Battery change and hard drive upgrade.

Hi everyone!

I'm looking for some advice regarding my CPCAM CPD505 DVR system (8 cameras). The first issue is that the time defaults to zero after a power cut, so I have to set the date and time after a power cut, even a momentary one. Not a huge problem I know, but if there's a power cut overnight and I don't know about it, the DVR won't be recording with the correct time until I spot this. I presume this has something to do with the battery (if there is a battery inside). Is it just a matter of changing the battery like on a PC motherboard? Would it be a CR2032 battery?

The second issue is regarding a hard drive upgrade. Currently there is a 400GB hard drive (IDE) in the DVR. With 8 cameras recording at high quality, only 13 days are stored before being overwritten. I am not sure how big a hard drive will be compatible with this DVR. I might also have trouble finding a 3.5" IDE hard drive larger than 500GB. Is a IDE to SATA converter a recommended workaround? Or a slave hard drive perhaps?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thank you for your time!

Alicia.

The battery replacement should fix the default date/time after power failure. If it does not, check for NTP, DST options to get the real time/date from NTP server (always precise).

Most of the IDE to S-ata converters do a good job, except for the ones adapting a real large capacity drive on a real old DVR unit, where the drive would not be recognized at all - this is only a try-until-success method (mostly based on luck).

So, Good luck on this one!

brebenac, thank you very much for your reply, it's much appreciated. I'll order a new battery and give it a go. Will buy a 2TB SATA hard drive with a IDE to SATA converter also (cannot find an IDE hard drive bigger than 500GB). Will keep you posted!

Thank you again!

Alicia.

Hi again!

I've just opened up my DVR to locate the battery, and I just can't find it! There appears to be no battery, unlike a computer motherboard. The model number of the motherboard is AV-785M, there's a sticker on it saying that. I can post some pictures if anyone can help me identify where the battery is?

Thanks!

Alicia.

Forgot to mention, there's no mention of a battery in the manual either!

A PDF of the manual can be found here is anyone is kind enough to take a look please!

http://www.cpcamglobal.com/support/manual/CPD507_505_503.pdf

Thanks!

Please attach pictures of both the upper and the lower side of the PCB. We will be able to detect if the time/date is stored on a RTC chip or just automatically obtained from NTP server. Also, your battery can be of a different model, even one that can be soldered directly on the PCB. If any brackets of the HDD are covering parts of the PCB, please remove before taking the pictures...

Thank you brebenac for your reply and your offer to help locate this battery! Sorry it took a while, had other pressing issues of late. Opened up the DVR to find a load of dust! Took some pictures of the PCB as requested. There's a risen PCB also which slots into the main PCB and connects to the hard drive and CD writer. I was able to remove this riser card to take a photo underneath. However despite taking out all the screws for the main PCB, I was unable to remove the PCB from the DVR casing to take a photo of the underneath of it, not sure if it's glued on something underneath. Did try with a little force, but not too much so as to break the PCB. Anyway, have cleaned out all the dust now at least with compressed air! So please if you get a moment, take a look at the photos I'm attaching. Hopefully you'll be able to identify the battery somewhere. Also I noticed that when the power is removed from the DVR, whilst the date resets to 1st January 2000, 00:00, the settings for menus remain and do not revert to default. Don't know if this information is of any significance.

Thanks very much!

Alicia.

Last picture.

Hi. You are using a old avtech unit .. Low resolution unit .... For what your going to pay to replace hard drive you can pic up a new dvr

I would not spend any money on your existing unit

Thank you tomcctv for your reply. Of course you're right, I do need to invest in a new DVR now, I think I've had this one for more than ten years now, it has behaved well though! I thought the battery issue would be a quick fix, but I guess not!

Thank you again!

Alicia.

Hi guys!

Just an update to my upgrade issue please. I'm now ready to purchase a new DVR as was advised to me since my current DVR appears to be past its sell by date! I have about £400 to spend on a new 16 channel DVR and three extra cameras. I currently have eight 'QVIS EYE-1000-V2B 1000TVL Weatherproof Varifocal Dome Camera, Black' cameras (http://goo.gl/JYBwJJ) and would like to buy another three to take the total to eleven.

Here's my question. I would like a DVR that I can connect to my router and view video on my mobile phone from a remote location. I've researched a few 16 channel DVRs that all appear to be capable of remote viewing, but there are huge variations in price, even when they have the same 1TB hard drive capacity. I've seen some at £200, and some at £400. I presume the price difference relates to build quality and the quality of recording that the DVRs are capable of. If my current eight cameras are not HD quality, do I still need a DVR that can record in HD quality? Is it just future proofing to buy an expensive DVR?

One final thing - is it possible for the DVR to show the current eight cameras on a screen (as is the case now), but the extra three cameras, record their feed but not show them on the screen in store? The reason being that cameras 9,10 and 11 are planned to be installed in a store room, and obviously I do not want customers seeing what stock there is in the store room!

Any guidance on a suitable DVR choice would be much appreciated!

Thank you so much!

Alicia.