C7 in CA

That sounds interesting Ken. I will speak with the client and see if there are other times during setup or operation that the screen changes. The circuit might need a "day mode" timer or switch so the alarm isn't tripping while someone is manning the station or setting up the machine. I would think you would want a delay on the circuit as well. I would like the screen to be dark for a minute or longer before firing the relay to help reduce false alarms. And while we are at it; might need some type of sensitivity setting for the ldr? While the screen does go dark, it is LCD and still putting out lumination. I know the timers add complexity to the circuit, but these guys are going to be pulling people out of bed in the middle of the night to answer these alarms. So false alarms will get tiresome very fast. I'm not a circuit designer. Any ideas who I would speak to about building something like this?

I think it depends on your location. Around here the only time I have had rodent problems is when the cable penetrates an exterior wall or floor. They seem to be chewing their way into the building more then anything else. I have never had rodent issues with suspended cable. As far as having to run cable in conduit; That would be a question for your "local authority having jurisdiction". Around here we do not have to use conduit. But personally I am very particular about using proper fire wall penetrators and using plenum rated cable where needed.

That's a great idea Justin. unfortunately these things are built from the ground up to be a CNC. No outputs other then a proprietary looking connector or two. Probably for servicing or something. Lots of buttons but no keyboard. It has an LCD screen but it is integrated into the machine. The client spoke with the manufacturer about his need and they had no suggestions. Ideally the manufacturer would provide alarm outputs. Then the alarm company could simply call when there is an error. No need to check in all night.

I blamed them once or twice until I got into a ceiling that they were doing the suspension of the wire and I was like so I had to take a different approach and routed my cable differently and worked great. I'm embarrassed to say that around here it is usually the low voltage guys that are laying cable across the ceiling tiles. I sure wish the vacuum guy would have called about this pipe. I would have liked to have moved that J-hook to the back side of that 2by. Now the cables are on the wrong side of the pipe. But, Yes. We go high and never have interference issues. But the extra cable sure adds up!

RJ11E on both ends? or is it JR11 to BNC? I'm not familiar with the equipment you mentioned, but RJ11 line cords are typically crossover. RJ11 jacks are wired straight through.

All the forums over there are locked. I remember when that all went down...

Solar?

Sounds like a great setup! I too would like to see pictures. Did you do anything fancy with the headend? Patch panels and such?

I have CATV straight into a ChannelPlus amplifier. I also feed the ChannelPlus Modulator into the amp. The amp outputs to the TV's in the house. I have TiVo but no cable boxes. The amp is DTV compatible. I don't really know what to expect when the whole DTV thing hits Feb. 09. But I have an HDTV now and it receives the modulated channels, so I don't expect that to change. The TiVo TV's will get the TiVo HD upgrade but the others will probably only get converter boxes. TiVo HD passes analog signals now, so I don't expect that to change either. I don't know if the converter boxes will pass my modulated channels or not? I guess we will see. ouijadon, if your DVR has alarm outputs then you can trigger whatever you want to happen. It is just a matter of finding the correct interface. There maybe an off the shelf solution for changing channels. If not, I bet it would be a good project for an electronics guy. I envision the alarm contact triggering a relay that fires an IR emitter that changes the channel? I bet it is something our fellow member "Scruit" could come up with. Personally I wouldn't want it changing the channel, but popping up Picture In Picture of the front door camera would be cool!

Yes, The BT home hub would probably do it. The problem is it may complicate things now if you are not very comfortable with computer networking. IP conflicts, DHCP issues, ect. A simple switch not being used by anything else would be the best way of bypassing the crossover cable for testing. And yes, you would then use straight through cables. The reason I focus first on cabling is because A) I'm a cabling guy B) It seems I've had as many problems using crossover cables as I have had success. C) It often IS a cabling issue. Pinging the DVR allows you to verify you can reach the device. This may help determine that you are connected to the device and your problem is elsewhere. Click Start Click Run Next to "open" type cmd then click open A new black window will open. At the cursor type: ping 192.168.1.3 (or what ever the DVR IP address is) and hit enter. A few lines of "reply" numbers should pop up anywhere from a couple of seconds to several seconds . What are those numbers? If you are getting "request time out" or "Host unreachable" that is bad. If you get lines back that have an entry like "time=1ms" in them that is good. Not all devices return ping requests but I have access to a AV760 and it does return ping requests.

You asked for other ideas, so... Is this to view locally? My family can care less about viewing remotely or playback, but everyone likes the option of seeing the cameras on TV. So I installed a modulator from ChannelPlus. Now when someone rings the doorbell you can turn to channel 72 on any TV in the house to see the front door. Then of course, they can pick up the closest phone and speak with the visitor through the intercom! I have 4 cameras on the modulator. we picked channels 72, 74, 76, and 78 because they weren't being used by our cable company.

