alpine0000

Thanks Mike. Do you like that better than Exacq? I'll take a look at the website and poke around.

Hey guys, I've been running Exacqvision for about 10 years now. My server is getting fairly dated, and my exacqvision licenses just expired again. I'm looking to build a new dedicated Windows server for my VMS, but before I renew Exacqvision again for another year, I'm wondering what else is out there that I should consider? I don't mind sticking with Exacq, but I've been outta the game for a while and just wondering what else is on the market now that might be worth considering. But -- Here is my one restrictive requirement: I'm a Mac guy (aside from the one dedicated Windows server running the VMS itself). I need it to have a client for Mac; I don't want to fuss with a web client. I love Avigilon, but, you know... The Mac thing. I'm running 6 Axis cameras over POE and have 4TB of HDD space, if that affects your suggestions at all.

I have my Exacq server all setup, and my only IP cam is working great. I have my Axis 241Q video encoder hooked up to my 4 analog cams, and I can open IE and type in the static IP of the encoder (10.0.1.210) and connect to the encoder and view all 4 cameras. So far, things are great I open up Exacq and go to config > server > system setup > ip cams and have it scan the network for new IP cams. It sees the Axis 241Q video server at the static IP listed above. However, I cant get it to connect. It just says "connecting..." forever. I am guessing I have the wrong port chosen. I tried 554, 80, 1, 800, 801, 443 (haha). I cant figure out which port (or ports) it should be. I have looked in the "setup" portion of the Axis encoder via logging into it using IE, and it only lists port 80 for http and port 554 for https. I don't see anything in there about each video feed having its own port. I am assuming it is the same IP with just 4 different ports for each video feed, since it only uses one Exacq license? I have exhausted google and sifted through the Exacq PDF manual, and the Axis manual is no help for anything regarding Exacq, so any help you guys could provide would be appreciated.

I bought a couple of Panasonic 484 domes last week and installed one of them under the eave of my roof today. Here are some images from the install: Getting the camera ready for the install Here are what the eaves look like. It was tough because there is a 1.25" gap between the soffit panels and the wood eave behind them. So I had to put plywood spacers between the eave and soffit panels. I used two pieces of different thickness plywood. One piece was 3/4" and one piece was 1/2". This worked out perfectly to fill the 1.25" gap. I screwed the pieces of plywood to the eave with 2" wood screws, and then put the soffit panels back on Then I screwed the base of the camera to the plywood spacers Then I drilled a hole through the soffit panel, spacers, and wooden eave and ran the wire through the hole Put on the BNC connector, made my low voltage connections, and mounted the camera Adjusted the image and put the dome cover on Here are some screenshots: Day time: Night time with patio light on: Night time with patio light turned off. Moonlight only:

Not sure if you have already figured out the problem or not, but it sounds like you forwarded the proper port for the client itself, but perhaps there are more ports (control ports?) that also need to be forwarded to handle the login credentials and some other stuff? I had a re-branded DVR in the past that required multiple ports to be forwarded before I could login from outside of the network. Sure sounds a lot like you have the same issue. Look into it and see if there are other ports that need to be opened up/forwarded on the router

I'm a DIY-er with a system at my house consisting of 5 Axis and 1 Vivotek cam running on Exacq... They aren't crap, and I've posted plenty of screenshots of my system over the last few years. In fact, if you check the "MegaPixel Cameras - Images and Demos" thread, I just posted some last month. We are still out here, but like other people have said, this forum is mostly filled with people who just want a $100 camera to throw up real quick at their house. They come here looking for help on the install, and once it's done, they never return to the forum again unless they have issues with the camera later on down the road. For better or worse, that's how it is.

Q-See is generally regarded as entry-level stuff sold at big-box stores, but will most likely get the job done for basic home surveillance. Those do look nicer than the Q-See stuff of yester-year that I've seen. Although, if you get really into the hobby, you may find yourself wanting to upgrade rather quickly, as I did. I'm on my third or fourth system now at my house. You'll probably need a monitor connected initially to set up everything (I'm not aware of those DVR's being able to be configured remotely from scratch). Once you're set up and running, you can unplug the monitor. BUT --I wouldn't recommend putting a DVR in your attic unless your attic is air conditioned. Otherwise, it'll overheat in a hurry and you'll be buying a new system much sooner than you expected 16 Channels is a lot of cameras for a house!

