Security Cameras

[Ridgefire]

Does anyone have any experience installing security cameras. My fire chief asked me if I could install some cameras around the fire hall. We have had some problems with vandalism lately. He got a 16 channel Supercircuits DVR for free. Just need to buy the cameras. Guess I'm not sure what kind of cable I need to run the cameras. Would reg cat5 work or do you need to buy their over priced premade cables.

[CharlesDeMar]

Does anyone have any experience installing security cameras. My fire chief asked me if I could install some cameras around the fire hall. We have had some problems with vandalism lately. He got a 16 channel Supercircuits DVR for free. Just need to buy the cameras. Guess I'm not sure what kind of cable I need to run the cameras. Would reg cat5 work or do you need to buy their over priced premade cables.

Regular cat5 should be fine.  Just make sure the pinout is right when you terminate the cables.  I haven't installed cameras in a couple years and I am not familiar with the DVR you referenced, but make sure the inputs work with your cat5 connections.  If they require BNC or RF connections, they used to sell a cat5 converter so you can use cat5 instead of the rg6 cable that you see with cable TV.

Hope this helps.

[Ridgefire]

The back of the DVR has round twist lock type connectors for the cameras.

[CharlesDeMar]

The back of the DVR has round twist lock type connectors for the cameras.

Sounds like you have BNC inputs.  If I were you, I would just go buy some RG6 (or RG59) and forget about the cat5 completely.  Just make sure the  cameras you buy have a BNC output.  Good Luck!

[Ken Layton]

Get the "married" a.k.a. "Siamese" (power and video) RG-59 cable and crimp your own BNC connectors on the cable.

This company has excellent prices and selection of all types of security camera equipment:

http://www.dvrmaster.com/

You want cameras with a BNC connector and preferably with at least a 480 lines resolution or better.

Here is the website for Supercircuits:

http://www.supercircuits.com/

[DillonFoulds]

Since Ken posted, all other posts are moot. FWIW I'm seeing that pretty much every security system uses BNC, minus the IP counter-parts. Might be a good idea to invest in a tester with BNC capability. I know my rj45 tester has BNC ends, and it's been a GREAT 5$ spent.

[fallacy]

Only thing I know is with a $40 HD web cam, webcam metering software I now have home surveillance. If anyone breaks into my house the motion detection will click on. Not only will I have HD video being recorded but the software will send images straight to my Iphone.

How come you never see this in movies when people are breaking into rich people’s houses?

[ahofle]

Only thing I know is with a $40 HD web cam, webcam metering software I now have home surveillance. If anyone breaks into my house the motion detection will click on. Not only will I have HD video being recorded but the software will send images straight to my Iphone.

How come you never see this in movies when people are breaking into rich people’s houses?

Because in the movies they cut the power first before breaking in. 

[fallacy]

Because in the movies they cut the power first before breaking in. 

UPS - problem solved.

[Howard_Casto]

Because in movies, like in real life, most rich people are spoon fed babies that dont' even know how to turn on their computer, much less install a web-cam and hook it up. Heck they probably don't even know what a webcam is what with their $50,000 tele-conference center in the west wing of the house.

[NiN^_^NiN]

I just wanted to point this out in case someone will find this helpful.

I have been playing around with some software on my old android phone and you can have that setup as a wireless cam which I find handy especially when you have an android phone with broken screen but you can still use the touchscreen

Just another option if people have them laying around if they don't want to spend the money on an IP cam or don't have a long enough cable for a webcam 

[Ridgefire]

Any idea how far you could go wireless? We have a township park that is roughly mile or so down the road from the fire department. Would be nice to be able to stick a camera in the park. Once in a great while someone gets in them to trash the public bathroom.

[Ed_McCarron]

Any idea how far you could go wireless? We have a township park that is roughly mile or so down the road from the fire department. Would be nice to be able to stick a camera in the park. Once in a great while someone gets in them to trash the public bathroom.

Depends on how much you want to spend.  A couple of ISM band ethernet radios ($1500-$2500 for the pair) and a web cam would do the trick. 

http://www.freewave.com/PRODUCTS/ALLPRODUCTS/FGR2PE.aspx

Those'll get you an ethernet link across 15-20 miles, line of sight.

And just my opinion, but unless someone in the upper political echelons of the town pushes it, putting a camera in a public park is inviting a lawsuit.

[Gray_Area]

Make sure to mount your cameras in safe, inconspicuous places. If they're even a quarter smart, given the day and age, they might wear masks. Either way, you don't want them seeing your gear and bricking it.

