the toss

I believe you meant RG11, not RJ11. Also, it's not necessarily true that RG6 is not suitable for CCTV. With any type of coaxial cable, the capability to transport video signals is determined as much by cable construction as it is by cable size/type. For best CCTV results with coax cable, it should have 100% pure copper center conductor, not copper-clad steel or aluminum. The cable should also have a shield made of woven pure copper, covering at least 95% of the inner core. That cable is typically referred to as copper/copper or bare copper. Cables with the designation "CCA" (copper-clad aluminum) or "CCS" (copper-clad steel) have limited usefulness for CCTV. The reason being that an analog CCTV signal needs pure copper for best performance / longest distance. Coaxial cables for CCTV can have additional shielding, but the primary shield must be pure copper and cover at least 95%. You can obtain RG59, RG6 and RG11 with either pure copper or copper-clad construction. Clad cable is primarily used to transport HF (high frequency) signals like Broadcast or Cable TV, radio and other RF signals. Pure copper cable is used to transport low frequency signals like baseband video, audio and some types of data. If you choose bare copper, the distance capabilities without mid-span amplification and/or signal correction are: RG59 - up to 1,000 feet / 300M - 20 gauge center conductor (Example: West Penn 825) RG6 - up to 1,600 feet / 500M - 18 gauge center conductor (Example: West Penn 806) RG11 - up to 2,000 feet / 600M - 14 gauge center conductor (Example: West Penn 811) The above table is for copper/copper cable. Distance capability is drastically reduced for other types. As with any type of cabling, the correct termination (connectors) is required for best results and good practice must be followed when installing the cable (no cuts or kinks, installation following proper "bend radius" requirements, etc.). That is what I said AND you wont know til you've done the work installing it. But I am not talking about the signal transmission capability I am taking EMI rejection at CCTV frequencies.

I must confess business was slow to start but that was why I wanted no debt to have to repay. Like I said , I did advertise the first year. Everything from letterbox drops (time consuming) , yellow pages (ripoff) local paper trade ads. trade directories etc. All the people that sell this advertising are really only concerned with their own jobs. I always ask customers how they learnt about me when they ring and 80% say its word of mouth 20% just picked me from the phone book. I now get people who are willing to wait until I am available to get their work done. good luck with your endeavours Johnathon

I've been in the electronic security industry for 16 yrs and had my own business for 14 years. In my previous life I worked for a very large telecommunications company and had a high level of technical expertise but not in the security industry. So while I could do equalisations for optimal video transmission over cable or microwave, I had never even mounted a camera on a wall. When I comenced in the security industry I recognised that I would need to get industry experience quickly and opted to begin by working for an established security business. Fortunately my technical qualifications seemed to be of more importance than my lack of experience. So I spent two years gaining knowledge & making contacts. During this time it became apparent that the industry survived on low technical aptitude, poor workmanship and a total disregard for customers. When I commenced my business it was on the basis of minimum cash outlay (I didn't want to be hostage to a business debt if the business was unviable) and the belief that if I treated my customers right they would stand by me. 14 years on and I have absorbed 3 other companies that I sub contracted for, I carry no debt, have never advertised other than the first year (a waste of money) and operate soley by word of mouth. The only non payment problems I have had have been other businesses or the more wealthy individuals. Never a problem with the average Joe. Having said that I don't ask for any payment up front & I dont invoice them until they are 100% happy with the job. I know that if I wanted I could grow my business to be quite a large operation but I detest paperwork and stress and enjoy living my life with family & friends - I am happy where I'm at. I think if you treat people with respect and show you trust them then the same is returned. An example of how kama works. In my first year I was subbying for a large international security company and was installing a security system in a liquor outlet. These jobs were costed by a sales rep who were only concerned with winning the job for the sake of their sales figures. During the installation process I noticed that there was a whole area at the back of the shop that was unprotected. It turned out that the salesman had decided that protection back there was not required as there were no doors/windows and access could only be had via the front of the shop. I mentioned to the store manager that a common entry method is through the roof and the whole security system was compromised because of the lack a one PIR detector. When he asked how much extra another detector would be I said that he would need to contact the sales office but I couldn't see it being more than $100 or so ($50 for PIR + bit of cable) if it was done while I was on site. He made the call and then told me he was quoted $790. He declined the offer. Two days later he rang me direct (he saw my business name & number on some of my equipment) and I gave him a price of $300 to put that extra PIR in. Some people may say I did the wrong thing but I maintain that I cared out the outcome whereas the other mob tried to hold him to ransom & only cared about the money. The company I subbied for found out what had happened soon after and terminated my services. BUT guess what ? I picked up the whole chain of 47 liquour stores and now look after all their security, cctv , BGM and comms. ALL BECAUSE I CARED ABOUT THE OUTCOMES.

Hollyoaks , as I have mentioned almost all western countries have adopted the ruling that there is no concept of privacy when you are in a public place. Having said that there are a few things to be aware of. First is any child protection laws in your locality. The second is that while it is legal to film in a public place, what you do with that footage could be what runs you foul of the law. Blackmail , intimidation defamation etc. The other trick is to say the cameras are to mitigate public liability (insurance) on your property or for health & safety purposes. Here in Australia they have tried to wrap all this up with legislation but it comes down to this - if you calll it a security camera then you come under the security legislation. If you call it a safety camera then you dont.

