Installing socket under floor boards

[Chri5]

You are aware that filming public on the paths and highways isn't allowed?

The camera can only be position to cover your property, garden, drive way. Something to do with human rights and privacy.


As for off topic, that is a bit rude of you to say so. All I was trying to suggest is that the position of the recorder could be anywhere if the real time events that are recorded can be off site stored in real time.

As already mentioned, CCTV is seen and if someone does do the dirty and breaks in surely the comfort of knowing that even if they steal or break the unit it doesn't matter since the recordings are held off site.

Framing rate adjustment, compression and active only on sense make that do able.

You seem fixed in your ways so you must know best

 

[davejuk]

You are aware that filming public on the paths and highways isn't allowed?

The camera can only be position to cover your property, garden, drive way. Something to do with human rights and privacy.

I researched this before buying the equipment. The Data Protection Act does not cover domestic property. If someone did complain then I would gladly discuss it with them. I think that's unlikely given that two other people on my road have cameras and I have provided footage of a house burglary and a car break in to the Police.

As for off topic, that is a bit rude of you to say so. All I was trying to suggest is that the position of the recorder could be anywhere if the real time events that are recorded can be off site stored in real time.

As already mentioned, CCTV is seen and if someone does do the dirty and breaks in surely the comfort of knowing that even if they steal or break the unit it doesn't matter since the recordings are held off site.

Framing rate adjustment, compression and active only on sense make that do able.

You seem fixed in your ways so you must know best

I asked about installing a socket under the floor and we are now discussing the merits of different PVR configurations.

I appreciate your comments but I already bought the equipment and have it set up. This is a final step of installing it. I'm not going to scrap it and start again.

Even if I did have it recording off site, when my router is stolen it will stop recording. So I need to hide the router under the floor. Back to square one.

 

[Chri5]

So you can't change the frame rate on the pvr?

As for the square one, well by the time they get to the router and steal that, the off site would have been uploaded.

Yours is a classic case of security with weakness, you seem happy to have a flawed system.
Take all those cameras, all on, all loading data to the hard drive. How may days before that is full, and over writing events that would have helped with crime detection.

Say you go on holiday for two weeks,someone breaks in first day you go and by the time you get back no data covering the events.

14 Gb x 4 x 14 is 800gb store, bet your disk is smaller, a 200 or 300 Gb item?

Really useful not.

Off site is best, you know it and you lambaste me for pointing out weakness in your system. Good luck.

 

[davejuk]

I don't know why you're getting so upset. I'm not saying off site storage is a bad idea but starting where I am now it isn't going to be practical.

Any security system has its flaws. Even off site storage (which I agree is a good option) introduces new weakness in the router, broadband provider, and the company providing the storage. It also has a higher ongoing cost.

I have 2 cameras (front and back) and the PVR has a 1TB hard drive with space for another drive. A 1TB hard drive has 930GB of usable space once NTFS formatted. If we allow 30GB for the OS, software and swap file, then I have 900GB for storing footage, giving me 32 days. Adding additional cameras in the future would reduce this but I can always upgrade the hard drive or add a second one to compensate.

I could probably reduce the frame rate but then I might miss an important frame.

 

[securespark]

I don't know why you're getting upset.

You asked advice.

People told you what they thought.

You didn't like it.

You'll probably do it the way you thought you'd do it from the off.

End of story.

 

[davejuk]

At this point I'm not going to abandon this set up, buy all new kit and subscribe to a service that offers external storage.

I asked for advice on installing a socket under the floor but we have strayed so far from this that the original question has been lost.

From what has been said, it looks like there are no official guidelines for installing a socket under the floor but given that garages, sheds and cellars have similar atmospheric conditions it should be fine.

Thank you for your help.

 

[JohnW2]

I asked for advice on installing a socket under the floor but we have strayed so far from this that the original question has been lost.

I agree - and it's an example of what puts people off this forum.

From what has been said, it looks like there are no official guidelines for installing a socket under the floor ...

