Gator

Build a board camera into something that belongs, such as an outdoor low voltage lighting fixture. One of those would already be water proof. Use more of the same fixtures to provide lighting.

Wow Rory, you got that camera up just in time. They're already casing the joint.

LOL! I was thinking the same thing.

I'm looking for a source of thread in board camera lenses that have an infrared cut filter built in. Some of these board cameras have the IR filter built into the pinhole lens or have no filter at all. I would like to buy an assortment of different focal length lenses for my cameras and I need the IR cut to improve the color quality and sharpness.

I searched IR cut MTV lens on eBay and I find people advertising lenses that pass infrared as being "IR CUT".

Does anyone know where to buy these? Or is there a way to add a filter in front of the ccd on cameras that don't have the filter built into the sensor?

I want to view my geo cameras from a remote location. The geovision is connected to the internet through a wireless internet provider. This network consists of trango access points and customer premises equipment transceivers. I believe the link uses mac addresses to control traffic flow. IPconfig shows default gateway as 192.168.100.1.

Is there any service I can use to connect my geovision computer to this WISP and access it from outside this network? I have not had any luck with dyndns or the included dipmap. If I ping the WISP IP, I get no response. I believe the network address translation is in his network router, so I don't have access to set up ports. I set ports in my wrt54g3g, but it's no help.

I looked at Hamachi, but a youtube tech video said it wouldn't be adequate for video images.

I gave up on this approach. I was hoping someone knew of generic drivers to run the gv-800 chipset. I had the camera side set to 720x480 and that's what showed when playing back videos within 8.2 application. When I went to save as avi, there weren't any resolution options showing where the instructions say different resolutions should be offered. In any case, the capture seems to be limited to 5 minutes continuous recording. Instead, I'm going to add a PCI-e capture board to my other system.

I already have the GV-800 and the videos need to be on the computer for editing anyway.

Is there any way to use the GV-800 for converting VHS tapes to MPEG2 for burning to DVD?

I have version 8.2. The continuous recording mode breaks video into sgements 1 to 5 minutes long. The save to AVI results in 320 x 240 even though 720x480 was used during capture. The save avi option is missing choices on image size.

I think you should pass on this job. To do this correctly will be very expensive. You would need to construct it similar to a cellular tower installation. Everything has to be bonded to everything else. You need to bond the tower, shelter, video, camera power, power for the monitors etc. All of it needs to pass through a bonded ground bulkhead. Video and power will need arrestor devices and surge suppressors. Everything has to be connected to everything else so that differences in potential won't exist when you take a direct lightning strike to the tower. The ground resistance may be 10 ohms in good soil. A 50,000 amp hit will produce 500,000 volts. If the tower, shelter and people are all enclosed at that same potential they are safe. If there's a mistake somewhere in your plan, you can get lethal potentials between various items.

Chances are you will lose the camera anyway because of the electromagnetic impulse. An approach that may work is to protect the tower with static disipators. Those are like a porcupine of wires attached to the top of the tower. The discharge the static from the atmosphere so potential doesn't build high enough to cause a strike. Some are very effective at avoiding strikes. I wouldn't consider it adequate for protecting life as a substitute for bonding and grounding.

You can find some examples on emerald-wireless. Click on their links for grounding and the other link for coax. Does your client have the budget to do this job correctly? If not, don't get involved.

There is a chance for loss of life or the facility if this is done incorrectly. The design should be reviewed and approved by an engineer who routinely does this kind of work.

I was reading the archives and came across a thread discussing image quality issues with the GV800,650 & 250 when various cameras with the HQ1 chip set were used. I wanted to know if this is resolved using Geovision 8.3. I was considering the KPC-N600NHDC10 camera. Can anyone give advice?

We do not use crappy motherboards.

I don't understandy why you bothered to answer. You surely did not lend any help here, but puffed your chest in false pride.

I did not ask what is a crappy mobo. And clearly you have no clue, as a P4T-e can hold it's own against mainboards five years newer. When I recommended the P4T-e to my friend in 1999 it was the best board on the market.

I asked if this mobo, which has an Intel chipset, would run a Geovision GV800-4. Clearly you have no clue so you should not have answered my question.

You do not use "crappy motherboards". I don't think you know crap when you see it. You're arrogant, but useless.

I don't know if the one I bought is the same as the current offering you are considering. I returned mine to the store the next day. It was horrible.

I've been given a dead motherboard that just needs some capacitors and MOSFETS changed in the CPU power supply circuit. It's an old Rambus system with the Intel 850 chip set. I have a Pentium 4, 2.4GHz processor to install.

I was wondering before I go to the trouble of building this system, if I am likely to be successful running a GV800-4 board on this, or do I need to look for a different mobo. I would like to stay with the socket 478 since I have the processor already.

Does anyone have any experience yes or no on this chipset or this mobo? Thanks.

