Another camera just arrived... analog Panansonic dome.  Here is what comes in the box:



Note the barrel connector I added to the end.  It comes with bare wires, and you have to add the connector of your choice, depending on how you're powering the thing.



Soldered, electrical-taped, and crimped.



Make sure you have the polarity correct... they're center-positive by convention.  Don't screw that up.



And here we have the camera-looking-at-its-own-image-unto-infinity view (always did like that effect... it's a bit Escher-like).  It's connected to the same Acti camera server that's been used throughout this thread.  The image looks a little wonky because the sticky protective packing film is still on the polycarbonate dome (no sense in scratching it up before it's actually installed... taking off that film is one of the last things I do when putting one of these up... and I only take it off for final focusing).

You're also seeing the camera portion of the unit without the surface-mount base.  The portion you're seeing is waterproof, and has a nifty little electrolytic device the keeps humidity out of the dome itself.  These don't fog up... which is nice.



Note the rounding off of the normally-square LCD.  That's not the dome doing that... this camera is equipped with a wide-angle lens, hence the "fish eye" effect on normal objects.

Excelent info. Thanks for taking the time to post all this.

If I'm lucky, I'll get a chance tomorrow to do some pics of an actual install.

Looking forward to it. I've been wanting to install a camera system on the exterior of the house for going on 2 years. Now the Crazy lady next door has bumped it to the top of my list and I'm hoping to get what I need to get the starts of a good system up within a week.
edit to add

While I'd much rather put together a custom PC based system, I really want to get something up quick as I have a feeling that things with the next door neighbor unfortunatly may escalate rather quickly.

Care to offer an opinion on this system from super circuts?
HD are not included, so I can add my own (up to 1TB) and the DVR has the ability to burn to DVD.

Any input would be appreciated

I'm not sure that system will give you exactly what you want.  Having gone the embedded route myself once, I'm now a proponent of building your own PC-based DVR.  Embedded DVRs aren't upgradable (except perhaps the drives, but some manufacturers don't even allow THAT), their performance is limited, and you can't really do much with the hardware (at least not without voiding your warranty).  

Those cameras are also pretty low-res.  I don't see anything that says they're day/night, and their lux rating (low-light performance) could be better too.

OK I'm convinced.

I've got most of what I need to put another PC together already. Pretty sure all I need is a case, HD, and video card. I see you are a strong proponent of the  Luxriot DVR software, but with the luxriot SW, what type of card do I use to input the feeds from the cameras?

I went back over the thread this morning looking for that info, but I don't have much caffeine in me yet and might have missed it. If its here, just call me stupid and tell me to look again

I'm not using any card-based encoders in my current setup.  It's all-network, mostly Acti, Axis, and panasonic (cameras and video servers).  With regards to card-based encoders, I think that's probably the weakest area for Luxriot.  On Luxriot's webpage, there's a "supported" tab at the top, and under that tab is a "supported devices" field, which leads to a "video capture boards" field... a bit short IMO.

Let me do a little research and get back to you.

ETA: Comart seems to be the most economical solution for capture boards... but it looks like a lot of BT8x8 Conexant-based boards might work.  You wouldn't know until you tried it, however.

No need I mistakenly assumed that was how you were getting the video into the PC system.
I've been looking at the ACTi and Axis video servers online, but I'm having a hard time finding a reseller that lists their prices.
Instead of researching the (inferior) card based systems, do you have a suggested reseller that lists prices on their websites?

edit to add
I've found some resellers with prices listed.
I understand that if I am using analog cameras I need the server to convert the analog signal to digital, but what if I am using all digital / IP cameras in the system?
All the ACTi and Axis video servers I'm finding seem to be set up to input an analog signal and output a digital signal to feed into a DVR. Am I missing a step in the process?
How do Digital / IP cameras hook into the PC DVR box? Is it as simple as hooking them up to a router with cat 5 cable?

