Security Cameras

SixPapaCharlie

SixPapaCharlie

May the force be with you
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So I have been crawling around my attic because I don't have millions of tiny fiberglass scratches all over my arms and I began to miss it.

I currently have cameras like this with which I am pleased. Rugged heavy, solid, and does a descent job but I have been to lazy to install them in this house. Now seems like a good time as it is not 200 degrees in the attic.

Q-see-QSC48030-High-Resolution-Weatherproof-Camera-ee1a9ca3-25c1-4717-947b-d3c1fd6c6f07_600.jpg



While I am crawling around I start to do that thing where I wonder if there is a way to do this that is not a pain in the butt. What about wireless? I say to myself.

I am guessing I will find that w/ wireless, I will have issues with the signal and also I still have to get power to it which means crawling all through the attic, drilling holes, and all that fun stuff.

Current plan is to hard wire the cameras and then drop the wires down the wall to my office where they will connect to my PC. This is how I have done it in the last couple houses.

Is there any benefit to a wireless camera? I am sure as heck not just going to run an extension cord to the outlet on the side of the house and I don't feel like I should be playing with romex as I will surely shock myself splicing in outlet into it in the attic.


Thoughts?

I just want something that is dependable and really good night vision.
 
I'm nearly finished with a project at our church installing cameras. The project lead guy researched and rejected wireless cameras. So far we've pulled over 6,000' feet of camera wiring. Almost done ... with 1 building. 1 more to go - thankfully, it's a smaller building.
 
I suggest off site back up dude.... They break in and take your rig, you have nothing.
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
So I have been crawling around my attic because I don't have millions of tiny fiberglass scratches all over my arms and I began to miss it.

I currently have cameras like this with which I am pleased. Rugged heavy, solid, and does a descent job but I have been to lazy to install them in this house. Now seems like a good time as it is not 200 degrees in the attic.

Q-see-QSC48030-High-Resolution-Weatherproof-Camera-ee1a9ca3-25c1-4717-947b-d3c1fd6c6f07_600.jpg



While I am crawling around I start to do that thing where I wonder if there is a way to do this that is not a pain in the butt. What about wireless? I say to myself.

I am guessing I will find that w/ wireless, I will have issues with the signal and also I still have to get power to it which means crawling all through the attic, drilling holes, and all that fun stuff.

Current plan is to hard wire the cameras and then drop the wires down the wall to my office where they will connect to my PC. This is how I have done it in the last couple houses.

Is there any benefit to a wireless camera? I am sure as heck not just going to run an extension cord to the outlet on the side of the house and I don't feel like I should be playing with romex as I will surely shock myself splicing in outlet into it in the attic.


Thoughts?

I just want something that is dependable and really good night vision.
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All this to catch the guy/ gal who throws used condoms on your lawn...

As opposed to people who throw unused condoms on the ground..:dunno:....:rolleyes:
 
N801BH said:
All this to catch the guy/ gal who throws used condoms on your lawn...

As opposed to people who throw unused condoms on the ground..:dunno:....:rolleyes:
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No, that was just the motivation. I have always had security cameras. People have broken into my cars on 2 occasions a few years back so I got the cameras then.

But then we moved and they never went back up.
Last month, two of the houses got "tagged" with racist crap and swastikas on their garage doors and a couple cars have been broken into.

When that was happening, I decided I needed to put the cameras up.
This was just the tipping point.

I dont really want to catch anyone doing anything. Ultimately, I would hope the cameras would offer a deterrent.
 
Good lord, racist graffiti on the garages is beyond the pale. Hope y'all catch them.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
My most recent (November) surveillance system at our hotel is Swann brand, with a mix of wired and wireless cameras. So far, I'm quite happy with it, and it's a nice step up from our old Night Owl system.
 
Unit74 said:
I suggest off site back up dude.... They break in and take your rig, you have nothing.
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You give the cops the video, you also have nothing.

Police don't really solve crime, it's all just paperwork and revenue generation, shy a crime being committed right in front of them.


Cameras also don't appear to prevent all that much, most criminals ether know the police won't really look into it, or they are just too stupid to care if they are caught on camera.
 
I'd definitely go wired. Wireless are quite easy to hack and they're not reliable either. Wireless is a last resort if you can't figure out wired.

For wired I'd do power over ethernet. You only have one cable to run, and it is easy to connect whatever way you want to your home network and set it up to be accessible remotely, etc. It just becomes a standard TCP/IP network set up. You need a POE router of course to power the cameras.
 
Circuit Flyer said:
Good lord, racist graffiti on the garages is beyond the pale. Hope y'all catch them.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...


