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CHoffman

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Everything posted by CHoffman

  1. CHoffman

    Upgrading a Speco DVR HD?

    I replaced the cord and had him set it up on a table with more air circulation. I havent heard of any more problems
  2. I have a customer who I swapped out their old DVR with a Speco D16LS DVR with a 1TB HD. After the DVR was installed they wanted to change some of the cameras to record continuous, which I told him was a bad idea because it would eat up his storage space rapidly. He insisted and now he has 14 days before it overwrites. He wants to add storage space to it so I contact Speco to find out info on swapping the HD. Which I have done on numerous DVR's. They say only they can do it for a ridiculous charge.... I wish I would have know this before I sold him that unit. This is in a small credit union so being without a DVR is probably going to be a bad idea. I do have an old Basically has anyone swapped out a HD in a Speco DVR? Or do I need to bite the bullet and send it in. I want to tell him hes SOL but....
  3. CHoffman

    Upgrading a Speco DVR HD?

    I did that with hopes that would fix it. Upgraded from 1.0.0 to 1.6.1... it then rebooted about 2 hours later. It seems to reboot fine. Im wondering if its power supply related, could a faulty cord cause this? Or is the addition of the second hard drive using too much power?? Some sort of Speco trick thats why they want you to send it in...then if it fails like this you have to send it in... I wont use another Speco product, their customer service is horrible and rude.
  4. CHoffman

    Upgrading a Speco DVR HD?

    Yep, Installed a Seagate 2 TB HD a month ago and it works fine. Now the issue I have is that 5 days ago the DVR just started rebooting on its own. It'll go a few hours or a day and it will just shut down and reboot by itself. The other day it did it 3 times within a 2 hour period at 12 am when no one was around. I looked through the system log and it has no issues displayed...just restarts and reboots. Any ideas?
  5. CHoffman

    Biometric Reader - Suprema

    I've used the Schlage Handkey II'2 Put in about 34 of them at a location. At first they worked perfect but a few of them are slowly starting to have issues. The displays on a 2 of the units have stopped working, the relay output on another failed, and a keypad on the other has failed. These units get used hundreds of times a day and the client isn't really known for taking care of them though. I've also used the General Lock Helix 100 fingerprint reader when it first came out. I wasnt too impressed with it, hopefully they have fixed the issues on the original units. It was a standalone or wiegand output.
  6. CHoffman

    New Setup

    Ever thought of a battery operated trail camera.. Battery powered, can be mounted nearly anywhere. Reconyx makes some nice "security style" housings. Food for thought
  7. CHoffman

    DVR with android support

    IP Cam viewer works with almost any DVR, or IP camera. I use it alot, all my customers use it. The dev is great and updates often. The only issue with it is that you cant playback recorded video...yet. Never had a problem with it. Have used the Aver, Pelco and Digimerge apps and they seem to work fine.
  8. I am wondering if anyone has done this or knows of someone who can. For installing traditional analog cams I have an Ideal brand test monitor... extremely useful for aim/focus right at the cameras etc. I am wanting to figure out a way to direct plugin to an IP camera with my Samsung Galaxy Nexus smartphone... instead of lugging my laptop up and down a ladder. It seems that this should be feasible...whether or not is possible...IDK I have bought a few items to try out USB OTG USB to LAN adapter Pinpoint IP camera focusing adapter I haven't received all of the parts yet but plan on tinkering... has anybody heard of such a thing? I've done searches on the internet for it and all I get is the traditional apps that assume that the cameras are installed on internet network.... but what about right at the camera
  9. CHoffman

    Door Frame Security

    Depending on whats next to the lock side of your door frame I have installed about an 8" chunk of 3/4" ID black pipe. Remove the strike plate and with a hole saw or spade bait thats just a hair larger than the OD of the pipe. Tap the pipe on the hole. The idea being that the deadbolt will slide into the pipe...typically Schlages have a longer bolt.
  10. CHoffman