If budget was no issue, like you say, then get Avigilon VMS and a handful of either Avigilon or Axis cameras... They cost a lot, but you get a lot in quality and VMS features, too. I think the point of diminishing returns would be anything more expensive than that. If there is any technical reason why you can't use Avigilon (for example, if you HAVE to have a Mac client with no exceptions, or you HAVE to be able to trigger digital output triggers from the smartphone app, or you HAVE to use Vivotek cameras and also need the motion-sensing to work, or you HAVE to export as a .MOV file type), exacq is another great option that fills those voids. But exacq's search isn't as good as Avigilon's. I'd love to move to Avigilon, but I'm tied to exacq for the time being due to the reasons above, plus a few other minor reasons too. But yea, if there is no budget, that's what I'd do... Avigilon VMS and Avigilon or Axis cameras. You could spend approx $4-8k (depending on the exact cameras you buy, and the server cost to run the VMS) and have a great system. I think I spent around $7k for everything, including the Dell server, a couple 2TB hard drives, Windows 7 pro, five Axis and one Vivotek IP camera, the exacq licenses, the Netgear router, CAT6 cabling, etc...

Axis M3007-P panorama 5mp camera. Axis P3346-VE 3mp camera at 12:15am. Completely dark outside except for my porch light that is on a photo-sensor and stays on all night. There is enough light that my camera never switches to B/W mode -- it stays color all the time -- which is fine with me with this picture quality. I'm recording H.264 at 5fps on exacqvision. My exposure settings are all left at default. The only thing I did was install the camera, zoom all the way out, and then remote auto focus it.

I've been using the Netgear GS110T for a few years now with no issues. I currently have 6 IP cameras on it. A mix of 3mp and 5mp Axis cameras. Happy with this POE switch!

I'd go with more megapixels over IR for an outdoor camera, and then I'd put a photo-sensor on the lights outside so they are always on when it gets dark. I don't have the M3026, but I have a handful of P3346 and 3367 cameras at my house, which are similar (I think mine have a larger sensor than the M3026, and remote focus and zoom, which I love, and maybe a few other minor details?), and work great. If you're looking at Axis 3MP cameras for outdoor use, def check out the P3346VE. Just make sure you have some 'visible' light outside at night time, and there's really no need for IR. Some day and night screenshots of my P3346VE

Isn't 5.2 the current version out? What happened to version 5.3? Who cares about 5.3 5.4 around the corner LOL. I like the way you think I just got my M3007-P camera last night. I agree -- it's awesome. I only wish the lens was Day/Night.

Isn't 5.2 the current version out? What happened to version 5.3?

Ohhhh. OK. So Avigilon *can* take the single warped stream and de-warp it? I was under the impression that Avigilon couldnt handle de-warped or warped streams coming from the camera... I must've mis-understood. So sending a warped stream to Avigilon from this camera and having Avigilon do the de-warping works fine? Also, can Avigilon handle motion detection from this camera?

Let's pretend like Avigilon *could* handle multiple de-warped streams from this camera... Could you view/record all the streams of this camera in Avigilon with just a single license for that specific camera, or would you have to purchase a different license for each stream you want to view/record?

You'll probably get asked a handful of questions, most important being 'what is your budget?'. There are a handful of threads on the first page of this sub-forum already about which IP software to choose, and I have a feeling you'll get most of the same answers (milestone, exacq, avigilon, etc). Here are two recent ones. viewtopic.php?f=19&t=33118 viewtopic.php?f=19&t=33253 I would check out the VMS companies websites to see if your cameras are compatible, if you have the hardware requirements necessary to run the server software, if the software has the features you want (pretty much all of them allow you to record and view locally/remotely, so if those are your only requirements, you should have a lot of choices in VMS software), and if it's within your budget. You can find a lot of people who love Exacq, a lot of people that love Avigilon, and a lot of people who love Milestone. They are all good in their own ways. What is perfect for one person may not be perfect for another. I love Avigilon, but I CANNOT have software whose web interface uses activeX, so I went with Exacq, and I really like Exacq. However, even though it offers a web interface that can be used with ANY browser, unlike Avigilon, it also has spots where its weaker than Avigilon. For example, Aviglons search function is much faster and the license doesnt have to be renewed every year. Scour their websites, talk to reps, and figure out which one is best for your needs/budget. Good luck!

