Soundy

Here is the test definition as provided on the AXIS website.... "Shutter speed not to exceed 200ms". This is based on Industry Standard CEA 639, "Consumer Camcorder or Video Camera Low Light Performance." http://www.axis.com/files/tech_notes/Axis_MMI.pdf So the simple question now becomes "Hey Mr Mfg do you test to CEA-639?" All these guys do: Samsung, JVC, Philips, Sony, Hitachi, Canon, Panasonic, and Thomson Consumer Electronics. That's not really the same thing though - all that spec states is that the shutter won't go any slower then 1/5s(!!). That's of no use when you're looking to find out what shutter speed is actually used at a given lux level.

Thing is, there's nothing really special about these, as baluns go. The most basic video balun connects the BNC pin and shield to a pair of terminals, lugs, screws, or pins on an RJ-45 jack, via an appropriate transformer. The ones that add power, simply connect the power input/output leads directly through to two pairs of pins (so you double-up the wires for better current capacity) on the RJ-45 jack. The ones with serial control do the same with the fourth pair of RJ-45 pins, and I would suspect the ones with audio do the same (although they COULD use another transformer for proper balanced audio, I doubt that's the case, at least with most cheap ones). Basically, there's no functional difference between using one of these all-in-one devices, and just plain video-only baluns and then tying your audio, serial, and/or power directly to the wire pairs in the Cat5 jacket... all these do is simplify the installation a bit.

keep in mind, the bulk of that is inside the ceiling - they mount easily into tile or solid drywall, and you don't need access to the back to secure them DF8 (8") in a 2'x2' ceiling tile

Are they going to a bigger sensor with this 10MP beast? If not, I wouldn't expect much for this camera's low-light capability. Still, would be great for daylight!

Do these need to be weather-sealed domes for outdoor use, or are they for indoor? Indoor, you could possibly use something like the Pelco DF5 or DF8 line of enclosures, and populate them with whatever box cameras suit your needs - no need to even match brands, let alone models. The DF5 series are a 5"-diameter dome... DF8 are an 8" diameter for larger cameras. They're cosmetically identical, so you could even mix and match those if necessary.

We've use FLIR thermal cameras on a site, they work great. They have a "Wide-Eye" model that will give a full 180-degree view, plus various dome models. www.flir.com

Ancient Chinese BBCODE secret, Grasshopper! Click here to reveal the secret!

Yeah, you won't find any computer fans that will move enough air to properly ventilate an entire room, let alone an entire floor of the house. You could also consider any standard sort of bathroom fan, or if your windows open, check out a window-mounted fan.

Alright, here's inferno's pic of the software in question... doesn't ring any bells for me, but maybe for someone else?

Some jurisdictions do require installers be licensed for low-voltage, most require licensing for alarm installers, some lump CCTV installers in with that, and some do have specific licensing for CCTV as well... but that's not the same thing as "certification" (which IMHO is barely worth the paper it's printed on in most technology-based industries). Which is why I ask, are you sure you need it in your area?

Where are you located? Are you sure licensing and/or certification is needed, or even available?

This REALLY sounds like a ground-loop problem.

Shouldn't cost €20 for that... a single 12DVC/1A "wall wart" transformer will suffice, we get them for about CDN$10.

The system won't let you post pictures or links for the first few days or several posts. Kind of a pain in situations like this, but it's done as an anti-spam measure. If you have the pictures on a website somewhere, you can PM me the link...

Actually, it might help to test voltage at the camera end... WITH the IR LEDs on, to see if the voltage drops substantially.

If the only output is VGA, you'll need VGA monitors at the multiple locations, and either long VGA cables, or Cat5 cable with VGA baluns to get the signal there. OR, you could use something like an AverKey to take the VGA signal and spit out composite video, which you can then run over the coax to regular TVs. OR, you could run the cameras first into a quad, switcher or multiplexor; the cameras would then daisy-chain from that to the DVR, and that device would then drive the remote monitors.

That could be your key there - a connection could have worked loose through vibration or temperature variations. It also would probably be a good idea to power the garage cameras from inside the garage, rather than over the thin Cat5 wire - the voltage drop COULD cause issues, especially if the cameras are equipped with the IR LEDs.

Actually, simple viewing of multiple cameras is something I deal with regularly. Our biggest business segment is fuel services (ie. gas stations), and they almost without fail want some cameras displayed stand-alone on a remote monitor... this is almost always done independent of the DVR or recording system. You don't specify that you need to actually view these cameras on the computer, so: for cheap and simple, you can use a quad (if you want to view all the cameras in split-screen), or even just a switcher (to automatically toggle between cameras). Or you may be able to find a used multiplexor for cheap, as they're finding less and less use in this DVR-based business.

My home one is on a shelf in my rack... but on sites, I've done just about every type of mounting imaginable - in ceilings, in lock boxes, on shelves, under desks, in utility rooms, in cabinets... wall-mounted, rack-mounted, bolted to a shelf to prevent tampering and removal... just about anywhere or any how you could think of placing or mounting a DVR, I've probably done it.

How about re-soldering a torn coil wire on a 12" speaker in the middle of a gig, in the middle of a lake? JBL speaker, too, with aluminum coil wire... soldering aluminum is fun! Great way to break in a brand-new butane soldering iron

Bingo. Sometimes you're better off just to split up the functions into their separate appropriate devices. Just as a suggestion, I've used the LinkSys SFE1000P switch on numerous sites now and found it to be an outstanding performer: eight 10/100 PoE ports, plus two gigabit ethernet/fiber ports... these work great for adding several IP cams and some NAS storage to a DVR.

Suky is (mostly) correct... however, some third-party players support a LOT of different formats and may work for this one, as often a standard file type is "disguised" with a non-standard file extension. Try using VLC (www.videolan.org) and see if it will open the file. If not, try adding the K-Lite Mega Codec Pack (google will find it for you). You can also sometimes find a clue by plugging the unknown extension into www.filext.com, although this one doesn't appear to be recognized as anything appropriate.

Current (amperage) is not your problem - a device will draw only as much current as it needs. Two possibilities come to mind: too much voltage, or incorrect polarity. Either will fry cheap electronics in a hurry. Since you're running this all on a 12V battery, I'd suspect polarity... since the camera alone was working for months and the letting of the smoke corresponds with adding the wireless, my best guess would be that you go the polarity wrong when you reconnected the battery to the whole assembly.

That's your key right there. Is wireless bad? No, not in and of itself. There are some very good high-end systems using wireless. There are lots of "wireless sucks" replies here, and I'd lay money that every one of them is using low-end consumer-grade equipment. And as with all consumer-grade wireless equipment (phones, WiFi, mice and keyboards, etc.), it can be adversely affected by other consumer grade equipment - it's common for 2.4GHz cordless phones to cause WiFi connections to drop, for example. As Scorpion says, wireless is just another tool, one with specific uses, and one that you'll pay a lot for if you want to do it *right*. You can use a hatchback to haul a ton of gravel, too, but don't expect it to make that trip more than once... the proper tool for that job is a lot bigger and beefier and more expensive, but it will do the job reliably for a long time.

f-stops are more commonly a photographic term - in short, it's a ratio of a lens's focal length to the diameter of its opening (or the opening of the iris). The term is properly written "f/number"... or mathematically, the diameter of the opening is the focal length "f" divided by the given number. Thus, a lens that's f/1 will have an opening twice the diameter of one that's f/2... and will allow four times as much light. The lower the f-stop number then, the more maximum amount of light the lens can pass, and the better it will work for low-light uses. There are trade-offs to everything, of course, and the wider the opening, the shallower the depth of focus (the distance from front to back in which objects will be in focus).