Honestly?  I'd go Ebay all-the-way if you're going with video servers.  They have no moving parts, you can pick them up second-hand and they're just fine.  Don't pay 7-800 for a new Axis 241Q... you shouldn't pay more than $400-ish for a used Axis 4-port server, and the Acti ones can be had for a lot less... 200 bucks +/-  depending on the number of channels on the server.



The single-channel model on the right cost me about $160 on Ebay... hit "google shopping" for an SED-2120 and it's easy to pay $3-400 new.  The one of the left is a two-channel and also does audio.  That was about $260 on Ebay.  Buying it new was about $5-600.

Don't buy video servers new... you'll pay too much.  You can download the manuals, and you can download the "IP discovery" software to reset the server's IP to something your network can use.

Yes.  That's the beauty of IP cameras.  The encoding is done "at the edge," and you simply hook them up to your network.  Going with network cameras or video servers also gives you another option if your DVR/NVR craps out (or you decide not to use one).  You can directly or remotely access the cameras or servers over the network and see the video via your browser (the Acti servers only support IE via an ActiveX plug-in, while the Axis servers support Firefox as well as IE... don't know if that's a big deal for you, but as a Linux user, I place some value on cross-platform compatibility).  You don't have recording capability without the DVR/NVR, but you still have live video as long as the network is up.

I'm currently trying to educate myself on Linux ( the last time writing code was familiar to me was in the late 80s using a Commodore 64C and writing in BASIC) so working with just windows is GTG.

Thanks again for the writeup, and for answering all my stupid questions

Not a problem... and if you can set up an ethernet network (gigabit would be required for larger systems), you can do IP cameras.

And for whatever it's worth, the camera servers have their own strengths and weaknesses too.

Take the Axis versus the Acti.

Axis runs four analog cameras on the same server (they also make single-camera servers, but those aren't worth it IMHO)... and it does 720x480 (IIRC) at 30fps (MJPEG)... but that's 30 FPS split among the four cameras... so basically each camera gets 6-7FPS each.  Now that's plenty for any application that I'd be doing, but may not be enough if you need 30FPS on each channel.  It also runs as a java applet, quicktime, OR an ActiveX plug-in, so almost any browser can see the video stream.

Acti is a single-camera server... but it does that single camera at 30FPS (and to be fair the Axis would too if you only had one camera attached).  I'm pretty sure the Acti is also MPEG4 instead of MJPEG (slightly lower picture quality, but much smaller files).  It's also ActiveX only... so you're locked in to IE.

It's all a matter of what you really want.

So would this Gigabit switch work, or would I need a managed switch?

A note on those troublesome IR emitter lamps.

A few days ago I hooked one up again and checked to see what effect the photocell in its side had. It turns them on and off with no delay.

Also, I think putting a 2 watt resistor of a few ohms in series with the LED will reduce the heat it generates and extend its life -greatly. Plenty of room inside to do it.

Ouch. I want to start of with at least four cameras, with the ability to add more over time. I was piecing together a system, then realized the cameras I was looking at were analog. Started pricing the IP cams and realized, well just ouch. Especially since the wife is suggesting we go get the package system at BrandsMart for $150

I'm back to looking at the video servers and going with analog cams. As the system grows ( I have a feeling this may end up being worse than BRD ) I can always  upgrade as the prices come down and the system grows up

I went with a managed gig-over-copper switch for the main network switch in my home, but you don't necessarily need to do that.  That might change if you're running a bunch of megapixel cams.  A single megapixel camera running at max resolution and 30FPS can eat up 8-10 megabits/sec of bandwidth on your switch.  You could probably hang a half-dozen of those on a standard 100-megabit switch and not get drop-outs... but more than that would be pushing it.

A switch like this would be a decent start, because you could attach 4 PoE (power-over-ethernet) cameras to the powered ports on that switch, then uplink that switch to a standard 100-megabit backbone.  If you tried uplink 3-4 of those to the same 100-megabit backbone, youd saturate it, and you'd get drop-outs in your video.  At that point, you'd want a gigabit switch as the backbone.