Used to be a know nothing quiet little neighborhood.
Now we have hoodlums, and punk kids. We had a manhunt for a robbery this summer and we were made famous by the "walking while black" lady.

We are an up and coming metropolis!
 
Yes, very familiar with that story. What have we all become. Smh.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
James331 said:
You give the cops the video, you also have nothing.

Police don't really solve crime, it's all just paperwork and revenue generation, shy a crime being committed right in front of them.


Cameras also don't appear to prevent all that much, most criminals ether know the police won't really look into it, or they are just too stupid to care if they are caught on camera.
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You'd be amazed how much the police use these private cameras now.

We had a home break-in nearby where the criminals broke in and surprised the owner and her small child. It was ugly. They got away before they could be apprehended by the police, and the police visited all the houses along the escape path and asked to look at the camera footage. They were able to confirm the type and color of the vehicle from one of our cameras. Unfortunately they couldn't see the plate, at least on our camera. All my neighbors have multiple cameras and it is quite comforting knowing that if something serious like that happens we have so much surveillance in our neighborhood that chances are it will be recorded by someone.
 
I'll tell you if it doesn't involve damages to a person, it's pointless to call the cops unless you want a police report to hang on your wall.


And if it is a damages to person by the time the cops arrive the damage is done.


The older I get the less use I see of our modern police system.

You're better off handling things yourself and just keeping to yourself.
 
James331 said:
I'll tell you if it doesn't involve damages to a person, it's pointless to call the cops unless you want a police report to hang on your wall.
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Or submit to you insurance company.
 
Got 6 wireless cameras and it clobbered the 2.4 MHz for my wireless router. A couple is no problem. Plus, you still have to drill holes and get them to power - but you can fish the 12 volt power instead of the 110 if you want.

The signal on the diagonal opposite corner of the house cuts in and out.

A 500 foot spool of RG-59 showed up today. Cameras are still in the mail.
 
bikert said:
I'd definitely go wired. Wireless are quite easy to hack and they're not reliable either. Wireless is a last resort if you can't figure out wired.

For wired I'd do power over ethernet. You only have one cable to run, and it is easy to connect whatever way you want to your home network and set it up to be accessible remotely, etc. It just becomes a standard TCP/IP network set up. You need a POE router of course to power the cameras.
Click to expand...
:yeahthat:
Look for Hikvision cameras like these. Best bang for the buck. If your hub/switch/router doesn't support POE, get one of these as well. Regular Cat5 cable to run for the cameras. Nice and easy.

Stay away from the multiple camera packages like Swann from Costco and the like. If it says TVL anywhere on package, avoid it. They're crap. Old CCTV tech and only work with a proprietary recorder. Video is nowhere as clear as a modern HD IP camera.
 
Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe said:
Got 6 wireless cameras and it clobbered the 2.4 MHz for my wireless router.
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I read that on some Amazon reviews. Something I'd never thought about before. But from what I read if you want to be able to view the cameras from another computer or your phone you'll need a wireless system.

I'd contemplated getting dad a system for Christmas but I'm trying to find an easy plug-n-play system. Cameras-for-dummies, so to speak.

Will wait to see what people here suggest for 6PC.
 
I got some trail cams to monitor my Deer and Turkey. One thing I would like is a buzzer to let me know when people are coming up the driveway but haven't found a setup I like that can reach the 1200 feet.
 
tyndall said:
Stay away from the multiple camera packages like Swann from Costco and the like. If it says TVL anywhere on package, avoid it. They're crap. Old CCTV tech and only work with a proprietary recorder. Video is nowhere as clear as a modern HD IP camera.
Click to expand...

The Swann 8-camera professional series has 1080P cameras, are quite excellent, and are available at Sam's Club for just $499 -- including the DVR.

Meanwhile, on a sad/silly note, our idiotic local city government is putting in an identical 8-camera system at the local jail -- for $24,000. $3000 per camera.

It's amazing what you can spend, when money is no object.
 
MotoFlier said:
I got some trail cams to monitor my Deer and Turkey. One thing I would like is a buzzer to let me know when people are coming up the driveway but haven't found a setup I like that can reach the 1200 feet.
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$150/each for a trail cam and 32 gb card on Amazon.

The motion detector/buzzer I used to have had a NO set of contacts you could wire into and run a 2 conductor circuit 1200' to a buzzer and transformer.

Dogs, lights, target practicing helps too.
 
