shockwave199

After the pains of installing, I had everything plugged in with individual power adapters. Heck, the cameras come with the things so why not use them. Plus I was too exhausted and low on bucks to get a power box. It took a little tweaking- some cameras would get into a slow blinking routine. But shuffling the adapters around a bit, everything calmed down and has been steady as a rock, even through power outages from storms and a hurricane. Then last night I look at one of my cams and the picture is stark white. I unplugged the adapter and plugged it back in, cleared for 10 seconds but faded back to white. Fiddled to no avail, so I just unpugged the adapter for almost an hour. Plugged it back in and it held for about an hour, then faded to white. Then I unplugged it almost till dawn. Plugged it back in and it held. As I suspected, it's fine in daylight minus the IR's on. And tonight, it's fine- no problem at all. Weird.

Does this happen with power boxes too? Or does a power box solve the issue of occasional odd stuff when using separate adapters for all eight cameras?

Dan

That is a tricky shot. Hopefully you'll be able to balance that out. It's all stemming from the camera being mounted in such a dark spot shooting into such a bright one- in fact combining both. As well as the OSD options, you can try to polish it off with a tweak in the dvr channels picture settings- bright/contrast. May never be perfect, but you'll know when you can't get any more out of it.

Dan

Here is a night image with IR on "high".

 

I swear these images and videos look better on my DVR monitor.

 

If you want to keep this camera up, I see nothing wrong with this shot. In D1, all the better I'm sure. Do you often have your landscape lights off? With them on, everything looks fine. The other thing to consider, and maybe do a short video of, is how well a person is covered at the doorway. I'm assuming this is mounted at a doorway. You're covering that and those windows right? With the extra benefit of that property to the right. Make the picture look fine, sure. But also make sure that when a person approaches, all looks well too.

Dan

Since you're getting a second dvr, I would suggest you think about investing in an eight channel dvr and just using one for all eight cameras. A much better solution I think.

Dan

Best to not extend a cable, but run one cable for the needed length right from the dvr, with no splits. It's safe to run cables exterior. I did. It's a good idea to use weather resistant electrical tape on the connections by the camera- that tape found in your local hardware store, home depot, or lowes. And there you'll also find a bunch of cable fasteners too. They'll tap right through siding. Be sure to get the proper size fasteners for your cable thickness. And make sure when the cable goes into the house wherever, leave a drip loop so rain water doesn't run straight down the cable into the interior of the house. Also use your weather resistant electrical tape on any points that may pose a rubbing problem to beef up the thickness. And that tape comes in many colors to match your needs. Good luck and be careful!

Dan

You should have a small allen key wrench included with the mounting screws in that little bag. There looks to be at least two small allen screws on the sides just above the back mounting plate. Unscrew them a bit and the mounting plate will come off. No need to completely take the screws out- just enough that the mounting plate comes off. Be very careful not to strip those screws. Be gentle when unscrewing and the same when tightening while mounting. These type of cameras are a royal pain to mount. Once you do one, you'll get the hang of it.

Dan

But then for that to work it really needs to switch to BW, and many times it does not if there is even a single small light in the video.

I know I'm talking about a completely different camera, but it does just that. The overhead light is enough to keep it in color, but then along the way it'll switch to BW anyway. Sometimes it takes hours though. The green on the brick is actually green moss.

And with that light off, it's nice BW

This one gets just enough of the same light to be in color too.

These are not TDN's. No control over any settings. Point and shoot cams. I don't mind the color really, so long as it's not super noisy.

HT- you don't happen to have saturation up a ton for the daytime shot do you?

Dan

Maybe it's me, but I've only ever seen pictures of this camera being nosiy at night. In BW, it's noisy in BW. It impresses me in daylight but I would certainly not choose it for nightime, wanting low noise out of the picture. It needs IR support I think. But from all the examples I've seen of this camera- daylight only.

What's wrong with going with something like the LDM-24VF from them? IR no good inside that dome?

Btw- the mintron looks good but is that angle good for much?

Dan

The only negative I encountered with solar is that the panel doesn't last very long. Couple of years or so getting beaten down by weather- especially winter- takes it toll on the solor panel itself. Moisture ruins them too, over time. If it's at all possible, I'd run a wired one and not have the worry. The very best, long lasting I've put in place is the simplest rig- a two bulb fixture with engery saving floods @ 90 watts each of light, using 70 watts each of power. I put it on dusk/dawn, but I have it set to be on low bright until it trips, and then it goes full bright. Even modest light helps with security and camera picture. Stay away from halogen bulb fixtures. You know the ones- they have that thin bulb that you shouldn't get finger grease on when installing or it will shorten the life of the bulb. They blow out much too frequently not matter what and the bulbs are pricey. My regular energy saving floods last for years and years. Good luck.

Dan

I also notice that the pelco has that vertical lens flare from the sun hitting the HL. One of my 560 tvl's does this too but I figured any camera would in that circumstance. But obviously they don't all do it. Technically speaking, if a camera does this is it a sign of good quality, poor quality, or it just doesn't matter? Is it any indication of camera spec/quality at all? Frankly, I find it annoying.