Just hooked up a Panasonic bl-c131a - will be using this one as a baby monitor.



Doesn't like my WAP (when in wireless mode)... locks up after a few minutes if stations are logged in.



Will test a few other types of WAPs I have to hopefully find one it plays nice with.



Runs rock solid when wired though.



Was very happy to discover it works on my iphone,  the pan/tilt even works with a screen tap on the image.



Thanks again for this thread TGM... tons of good info in here.

I use some wireless too... it's hard not to love wireless, because it's so easy... but it just can't handle the throughput that cameras put out.  Wireless is notoriously tempermental... it loses connection, gets knocked off-line, has to renew the IP...

I have a love/hate relationship with wireless.

Okay... I promised pictures of an install... so here we go.  This one is residential.  A friend in my neighborhood had a smallish system that they're switching out for some better stuff.  One of the things that needed changing was the cameras... budget-range bullets.  I like/use the Panasonics, and I recommend them to others... picked a few up on ebay for a few hundred off retail.  Here is an example of their previous stuff:



Not a bad install... drilled into the brick, and they even did a drip loop.  The drip loop looks messy, but is important.  Most all-weather bullets are fairly water-resistant/proof, but the weak spot on those cameras is where the cable goes into the back.  Running the cable straight down into the back of the camera without that hanging "drip loop" can allow condensation, dew, rainwater, etc to run right down that cable and to that cable/bullet joint on back of the camera.  A drip loop lets that water drip off without running right down to the camera.

Standard plastic anchors in the mortar:



Here are the connections that I've mentioned before, all nicely electrical-taped together.



We decided to replace that camera with a soffit-mounted dome, and move the location about 25 feet down to the end of the gable (offers a little different view).



We had to remove the flashing/drip edge trip piece to pull down the soffit edge (soffit turned out to be plastic).  A pair of vice-grips made short work of one stubborn nail.



And sure enough, we start to run into trouble... these things are never as simple as they look.  A lot of houses in this neighborhood are built this way: that soffit is plastic, and flimsy at that.  No way will it support a 4lb dome camera, and look at all the open space; we had nothing into which we could screw the camera base.  There's a 2-inch gap between the soffit surface, and anything that would resemble a suitable mounting surface.However... the 2x4 you see coming out to the roof edge has a matching twin about 3 feet to the left (actually 33" on-centers), so we decided to run some 2x4s parallel to the roof edge, but spaced about an inch apart, that we could use as a mounting surface.



I went back to my house and got some lag screws, (there was already some spare lumber we could use), and my good battery-powered drill (those 19.2v Craftsman drills are heavy, but they've got torque).  You can see why the 2x4s are spaced an inch apart... that's how big the wire-hole is in that camera-mounting base.



Pre-drilled pilot holes (so the lag screws wouldn't split the lumber), and attached the 2x4s on either end... VERY solid base.



So I went up into the attic to move the cable over...



Even saved the connectors (though I don't do my butt splices that way)... I thought I was doing good.



Problem #2:  the cable wasn't long enough to reach our new location.  The previous installers apparently didn't go by the "always pull more cable than you think you're going to need" mantra, and it flat-out wouldn't reach.  Great.

So it was pull-new-cable time.  Back to the house to get my Siamese cable spool and fishing rods.  We taped the Siamese to the end of the fishing rod, screwed the sections together, and pushed the cable up into the attic space until it stopped.



And here we see the sublime beauty of fishing rods... you don't have to shimmy your narrow self down into the angle of the roof (and get poked/gouged by those ring-shank roofing nails) to grab a cable end.  The fishing rods bring it far enough up into the attic that you just walk over, grab it, untape the cable from the rod, and pull up some cable (and I pulled up MORE than I thought we were going to need.)