I'm guessing that those two shots of the boom gates are taken through a glass window - if so then 1st mistake. 2nd mistake (as Tom points out) is to be using RG6. I'll start up the broken record ---- RG6 is designed for high frequency RF signal transportation (digital TV etc) and the shielding is optimised for frequencies above 50Mhz. Little consideration is given to shielding of interference below 50Mhz as it is well outside the TV bands but unfortunately falls partly inside the CCTV baseband range of 5.5Mhz. RG6 can and sometimes does work ok but you wont know til you try it and if it doesnt work your only option is to pull it out and replace it. Best to use the right cable in the first place. Braid coverage 40% dear oh dear

RG59 with 95% copper braided shielding & 0.9mm solid copper centre should be approx 300m Rj11 is a 4 pin 4 position keystone jack as found on telephone handsets RG6 with 95% copper braided shielding & 0.9mm solid copper centre sbould be approx 500m BUT RG6 is designed for HF RF (tv etc) NOT CCTV baseband and therefore it is succeptible to interference at frquencies under 50Mhz or so. Therefore it may or may not work for your application.

You say nothing about what you are using to record. The real time view is simply camera to monitor viewing. Recorded images go through a compression - storage - retrieval - decompression process. This does degrade the image to a degree. The current industry standard compression is H264

Every locality will differ but it is generally accepted that there can be no expectation of privacy in a public place.

Voltage is not your problem it's your amps Your camera might only be 1amp ..... But you will need 2 to 3 amp for that distance ..... And also take into account IR I would re-think that statement Tom. The current does not change throughout a series circuit. The current that flows at one end is the same as what flows at the other end. The flow of this current through a resistive line causes a voltage difference from one end to the other - the greater the flowing current then the greater the voltage differential. This is what the OP is having trouble with. Its probably no use to you now but normal practice for longer runs is to go with 24Vac power & cameras (no earth loop issues either)

Not neccesarily. The biggest mistake people make is they think a 5 amp supply "pushes" out 5 amps. The current a power supply delivers is determined by the load applied ( ie the camera ) Cameras are all different and require different currents for optimal performance. So for two different cameras a power supply may deliver 1 amp for camera A and 2 amps for camera B. It is the current through a conductor that determines the voltage drop. So if camera A is powered by 100m of cable having a resistance of 0.01 ohm / m (total loop resistance of 2 ohms) and is supplied by a 12V power supply then the voltage drop from power supply to camera would be current (1A) times resistance ( 2ohm ) for a total drop of 2Volts. Now if camera A was replaced with camera B it would be 2amp times 2 volt resulting in a 4 volt drop. It doesn't matter if the power supply is a 5 amp supply or a 500 amp supply as long as it can deliver what is required.

no just the camera.. and i gave all them enough amperage but still getting the effects of low power. i need to test out the ends of those long runs to see but i assumed 200ft or less is short runs and should have any issues.. What are the effects of low power as you see it?

Can I suggest you read up on Ohms Law.

What is it that makes you think you should be getting a better picture ?

@ $375 for the camera they would want to be quality 3Mp or so $1500 for the NVR seems remarkably expensive since you are only having 2 cameras Labour doesn't seem too over the top

Thats like asking how far can I go on a tank of gas. There are lots of things to factor in

So besides the assault on the social wlfare system of Germany we now have the possible failure of the biggest contributor to German welfare being VW. Those clouds keep getting darker

There are many cmos sensors that produce great low light images, that is just a junk camera. Yes there are BUT an equivalent sensor using CCD technology WILL capture more light simply because of the nature of the beast.

Low signal level causing loss of sync. If your power has been changed then check voltage at the cameras.

Noise from the AGC being turned up too high to get ANY night time picture at all ie cheap camera

you have swapped out every component and the only time the fault lifts is when you are battery powered. That would indicate an earth loop to me and your 4 x 12V 10A smps would be my first suspect. These can develop minor faults and cause major noise problems on the power. My second choice would be induced noise in your mains power from some close source - welders , A/C , HV switchgear etc. good luck these can be hard to find

I would be careful about using HD-SDI. It was the first of the analogue HD technologies and was developed for the TV industry to run HD around on the existing studio cable infrastructure (coax). The design parameters only addressed the TV industry needs and as a result you are limited in transmission distance and the gear is pricey. Since then the CCTV industry has developed their own technology that addresses the needs of this industry. You have the choice of AHD , HD-CVI & HD-TVI. They are all basically the same and can be run on cat5/6 if that is what you require

You are not going to achieve what you want. You would have more luckplacing a camera that will capture him throwing (something) over the fence but there will be privacy issues with that. However once you have the evidence and know for sure it is your neighbour then you can approach him and discuss "alternative" courses of action you may be forced into taking to resolve the problem.

Unless it is likely to contact anything metalic it is not all that important.

The trouble with Swann stuff is they are designed to be sellable NOT reliable. I am a bit confused on how you want it to work (internal cameras switching external cameras etc) but never the less an understanding of how the motion detection works may be of some benefit. The motion detection looks for changes in pixel position , colour & intensity in a given area. On high end DVRs all these parameters are settable by the user. On the cheaper ones you may find that they lump all these markers into one average figure and call it sensitivity which is also user adjustable. The really cheap & scabby ones have no adjustment at all.

You can get a unit to run 2 cameras over the same coax. They come as a pair (send & receive) but not particularly cheap. See your local CCTV supplier. The one I use is called a "VDS video modem system"