[Ken Layton]

Costco has a great special going on right now on a two pack of 900 line resolution bullet cameras made by Q-See (just $100):

http://www.costco.com/Q-See-900TVL-Add-on-Bullet-Camera-2-Pack.product.100101516.html

Here's a nice pre-packaged 8 camera system for just $400:

http://www.costco.com/Q-See-8-Channel-960H-Security-System-with-1TB-HDD-and-8-900TVL-Cameras.product.100096882.html

A nice 4 camera system for just $250:

http://www.costco.com/Q-See-4-Channel-960H-DVR-Security-System-with-500GB-HDD-and-4-700TVL-Cameras.product.100097393.html

[DillonFoulds]

Or 330 in Canada! I've been keeping an eye on DVR systems at this Canadian Dealership...

http://www.memoryexpress.com/Category/SurveillanceDVRs

[Ken Layton]

Does anyone have any experience installing security cameras. My fire chief asked me if I could install some cameras around the fire hall. We have had some problems with vandalism lately. He got a 16 channel Supercircuits DVR for free. Just need to buy the cameras. Guess I'm not sure what kind of cable I need to run the cameras. Would reg cat5 work or do you need to buy their over priced premade cables.

Regular cat5 should be fine.  Just make sure the pinout is right when you terminate the cables.  I haven't installed cameras in a couple years and I am not familiar with the DVR you referenced, but make sure the inputs work with your cat5 connections.  If they require BNC or RF connections, they used to sell a cat5 converter so you can use cat5 instead of the rg6 cable that you see with cable TV.

Hope this helps.

If you decide to use Cat 5 wire to hookup security cameras, you must use a pair of "video baluns" for each camera. One balun connects at the camera end of the cable and the other balun connects at the DVR end of the cable.

Here is a picture of a typical set of video camera baluns. You use a small straight slot screwdriver to insert the wires into balun and then tighten the screws on it.

With cat 5 wire, you can typically run the cameras up to 1000 feet away!

[lilshawn]

Or 330 in Canada! I've been keeping an eye on DVR systems at this Canadian Dealership...

http://www.memoryexpress.com/Category/SurveillanceDVRs

work bought a 4 channel kguard unit from memoryexpress this xmas when boxing day sale stuff was going crazy cheap. Think the boss paid 99.99 for the unit (no harddrive) and 4 cameras. not a big deal to throw a 500gb drive in there, got lots of those. records about 300 hours of video on a drive that size. been good so far, no issues. haven't caught me stealin' or nothin'. 

[Ken Layton]

Quite a few of the online security camera dealers nowadays allow you to buy a standalone DVR without a hard drive. Then you can buy your own hard drive elsewhere of whatever size you want. Some of the newest DVRs now accept a bank of built in hard drives up to 10 TB!

[Ken Layton]

Costco does it again with a great pre-packaged system at a great price:

http://www.costco.com/.product.100123928.html

Just $399 for a 16 channel DVR, 2 TB hard drive built-in, and ( 900 line day/night outdoor cameras. Sale is good till Sept 28th.

[lilshawn]

freaky, i was actually standing in that isle today looking at that while the wife was getting groceries. also had a look at the UPS they had there too for 150 (was in store sale).  http://www.costco.ca/APC%C2%AE-Back-UPS-Pro-1300-Battery-Backup.product.10353657.html

[ahofle]

Has anyone swapped out cameras/DVR after installing a different camera/DVR system?  My current setup was pretty cheap and I wasn't expecting too much from it, but was pleasantly surprised.  Only thing is the cameras are pretty low resolution.  I now see a ton of cheap 700+ line camera/DVR systems like Ken posted (and even 720p analog HD systems) and was wondering if I could just swap in the DVR and cameras over the existing BNC wiring and power.  Are the power connectors fairly standard?  Those were a total pain in the ass to run around the house, through walls, etc and I don't want to go through that trouble a second time.

EDIT: Looks like they answered my questions...
http://www.costco.com/.product.100104445.html?cm_sp=RichRelevance-_-itempageVerticalRight-_-CategorySiloedViewCP&cm_vc=itempageVerticalRight|CategorySiloedViewCP#

2nd video

[Ken Layton]

Yes, you can swap out the cameras and DVR for newer/better ones and still use the existing wiring. This is providing you're using analog cameras and DVR. If you decide to go with IP cameras, that would mean pulling all new CAT 5 wires for each camera.