QC444

After carefully reading the Florida statutes on alarm systems (of which the common DVR camera systems you buy at Costco or BJ's are included), you cannot install, service, maintain...blah...blah...blah.... a home security system for a FEE.

You CAN however, install it for FREE.

Am I understanding this correctly?

This is tongue in cheek humor (for those who don't get it)

So, I decided I wanted to install Video Cameras as a side line job. The voltages were only 12v DC and it seemed like a rather simple undertaking as long as you had common sense and at least a reasonable grasp on electronics, 120VA and 220v AC.

So, all I had to do was get a license to become "Legit". Easy enough, right?

Here's what's required in Florida......

Licensing Requirements:

Age: Must be at least 18 years of age.

Testing: Candidates must obtain a passing score on the Limited Energy (Low Voltage) and Business tests before applying for licensure. Passing exam scores must be less than 2 years old.

Application Fee: If applying for active status, the applicant must submit a check for $300 USD payable to the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation. If applicant wishes to be inactive instead, the check must be in the amount of $55 USD only.

Net Worth: The minimum business net worth requirement is $5,000 USD.

Credit Reports: Applicant must submit a report from a nationally recognized credit reporting agency, which includes a public records statement that records have been checked at local, state, and federal levels. Those applicants wishing to qualify a business must also submit a business report. Click here for a list of approved credit reporting agencies.

Insurance: The minimum liability insurance requirements are $100,000/per person for public liability and $300,000/per occurrence; and $500,000 for property damage, ora minimum combined single limit policy of $800,000. Applicant must also attest to obtain worker’s comp coverage or an exemption within 30 days after license is issued

Experience: A person will qualify for a certified Unlimited license by meeting one of the following requirements:

(1) Must have three (3) years of management experience in the trade of electrical contracting within the last six (6) years immediately preceding the filing of the application; or

(2) Must have four (4) years of experience as a foreman, supervisor or contractor in the trade within the last eight ( years immediately preceding the filing of the application; or

(3) Must have six (6) years of comprehensive training, technical education or supervisory experience associated with an electrical or alarm contracting business within the last 12 years immediately preceding the filing of the application; or must have at least six (6) years technical experience in related work with the Armed Forces or a governmental entity within the last 12 years immediately preceding the filing of the application; or have a combination of these qualifications totaling six (6) years of experience; or

(4) Must be licensed as an electrical professional engineer for three (3) years within the last 12 years. Provide a copy of current electrical professional engineer license and transcripts showing electrical engineering work; or

(5) Must have a combination of experience listed in 1-3 above totaling 6 years within the last 12 years.

Applicants are required to submit copies of W2’s to verify employment with the qualified business.

Submitting Application Form: Applicant must submit complete application form along with supporting documentation and applicable fees to the Department of Business and Professional Regulation at 1940 North Monroe Street Tallahassee, FL 32399-0783

So, after careful thought and consideration of the risks, and that in this poor economy, breaking even would be a miracle......

LOL

If you use your cellphone to view remote video from a DVR, you're probably aware of the fact that there is no time-out to the video stream.

If you accidentally close the program without stopping the video stream. It just keeps on steaming, indefinitely.

This results in excessive bandwidth usage on your cellphone which could result in your provider throttling your bandwidth or battery drain.

Personally, I use an Android. Has anyone found a work around for these serious issues?

DVR's in question are Nite-Owl and Q-See.

I just finished an install in a residence of an 8 camera system. The VERY next day, the home was burglarized. Police eagerly awaiting copies of the data.

The burglar is CLEARLY shown casing the home then checking if anyone is home then proceeding to smash a window and enter the home. Inside camera catches the perps movements through the home ransacking and gathering valuables.

Outside cameras record the perp knocking on the door and peeping through windows then doing a complete walk around.

Apparently, he came first in the morning one hour after the residents left. This was to do a preliminary scope out. Then entered the home through a window half an hour later but took nothing. Then, returned 4 HOURS later to do the actual dirty deeds.

It's amazing how much insight you can get into a burglar's mind seeing them in actual without them realizing you'll see them at work.

MANY valuable lessons learned from viewing the footage on tips that can make a HUGE difference in the effectiveness of having a camera security system. NOTHING teaches like real experience.

Amazingly, the young perps failed to realize the home even had a surveillance system until they had nearly finished.

The owner had insisted on a 2 camera system but I talked them into an 8 camera system. They thanked me after this incident for being persistent and knowing to make valuable recommendations.

If you're an installer, you are doing people a HUGE service every time you install a surveillance system in these times.

Be safe.

don't mount cameras inside facing window. glare will hunt you. mount them outside. if you want quality forget Swann/lorex crap. get a cheap Digital watch dog/Nuvico 4 channels DVR for ~$500 and spend ~$250 per outdoor camera if you want OK results. anything less is money down the drain imo.

I disagree with this. "OK results" is a subjective concept.