Gerhardt said:
I read that on some Amazon reviews. Something I'd never thought about before. But from what I read if you want to be able to view the cameras from another computer or your phone you'll need a wireless system.
Click to expand...
The DVR connects to the router via Ethernet - you don't talk to the cameras directly. So cameras wired or not makes no difference.
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
No, that was just the motivation. I have always had security cameras. People have broken into my cars on 2 occasions a few years back so I got the cameras then.

But then we moved and they never went back up.
Last month, two of the houses got "tagged" with racist crap and swastikas on their garage doors and a couple cars have been broken into.

When that was happening, I decided I needed to put the cameras up.
This was just the tipping point.

I dont really want to catch anyone doing anything. Ultimately, I would hope the cameras would offer a deterrent.
Click to expand...

You know, if you would have done this two weeks ago, you could have recorded the monkey with passive IR imagery.
 
Wireless can be hacked and operate on the same bands as wireless routers and cordless phones.

Best to go wired. And while you're at it, run some Cat 5 along with the coax/power cable because when your cameras quit you'll be wanting to use IP cameras - running the cable now will avoid having to run it later.
 
Timely discussion as I am also shopping for an upgrade. I currently have 4 wifi Foscams that I record to the cloud (mangocam.com) at 1 or 2 FPS. I am looking to upgrade the cameras and implement on site storage so I bought Blue Iris and have been playing around with it for a couple days on my desktop computer. Great software for recording IP Cams but it can be resource intensive. My system is fine but having BI stream all 4 cameras at full resolution kills my wifi (as mentioned above). I just bought a POE switch yesterday and will be buying some in wall rated Cat6 cable to run to my new cameras. Not sure what model I will buy but I have also heard good things about Hikvision.

+1 on going wired and I'd say go IP with Cat6 for future proofing. I was disappointed with the NVR software out there in my budget so that is why I am going Blue Iris. Very powerful software but you do need some tech skills to get it set up.
 
wsuffa said:
Wireless can be hacked and operate on the same bands as wireless routers and cordless phones.

Best to go wired. And while you're at it, run some Cat 5 along with the coax/power cable because when your cameras quit you'll be wanting to use IP cameras - running the cable now will avoid having to run it later.
Click to expand...
One of my worst memories is of running hundreds of feet of cable to the hotel's surveillance cameras, through the attics of all the buildings. It was 120+ degrees up there, with no lights, treacherous footing, and lots of sharp things to slice yourself on.

Still, at the time it was the only way to go, since wireless cameras were trash at the time. They have come a very long way in the last 5 years, and I have an excellent wireless Lorex brand camera giving me eyes on a part of the business that was invisible in any other way.

This mix of wired and wireless cameras allows me to keep an eye on every part of the hotel.
 
MotoFlier said:
One thing I would like is a buzzer to let me know when people are coming up the driveway but haven't found a setup I like that can reach the 1200 feet.
Click to expand...

I had two of these, they worked ok (>1500'). One burned up in a fire, the other was causing too many nuisance alerts with wildlife and waving grass when it was windy, so I lost interest in it. (as explanation for why I no longer have...they worked)
 
Get good cameras and monitor for degradation. Lots of useless surveillance blobograms being recorded.
 
Jay Honeck said:
One of my worst memories is of running hundreds of feet of cable to the hotel's surveillance cameras, through the attics of all the buildings. It was 120+ degrees up there, with no lights, treacherous footing, and lots of sharp things to slice yourself on.

Still, at the time it was the only way to go, since wireless cameras were trash at the time. They have come a very long way in the last 5 years, and I have an excellent wireless Lorex brand camera giving me eyes on a part of the business that was invisible in any other way.

This mix of wired and wireless cameras allows me to keep an eye on every part of the hotel.
Click to expand...

Reminds me of the joke at "adult motels" ..

XXX video is from the room next door...:yikes:
 
N801BH said:
Reminds me of the joke at "adult motels" ..

XXX video is from the room next door...:yikes:
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lol Although I have some YouTube-worthy videos of people in the pool, we restrict our surveillance to public ares.
;)
 
We just installed Hickvision IP cameras and IP6 cable in a new home we're prepping to move in.

What you want are the cameras with their own micro-SD cards at each camera. This not only gives you a recording if they steal the NVR, but each camera acts as a 'node' or seperate hard drive with it's own IP address you can log into and observe and review from your smartphone. It also increases the capacity of the overall system. You can go up to 64G micro-SD on board each camera.

And I hope I don't have to say get HD cameras. Anything else is practically unusable to identify faces or anything. In-admissible in court. But HD is.
 
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I got one up and then the weather got cold.
I will get the others up soon-ish

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If you are going to break into my house, just don't come straight in the driveway and you will be fine.
 
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