    More for the Installation Hall of Shame

    Came across this gem at a Murphy Oil gas station...I had to swap it out because "it quit working" Yep that's a camera held to the breaker box with packing tape, stuck right to the warning label... " title="Applause" /> " title="Applause" /> " title="Applause" /> " title="Applause" /> " title="Applause" /> " title="Applause" />
  11. True.. I have a Vivotek IP8331 and a FD7161 laying around here that I want to have him try out... gimme a chance to tinker.
  12. I have a client who has a doggy daycare. They installed a DVR that an "expert" told them would work with some garbage cameras...they want there customers to be able to login and see Fido running around. The problem is that the cameras are so pixelated when viewing from the website that you cant tell which dog is which. Part of the issue is the limited bandwidth .72 mbps upload. Unfortunately I couldnt tell what brand of DVR it was, it looked like a generic import. The cameras are garbage because the on local monitor they seem like they are low TVL.... and the installer used all premade cables. Basically they want a better system, he liked the idea of IP cameras, given that right now he doesn't even care if it is being recorded. But the bandwidth limitations Im not sure this would fix the problem. He also wants something that is compatible with all, or most web browsers and will of course work on smartphones. He has 5 cameras now and wants to expand to 8. The obvious first choice is that they are gonna need faster internet, its a newly constructed area on the edge of town and ISP choices are limited as of now. But beyond that its becoming clear that working on all browsers is the real challenge. Having his customers login and download a bunch of active-x controllers may be a bit too much for any dog watcher. Maybe at this point IP cameras are out of the question, I need to stick with H.264, some better cameras and run some RG6 lines...until he can get faster internet. Ive kicked around the ideas like a ustream account with webcams, dns server, loggin in directly to the cameras and viewing snapshots saved to the SD cards...
  13. I was looking into some of those Foscams or Loftek's.... not sure what I think of them yet. Some pretty mixed reviews. But they are cheap... Any input?
  14. Also contact Vivotek and they can get you the most current version. I just installed 1.6.1.12 which is a week or so old, and 1.6.2 is on the way shortly. I had a system that was running 1.6.1.4 and it was really buggy. I had to restore back to its original settings and reinstall .12.
  15. try reducing the image size... you may be limited by your bandwidth?? Worth a shot
  16. CHoffman

    IC Realtime DVR

    I've had some limited encounters with IC Relatime DVR's... the older ones were really difficult for end users to do some simple functions like playback. I had a webinar with the IC Realtime rep about 8 months ago and he said that one of the biggest things they changed with the new flex and edge systems was they simplified it. Making it easier to playback, setup schedules etc. At your local store do they have one setup so you can try some of the functions?
  17. CHoffman

    More for the Installation Hall of Shame

    Holy Crap I laughed so hard at those ... the mount backward..the 110...the wiring mess on the roof and the "sea monkey experiment inside the PTZ dome"... I'm gonna have to start taking pictures of what I've come across.
  18. CHoffman

    Be nice to the burglar

    I love that story about the Marines..... I think at one time there was a picture of the guy who stole the laptop.... it wasnt pretty. I love it...
  19. As a side note the 8134's are great inexpensive indoor cameras... plus they are small in size, not much bigger than a baseball.
  20. After poking around on my system I realize I was partially wrong. Typically when I setup a system I will use the entire FOV.... so that may not be the perfect scenario in your case. If you want the whole FOV to detect you utilize just the Live Client software and the way I described. If you have a specific area or areas you do setup those areas in the installation wizard. I just tried it on mine and it even shows the red motion box that I just created in the installation wizard on the live client screen. So.. i tried recreating what you where talking about and mine still works. Another way you can check to see if it is working by looking at the log at the bottom of the screen and it shows in the log the trigger and the camera name.
  21. Setting up the motion detection on the installation wizard (web interface) isnt needed if you are using the ST7501 software. The only reason I have used that is if I was using the camera as a standalone camera (not connected to the network) and saving data to the SD card. The ST software will recognize motion and record, if you set it up that way. In the ST software, go to configuration then station settings. In there go to recording schedule settings, then where it says time frame, single click on Always... then where it says recording settings click event and make sure that motion is checked. Click apply...then once its saved you can check at the bottom to see the instant playback or search for recorded data
  22. Please clarify... Are you talking about the settings at the camera using the installation wizard software or on the ST software?
  23. I am interested in getting some of these for a customer... They seem to take great video, from the youtube videos I have seen. I have had really good luck with Vivotek in the past. Im just wondering if anyone has had a chance to use these yet. THX
  24. Vivotek FD8161 Indoor camera mounted in a modified heater dome housing with a fan..Im a tinkerer
  25. We have been testing the unit in our shop for the past couple weeks. The unit has excellent color accuracy and WDR. Like its predecessor the unit is extremely easy to install and setup. The onboard software is feature rich supporting 4 independent video streams, edge recording and much more. Being a Supreme series camera it uses a new faster CPU that will support the SVC codec in the future. For the price I don't think you can find a better camera with the features the Vivotek IP8362 has. Thanks, I have really had some good luck with Vivoteks. They are easy to setup...I wish they would develop some higher MP cameras though, like a 5MP
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