Soundy

Looks like you're connecting to the wrong pins on the camera. Try connecting RS-485+ to B7 (RXD from PC), and RS-485- to B5 (GND). If that doesn't work, try swapping them.

Sounds realistic to me About the only thing you won't be able to "easily" do this way is control video playback on your TVs. If you're feeding the DVR output to the TVs, you'll be able to view both live and playback, but you'll need some other method to control the DVR. That aside... with standard analog, you still need to get the signal for each camera back to the DVR. If the DVR is in the study, you need to get signal there. You CAN minimize your cable count by running four cameras over a single UTP cable from the node0 location to the study (er... stupid question, what is "node0" - some particular equipment, or just a fancy name for a central comms closet?). What I'd probably do in such a situation, if I had a comms closet to terminate all the wiring, would be to put the DVR or NVR, and the NAS, in that location, then access them remotely from my study, either via network, or using a UTP KVM extender. Another thought: if you go with IP cameras, some will be able to record directly to your NAS with no PC required. Some NAS models have specific support for this built-in as well.

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Check out any of the site's Partners (list to the left of this post)... Most manufacturers will either have a list of authorized resellers on their website, or will tell you who they are when asked.

Better yet, have you asked your ISP?

I wouldn't recommend it - if you ever need to swap the cameras, you'll be hacking-and-splicing again. I'd re-terminate the camera wires properly (BNCs, or RCAs with RCA/BNC adapters). Baluns are used only for the video pairs. You DON'T want to share the video and power grounds. Your drawing isn't really clear - are you running two cameras over one Cat5? If so, you'll probably want to use one pair for each camera's video, and another for each camera's power. If you have a separate Cat5 for each camera, I'd suggest one pair for video, and two pairs for power. In my installs, I use the blue/white-blue pair for video, orange/white-orange for power positive, green/white-green for power ground, and leave the brown as a spare.

That picture looks like crosstalk, as if the signal is bleeding between cameras...

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I'm using an ASUS netbook (model 1005HA), which even with a measly Atom 270 processor works fine for higher resolutions - I just display the camera at 100% and scroll the browser window to the area I want to focus on. This model has a really bright LED-backlit screen and is quite viewable even in direct sunlight. I've done the two-man focus-by-phone thing, and frankly, it's a PITA and ultimately unworkable most of the time. If I'm the person at the camera, it requires the person at the DVR not just being as discerning as I am about the point of focus, but understanding the view and angle I want as well - there's nothing like coming all the way back down the ladder and finding that it doesn't look the way you envisioned it. And even with a fast network and viewing computer, there's always a lag between camera adjustments and the display - it makes focusing on your own annoying enough, nevermind having to stand by the DVR giving instructions only watch helplessly as the person at the camera continually turns the focus ring past the right point again and again (heck, that's bad enough even with the immediacy of analog cameras). Pre-focusing on the bench seems like a nice idea and may be fine if you're using fixed lenses, where you're stuck with the given FOV... what if you spend all that time setting up a varifocal lens on the bench, then get the camera in place and discover you need to change the FOV? Now your focus needs to be adjusted again, and you're back where you started. Again, a nice idea, but largely unworkable in most instances. It's frankly 20 times faster to just pack my monitor or netbook up the ladder or lift, plug it in, make the adjustments with the camera in its desired position with the desired view, and be done with it. Even if I have to take the camera up, mount and connect it, then come back down for the monitor, it's still faster, and far less hassle.

Probably something an on-site tech hacked together Looks like it's made to be portable and ready to deploy. Lot cheaper to use someone's balcony rather than pack a tower around! Repeating to another similar setup? Me too... I don't even have to look most of the time, I just start automatically noticing the cameras when I walk into a place.

May seem like a stupid question, but are you connecting the RS-485 properly? You don't match the connections on each end - you need to connect the "TX" connectors on the controller to the "RX" terminals on the camera (RX on the controller and TX on the camera aren't normally required).

Can you confirm whether you're getting signal loss or not? If you disconnect a working camera, does the DVR tell you there's signal loss on that channel? Do you have actual make and model names for these cameras? Can you tell if they have auto-iris lenses (normally will be a wire running up to a small motor on the side of the lens)? The problem really doesn't sound like cabling to me... but even if it is, a simple continuity test won't always reveal a bad termination - it could be intermittent, or if it's just a poor connection, the increased impedance can cause problems at video frequencies that will never show up with DC voltages used by continuity and resistance tests. I suggest before actually pulling a new cable through the ceiling/walls/whatever, just running it through the halls if at all possible, to test it... if that works, then your existing run is your problem, and you can pull the cable properly. But before confirming that, you might not want to go through the hassle of installing a new run, only to discover that's not the problem.