Now it was just a matter of cutting and terminating the cable ends:



And hooking it all up to power (Plenty of extra room to expand on this 12v camera power supply)



Put the old bullet on the new cable run as a test camera, hooked up the portable monitor... and we're good-to-go!  Signal comes through on the handheld monitor, so we know we can proceed.





Every install is a little different (because homes and offices are constructed differently), but that should give you a rough idea of what you're tackling.  This one could have been a lot easier, but that's the way it goes... at least we had the stuff to make it work.

Here's part II of the install I started yesterday.

When you last left us intrepid CCTV installers, we'd built the base and run the wiring for the camera.  Now we need to make a hole in the soffit for our wiring, and get the surface-mount base secured to/through the soffit (and into the 2x4s).

A small hole saw (I think it's a 1/2 or 3/4") makes short work of the plastic soffit.



We can then feed the wires out through the hole, and slide the soffit sections back into place.



Line up the holes, and secure the base plate to the 2x4s underneath the soffit.  We used some long Tapcon screws.  That base is rock-solid:



The mounting/adapter plate is secured to the surface-mount base with four machine screws (included), and has a hole-and-slot arrangement.  Those holes fit three matching stand-offs on the back of the camera module.  



You fit the camera module itself into the base/mounting plate combo, and rotate it about 1/2" clockwise until it locks into place (and it does so with a satisfying "click.")  Once the dome is removed, there is a screw you turn as a security measure to secure it in place so the process cannot be reversed:



Now you have to take the dome off and do all the adjustments.  Panasonic uses security Torx screws to secure the dome in place (Security Torx are the ones with the post in the middle)... a nice feature:



With the dome removed, you see the guts of the camera.  A lot of domes are very similar inside... there's usually the lens assembly (with zoom and focus adjustments), and some sort of gimbal mount that allows you to tilt and rotate the camera itself.   I highlighted some of the important adjustments, and off to the right, you can see a red screw; that's the one I referenced a few pictures up that secures the camera to the mounting plate.  Once that screw is flush, you cannot rotate the camera counterclockwise to remove it from its base.



Adjust the gimbal and lens assembly to the view you want, then screw the dome into place with your Torx-head screwdriver.  



All that's left to do is remove the protective plastic film that covers the polycarbonate dome.

All Done!

Axis video servers are the worst..... We have over 2000 of them in use and are working to replace them all as fast as we can.  If you must have Axis go ahead and invest in atleast an iBoot from Dataprobe.

Nice install.  Crimp BNC connectors are alot easier to use than twist on.  Just takes alittle practice.    Also, you will get cleaner video with 24v AC cameras.

Nice install.  Crimp BNC connectors are alot easier to use than twist on.  Just takes alittle practice.    Also, you will get cleaner video with 24v AC cameras.

Never had a problem with them myself... certainly nothing that's ever required regular reboots (with the exception of updating the firmware).

ETA: maybe when you've got 2000 of them deployed, you eventually run across a few problems.

As usual, there's always something you forget whenever you do these things.

I forgot to configure the camera before I put it up... so it's blind at night (you have to explicitly enable day/night mode... it's disabled by default).  It's not difficult to do, you just have to take off the dome to access the buttons (15-19 on the diagram).  



There are up/down/enter/etc buttons to navigate the menus:



Not all cameras have enough built-in features to actually have menus, but some of your higher-end cameras will have them to enable/disable certain functions, like DSS (Digital Slow Shutter), and WDR.  IP cameras can disable these features remotely or over the network... Analog cameras require you to physically access the camera to navigate the menus.

Any review on the Logitech one?

Logitech Cam

I'm on low budget and would like something wireless, IR, and that also have the option to be recorded on PC by installing software and/or capture card.

Thanks!

Lots of great info here.  Thanks to everyone for it.

Hmm.  They want almost 400 bones for that camera?  Looks big/obvious, fixed lens, resolution is only VGA or QVGA (low), not wireless (you still have to run power to it), flimsy-looking mount, easy to redirect/vandalize, not day/night (only goes down to 2lux), and I'll bet you're restricted to using their software.