Axis P3367-VE (click for full-resolution). Here is a difficult shot, I think, for a camera. Night time, very little "scene lighting", people walking, and a car's headlights shining right into the lens of the camera. The camera looks 100x better during the day, but I figured I'd post the worst shot that I could so you guys could see. I don't recall the exact settings I am using on the camera at the moment, though. One of my trouble-neighbors had a party a few weeks ago. The street fills up with cars of college kids (usually there are no cars on the street because we all have driveways and garages), who hang out along the street, drinking and being really loud, on OTHER PEOPLES property, after midnight, and disposing of their empty beer bottles where ever they see fit. I was watching my cameras this particular night and was on the fence about calling the cops, and saw them disposing of their empty beer bottles in my mailbox and drinking in my driveway (I dont know a single one of these people!!), at which point I called the cops. They had been partying for a couple of hours, and somehow ALL 20+ cars were gone by the time the cops showed up 10 minutes later, and I looked like the crazy one. Haha.

Good write up and nice site I didn't have the same difficult experience that you did with the silver tabs (I think they work quite nicely!), but I do not have the 3364-VE, I have the 3346-VE and 3367-VE, but the casing and everything is the same, just a different sensor. My 3346-VE on my patio: My 3367-VE on the driveway:

I'd also like to know what you are using to add weather stats at the bottom of the video feed. Is that SebecTec? And what kind of camera are you using? Pretty neat page!

Is there a way to set up a trigger in Event Linking (or any other place in Exacq) so that I can use maybe a soft button or something to open/close my garage door? Or is there some better way to do this short of getting a new garage door opener that connects to my router (some of those new garage door openers that connect to your router that I've seen require an annual activation fee anyways)? If I login to Exacq when I am out of town and see that somebody left the garage door open, I'd like to be able to use my iPhone to close it. I was thinking maybe a soft button in exacq could work, or even some other way in exacq? But I am open to pretty much any ideas, as long as I can do it via an App on my iPhone. Has anybody rigged up exacq to do something like this? Thanks!

Yep. Seems to work okay with the new configuration. Thanks for your help and ideas, Hardwired " title="Applause" />

I switched the digital output on the axis camera from normally open to normally grounded. Now, having dip switches 1 and 4 turned off will trigger tha garage when I turn the alarm on via exacqvision (just like it did before), but now, if I unplug the 12v power supply and plug it back it in, it wont trigger the garage (and it did before) Now I'm just wondering, what happens if my Axis camera loses power as well as the 12v power supply, then comes back on in a power outage? Is the Axis camera output always grounded, even when power is lost? If so, I'm okay. If not, I'm unsure what would happen...

Hardwired, So tonight I wired it up (just like you said)... I'm not sure the timer will do what I want it to do. If dip switches 2, 3, and 4 are all set to "on", what should I set dip switch 1 to? If I set it to "off", then the relay stays energized constantly (which won't work here). If I turn it to "on", then the relay never energizes, regardless of whether or not the alarm output on the alarm is triggered or not. However, if I switch dip switch 1 and 4 to off, then everything works perfectly, except if I unplug my 12v power supply, then plug it back in, the garage door is triggered, which is bad. I would think that dip switch #1 should be off, so that it can time the relay for 1 second, then stop. If you were to switch dip switch 1 on, then relay would energize at the end of the timing cycle, which would time for 1 second, THEN energize the relay for the rest of the time... But if I turn it to off, the relay is constantly energized, except for the intial 1-second after it gets power. When the alarm output on the camera is "off", the timer trigger has 9.5 volts across the GROUND and TRIGGER terminals. When I turn the alarm output of the camera "on", there is no voltage across same terminals.

See, in your diagram, you put the garage wires on the N.O. terminals, but if we have the relay constantly energized, then we would have to put them on the N.C. terminals instead. Now, when the relay has no power, the two terminals for N.C. have continuity. When the relay is energized, the two terminals for N.O. have continuity. Since we will be energizing the relay constantly when not in alarm state, then the garage door wires will have to hook up to the N.C. terminals, so that they would have continuity when the alarm output of the Axis camera stops energizing them. However, if I lose electricity at my home, then I believe the "timer" function wont work on the relay, but then at that point, even with no power, the relay terminals will not be energized anymore, so it will switch back from N.O. having contuity to then having continuity on the N.C. terminals, which would energize my garage door opener (which has a backup battery). Am I making any sense, or do you think that is incorrect? I will have to test with my volt meter and see if that theory is correct.

I built my own too, and it is also a Dell PowerEdge. And I am using the alarm output on my P3367-VE. (see previous posts with diagrams and stuff ). However, I am triggering the alarm via exacq's iphone app, and exacq has no timer functionality available.