Secerator

Did your cameras come with manuals? I bought one from them. It arrived yesterday. No manual, also the camera looks used. Will test it today and see what they say. BTW, they responded quickly to my emails.

I contacted them and they emailed me to test the camera. Will test it today. Anything special that I should look for? What could be the issues with these cameras, this is my first one, have some other cheap q-see. thanks.

What kind of alarm cable will be good and where you usually buy it? How cheap it should be? 18/4, 22/4 ?

Thanks for you response tomcctv. For about how many feet should I be safe using just one pair of cat6 for powering a regular cheap IR camera? Question 2: This is the mic I bought: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0053V5Z9W I will run a separate cable for it, mic/power. I was thinking cat6 because that is what I have now. Mic will not be located near a camera, the cable will run to a different place. I would not mind to buy some alarm cable if that is cheap. This will save me some cat6, but I will have to run 2 cables of alarm wire.. not sure which will be a cleaner installation.

Once I installed a dedicated PS with had it's own ground, I started having ground loops problem. The problem was only when using the cheap original camera cable which have the shared power and video ground. No ground loop if using cat5 with separate wires for video and power. Solved with the 3 to 2 prong adapter for the PS. Bought quality cat6 from amazon 1000' for $135.

The white lines was a ground loop problem which I solved by placing a piece of plastic between the camera body mount and the metal part of the house. The ground loop reappeared when I installed a dedicated power supply which had a 3 prong cord (with ground). The original "wall charger type" transformers had only 2 prongs. I solved the ground loop problem by using a 3 to 2 prong adapter for the new power supply. The fog at night is pretty bad. Rain the same. Will just live with it. Otherwise work good. One camera started having problems with switching into night mode. In some nights it will switch, other nights will not. Disconnecting and reconnecting the power will fix it. I contacted the customer support by internet and they responded pretty quick. They sent me a RMA and send me a shipping label. Will send it to them for repairs or exchange. This is what I did to quiet it down: I replaced the fan with a slower one from newegg. Also I cut the fan grill out of the DVR case so the air will not be pushed through that grill. Much quieter now! Attaching some screenshots of 3 cameras in the daytime (rainy day).

I recently purchased a dedicated power supply from amazon. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002OXL8IY/ref=oh_o04_s00_i00_details VideoSecu 18 Output 12 V DC CCTV Distributed Power Supply Box. This introduced a ground loop in my system. I solved it by purchasing a 3 Prong to 2 prong grounding converter and connecting the 3 prong power cable from the power supply to the UPS without the grounding. Is it OK to use it without ground or I should eliminate the ground somewhere else? This is my configuration: a Q-See DVR with 8 cameras. 7 cameras are connected using their default cheap q-see cables (which is ok), one camera is connected over cat6. The cameras came with two wall adapters (wall charger type) split in 4 each. Those had only two prongs, no ground. A 42" TV is connected to the DVR over a 25 ft long SVGA cable. I started seeing white lines across the screen when I started using the new power supply. No ground loop if using only the camera connected over cat6 to the new power supply. Any of the cameras connected using the original cable will cause a ground loop (not very strong). I think this is doe to the cable using the same ground for power and video signal. (with cat6 I use separate pairs). I guess that replacing all the cables with cat5 will solve the problem too, but that is too much of a trouble. The question is: What "side effects" can I get by converting the 3 prong cable of the new power supply to 2 prong. What is the right way to fix my ground loop problem? The power supply is connected to an APC UPS, the ups is connected to a GFCI outlet. The DVR is connected to the same UPS. The TV is in another room connected to a different power outlet. Thanks.

thanks. Actually what I have done, however, is disable an important safety feature that protects me from electric shock if a wire inside PS comes loose. I will just unplug the PS box when I need to work inside it, or remove the 3 to 2 adapter. Probably at one point I will switch to using cat5/6 cables to each camera anyway.

Wire Construction: CCA - Copper Clad Aluminum. Looks like it's not solid cooper... didn't pay attention to that.. Here is info from the listing: This Compact Pull Box of 1000FT UTP CAT5E Cable is ideal for both network installers and computer enthusiast alike. This 1000FT roll of cable is made from four 24 AWG twisted pair conductors to support 1Gbps transfer rates and has durable PVC jacket. Features: Cat5e - 4 Solid UTP Unshielded Twisted Pair. Meets or exceeds Category 5e specifications. Conductor: 24AWG - 0.5mm in diameter. Wire Construction: CCA - Copper Clad Aluminum. Gigabit Network Ready. Voice and Data communications. Certified Transfer Rate: 10/100/1000 mbps (1000Base-T Gigabit). Auction Included: 1 x CAT5E Cable. Length: 1000 feet / 305m. Pull Box. Lifetime Warranty. I hope it will work good. Tested the whole roll with a UTP tester and everything seems fine for the entire 1000ft.. not sure if I will run into problems with it not being entirely made of cooper (just cooper coated). Probably the longest cable that I will need will be around 120ft... I said in a previously post that ebay is good as long as you know what you're buying. I must admit that this time I didn't know exactly what I'm buying. Just went with sellers feedback on a few thousands of the same product sold.. Like someone else said: everyday learning something new. Edit: Will return it and buy some cat6 (good one).

