Need some veteran advice/confirmation I have this all right

[speteman 0]

Hello all,

 

Thank you for such a helpful community of people with great information on setting up security systems. I have read the boards pretty thoroughly before posting this, so hopefully I won't be too far off.

 

I am trying to accomplish the following:

 

Setup 6 outdoor cameras at a residence (plan to use the CNB VCM-24F based on the advice on this baord)

 

Wire those cameras with both power and video over single 23 awg UTP CAT6 cable dedicated to each camera. Max run length from central wiring cabinet to the farthest video camera is 200 feet.

 

I plan to provide central power to each CAT6 cable with 12VDC using probably 3 of the conductor pairs. I see a central power distribution panel. Anyone have experience with that, or would you recommend a different one?

 

I plan then use the other remaining pair of conductors for the video signal.

 

I will tie the video conductor pair into a home intercom system (EntryVue) to display individual cameras at each intercom panel location. (EntryVue has this part figured out from what I can tell, so I am not looking for folks to weigh in on this, unless you have some experience with EntryVue that you want to share.) However, the wires will screw into a terminal block that EntryVue provides. Do you think I still should use baluns in this scenario?

 

In parallel, I plan to wire the video cameras to a future DVR. I assume that wiring in parallel means I can simply provide a jumper from the EntryVue termainal block to the DVR?

 

Please provide any advice/feedback on this planned design.

 

Thanks

[speteman 0]

I did some more research on the CNB camera manual, and it says to only run 24V AC power through UTP CAT6 cable (using 2 pairs of wires). The manual specifically states not to run 12V DC through UTP cable. Since I am doing this from scratch, I can easily choose one power supply over the other. I suppose I will update my spec to use 24V AC power instead of 12V DC.

[jtetterton 0]

I used 24v and my vcm-24vf's are working flawlessly. I've seen some chatter on this forum about running them at 12v but can't remember what they said about it. Might as well change your power can to 24 to be safe. While I was researching I found the 24v cans to be cheaper.

[jxk716 0]

I have been running 12 VDC over Cat5 (2 pairs) for 3 years on the VCMs. No problem what so ever.

[speteman 0]

So no problem running 24vac over two pair, video over the third pair, leaving the fourth pair for possible remote control should I go with a PTZ camera?

[Soundy 1]

These cameras are very low current draw (180mA @ 12V) so they'll run fine using 12V over two pairs. When using a dedicated power supply, whether 12VDC or 24VAC, I generally use the blue pair for video, orange and green for power, and leave the brown as a spare. In a few instances, I have two 24VFs running on a single Cat5e at 12V with no issues (they'll actually work at something like 10V, so they can handle a pretty substantial voltage drop).

 

More recently, I've been using these units: http://www.easterncctv.com/accessories/ev16p-vps.htm - two per site on the last two big jobs (30-31 cameras each). They're a combined balun and power-supply unit that uses pins 1 and 2 for video; 3, 4 and 5 for ground; and 6, 7, 8 for +12VDC. They have self-resetting overload protection on each channel as well, and have been working absolutely flawlessly with the 24VFs, as well as a couple of Panasonic WV-CW504 domes.

 

One of these: http://www.easterncctv.com/accessories/ev01p-vp-t.htm at the camera end makes the whole installation nice and painless (just snip off the barrel plug and wire directly into the 24VF's power connector), although where space is tight I've also used our regular GEM mini baluns and just split out the necessary pairs.

[jxk716 0]

So no problem running 24vac over two pair, video over the third pair, leaving the fourth pair for possible remote control should I go with a PTZ camera?

 

Well, its always better to power PTZs locally (close to the camera) because of their draw. But your're on the right path.

[jtetterton 0]

So no problem running 24vac over two pair, video over the third pair, leaving the fourth pair for possible remote control should I go with a PTZ camera?

 

 

I believe the VCM-24vf supports remote OSD via RS485 through your DVR or controller. You can use the extra pair and you won't have to open the cam every time you want to make changes

[hardwired 0]

If you have the choice, and your camera supports it, 24VAC power is preferable due to reduced ground loop issues, and reduced power drop over the cable.

[dustmop 0]

If you have the choice, and your camera supports it, 24VAC power is preferable due to reduced ground loop issues, and reduced power drop over the cable.

 

This. I work at a site with hundreds and hundreds of cameras (can't give you an exact number...), and all but about 20 are running on 24vac. The 20 or so that are running on 12vdc, I had ground loop issues with 6 of them. Not a single issue with ANY of the 24vac runs.

[jxk716 0]

I believe the VCM-24vf supports remote OSD via RS485 through your DVR or controller. You can use the extra pair and you won't have to open the cam every time you want to make changes

 

I remember a post from a while ago here saying the VBM/VCMs had the RS 485 connection on cameras released in certain regions. Europe is ringing a bell but not sure. I know that on the VCM and VBMs I have installed there is no RS 485 connection.

[nDAlk90 0]

The 20 or so that are running on 12vdc, I had ground loop issues with 6 of them. Not a single issue with ANY of the 24vac runs.

 

That is interesting indeed... Do you have a hypothesis as to why?

[Soundy 1]

The 20 or so that are running on 12vdc, I had ground loop issues with 6 of them. Not a single issue with ANY of the 24vac runs.

 

That is interesting indeed... Do you have a hypothesis as to why?

There's no reason 12VDC should cause a ground-loop issue on a dual-voltage camera. I'd be willing to bet that the cameras with the issue were 12V-only cameras that have a shared power and video ground internally.

[Soundy 1]

I believe the VCM-24vf supports remote OSD via RS485 through your DVR or controller. You can use the extra pair and you won't have to open the cam every time you want to make changes

As jxk says, this appears to be regional - the ones we get here in North America don't have it, and while the CNB USA website lists it as an option, our supplier has yet to find out how we can get them with that option (it would be exceedingly convenient in some cases).