24Vac Plug-In wall adapter to 12Vdc regulator common?

[cctvjunkie 0]

Hi, I'm sorta new to the CCTV world. Anyway, question I had was:

 

Is it common to use 24Vac Plug-In wall adapter and a 12Vdc switched regulator at the camera end to power cameras? Would the cheap, ebay ones be okay?

 

Bought a Lorex 8 channel with 12Vdc IRled camera system from Costco. For video, I was thinking passive baluns (4-in-1, for the first four cameras) via cat5 between the DVR and the camera, utilizing one pair for each camera. And for power, I was thinking a 30VA 24Vac plug-in type wall adapter from within the house then out via 16/2 power cable to a 24Vac-to-12Vdc switched regulator then a 4-in-1 splitter (5.5mm x 2.1mm), then from there, the pre-made saimese cables that came with the kit to each camera, or I could make my own runs again using cat5 and those screw-in type male/female 5.5mm x 2.1mm jacks/plugs and the BNC screw-down type baluns to connect the cat5 to each camera. I wanted a centralized location outside of the house using an enclosure box, with the power still coming from within the house. I feel this would avoid hiring an electrician to have to bring an ac outlet near the enclosure box. Would this be possible? Looking to run the 16/2 cable no more than 70ft.

 

Thanks for all your suggestions/advice.

[the toss 0]

Hi, I'm sorta new to the CCTV world. Anyway, question I had was:

 

Is it common to use 24Vac Plug-In wall adapter and a 12Vdc switched regulator at the camera end to power cameras? Would the cheap, ebay ones be okay?

 

Bought a Lorex 8 channel with 12Vdc IRled camera system from Costco. For video, I was thinking passive baluns (4-in-1, for the first four cameras) via cat5 between the DVR and the camera, utilizing one pair for each camera. And for power, I was thinking a 30VA 24Vac plug-in type wall adapter from within the house then out via 16/2 power cable to a 24Vac-to-12Vdc switched regulator then a 4-in-1 splitter (5.5mm x 2.1mm), then from there, the pre-made saimese cables that came with the kit to each camera, or I could make my own runs again using cat5 and those screw-in type male/female 5.5mm x 2.1mm jacks/plugs and the BNC screw-down type baluns to connect the cat5 to each camera. I wanted a centralized location outside of the house using an enclosure box, with the power still coming from within the house. I feel this would avoid hiring an electrician to have to bring an ac outlet near the enclosure box. Would this be possible? Looking to run the 16/2 cable no more than 70ft.

 

Thanks for all your suggestions/advice.

 

 

You have too much money. Simply use ONE mains voltage to camera voltage regulated adapter.

[pcmcg 0]

sorry, i don't get the sarcasm ?

[the toss 0]

sorry, i don't get the sarcasm ?

 

That's because there is no sarcasm. All I'm saying is there is no point in dropping your mains voltage to 24Vac and then dropping it to 12Vdc when you can simply drop it directly to 12Vdc

[ssnapier 0]

Yeah, you should be able to push 12VDC 70 feet on 16/2 without any issue. Simple is better!

[cctvjunkie 0]

Thanks very much for the input guys. I've read on some other forum post that normally one shouldn't run dc power more than 30 ft. With the 16/2 running 70 ft + the 4 saimese cables of another 60 ft each via 4-way splitter (and I think the gauge on the saimese cable is much smaller than 16...want to say its probably 22-24 gauge) is why I was thinking I would need 24vac. Correct me if I am wrong, but wouldn't that essentially be a total of 310 ft ? (70 ft + (60 ft x 4)) Each IR camera is rated 12vdc@260mA, and the wall-wart output is 12vdc with 1.25A. 260mA x 4 = 1040 mA, theoretically, wall-wart is sufficient, but, not sure how it would perform with all that wire in-between. Would I be pushing the limit with the wall-wart? Or could I go even further?

[pcmcg 0]

I've read on some other forum post that normally one shouldn't run dc power more than 30 ft.

 

That doesn't make sense. POE is 48VDC and supports runs to 330ft.

[ssnapier 0]

If you are running a box outside the house anyway, why not just run a standard 120 VAC GFCI outlet to that box? It would give you a ton more options from that point even stuff beyond CCTV.

[cctvjunkie 0]

I failed to mention, no more than 30 ft of extention of the wall-wart adapter (5.5mm x 2.1mm), extention by means of an inline fuse + 16/2 cable with male pigtail of 5.5 mm x 2.1mm jack

Edited April 30, 2014 by Guest

[cctvjunkie 0]

I wanted to avoid the 120vac route to avoid hiring an electrician to do that for me, and to have the same UPS backing up the DVR and the cameras (planning to plug DVR adapter and camera adapter to same UPS)

[ssnapier 0]

You could actually run 16 gauge wire to account for the voltage drop over that distance. I have done that in cases where it was a longer than normal and it works great. At 310 feet you can still get .3 amps and have 11.2 volts. Since most 12 volts cameras will actually run at 10% above or below the stated range, you can go down to 10.8 volts and you are still good to go. Based on this you can skip the Ac to DC conversion entirely and just use larger wire to solve the problem. If you are running this wire outside PLEASE put it in PVC conduit and bury that conduit at least 8 inches deep (check your area for whatever the frost line is and go below that). You will save yourself tons of trouble by doing it right.

[cctvjunkie 0]

Thank you all very much for the help and advise. I will consider the suggestions on my next install.