Newbie - CCTV system in Sri Lanka - please can someone help?

[lara21 0]

Hi all, i would really appreciate some help if there is anyone there who could advise.

 

I have had a CCTV system installed in my house in Sri Lanka - labelled system with 7 cameras linking to DVR.

 

I just have some concerns about safety and wanted to check with you all.

 

1) I have a plug with lots of brown and blue cables going into my wall socket - i've been told it is normal - is that right? Am including a photo as looks pretty strange to me (pls see photo)

 

2) I have a camera in a tree and a motion light - seems like lots of wires - is this normal? (pls see photo)

 

 

3) I have an electric shock every time i touch the back of the DVR where all the input cables are - again I've been told this is normal - is that correct?

 

If anyone could help, i would really appreciate it. I have three small kids and want to make sure i'm not putting their safety at risk with a dodgy installation.

 

Many thanks in advance for your advice.

[tomcctv 190]

Hi. No it’s not right ...... how are cameras connected at back of dvr ... can’t see any coax at tree

[lara21 0]

Hi Tom, i think they are just plugged in with colored connectors to the back of the DVR (sorry i don't know the name). I'm asking a friend to send me a photo to post so you can see the back of the DVR (i'm not in Sri Lanka at the moment which is where the cameras are).

 

As soon as i have this i will post.

 

Thanks very much for helping! Cheers.

[libram 0]

is that ac power...........on a tree?????????? Tom that doesn't look like an ac to dc converter in the first pic.....it might be but haven't seen one that small and direct wired.

[tomcctv 190]

From what I can make out .... 4 AC going out ..... 2 of the AC are going to power two 12v 2 amp power supplies and the other two are staying AC to power LED lighting.

 

Two cameras and two flood lights

 

No earthing at all

[lara21 0]

Thanks all. I'm uploading a photo to show what's coming out of the back of the DVR. There are no properly followed health and safety rules/electrical safety standards that are followed in Sri Lanka so i'm at the mercy of the guys who installed my system (it was after a number of recommendations from other expats who had their systems installed by the same guy so i wasn't expecting any issues).

 

The guy supervising the installation is an electrical engineer so if i know the right questions to ask i can challenge the work, i just don't really know what to ask - I'm just pretty sure i'm not supposed to get electrical shocks from the DVR box and haven't seen heaps of blue and brown wires hanging out of a plug before! (Also no emergency fire service where the house is and am surrounded by trees - hence very worried that if things aren't right there could be risk of fire).

 

Again, any help/advice is really really appreciated. These guys i used came highly recommended so not sure who there i can ask! Thank you!

[libram 0]

theres a lot going on there.

general rules and common sense go a long way, power supplies should be outdoor rated

cable to them should be outdoor rated

an earth ground would be a really smart thing when talking about AC power

the connectors on the back of the dvr are standard, the cable is coax but the adapters are odd I havent seen them before, almost look like coax into an f connector, inside a strain relief spring that adapt to BNC, is that what they are?

[tomcctv 190]

Yes I know you don’t have regulations there .... and I do know not to question your installers can lead to more problems.

 

But one thing I would surgest is the plug top that has all the feeds from it ..... I would split that up into 4 plug tops ..... plug tops with a fuse .... your installers have done it that way for expense ..... plug tops are expensive there .

 

As far as being on a tree again it’s standard practice there to mount power outdoors ..... no need to worry about wet weather or earthing

You don’t see earthing till you get into builtup towns or the city

 

Does your property have an earth rod

 

Also when touching your dvr is it static or electric

[libram 0]

city or no a simple copper rod sunk into the ground at the tree for very little expense is just a smart thing to do for safety, the tree itself isn't a great conductor. Its a cheap way to get a true level of safety. And outdoor is outdoor, no matter where it is, water is wet and electricity, especially ac doesn't like to work with it and can cause havoc.

I get what you're saying, there are literally NO CODES, but that doesn't mean he couldn't try to get some measure of safety that has been dictated by code. You could run 220V over 3 pieces of thick barbed wire but that doesn't mean its a good idea even if there is no code to say it isn't.

 

I'm not disagreeing with the above from tom at all, do what you can, but I prefer more caution to prevent future pain.

[lara21 0]

Yes I know you don’t have regulations there .... and I do know not to question your installers can lead to more problems.

 

But one thing I would surgest is the plug top that has all the feeds from it ..... I would split that up into 4 plug tops ..... plug tops with a fuse .... your installers have done it that way for expense ..... plug tops are expensive there .

 

Sorry for being thick but do you mean where there is one plug with the thin brown and blue wires|? -Divide wires between four separate plugs?

As far as being on a tree again it’s standard practice there to mount power outdoors ..... no need to worry about wet weather or earthing

You don’t see earthing till you get into builtup towns or the city

 

Does your property have an earth rod

I'm not sure - if not i can get - again sorry for not knowing this but where do i put this? is it like a lightening rod on the roof?