we have these in stock very good baluns. very good at protecting the outter cover of the cat5 better than just the pair. but just looking at your advert listings. its just a company that sells and know nothing PART 4 4. NTSC,PAL,and SECAM video formats nothing to do with using baluns I found that on ebay from Hong Kong or China, can't remember exactly. I ordered a pair for $6 just to see what they are about. I know that it will take about 2 weeks to get them. I don't really understand why you guys think that it makes sense to not show the prices to the public on this forum. I would say this: if someone would hire you to do a cctv install, then they are not the type of person to search forums for information, the ones that read this forum are either installers or DIY'rs like me who would not hire a pro to do the install. You can find low prices with a simple google search. And this forum is much more valuable with price info than without. Just get past this "hide price info". it won't help your business, free talk about prices may actually help it. It may damage it if you actually sell these to other forum members. I'm an IT guy, so this diy cctv stuff for my personal use is not that hard to understand. I was just surprised to see how many of you "the cctv pros" think that not talking about the prices will detter "your customers" from finding the prices on the internet. You may still get better discounts if buying in bulk, but amazon, ebay, 123.. anyone can buy.. Excuse my English and let's go back to baluns .

I'm wondering the same. I have seen two version of the cheaper ones. One says clearly that it doesn't have the video balun function. (the black one). Have you used any of these? Planning to run 1-2 cameras less than 150' with these, will they work good or should I buy the $19 ones?. Also found these: 1. Full-motion CCTV video at distances up to 330m when used with any passive transceiver 2. Up to 330m (1089feet)with any active UTP video receiver 3. Tool-less,installs in seconds,no need to strip the wires 4. NTSC,PAL,and SECAM video formats 5. No power required 6. 60 dB crosstalk and noise immunity 7. Compact size and easy installation

Just bought 1000 ft cat 5e cable for $44 on ebay (free shipping). It arrived today. Feels solid and good quality. After researching the seller I found that he sold thousands of rolls. That is what they sell. cat 5/6, siamese, hdmi, just big rolls of cables, different types. All good reviews. People buying several rolls, I'm sure those buyers are service providers in the industry not regular DIY like me. I know some of you would say: don't buy crapbay stuff, ebay is still an option if you know what you're buying. So I guess you could consider that price in your comparison: $40 or $44 / 1000' of cat5e. (they have $44 and $40 rolls of 1000' cat5e. I bought the $44 version because they said it had a better box...). Free shipping and I emailed them several times with questions and they responded in less than 20 min each time. Now looking for baluns. I've run a cheap 150' videosecu cable from amazon to one camera and video sucks compared to the other cameras (about same quality cable, but shorter, 60'). Hope that the cat5e will improve it. Bought cat5e because will also need to run some networking cable to my samsung TVs for internet and NAS access. Also to connect a PIR to my DVR. This roll will be enough for all my cable needs. It would be great if I could do SVGA to cat5 to SVGA of some sort. Right now I use a 25' VGA (svga) cable (same cheap amazon) from the DVR to one TV with great results. Would be nice to be able to connect my living room TV to the DVR... Running SVGA means bigger holes in the walls. Still not sure what type of baluns to order. I ordered one pair of the cheap ones (grey ones not the black piramidal ones). probably will buy a pair of the better ones and compare them. (less than 150' runs) Waiting on my power supply now (same, cheap amazon, but with good reviews) VideoSecu 18 Output 12 V $55. Also bought an Optex 402 PIR from ebay for $31, used a little indoor, but perfect, I hope so (it was just shipped today).

The rain and fog with sensitivity set at 3 (from 1 to 6) will still trigger the motion recording. Especially at night when the IR reflects into the rain drops. At 1 it will not trigger the motion sensor sometimes even if the car is moving in the driveway. Now I'm looking into installing 1-2 motions sensors. From this forum looks like I should go with Crow or Optex PIRs. Could someone recommend the best reputable/cheapper 3-4 places to shop for CCTV and security products? If no links allowed, please post the name and I will find them on google. Thanks. wow.. i thought these sensors will be no more than $20-$30. They are more like $78-$100. Found the Optex 402 on Amazon for $78. How do you connect an Optex 402 PIR? Just 2 wires from the DVR sensor connectors which will provide power and signal transmission to and from PIR or it needs 2 wires for power and two for signal?

I did not blocked the vents, just put some filter on them, I'm sure the air flow is good. Will clean them. I want to keep it like that for a month and see if it catches any dust. I know there are some posts about cameras and I read a lot, but it takes a lot of time to find a good recommendation. Which cameras would you recommend for an all around outdoor camera? I know every spot with it's specific camera. Bot something that will work in most of the cases? I heard about CNB monalisas.. Will do some research, but I don't have the money to replace all the cameras, I still have 8 free channels, lots of room for adding cameras....