Dan

In this series, the effio with IR cut is best balance of all things, for me.

Dan

Yeah, I guess that could be. I was gonna say after all that info, is the heater/blower housing yet another scam to make us spend more money?

That's expensive though. I'd sooner put that to camera or dvr upgrades. But best of luck though. Hope it works out.

Dan

but then again, for a $50 camera they probably dont care.

Exactly. It'll come down to you just figuring out how to keep a camera out of reach of a crack head and still be useful.

Dan

I'll be interested to see see if that deters them. Little schmucks with nothing better to do will take the time- all the time it takes- to seek and destroy that thing. And I'm not sold most teens can hear that. Most of the ones I know, including me when I was a teen some 30 years ago, already have impared hearing for loud headphones, concerts, and in my case- add being in a rock band too. Hope it works for you though. Keep us posted.

Btw- what's the minimum/maximum distance that thing is effective?

Dan

oh dang. you almost get a pretty good face shot too. Chances are, he'll walk by that again I bet. What you should do is put up a dummy cam as a decoy in good reach and have another camera aiming right at that camera. PM me if you want a good dummy cam, you can have it as long as you pay shipping.

That is a seriously good idea and I would do that for sure because you know now- he's just waiting for the new one to go up. May take a week, may take a month, but the moron will be back. And unless it's unreasonably high, he'll get to it. They have all the time in the world to figure out how much more of a moron they can be. So I would use a vandal proof dome for the real thing, capturing him swiping the dummy. Either that or just install a good dome with no IR for him to see, coupled with a security light to provide the vision for the non-IR dome.

Dan

Dan is the UPS still on? If it is I want one of those

Yeah it's still on....NOT!

I remembered about 15 minutes in to shut it down.

You know I didn't even think to point my regular video cam and get some footage. I think I was too scared to look in person. It was much easier to take the massively swaying trees from remote view cctv cams. Something about 20fps made the horrible sight much easier to take. Kinda like a ballet instead of WAR! Pissed though- didn't get regular video. Oh well. I wasn't in my right mind after the 24th hour.

I'm actually looking forward to bug free viewing when the weather chills up.

Lost power at around 9:30 am, just when I was gonna look through my files for video from the cams. I stopped recording along the way. Not much to see of trees overnight and the files were piling up on my hd. No need for that. I'll look through and see if there's anything good, but most of the good stuff after daybreak wasn't recorded. I was just about to record some of it and bloop- off went the power. I'll have to clean all my camera glass, but other than that they held up well. At one point a branch got tangled up in one and was putting on a freak show, but that blew off before long. Guess I hung 'em good. Even my cheap coax stayed strong. In the end, the power failed me, not the cams. Can't wait to get back on line....and get some lights too. I'm flicking lights on by force of habit like crazy- only it does nothing.

Btw- my UPS did a nice job too. With cable/router down, there was nothing doing, but it was nice to power down the dvr to standby/shutdown- the correct way. And that's the best case scenario with a UPS- allowing you to power down properly. Next would be keeping you afloat till power comes back on but this time- that ain't happening. I'm smelling multiple days without power. We'll see.

Dan

Oh yeah, we're on the wind side for sure out here in suffolk county around port jeff area- a bit south of there. Hardly any rain the whole time, but wind big time.

Dan

I conked out for about an hour and woke up to conditions being the worst yet. This is not quite over. Everytime radar shows a clearing, it fills back in. The storm is scheduled to pass over the city by 9:30. Long Island is getting whipped right now. Just wish this beast would finally get the frig outa here. It's been a long haul- and it's a cat 1. Feel bad for all who endured worse.

Dan

I have a number of assests I'm still biting my nails over as hurricane Irene passes overhead now, the least of which is my cameras out there taking it all on. Four of them are flat out exposed and I was worried how they'd make it through. Not a glitch. It was amazing watching the storm all night from the cameras all around my house. Twenty six years ago I had nothing to watch for updates on hurricane gloria but a tv with rabbit ears on a stool- and a transistor radio. Now, from my laptop I monitored live radar, two cctv systems, and hung on gmail chat to keep in touch with family. Amazing what a couple decades or so makes! It's not quite over, but most of the worst has passed. Cameras still goin strong. But I'm wiped out. Almost 24 hrs awake. The cams are seeing better than my eyes. Hope all who have dealt with Irene are ok.

Dan

Please advise

I'd advise you to take some time and read here. Your scenario is covered extensively over many, many posts. Good luck.

Dan

This is good to know. We get into the teens [F] here too, more often than single digits. It's good to know cameras can handle that.

Dan

Can you just vga out to a pc monitor? How many cams do you have in line? Don't use the four camera power splitter if you're only using one camera. Use a separate power adapter. Jiggle the connection into the drv. Try another cable. Camera could just be shot too. I guess just use process of elimination and see what happens.

Dan