 

Also when touching your dvr is it static or electric

If you touch the metal bit at eh back where all the cables go into the DVR its an electric shock - stronger than mild

 

Thanks very much for helping with this

[lara21 0]

city or no a simple copper rod sunk into the ground at the tree for very little expense is just a smart thing to do for safety, the tree itself isn't a great conductor. Its a cheap way to get a true level of safety. And outdoor is outdoor, no matter where it is, water is wet and electricity, especially ac doesn't like to work with it and can cause havoc.

Thanks - so i just need to buy a copper rod (any idea of dimensions?) and stick in the ground at the bottom of teh trees which have CCTV (5 cameras i think on trees but will have more in feature)

 

I get what you're saying, there are literally NO CODES, but that doesn't mean he couldn't try to get some measure of safety that has been dictated by code. You could run 220V over 3 pieces of thick barbed wire but that doesn't mean its a good idea even if there is no code to say it isn't.

 

Yep - nothing - and no fire trucks where the house is - any fires you need to deal with yourself so i am trying to ensure everything is as safe as it can be there

 

I'm not disagreeing with the above from tom at all, do what you can, but I prefer more caution to prevent future pain.

 

Thanks again for your help

[libram 0]

to make an earth ground is super simple, find a good grounding rod, in the US that would be a 5-6 foot copper alloy rod with a tapered end. Available at Lowes or HD for less than 20 bucks, I'm thinking 6 but I forget sometimes, still less than 20. Hammer that sucker into the ground until its only got 6 inches showing above ground, boom solid earth ground. Put a lug on it and run 6-8 gauge ground wire to any device that needs to be grounded. Basically all you're doing is providing an easy path for errant electricity to escape to earth instead of arcing across anything and causing fire. In a pinch any metal would work even rebar, copper is just more conductive but rebar is still more conductive than a tree unless its soaking wet.

 

Note that its not the cameras that a ground helps but the safety of AC power, it only helps the cameras if the power supplies all share the same common ground on their power source. If you're going to add more cameras in the future you would be best served to install a central power supply and send the 12vdc or 24vdc from it to the cameras instead of running AC to the tree or trees. The lights on the other hand .......that depends on what they are 12vdc/24vdc/110ac/220ac as to how to deal with them.

[lara21 0]

to make an earth ground is super simple, find a good grounding rod, in the US that would be a 5-6 foot copper alloy rod with a tapered end. Available at Lowes or HD for less than 20 bucks, I'm thinking 6 but I forget sometimes, still less than 20. Hammer that sucker into the ground until its only got 6 inches showing above ground, boom solid earth ground. Put a lug on it and run 6-8 gauge ground wire to any device that needs to be grounded. Basically all you're doing is providing an easy path for errant electricity to escape to earth instead of arcing across anything and causing fire. In a pinch any metal would work even rebar, copper is just more conductive but rebar is still more conductive than a tree unless its soaking wet.

 

Thanks - so i could just order one a couple of these to take with me and ask them to run wires (assume like this -

 

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Southwire-By-the-Foot-8-Gauge-Solid-SD-Bare-Copper-Grounding-Wire-10632890/204632160) from each cameras to the grounding rod (they are in a couple of different areas so I would need a few rods I guess to save running huge lengths of cabling from different camera locations across my garden). Should i place the rod right under the tree the camera is in or in an open area? Also is this the kind of lug i should get?

 

https://www.amazon.com/Selterm-Battery-Eyelets-Terminal-Connectors/dp/B06XV6THTW/ref=pd_cp_60_1?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B06XV6THTW&pd_rd_r=5ZMSAWCK039JX3G26BDG&pd_rd_w=NUwYi&pd_rd_wg=6rIrL&refRID=5ZMSAWCK039JX3G26BDG

 

Thanks again for the advice - really appreciate it.

Note that its not the cameras that a ground helps but the safety of AC power, it only helps the cameras if the power supplies all share the same common ground on their power source. If you're going to add more cameras in the future you would be best served to install a central power supply and send the 12vdc or 24vdc from it to the cameras instead of running AC to the tree or trees. The lights on the other hand .......that depends on what they are 12vdc/24vdc/110ac/220ac as to how to deal with them.

[libram 0]

the ground isn't from any camera but from the power supplies, its the secondary earth ground. If you ground your cameras you will have issues. Placing a rod near the tree base is fine so long as its driven deep into the ground, the connectors don't really matter so long as they are conductive (metal) and tight. All you're looking to do is provide a solid path for errant electricity to follow to be safely dispersed into the earth instead of you or your equipment.

[tomcctv 190]

Hi. I don't understand why an earth rod at the tree.

 

To sort out your problem you need to swap out the one plug top for .... Each appliance having its own with fuse.

[libram 0]

to make a ground, if hes only got two conductor going out to the tree then hes only got hot and common, while common is technically a ground safe practice is to have a separate redundant ground, especially for something mounted to a tree outside.

[tomcctv 190]

Ok what is the rod going to connect to on the tree? Can I also point out in ops picture ... the lights are not on which points to having some sort of switch

 

Separating power feeds first is best. Then I would remove all bnc from dvr and check voltage on each one. I would also then touch dvr with all bnc disconnected to see if the shock problem has gone.

 

And I also suspect the power is from generator and not grid.

 

But I’ll leave the post to you as pointless turning them into augments