Thanks so much for all the answers and also for the link to the knowledgebase articles. I think the second audio channel is enough reason to choose the GV650 over the GV600 for my application. I wanted to be sure these wasn't a disadvantage to buying the faster card for a dated computer. Since the frame rate can be set per camera, I hope that means CPU utilzaation might be tailored to the capability of my computer.

It sounds likeI guess the next thing to do is to buy the card and spend some time learning my way around all the features.

I would like to use motion detection feature to turn on outdoor lighting. I think this can be done by wiring a Geovision relay card to an X-10 Powerflash module. If there is a way to send commands through an X-10 interface module from the RS232 port, that would save me an extra card slot. I'm sure Visual Basic would do it with the ocx driver, but I haven't touched VB in six years or more and I wasn't good at it then, lol. I know X-10 isn't a favorite for quality installations, but I already have quite a few X-10 modules, maybe 20 or so, collected and many of them are already wired in the house. So I would like to put them to use again.

I deleted my question about finding Geovision manuals online. I guess they aren't available without having a card in hand. I'm trying to decide which model to buy and the marketing literature doesn't tell enough to make the choice. Maybe someone who has used the various cards in systems can help.

I want to monitor three or four cameras to begin with, but I expect that after some experience with the system, I may want to expand beyond four inputs later on. I probably will never need more than six inputs.

Is there any difference in motion detection performance between the GV600 and GV650 cards? My thought was that with a different frame rate, the motion detection function might perform somewhat differently.

Is the frame capture rate a configurable function? In other words, can you slow it down below the maximum available speed?

Is there any advantage using the GV650 vs the slower GV600 if smooth motion video presentation isn't necessary?

Has anyone used this board with an Intel Pentium 4C, 2.4GHz, dual channel memory, PC800? My system uses Intel chipset ICH5 and Intel Canterberry 875P Southbridge. Is there any conflict with dual monitor configuration? In the archives, I read of some slow-down with the Intel 845 chip, but I haven't read of an outright failure like I experienced with the NV3000 card in my system.

If I have an 8 channel card, can I choose six cameras for display, or would I have to choose 8 and have lost screen space? Is the frame rate set by the number of cameras selected or is it set by the number of board inputs? In other words is the FPS scaled across 2/4/6 or 8 inputs, or is the rate fixed by the number of inputs the board accepts?

Can a camera input that wasn't being watched be selected on the fly based on alarm inputs? If a back door motion detector alarms, can that door's camera be automatically be selected for viewing and recorded if it was previously off?

What is required to have the system issue X-10 commands? Can commands be associated with the camera that sees motion? For instance, if camera 3 has motion, can the system issue an X-10 command that turns on lighting only in that direction? Can the card issue X-10 commands as result of alarm inputs from motion detectors or photoelectric sensors?

Thanks very much.

I've been reading of problems running two monitors from a single card if the two monitors are different resolutions. I use two LCD's (Samsung 971P). I use one in portrait mode at 1024 x 1280 and the other in landscape mode at 1280 x 1024. That works out well for some internet pages, photo editing, spreadsheets etc. The NVIDIA drivers support this when using two separate cards.

Will the ATI dual output cards allow me to set each monitor to it's own resolution and orientation? I read some cards supporting two monitors require both to be set the same. I was looking at AGP 8x cards, including the 9950 you mention and the x1650.

The nv3000 works with the PCI graphic card unplugged. Good catch Lolo Wolf! Since I can't get by with a single monitor, that doesn't solve my problem though. My AGP card has a single output and the PCI provides the other output. I guess I could buy a dual head graphics card but that costs as much as a different capture card.

I am also not impressed with the motion detection. It false alarms often even with the sensitivity turned down. It only beeps once during an entire capture cycle. The Gotcha software I've been using beeps the entire time there is motion activity. That is very helpful in knowing if it's a false trigger or something worth looking into. The false rate is unimproved. Playback is much poorer utility because way too much is recorded and it takes to many click throughs just to have a look. When the password protection is removed, it still posts the password screen every time. Reviewing the captures, many of these alarms show absolutely no scene change.

How does the Geovision or for that matter any other card compare?

I updated to the latest software, version g. I pulled the Happauge card out also and tried it again. It has no video and it locks the system after clicking on command buttons. The software locks my system, even with the NV3000 card removed. The system has been stable without issues, through several clean installs of the windows XP Home, all the graphics cards, Winnov AV capture card, modem etc. I'm throwing in the towel on this. More tinkering is more likely to lose my data rather than solve the problem.

I tried the card in an AMD system and it works there. The system I'm trying to install it in is an Abit IC7G, socket 478. It has other gremlins too such as lockups and not exiting properly. It's pretty disappointing.

Are there any other four channel cards that work properly in a system that's only a few years old? I need motion detection that will provide a real time alert.

The cameras are enabled, but the preview screen shows no camera connected. The auto scan cycles through four enabled inputs indicated by the buttons along the right of the screen, but there's no video displayed. Or if I select four image mode, the four indicators light. The computer does have a live internet connection, but I don't plan to use this remotely. I'm trying to view it on the local screen.

