actiontec plug in. It works perfectly without any issues.

[mgb 0]

Well it's good hearing some positive reviews on this setup.

I'm gonna get the power line adapters first and go test at the customers place.

The camera will actually be on a detached barn on the property which is powered with a sub panel.

[buellwinkle 0]

I like the way you piggy-backed the injector on top of the powerline adapter, works for me.

[Lesst 0]

I had bad luck in connecting through a sub panel, but I only had one instance: a row of small plane hangars that I tried it out on. The first trick if you have a problem is to be on the same hot leg out of the main. You may have to get your network service near or to an outlet that also shares the sub panel bus. You can also find a trick by searching: X-10 .1uF Coupling Capacitor. I am not an electrician so I don’t touch electric circuits, and the capacitor is across the 2 hot legs to allow the signal to pass. The new 500mps powerline adapters have very good filtering. You may not get 500 but they will have the best throughput possible. To check the line noise you can plug in an old non digital AM radio and hear the line static, if it's overpowering, usually a dimmer, that's what the adapter has to deal with, if not too noisy you should get great throughput

[buellwinkle 0]

Most houses have the power outlets split on 1-2 breakers and usually on the same leg. If not, you can have an electician swap circuits with something else from one side to the other. If you are not sure, go to your electical panel and see if the outlets are on the same side of the panel. Not sure a dimmer will cause a problem because lights are typically on a different breaker. I have tons of dimmers and have no issues with PowerLine adapaters. But then there's always stories about old homes, poor wiring jobs, make for good HGTV stories. If that occurs, it's best to move

[Lesst 0]

Most electric boxes have 2 rows or column of breakers and every other breaker is on the same leg. It is not usually set up so the left column of breakers is one leg and right the second. It’s every other breaker that is on the left bus. You have to use a circuit breaker tracer to find both breakers then look to see if they are on the same physical bus. If you are not an electrician don’t do it, especially if it is not your property, get a pro. One frustrating thing about this business is everyone wants it done cheap, and paying for an electrician can be a barrier to get or do a job. I am just trying to lay out every possible scenario here from my many years of mistakes, in hopes it helps someone get through a powerline install in the future. I deal with many an old house, poor wiring, old dimmers that buzz, and pass along my experience to optimize a powerline network connection.

[mgb 0]

Great information Less,

Thanks for passing these things on.

[MaxIcon 0]

As Lesst pointed out, this is a common issue in X10 designs:

 

http://kbase.x10.com/wiki/Phase_Coupling

http://www.x10.com/support/x10trou.htm

 

There is a variety of solutions, and I'd second the recommendation for an electrician if you're not a serious electrical person.

[buellwinkle 0]

Maybe many panels are as you described but we pulled a panel in one of our properties last week and it was left side on one leg, right on the other and could be that way because it's old. The panel was modified by the builder not to allow any more breakers even though the panel had room, so we had our electrician swap it out which seems easy but increased the cost of the job a bunch. But there was a bar on one side, one on the other, didn't look like the picture above. I think it's easier if they are every other one, then you can just move the breaker possibly down or up one spot but I agree, I use a licensed electrician to do this.

[Lesst 0]

You are right. Every panel supplier will have a different design inside, thus you have to pull a few breakers on each side to expose the bus bars to know what breakers sit on each bus.

[irishlad 0]

hey everyone, im new to cctv but i am a qualified electrician so im not too lost with all this, im planning to set up a system in my own house and was thinking the exact same thing, using the powerline to transfer the data from the camera. my question is if i have 2 ip cameras connected to my router, to connect it to my dvr do i just need a dvr that can also connect to the router or do i need a more complicated model.

thanks,

irishlad

[mgb 0]

Hi Irishlad,

In the case of ip cameras, you wouldn't be using a DVR.

DVRs are for analog cameras (coax cable). For IP cameras you would use an NVR which can be a manufactured nvr plugged into the router or a computer running nvr software. Alternatively, many ip cameras have sd card slots and you can record right to the card.

What cameras are you planning on using. Not all manufacturers cameras will work with all nvrs.

[buellwinkle 0]

I use Powerline to bridge two parts of a condo where it's not feasible to hard wire. Hardwire should be your first response as it's the most reliable and may be less expensive, especially if you are an electrician. I started with a wall wort PoE injector as shown above but quickly went to 2 cameras so I have a 4 PoE port switch on the camera side, the other side plugs into my home router. I record on-camera using SD cards so I don't have a recorder.