Any camera that returns true 600 TVL or better and has adequate compensation, balance and good nightime lighting will give you a useable image quality. Most homeowners are buying the Costco or BJ's or other package consumer systems. There are many cameras like this on ebay UNDER $50 There are also a lot of sellers claiming things they shouldn't be and delivering VERY poor quality.

Sure, you get what you pay for, but the majority of casual users aren't going to need to spend thousands to get satisfactory performance. I recently lost a camera due to lightning inductance from a close strike. Lower priced cameras make more sense and the image quality (if you buy the right inexpensive camera) is quite good.

Why do you insist this can't be a spider?

I have them on my cameras CONSTANTLY. They are attracted to the IR.

If a spider strings even ONE web strand across the camera it can ruin the image due to reflection of IR light.

And movement? I sit sometimes at night and watch spiders bounce all over the video. LOOKS like a person, but it's a spider. Sometimes a VERY tiny spider but on the live camera it looks HUGE.

I still see nothing that changes my mind you saw a spider and missed the thief.

Have an old Lorex wired system. Bought a new Q-see system. Would there be an adapter to go from a 6-pin (maybe a cat-5 cable looking wires) to the new Q-see system.

Yes,there is an adapter that will do this....but truth be told....the Lorex cameras are probably 400 TVL and you'll soon probably want 600 tvl and the adapters are expensive. It may be cheaper to buy a new camera AND cabling for the same price.

At least that's my experience with Lorex stuff unless you have really high end Lorex stuff?

If they are what's commonly called "mini coax" (nothing but shielded audio cable) then making them longer is the last thing you want to do

But I need 100ft and I already have two 50ft cables.

Besides, they sell them pre-made 200ft, 500ft and more so. So how is a 100ft cable made from two 50ft cables a "problem"?

I have two 50ft BNC CCTV cables with power connectors.

But I need a 100ft cable.

Can I connect these together to make a 100ft cable?

First, are you sure you have a STATIC IP ADDRESS assigned from your Internet Service Provider and that it doesn't change?

Usually, you have to pay extra for that.

If you are not sure, you probably have a DYNAMIC IP address, in which case you will have to use a port forwarding service.

DVR manufacturers usually have their own that you can use.

I have an Android Smart phone

On it I have PSS (Pro Surveillance Systems) Android apk fro remote cell phone viewing.

Here's the dilemma......

I want to be able to use the INTERNET for viewing my video streams when AWAY from home...BUT....

When AT HOME, I want to use wireless. (MUCH faster and no bandwidth usage from ISP)

The problem is that I can only run ONE instance of the viewing software and to switch between the INTERNET

and WIRELESS for viewing, I'd have to manually change the network settings every time...which of course is WAY

too much hassle.

IF...the program would run multiple times as a new process, it would work.

I'd simply use different icons for each and set the settings for either INTERNET or WIRELESS.

Anyone else ever deal with this or have any suggestions?

Well, I took the dead camera down and opened her up and found.....nothing.

No signs of any damage whatsoever so here's a thought...

Maybe it doesn't actually require a "Strike" for these cameras to get zapped.

Maybe all it requires is an intense enough light surge (which is then "translated" into a high energy pulse

via the lens and supporting CCD or CMOS sensor that damages an IC chip or SMD transistor or something.

There is no evidence that there was a direct strike. I fact, there appears to be evidence there was NOT a direct strike.

Under this train of thought...a laser pointer might also "take out" a surveillance camera?

I think I'll test this theory on one of my not so good "disposable" cameras.

The serious problem with this if it were true is that you might expect to lose cameras every time

you have a thunderstorm with strikes very near the front facing side of your cameras?

Meanwhile, the camera in question has basically 3 major components.

1). The LED array board

2). The Camera CCD sensor board with supporting circuitry

3). The Power cable pigtail assembly

The LED segment does not work so I'm going to assume that something happened to the power

delivery system. It "could" even be the harness pigtail (I doubt it) but I could test that.

Overall, these cameras aren't very expensive ($35 - $40ish) so I'll probably just buy a few replacements.

It would be an ongoing issue however if it turns out a close by lightning strike in front of a camera is all that's needed to

overload and burn out a surveillance camera.

BTW...The camera was completely dry. No rain or moisture reached the camera.

We had a strong thunderstorm today with several strikes potentially on top of us.

Afterward, my best camera is now completely dead and another is acting odd.

The DVR seems to be ok...but I'll have to do more checking tomorrow.

First loss of video equipment to lightning.

Thank you for your replay.

 

I tried your tip but did not work.

 

I think my problem was my ISP do not let me communicate with any servers if your device don't have SSL certificate. I got a new dvr with SSL options and have work great.

 

Thank You.

Glad you got it working but that doesn't really make sense because you can Use GMAIL or HOTMAIL without SSL.

CenturyLink is your ISP?

Your ISP won't let you communicate with ANY servers if your device doesn't have SSL certificate?

I think you simply were not aware of how to set up an smtp mail account that did not use SSL.