The background is deep blue, almost black. The setup screen shows a picture indicating no camera. I have analog camera slected for camera 1.

Device manager shows the card is "working properly".

I have a Hauppauge TV card which can pass video over the PCI bus and that works fine. TV is off at the moment. So the PCI bus should be okay for video. I have dual monitors. Both are NVIDIA cards and the drivers are up to date.

I received my nv3000 card today. I don't get video displayed from any of the four inputs. The setup screen indicates there are no cameras connected. The computer is a Pentium 4 C, ICH5 chip, Intel 875P Northbridge. It is 2.4Ghz with dual channel memory. It has two NVIDIA graphics cards, one PCI and one AGP. The graphics drivers are up to date and it works perfectly with the Haupauge TV Media board.

I have uninstalled the drivers and the application and reinstalled it.

Is my card DOA or is it a compatability issue with this all Intel hardware?

How would the GE B&W camera compare with the Panasonic day/night for problems with flare or dyanamic range problems? The Genwac I have is in the same range for low light sensitivity, but it suffers with bright headlights.

The WAT-902H, 1/2" B&W that I have for comparison is disappointing with it's behavior when cars drive by. I don't know if it is HAD or exview technology inside because that wasn't advertised. It was and still is in the $300 price range for a bare camera. So it's not WalMart bargain basement stuff. There is no way it would produce the license plate capture mike demonstrated from his PC-23 in another discussion here. I think that camera was $129 or so when I bought my PC-33C's, but I no longer have the catalog. My other basis of comparison are my PC-33C color cameras ($250 range four years ago) and two camcorders. One of my camcorders has "night shot". It's pretty unimpressive.

Extreme CCTV is well beyond what I can afford. At the other range of the market we tried a Harbor Freight camera that was supposed to have IR lighting. I thought maybe it might see someone four foot from the door. In dark, it could not produce an image at three feet. You get what you pay for or less. $30 bucks doesn't buy anything. Maybe I can buy a fresh 12v alarm battery with that refund.

If I go for a B&W box camera and enclose it in an outdoor box, what are good choices? The KTC-540E you mention says 0.01 lux. The Genwac listed 0.003 lux and it's disappointing. How do I sort out real world performance? I understand that exview sees better by two f-stops in darkness. But I don't read anything about the differences in dyanamic range. That seems to be pretty important. My 902H is horrible in that regard.

I did some searching for dual technology motion detectors yesterday. Many seem set up for a unique vendor's digital communication protocal over the alarm system wires. If I can find some dual mode detectors that provide relay closure and have good false alarm rate, good distance, I can build a wireless system to outline my perimeter. I'm a retired engineer, so I know the electronics end of things. But since I was never in the security end of things, I'm not familiar with the available products. Specifications of "up to" have always meant to me "never more than". On cameras, there are contradictions of 0.003 lux in one spot on the advert vs 0.0003 somewhere else. Lux means nothing when the picture fills with flare from poor dynamic range.

I worked on the signals intelligence end of things and that's a quite different end of security. So if anyone can recommend dual technology motion detectors that aren't proprietary, I am open to suggestions. I would have to run these on battery power with solar charging. Burried wiring is pretty much out of the question. Wiring cost puts it out of reach, and fresh trenches leading to sensors ruins their utility anyway.

For the South facing camera, I am considering the Panasonic WV-CP484 with an enclosure. If I can do better detection with a black and white camera, I'm open to suggestions for B&W cameras as well. I need advice on lenses and filtering. I know a polarizing lens can make a huge difference recognizing things. This direction will be lighted with one or two 300 watt flood lights ant that boundry is 400 foot away. I don't care if cameras are obvious. That might even be of benefit. I found mike's example photo of the Cp-484 in low ambient here with it in color mode. I would like to see some low light examples. I have two PC33C color camers. They are 0.5 lux cameras, now discontinued. If a b&w camera would work better in low light along side of these, I can enclose the color cameras for daytime and another B&W camera for night.

Does the Panasonic camera automatically switch modes when ambient light drops? That wasn't clear to me from the data sheet. The biggest problem I am having with camera choice is that specifications don't match up to real applications. The Supercircuits PC-1xx I bought several years ago was really disappointing and the Genwac blew it away. The Genwac camera has serious flaws too. And I didn't need it's tiny size, but that's all I could find at the time. It can see in low light but produces a lot of noise that computers have trouble processing. And then I read here of an OEM failing to deliver the promised HAD sensor that was previously designed in. That is where folks here can be a great help. The Genwac was one of the better low light cameras when I bought it. It wasn't really a security camera though. It was more geared to being tiny. It suffers from severe dynamic range issues. Headlights look like road flares. I will post a photo when I am permitted on the forum. That flare and dynamic range problem obliterates even the make/model of cars passing by. The last phase of my project will be to capture license plates. That will all need to be solar powered because of where plates are straight ahead.

With a budget of $75-$200 for bullet cameras at my lighted entry doors, what would be a favorite choice? Since these would be lighted, these seem to be points where facial recognition would be important rather than lowest light.