I wouldn't do it.

For about 5-600$ you could get an actual enterprise-grade megapixel dome camera, much more robust, with a vari-focal lens, better low-light (and actual day/night with an IR-cut filter), more vandal-resistant, and a choice of software (it comes with its own, but you can use others), and uses 1/3 the electricity (via PoE).



Once you go megapixel, you'll never go back.

ETA: Remember... you're comparing 640x480 to 1280x1024... it's roughly the difference between these two pictures:





You have to pick what's right for you, and your budget... but I doubt that your night images with the Logitech will even be as good as the first of those two images.

ETA: incidentally, that second image is taken from an ACTi-1231, which is the twin of the dome I linked above (same camera in a bullet-form-factor, rather than a dome).  As far as budget megapixel cameras, ACTi ranks high on the value meter (you can easily spend a grand or more for higher-end multi-megapixel cams)

Thanks for the reply!

Much appreciated!

Reading the data sheet I see that frame rate at that high a resolution is reduced to 8fps.

Is this very noticeable? I realize we are not trying to make home movies here, but is it jerking like watching time lapse?

Not much.  That's about as fast as I've got any of my cameras recording.  Casinos and places like that use higher frame-rates, but that's for different reasons.  Most people can't distinguish the difference between 15FPS and 30 FPS.

OK.  Here's some additional install pictures for a commercial medical office.  I did the work seen in these picture tonight (for a good friend and colleague)... working nights has certain advantages, including being able to work on stuff like this while not getting in the way of the people in the office, as you're drilling/cutting/wiring, and generally making an enormous mess.  Here is the planned location of the NVR in the middle of the building:



This is a long, single-story building, with wiring closets at one end, and the middle.  Unfortunately, the main network wiring closet, internet gateway, and network switches are at the far end of the building, and I'd like to install the NVR and PoE switch in the middle wiring closet (centralizing this stuff simplifies it... and there are other reasons, which you'll see in a minute).  Here's a view through the attic access:



Lots of room up there... good.  



And NO fiberglass... looks like cellulose or something.   I'm feeling luckier by the minute.



And we run into a problem... there's a double-sheetrock wall separating this half of the building from the other, through which the network cabling runs.  So I have to fish network wiring through that square hole and go find the other attic access to drag it through.  Here's a view through that hole:



That's a lot of climbing over rafters, plus I run the risk of putting my big clumsy feet through the ceiling.  But wait... what's this?



Saved!  A wireless access point only a few feet away in the hallway ceiling.  Beautiful... I can use the Cat5 that goes to that access point to tie the new PoE switch into the network (gotta switch the other end of the cable to a non-PoE port in the distant wiring closet, but that's trivial).  Now I just need to find the wire... it's gray/white in color.  

All I see in the area of that access point is yellow cable...





Ahh... OK.  Now I see what they did.  I don't know why they felt the need to add a junction there, unless they simply didn't pull enough cable (and what have I said throughout this thread?  Say it with me... ALWAYS pull more cable than you think you're going to need!)  So we cut that mess off, and crimp on a new RJ-45 connector.  That cat5 run goes back to the main wiring closet at the far end of the building, and is going to tie the new PoE switch into the network.



Now we need to make a new Cat5 cable to run from the new PoE switch to the access point (we've basically inserted the new switch between the access point, and the wiring that goes to the other end of the building... saves a ton of work, and we don't have to pull new cable).

Cut:


Strip and line up ends:


New RJ-45 end crimped on:


Now we connect the new cable to the access point (the darker grey is the new cable we crimped):



Mount the switch next to the phone PBX:


And power it on... Victory!