The only aspect of the regulations which I think is relevant as far as the socket is concerned it that it, and the connections to it, should be accessible for inspection and testing. Although 'accessible' is often open to debate, I presume the need for reasonable access to your under-floor equipment will mean that the socket would also be reasonably 'accessible'.

...but given that garages, sheds and cellars have similar atmospheric conditions it should be fine.

I basically agree with that - but, again, in relation to the socket. I think the greater concern, perhaps not expressed explicitly in this discussion, relates to the equipment, rather than the socket. If underfloor ventilation is not good, then there might be an increased risk of overheating but, more to the point, even when in 'free air', electronic equipment has been known to spontaneously 'burst into flames', and if that happened beneath floorboards, you could have a very serious situation on your hands before you became aware of it.

Kind Regards, John.

 

[EFLImpudence]

i've been pondering about the proposal since it was asked trying to think of a reason to reject it - but I can't.


i don't see any difference between under the floor - in a horizontal cupboard ??? - or anywhere else.

Under the floor is usually very well ventilated, or should be.

As for catching fire?
Definitely more noticeable than the loft.
Probably more noticeable than a bedroom during the day.

 

[JohnW2]

i've been pondering about the proposal since it was asked trying to think of a reason to reject it - but I can't.

I essentially agree ....

i don't see any difference between under the floor - in a horizontal cupboard ??? - or anywhere else. Under the floor is usually very well ventilated, or should be. As for catching fire? Definitely more noticeable than the loft. Probably more noticeable than a bedroom during the day.

Again, I essentially agree. I perhaps wasn't clear enough - the point I was trying/intending to make is that, if there were any perceived problem (which I don't think there really is). I think it would relate to the equipment, not the socket.

Kind Regards, John.

 

[stillp]

The section of floorboards I cut away sits nicely on the two joists they span. MDF screwed to the bottom of the boards, PVR mounted on the MDF.The unit is secure and is covered by the carpet so I don't think it needs securing further.

Does this mean the PVR will be installed inverted? Is this OK with the manufacturer?

 

[JohnW2]

Does this mean the PVR will be installed inverted?

That seems far from inevitable - the average PVR is not supplied with means of 'screwing down' any way up - so if some improvision had to be done, then it could have been 'right way up' more-or-less as easily as inverted. However, if the PVR is mounted tight against the MDF, another question would be whether any ventilation holes have thereby been covered.

Kind Regards, John.

 

[davejuk]

Wow - thanks for the replies! I had just about given up on this thread.

It would probably help the discussion if I gave some more details about the DVR. It's actually a PC based on an Intel Atom motherboard running Windows XP. The case and motherboard I used:

LinITX Mini-ITX Case with VESA/Wall Mount:
http://linitx.com/product/12700

Intel Desktop Board D525MW:
http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/motherboards/desktop-motherboards/desktop-board-d525mw.html

Plus 4GB RAM and a Samsung SpinPoint 1TB Internal 2.5" SATA HDD.

The case (and other components inside it) are upside down once installed in the floor.

====== FLOOR BOARDS
--------- MDF
'''''''''' DVR

The motherboard does not have a fan (just a big heat sink) but the case has a small fan and room for another. The only other moving parts are in the hard drive. No ventilation holes have been covered.

The hatch can easily be lifted for inspection of the socket and equipment connected to it.

 

[stillp]

Is there a temperature monitor in the BIOS? If so it might be an idea to turn the PC upside-down and monitor the temperature before you fit it under the floor.
I once had a PC that would overheat if laid on its side. Never tried one completely inverted though.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I don't know why you're getting so upset. I'm not saying off site storage is a bad idea but starting where I am now it isn't going to be practical.

Then you started in the wrong place and went in the wrong direction, didn't you.

Did you seek the advice of anybody competent when you were designing this system or did you decide that you knew enough about it to be sure that cameras + local HDD was the best solution?

 

[ban-all-sheds]

What about just screwing a couple of battens to the joists for the unit to sit on, then it won't be upside down and you could position it so that there was a gap between it and the flooring.