One problem you can get with domes is that the curvature of the dome bubble itself acts as an extra lens element and can throw your focus off, especially at longer focal lengths, where depth if field is thinner - this is true of any dome, BTW, not just Arecont. Some display this effect more than others. I've noticed the newer AV3155DN domes we put in came with a little plastic lens that you can snap over the end of the lens to emulate the dome bubble and aid in focusing... short of that, if you're installing a dome, you may have to hold the bubble up in front of the lens while focusing. And all that being said... I've noticed a particular problem with "even" focus with the Arecont domes, like their bubbles aren't perfectly round or of even thickness, causing parts of the image to be out of focus. Poor sensor alignment, like thewireguys suggests, could also be an issue - the AV3155DNs at least, seem extremely flimsy and poorly put together, and the backfocus adjustment (a moving lens mount) is very sloppy. If the plane of the lens mount isn't perfectly parallel to the plane of the sensor, then it WILL be impossible to get a perfect focus all the way across the image.

THis doesn't make sense - you previously stated: "...it only has film from the past couple of days. My guess is that the disk ran out and it has started overwriting..." If it will normally hold several weeks' worth of video, and this incident was only "a few days back", then it should have more than a couple days' worth, and it certainly shouldn't have overwritten your recent footage: unless there's something seriously wrong with the system, it should always overwrite the OLDEST footage.

Alright, that sounds more like an interconnect issue - either bad terminations, or a bad cable run. RG59 should be fine for those distances... just make sure it's good quality stuff, and it's solid copper center conductor and 95% braided copper shield. Foil shield and copper-clad steel center conductors (or worse, both together) are well known to be problematic. You didn't specify what type of camera it is, but when using box cameras, it's not unusual to replace a dead camera but reuse the old lens, because box cameras don't typically come with a lens... and sometimes if you get a "specialized" lens (extra-wide or extra-long, for example), it's harder -and more expensive - to find a replacement. The thinking here is, with an auto-iris lens, the iris sometimes stops working (either the camera's iris drive fails, or the iris itself fails in some way), and swapping the old lens onto the new camera just shifts the problem. Your description sounds like you're losing brightness, but not necessarily the video signal (or the DVR would report "signal loss"), which would be a common symptom of a failing iris. Not that I've ever seen... but then, I've never looked

Not just doorbells - all sorts of consumer equipment operates within the same narrow 2.4GHz bandwidth. Cordless phones, alarms, doorbells, audio and video transmitters, cordless keyboards and mice, RF remotes... and yes, basic WiFi and bluetooth also operate in the 2.4GHz band.

He's talking about the connectors, not the caps.

The thing is, when you delete data, normally it's still there, but the index to it has been removed. Once you start writing new data to that space, though, the old data is replaced. There's is a very faint chance to restore some data after this , but every time it's overwritten, the chance narrows. If your machine is only keep two days, then every two days the old data is being overwritten again. To have any chance at all, you'd need data recovery software that can read the file system format that your DVR is using, and you'd have to plug it into a computer that could read the disk structure. To get anything useful, it would have to recover enough pieces of the relevant files to put together coherent video clips... and the chance of doing that will also depend on the video format being used, whether a video can be extracted from little bits or not. Just offhand, I would suspect you wouldn't be able to do this yourself with any readily-available software... you'd probably be a lot more likely to get something back by using a data recovery service. From my experience, you're probably looking at anywhere from $300 to $1000 for that... IF it's even going to be possible.

FYI, RG58 is not appropriate for CCTV... wrong impedance.

One is not inherently "higher or lower quality" than the other. IN GENERAL the larger the sensor, the better the image will be, especially with low light (most analog sensors have the same number of pixels, so a bigger sensor means bigger pixels, and a bigger pixel can collect more light), but there are a lot of other factors that come into play beyond just the size of the sensor. Lenses do come in stated sizes matching the sensors they're designed for, but it more to do with the size of the area their image covers. A 1/3" lens projects an image of a certain size that's designed to fully cover a 1/3" sensor, so it will work fine with a 1/4" sensor; a 1/4" lens will project a smaller circle that may not (or may, depending on numerous factors) fully cover a larger sensor, so you get a "tunnel vision" effect. Your 1/2" cameras will work the same way with 1/3" lenses: it will usually work fine, but you may notice the corners are dark or rounded off, especially at wider angles.

Welcome! So if I follow this: you had an existing camera that stopped working... you replaced it, and the new camera works for 15 minutes (is it always the same? is it 15 exactly?), then goes dark... and it does this no matter which input you connect it to on the DVR? The time frame suggests it might be something heat-related - is this camera in a tight, enclosed space or a warm location? Are you still reading 24VAC at the camera when it's dark? Can you try running another signal line from the camera to the DVR (doesn't need to be "installed", just run it across the floor and through doors or windows) for the purpose of testing? How about disconnecting the existing cable run from the DVR and feeding it straight into the monitor? When you swapped the cameras, did you put the old lens on the new camera? And if so, is it an auto-iris lens?

The "right track", ideally, is a wired camera - wireless at this level is iffy at best. How far apart are the camera and recorder?

Nothing to do with the cut filter... everything to do with the fact that dust in the air (as well as snow, smoke, fog, etc.) reflects IR light. Short of disabling the IR, there really is nothing to be done about it.

Creeeeepy!

That person is wise. Fact is, setting up a mic is very different from setting up a camera - it's difficult to be "selective" about what you pick up, especially since most cheap mics are "omnidirectional" and pick up everything in every direction.