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Owain

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Posts posted by Owain


  1. This person might not be an employee, but a self-employed sales agent. The treatment of tax, social security and other insurances, and travel and other expenses will vary greatly depending on employment status. You really do need specific local legal advice.

     

    Understood, this person will be a Self-Employed Sales Agent.

     

    Her status might be a matter of law, not your choice.


  2. I don't think anyone outside your local state can advise on employment related issues and there is probably a small-business support organisation in your area that could advise.

     

    This person might not be an employee, but a self-employed sales agent. The treatment of tax, social security and other insurances, and travel and other expenses will vary greatly depending on employment status. You really do need specific local legal advice.

     

    Will this person be obtaining sales leads only, or will she be doing estimating as well? You have to be aware that if she promises a low price to a client to get the sale, your profit margins may diminish.

     

    Probably a multi-part no-carbon-required form pad or order book (a large commercial stationer will stock the NCR paper with top, middle and bottom sheets in various colours so you can make up your own order book, or you can get them printed up although small quantities are expensive)

    http://www.mmprint.com/blog/2011/carbon-required/

    http://www.mmprint.com/NCR_forms.cfm

     

    - top copy you for billing - you need the original with the client's signature on

    - 1st copy client

    - 2nd copy sales agent

    - 3rd copy you for works

     

    If you can't run to a custom NCR order pad then duplicate/triplicate books with generic order/invoice can be obtained from stationers.


  3. video signal requires significantly higher bandwidth and at a higher frequency than audio/phone/intercom.

     

    Baluns also match to Cat5 cable, phone cable will have different twist ratio and different impedance so you will have an impedance mismatch.

     

    But a couple of baluns are cheap enough if you want to try it.


  4. c. contract with one contractor to design, specify, install, commission and maintain the system within an agreed operating and method statement.

     

    Any other way and you will have arguments that someone else (probably you) is responsible for the problems that will occur.


  5. Your DVR almost certainly has an unbalanced line level input.

     

    The phantom power adapter probably has a mic level output, so will not work with your DVR (or TV line level input). I can't find the tech specs to check. Depending on its output circuitry it may object to being run into an unbalanced input by linking XLR 1 and 2 and it may be that XLR 3 should be left floating?

     

    You probably need a pre-amp to go from balanced mic to unbalanced line.

     

    This says it can use an unbalanced output, and it supplies phantom power.


  6. For a 3% volt drop using twin cable, 50 metres, 12V 12 watts 1 amp, you are looking at 6mm cable. That's what we use in the UK for wiring cookers.

    this is a joke yes ?????

     

    No.

     

    The calculation is as shown here, from the bbowner website above.

     

    6mm cable has a rating of 47A (clipped direct to wall) or 31A (enclosed in conduit in thermally insulating wall). UK cooker circuits are usually 30A fuse or 32A circuit breaker. Diversity on a domestic cooker is calculated at the first 10A + 0.33 of the remaining. Diversity can be applied to a cooker, since this appliance contains a number of loads, rings, grill, oven, and it is reasonable to assume that not all parts of the cooker will be used at full power at the same time.

    Capture.JPG.b93fefcc0b99aca0e60ce4c50af6e52d.JPG


  7. A higher than needed amp rating will not damage cameras, provided it is regulated, which any proper CCTV supply will be. (Cheap wall-warts often aren't.)

    regulated has nothing to do with it - that only limits the voltage. a 50a power supply would be just as safe, regulated or not, as a device will draw only as much current as it needs.

     

    But with an unregulated supply the voltage can rise at low loads, which could damage the device.


  8. 6 x 1A (1000mA) is 6A. A 5A supply will not be sufficient.

     

    A higher than needed amp rating will not damage cameras, provided it is regulated, which any proper CCTV supply will be. (Cheap wall-warts often aren't.)

     

    Each camera should be wired separately to the power supply with its own fuse or circuit breaker.

     

     

    Thank you very much for your reply... But what about loss due to long cables?

     

    50 metres is quite long even with decent cable. If you are using AWG cable there's a calculator at

    http://www.calculator.net/voltage-drop-calculator.html

    For metric cable use

    http://www.bbowner.co.uk/volt-drop-cable-size-calculator.html

    or measure the voltage at the camera.

     

    If the volt drop is too high then you'll need to

    (a) use a thicker cable

    (b) parallel up cables

    © use local power to the camera

    (d) use 24V and a 24V compatible camera


  9. you cannot run mains electricity down 12V cable, it won't be insulated to the higher voltage or compliant with safety standards.

     

    If you suspect volt drop then your first step should be to actually measure the voltage at the camera under various conditions. Although before installing you should have calculated the volt drop for the cable to ensure it would be satisfactory, especially if doing this work for a client.

     

    You might also have high resistance joints especially if you've been using those nasty DC barrel power connector splitters.


  10. Why do you need to upgrade?

    - more cameras

    - higher resolution

    - longer storage times

    - audio challenge

    - more remote monitoring

     

    Ideally start by renewing your assessment of why and where you need CCTV as needs may have evolved in 8 years.

     

    For public space CCTV I would now always be aiming towards IP infrastructure, although it may be more expensive than you can afford if you rely on volunteers.

     

    Might there be revenue opportunities in using IP and reselling internet access through a wifi mesh?

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