The NVR and UPS should have their own electrical outlet.  There is an outlet way down towards the floor, but I hate draping cords all over the place.  Neatness counts, and this is a professional office.    We drill the sheetrock and use a jigsaw to cut a nice, neat hole:



Run the wire up the wall from the outlet box further down the wall (I'm not including pictures of the electrical wiring... I'm assuming most of you know how to replace an electrical outlet)



Now I need to mount a second sheet of plywood on the wall to make it easier to mount the NVR and UPS.  You'll notice in the very first picture there's a grey breaker box under my planned mounting point... meaning we've got to be careful.  Here's why... loads of electrical wiring running down that wall and into that breaker panel:



If you've never drilled into a live electrical main while working on something, it's some scary sh*t when there's a "boom!" and the place is plunged into darkness.  In short, you don't want to do this...  trust me... no "hold my beer and watch this!" moments are necessary on this job, and I'm by myself here.  The last thing I want is for my buddy's office staff to arrive in the morning and find my smoking, electrocuted body lying in the hallway...  So we VERY carefully used a stud-finder to mark the studs, and mounted a sheet of plywood.  Note the brand-new electrical outlet up by the ceiling:




And now we can actually start installing the network cameras and NVR.  The above is all prep work that makes the job a lot easier when it comes time to hook everything up... plus it looks neater than simply throwing the DVR up on a shelf somewhere and having cables dangling all over the place.  

TO BE CONTINUED:

interesting as always!

Nice update!!!  Glad to see you including installation.

Those Paladin tools are some of the best you can get without being way over priced.

It may or may not be within the scope of this thread, but since you are networking and doing the wiring, maybe include a pinout for those guys that do not know.

They may get confused with  the wiring standards used in networking.

Hope this helps. I've done countless but never remember.

Me too I keep a cheat sheet in my tool bag. I can go 4 months without needing it then all of sudden I am doing wiring jobs.

Mind goes blank without use.





 

More excellent information.  I suppose the odds of you living in Minnesota are slim to none....  I got lots of ammo for bribery!

Heh...  That's OK.   I can't pretend to be the Lord-of-the-Geeks on this one; I had to look it up too.

Maybe subnet or one of those guys knows a mnemonic.

that is t568a

most common in the US is t568b

eta: and yes, it matters

Fixed it for you. I have wired it various ways and yes it matters in certain situations but not always.

well, I was speaking more about what TheGrayMan did above with jumping into the middle of a network, but more correctly, if you want you are going from a switch to a computer, use the same on both ends.  If you are going computer to computer, then use one end of each

and yes, it doesnt matter which you choose, but just use t568b, the rest of the US does

oh, and he used t568b

There is a lot of info out there but I found this article pretty good:

http://www.lanshack.com/make-cat5E.aspx

There are also different ends for solid and stranded wire, and lots of minor details like that can bite you.  Use the wrong ones and you can chase intermittent problems forever.

Yes because he is probably running gigabit. That is definitely an instance it matters. I've been doing this about 12 years and normally would use B I just grabbed that pic as an example. You should also test every cable you make but I doubt we always do that It's really the only way to guarantee you can support the speeds you want.

well, we are getting a little off topic, but you certainly can use t568a for gigabit- the only difference with gigabit (1000t) vs 10/100 is that gigabit uses all pairs to communicate, so a crossover cable is t568a(or b) with the other end all pairs switched, not just the orange and green pairs

t568 is just colors, you can simply mix it down to what pins they go to

That's actually a 100-megabit network.  We're only putting in a handful of cameras, and maybe two of them are megapixel (and 1.3MP at that, not multi-megapixel).  The existing 100M network should support it easily.

yeah, you should be fine, most offices are fine on 100, but gigabit is nice (for non camera stuff)

hope you wired in cat5e at least (doesnt look like cat6)

Yep.  It's that bulk grey Belkin Cat5e that comes in the box.

Yes it is.  I went rack-mount and gigabit for my home... makes sending backup images to the main network storage array much faster, and allows my network cameras to communicate with the NVR and local/remote clients without breaking a sweat.

Upgrade room is your friend.

ETA: if I'm lucky, I'll be able to finish the install this weekend or early next week, and get the rest of the pictures up.