Got my Swann 2mp IP cam from Costco.. Outdoor mounting ques

[gencom 0]

I've never mount an outdoor cam before. When I got my swann cam from costco I noticed there is a 2ft pig tail hanging off the camera with connector for power and POE cat5e.

 

These are to be mounted on the side of my house (brick wall) and wood.

 

How do I go about running the wire across the side of my house? In particular protecting the CATe5 and power connector pig tail of the camera. Is there something that I can buy to wrap it up and protect it from the element/rain?. I mean the cables I can just put some kind of hook on the wall and run the wires along the wall. but I'm just worry about the connetions to the camera being wet

[PaulfromCT 0]

I've never mount an outdoor cam before. When I got my swann cam from costco I noticed there is a 2ft pig tail hanging off the camera with connector for power and POE cat5e.

 

These are to be mounted on the side of my house (brick wall) and wood.

 

How do I go about running the wire across the side of my house? In particular protecting the CATe5 and power connector pig tail of the camera. Is there something that I can buy to wrap it up and protect it from the element/rain?. I mean the cables I can just put some kind of hook on the wall and run the wires along the wall. but I'm just worry about the connetions to the camera being wet

 

A Picture of the cam location would help greatly. Ideally, you want the pigtail and the cat-5 connector concealed to avoid the easy "unplug" by the bad guys. If that is not possible than they make this black rubber shrink wrap that constricts when heated (this could cover the Cat-5 connector). But if outdoors, I would want all this in a conduit. That being said, a picture of the location would help.

[MaxIcon 0]

I like to put mine in junction boxes, though my Dahua 2100 is under the eaves and the connectors are just hanging there. As soon as I get the time, I'll put a box up.

 

I hate this practice of having short bundles of pigtails that can't be changed. My Vivotek IP8332s have an RJ45 jack inside the camera and came with a spare sealed cable gland, so you can pull the pigtail and run a network cable right in. I'd love to see everyone doing this.

[shockwave199 0]

I hate this practice of having short bundles of pigtails that can't be changed. My Vivotek IP8332s have an RJ45 jack inside the camera and came with a spare sealed cable gland, so you can pull the pigtail and run a network cable right in. I'd love to see everyone doing this.

I one million percent agree. What do they think anyone is gonna easily do with a huge RJ45 jack on a pigtail, let alone all the other possible connections dangling on the thing?

 

Side note- I have a network cable run with a coupler to extend the cable, for years outside in a fairly protected area from the elements, well sealed with outdoor electrical tape. Never an issue in all this time.

[Q2U 0]

I like to put mine in junction boxes, though my Dahua 2100 is under the eaves and the connectors are just hanging there. As soon as I get the time, I'll put a box up.

 

I hate this practice of having short bundles of pigtails that can't be changed. My Vivotek IP8332s have an RJ45 jack inside the camera and came with a spare sealed cable gland, so you can pull the pigtail and run a network cable right in. I'd love to see everyone doing this.

 

Max, when you pulled the SWNHD-820CAM apart, did you see if it was possible to "unplug" the two-lead pigtail that comes with the camera and plug in (substitute) a Cat5 cable with a RJ45 connector?

[MaxIcon 0]

No, it's got an inline header, like most cameras these days, especially the compact ones. You could make a new connection to replace it if someone figured out what type of connector it is. I'll post some pics up later.

 

If I did this, I'd probably put a longer network cable on - maybe 6' or 10' - which would let you run it inside through a wall or whatever, and would still be short enough to be manageable if you needed to take the camera down.

 

The Vivotek has a standard (though metric) cable gland, so you can actually connect conduit directly to the camera. It's also got a standard camera screw mount, which I also like more than these dedicated mounts, but they're the standard on inexpensive cams these days too.

[SB_Jim 1]

I'd like to see a couple of pics of your "box" mounts - to give me some ideas for improvements. Two of my cams are mounted way high up under the eaves, so definitly way out of reach. But, some of the others are within reach if you're quite tall, or happen to bring a small ladder with you

 

In all cases I've kept the cables tight and generally out of reach by using cable securing hardware. In only one case is my Swann female camera pigtail connector inside the attic access. My cables all run thru attic roof vents around the house, so I could likely place either a box or some conduit next to the cams to make the cables less vulnerable.

[MaxIcon 0]

Here are the headers on the Hik/Swann. On the one with the wires attached, the red and black are to the DC power jack, and the rest are to the network cable. Yeah, it would be a pain to make a longer adapter for this.

 

 

 

Here are a couple of boxes without conduit, because the conduit I had was too stiff. I since got some more flexible conduit, but haven't gotten around to taking it all apart. The Y-cam was my first IP cam, and started this whole transition from analog to network cams.

 

Y-cam mount watching the front door, with both DC and network cables. A bird built a nest on it last year, so there's a bit of staining, but no problems from any of that.

 

 

And a Vivotek IP8332:

 

Conduit will definitely help the security. Most of my cables are run outside and unprotected, because my attic is really hard to pull stuff through, so I gave up after the first few cables.

 

The problem with the short pigtails, like on the Dahua and Hik, is that you're really limited on where to position the box.