CCTV for home. Basic or pay a bit more? Help me out...

twixx · 26 Mar 2011

I am toying with the idea of importing 3x Geovision BL110D from Canada at £300 a piece. But I have no real clue if this is wise. I like the Geovision software, so that is really my only reason for going with the 110D. I appreciate it is a discontinued model but it meets my requirements.

I've just spent a couple of hours reading these forums and am now wondering if this is the right thing to do.

Ultimately I want;

3 outdoor cameras
IP
PoE
Good software
iPhone viewing
Remote viewing

I don't really need megapixel, so don't want more than a megapixel.

To be honest they don't have to be IP cameras but I'm big on IT so would prefer. Although understand it will be much cheaper to ignore IP. I'm just not sure how to power/get the feed from the non-IP cameras... Or how I make them accessible via the web.

Could anyone suggest a cheap non-IP, almost off the shelf setup, or some good BL110D equivalents? I've seen the XVision X100B which looks almost like for like...

I'd really like to do it for <£1000 (closer to 500 the better) so whatever you can suggest would be great.

What are these £300 off the shelf units like? Cack, aye?

Could maybe go for a 4ch AVTech DVR with 3x Samsung SIR-4160's or maybe a lower spec camera...

OwainDIYer · 26 Mar 2011

I'm just not sure how to power/get the feed from the non-IP cameras... Or how I make them accessible via the web.

To get power to analogue cameras you
- use a siamese video+power cable
- use a balun on the video and run a Cat5 cable with 1 pair video and 3 pairs paralleled for power
- use local power supplies

To get them on the web you need a web-accessible Digital Video Recorder. However the online facilities of most are far behind those offered IP cameras

Alarm · 26 Mar 2011

Already particially answered on his G2 thread.

Why trebble up the power on a Cat5, must depend on the cable run.
Best practise is to double up the neg ( Seen how electricity flows?).

twixx · 27 Mar 2011

Being into IT I have a few servers here, so I was thinking of going IP as I could just have a server running as the NVR.

I would then only need to run a single CAT6 cable to cover powering the cam's and feeding back to the server.

Cable runs will be <10m

If I did go with those Geovision cam's (or similar) I'm guessing I wouldn't need a DVR card and that I could just add the cam's straight into the software via IP?

To save the hassle of importing I may just look at getting the Xvision X100B's as they are almost identical, but readily available here. I do really like the GeoVision software though.

alumni · 27 Mar 2011

Alarm said:
Already particially answered on his G2 thread.

Why trebble up the power on a Cat5, must depend on the cable run.
Best practise is to double up the neg ( Seen how electricity flows?).

Not quite, you need to do same for feed.

Must admit. trebling up the cores is a bit of a sweeping statement. Need to to know load and distance. If trebling was required due to load, far safer to run a seperate cable and one designed for the job - removes the inherent problems of cat5 from the equation.
All hypothetical anyway as we now know <10m (unless some humongous camera is to be used).

aptsys · 27 Mar 2011

Alarm said:
Best practise is to double up the neg ( Seen how electricity flows?).

LOL! What???

OwainDIYer · 27 Mar 2011

Alarm said:
Why trebble up the power on a Cat5, must depend on the cable run.

Costs nothing to, and no reason not to.

aptsys · 27 Mar 2011

And since 24AWG wire has a resistance per meter of about 0.084, why not?

Alarm · 27 Mar 2011

Must be poor cable you use

Reistance is generally 09.9 to 17.2 per 100mts.

Sure you can work out the fractions.

Use the spare, 10mts as we know now will not give a substantial voltage drop. Even so I like to keep a spare pair at all times in case of damage ect.
Each to their own.

aptsys · 27 Mar 2011

The physics doesn't lie:

Resistivity of Cu at room temperature = 1.678x10^-8 Ohm-meter
CSA of Cat5e = 0.2050mm² or 2.05x10^-7m²

R = 1.678x10^-8 x 1/(2.05x10^-7) = 0.081 Ohms per meter

And your fractions are incorrect

9.9 ohms per 100 meters is 0.099 ohms per meter, which is worse than I quoted

What a ****

10m run, 0.5A load, 0.81 ohms each way = about 0.8V drop.

Alarm · 27 Mar 2011

Teach me to rush an answer.

Although I agree on the voltage drop.
As before no need to double or trebble.

twixx · 27 Mar 2011

Cheers for the science, we all tend to agree that CAT5/6 will be sufficient for PoE...

Any suggestions on camera's that meet my requirements?

aptsys · 28 Mar 2011

Vini said:
Cheers for the science, we all tend to agree that CAT5/6 will be sufficient for PoE...

PoE specifies that a voltage drop of 7V is permissible, with a given maximum cable resistance of 12.5R

OwainDIYer was referring to using Cat5e with baluns, implying a 12V or 24V supply where the same specs would be unacceptable.

The Samsung SHR-6042 is not a bad DVR if you go for analogue cameras.

mryoung · 28 Mar 2011

Yeah dead easy with a calculator

digdilem · 28 Mar 2011

You say you're big on IT...

Linux server running zoneminder. You can think of a dozen other things to use it for - media streamer, file server, backups, whatever. No reason to pay for any software.

3 x ip cameras of your choice. If not inbuilt POE (and none are that I call cheap), use a poe splitter.

Poe switch (I use the netgear ones of various size).

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CCTV for home. Basic or pay a bit more? Help me out...

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