It goes by ports. All you had to do is configure your device to use a NON SSL port at the mail server.

This particular camera seems to be incapable of dealing with bright light.

There is a glass patio door to the right of the table (lower right corner of the photo)

and sunlight is on the floor where the Cyan wash out occurs.

It will not adjust out with the DVR settings and other cameras do not have this issue.

The seller of the camera said they think the power supply may be inadequate.

Is this just the characteristic of a bad / cheap camera?

Could it be the power supply? It is a 600TVL camera CMOS

(And yes, we have cats and love them dearly)

Argus DVR software hey are you looking for a good dvr software then no need to searching more.this is the best site for security dvr software.this software provides scheduled, continuous and activated upon motion detection video recording.in this software you can monitor unlimited cameras through internet or onsite.this software have many features.i will you tell you the small brief......this program view many cameras on screen simultaneously, continuous video recording,user may select specific area coverage to be recorded,sending images by mail,zoom-in and zoom-out facilities,date and time of the images,multilevel password protection, automatically starts when system boots.and automatically execute if the user not available,no disk full situation occurs,print snapshot and videos ad many more. the minimum requirements are windows OS, 1GB RAM,32 MB video card,40 GB hard drive and sound card.you can know all about the software by visiting the site.

This sounds like an advertising pump...straight out of China

I am interested in putting a camera of some sort on my property I have that is in the middle of nowhere.

This is what I'm considering.....

Bushnell Prohunter 7MP which is a type of hunters camera...but I don't hunt.

I plan to put it way up high in a tree, disable the LEDS (I don't care what happens after dark)

and pray noone sees it and steals it.

Is this the BEST way to do remote surveillance in remote areas where there nothing but woods ?

thx

I have a couple of cameras that do a really good job in low light conditions. Both are 600 tvl

Both are inside and cover part of the floor. It is the floor areas that get hit with direct sunlight in the mornings

and during that time, I get this annoying, large blob of Cyan Bluish washout anywhere that sunlight falls.

It kinda washes into the other parts of the video image. When it's overcast or darker, they do excellent.

One of them was fine until recently and now I have two exhibiting this "washout" problem.

The other one did it from the beginning.

Is this a power supply issue? Or, (I admit) is it because they are cheap cameras?

Thx

I had this problem and couldn't find the solution.

So, one day I used the WEB INTERFACE to make the settings instead of doing the settings on the monitor attached to the DVR and that's when my email alerts started working.

Apparent, some dashua based systems on PSS software only correctly apply the settings if you make and save them through the Web Interface...in my case Internet Explorer.

Ripped from NewEgg's details on that exact drive number- "These drives are designed to last in high temperature always-on streaming digital audio/video environments such as PVR/DVR, DVR recorders and surveillance video recorders."

 

Well, Western Digital manufactures those hard drives, and not NewEgg, and I am quite sure WD would not approve that description.

Do you think NewEgg arbitrarily adds their own suitable use specifications to hard drives?

You are saying that Western Digital did not supply that description? How would NewEgg decide

what a specific hard drive is best suited for?

This "verbage" was why I bought the drive. Not because it was black, blue or green.

But, I'm thinking the bandwidth issue may be something to look into.

What model number is the drive?

WD20EURS

I just bought a new Hard Drive from NewEgg. It's a 2TB Western Digital hard drive that is specifically supposed to be for DVR's and recording streaming media

 

 

Hi yes sounds like your drive. low power startup drives are no good for standalone unit

it will work if you set dvr to always record but not set for motion av drive have a slow start up.

On all the recoded video with blurs in it, it IS already set to continuous record.

I just bought a new Hard Drive from NewEgg. It's a 2TB Western Digital hard drive that is specifically supposed to be for DVR's and recording streaming media.

Today I was viewing some recorded video and noticed something odd. There is a noticeable "pulse" in the video. Let me describe what I mean.

While viewing the video, you can clearly see a rhythmic "distortion" of the image. It's very consistent. Like a heartbeat.

The video will appear clear then you will see it "glitch" slightly and during that glitch (which last only for a fraction of a second, like a heartbeat), the image is slightly blurry compared to that time when it is not in the middle of one of these pulses. The duration of each cycle is about equal to a human heartbeat. Maybe 1 second between pulses.

The "distortion" is not horrible, but it is noticeable.

---------^---------^---------^---------^------ (like this, the caret would be the distortion)

I never noticed this before I replaced the hard drive so I'm suspecting it's related to the hard drive.

The pulse is not there in live viewing.

Anyone else ever see this?

NOTE:

I have submitted a ticket to WesterDigital Customer Support.

I'll post back what ultimately becomes of this case.

Hello,

Is there any way to determine the ACTUAL resolution of a camera?

I bought two cameras both 600tvl

One appears to be decidedly sharper than the other.

Is it "possible" I was sent a 420 TVL instead?

How would you actually test the resolution?

Are you using PSS software?