Generally the best thing to do is get port forwarding working. I have seen 2 routers on 1 network, but I don't see how that will help your issue. If you have multiple public IP addresses you can use multiple routers as you mentioned. I do that at home. I put DVR's behind linksys routers all the time without issue. But personally I am leaning away from linksys because they dropped the antenna connectors and they try hard to keep people from flashing 3rd party firmware to their devices. Not cool... I prefer to put my DVR's out in the wild. No router. But you have to have the public IP's to do it.

While directly connected you shouldn't have to worry about DNS or Gateway yet. Can you ping the DVR? How long is your cross over cable? It is good news that you have a link light on the LAN port, but it could still be a cabling issue. If you have lots of extra cable coiled up that can cause errors. Is there another cable you can use for troubleshooting to eliminate your patch cable as the problem? Have you rebooted everything? When everything looks right, but still doesn't work I power cycle everything and test again. Do you have a network switch you can use for testing? Sometimes I have problems connecting with a crossover. But if I put a small switch or hub inline I can often connect that way.

It says to contact a moderator for access. I remember when I wanted access back in the day Larry was the guy to contact. But maybe now any of them can grant access? Larry http://www.cctvforum.com/privmsg.php?mode=post&u=3 rory http://www.cctvforum.com/privmsg.php?mode=post&u=29 CollinR http://www.cctvforum.com/privmsg.php?mode=post&u=1624 kensplace http://www.cctvforum.com/privmsg.php?mode=post&u=2518

There are video servers that would allow you to view your cameras. They are generally more expensive then if you had bought the same DVR with the network option. The drawback is you won't be able to control the DVR. So no playback or switching cameras and such. If I were you I would check out slingbox. It is basically a consumer grade video server that supports IR remote control for thousands of devices. It is designed to allow you to remotely watch/control your TV. But if your cctv DRV supports IR remote control you may be able to gain at least some limited control through the slingbox. And then someday when you decide to upgrade your cctv DVR you can then use the slingbox for your TiVo!

Good stuff. Thanks! Check this out: http://www.cabling-design.com/ Good info all around, but under the resources button at the top of the page is color codes and what's real handy is the pin outs for different jack configurations. Might come in handy for a guy that doesn't deal with the different configurations all the time.

Here's how I navigate on a 4 channel copy: upper right hand corner click the "system config" icon. "System Settings" window opens. On left side of panel open "general" Then open "account" highlight the admin user edit password

Yeah, but that 12mp camera isn't designed to give 15 frames a second day after day. year after year. Now you have to add a video server to do anything with the images. Which means you have spent about the same amount of money for a work around that gives overall poorer results then going with the stand alone MP IP camera in the first place. I understand your frustrations. Of course MP IP cams aren't ready for an across the board replacement to analog. The features you want will no doubt be added over time as the technology matures. As professionals we should utilize the best equipment available for the job at hand. If MP IP makes sense and it's in the budget then it should be used. New technology costs money. If no one bought $1000 DVD players 15 years ago we wouldn't have $100 DVD players today.

It is probably some variant of the expanding foam you can find at home improvement centers. It usually comes in a spray can. Or is it like putty? But of course the specific stuff you are looking at is probably special to the electrical industry. I would check with your local electrical supply house and see what they recommend you use as a replacement. I would think the way to remove the plug would be by digging it out. I wouldn't feel comfortable pouring any kind of solvent down a conduit I wanted to pull cable through. Specially if it was advice from a competitor.

Please let us know how the power cycle goes. As far as requiring a user to press logout... You probably need to work on your own software solution as you mentioned in your previous post. There is a member here named rory that has worked on remote monitor software. Maybe he will post something on the subject. It might make more sense to require users to use the Video Server E software? The issue seems confined to IE. Yep, looks like your DVR was OEM'd from AVTech. Pretty common in this industry. I haven't played with the 16 channel, but I have a 4 channel running the same software. It is considered an entry level DVR. You may want to keep that in mind before you spend a bunch of time working on your own software. Being a computer guy your time might be better spent upgrading to a mid range PC based system. Do some research; I think you will find the PC based units have better web browser support.

I don't have an answer, but it sounds like the same problem this guy is having: http://www.cctvforum.com/viewtopic.php?p=76521&highlight=#76521 What does your installer say? Have you power cycled the unit? In that Video Server E software have you tried making a new user? Maybe the new account can access the web server? I don't know how much time you have invested in the configuration, but if it were me I would be thinking about defaulting the DVR and see if that clears the web server issue.

I don't know what challenges you would be up against, but check this out: If you are doing something like that be sure and take lots of pictures!

Take a look at Tranzeo. We use them at the local schools to wirelessly bridge portable classrooms and stuff. And you may want to consider networking the businesses while you are at it. One advantage is you could share internet access and drop one of your monthly internet access bills. If you did that your Return On Investment could be as short as 1 year or so. Sounds like a fun project! Are you looking for an IT firm in Northern California?

Yeah, that bathroom is funny. Did you see this neighborhood MPOE? Station cables strung out to homes and businesses Close-up of MPOE

I prefer yellow for video...