camera on main door

[v1rtu0s1ty]

Ok guys, I need your input again. I'm also planning to put a camera in the main door and back door. Below is the picture of my front door. I have also added a cell matrix above the picture so you can recommend an ideal position of the camera. The garage is on the left of my main door.

And also, I have both rg6 and cat5e wires. I've seen some thread containing IP camera in the subject. Which is cheaper but a reliable solution and that will also work with ELK, and IP camera or the RG59/6 based cameras? And if IP camera, I only need CAT5e wire right? What about the other type, am I correct that I need to use RG6 and 18/2?

Lastly, what box should I put on the blue insulation and stud behind it?

 

[PaulH]

I guess you're ruling out a 'peep-hole' camera?

 

[Rustytek]

The problem with overhead cameras is when the victim (the watched one) gets to the door you will only see the top of their head. Another problem is that if you do not place it in an inconspicuous location it looks obtrusive and ugly. In my home I place it at the side of the house pointing at the front door so if anyone walked to the front door it would capture them ( I have 20 ft entry way above my door - no hidden camera possible).

To your problem and solution - I would place the camera at A1 or G1 whichever pointed towards the sidewalk into the home. This mount would allow you to catch the victim in your field of view entering and possibly part of his face when he was at your door. Your only other solution would be the poor resolution pin hole cameras mentioned previously. I would pull two cat5 to each camera location and one rg6. The second cat 5 could be used for power to the camera or for future upgrades.

 

[v1rtu0s1ty]

I guess you're ruling out a 'peep-hole' camera?

What's a peep hole camera? Is it also cat5e/rg6 based camera? what's the coverage of this camera? I actually remember IVB's camera. It's mounted on the side just like what Rustytek mentioned. Can I implement that approach or is it going to look ugly in my front?

 

[Rupp]

http://www.spytown.com/doorpeepcam.html

 

[v1rtu0s1ty]

http://www.spytown.com/doorpeepcam.html

can those be mounted on A1 or G1 cell in my main door?

 

[IVB]

actually, i got a 2nd motion detector/camera for the front door, on wife's request. Imagine a motion detector with a 1/8" hole in it. No zero-light capabilities as there's no IR LEDs, but i might get an IR LED projector if need be.

Hold off if you can - i want to mount it and see what type of PQ I get with this. I was hoping to do that today, suddenly not so sure as wife may have alternate plans for my time. The wiring needs for this are 22/4 (motion), RG59, and 18/2 (power)

 

[v1rtu0s1ty]

actually, i got a 2nd motion detector/camera for the front door, on wife's request. Imagine a motion detector with a 1/8" hole in it. No zero-light capabilities as there's no IR LEDs, but i might get an IR LED projector if need be.

Hold off if you can - i want to mount it and see what type of PQ I get with this. I was hoping to do that today, suddenly not so sure as wife may have alternate plans for my time. The wiring needs for this are 22/4 (motion), RG59, and 18/2 (power)

Wow, 3 types of wires. Please let me know the results. For IP based camera, how many cat5 are needed?

 

[Rupp]

http://www.spytown.com/doorpeepcam.html

can those be mounted on A1 or G1 cell in my main door?

These are designed to be mounted in the door where the peephole is normally located.

 

[jeffx]

http://www.spytown.com/doorpeepcam.html

can those be mounted on A1 or G1 cell in my main door?

These are designed to be mounted in the door where the peephole is normally located.

How would you cleanly run the cabling from this camera? Do you have any pictures of how you set up/installed this?

Now that I think of it, I remember seeing one of these used in a recently taped episode of "To Catch a Thief". All have to watch that episode again and see how they did it.

 

[Steve]

I was thinking the same thing. Only clean setup would be a hollow core door and they are not often used as entry doors? Great concept but not sure how it could be implemented cleanly.

 

[IVB]

Wow, 3 types of wires. Please let me know the results. For IP based camera, how many cat5 are needed?

Didn't have a chance to get to it. I deciding that spending 4 hours getting absolutely nowhere on two areas was more fun.
- 2 hours trying to get a single motion detector installed, and it's still not done. [wires keep coming loose once I attach to mount. Upon hearing my choice of words, my wife used her favorite saying: "Hey - Tony Soprano - are you going to..."]
- 2 hours downgrading my Diginet CCTV software to a version that supposedly plays nice with other apps, so I can use it as a video renderer.

For IP cameras, I'm pretty sure only 1 CAT5 is needed for signal, and some mechanism for power. That could be 18/2, i've never tried to run DC over CAT5 but that might work. There were some posts around here on that, as I don't do it I wasn't paying attn.

 

[kjvonly]

I have read where you can run 'DC Power' over cat5.... As I understand it, a normal cat5 signal has a 2.5Volt level.

There are 2 common standards to wire cat5
T568A
T568B

Either one will work, as long as you consistantly wire everything the same way. The RJ45 'Jacks', which have the V-shaped wire thingies (which you punch down each wire), come with both color codes marked on it, so it is easy.

T568B is the best choice if there is a chance you want to use the Cat5 for telephone (the telephone Cat3 plug, snaps right in a RJ45 Cat5 Jack as BraveSirRobin can attest!!!!). The phone wiring colors are: Red, Green, Yellow, and Black, and with T5568B wiring standard, it matches up as follows:

Red Blue
Green White/blue

Yellow Orange
Black White/orange

The Telephone voltage is 50 to 90V, so there might be 'cross-talk' between Cat5 cables?

For T568A wiring, only pair 3 (green, on pins 1 and 2), and pair 2 (orange, on pins 3 and 6) are actually used. So you can use pair 1 (blue) or pair 4 (brown) for power. You will have to build 2 'break out boxes'. Each box has 2 RJ45 Jacks (you could probably get by with just one jack), and a power cable coming out of it. The inside box power cable plugs into the AC outlet in your house, while, the box outside is similar, except the power cord coming out plugs into your camera.

The box in the house has your RJ45 Jack which you wire pair 1 and/or pair 4 to your Camera Power Cord/power supply, and wire Pair 2 and 3 to both RJ45 Jacks.

I'm not sure about which pairs are used and unused in T568B wiring.

Some camera's have AC (YUCKie 60hz noise producing stuff). I wouldn't run this on cat5.

The Camera you buy likely comes with a power cable containing 5vdc or 12vDC or 24Vdc power supply (perhaps just a transformer with a diode bridge and capacitor). Out of this comes 2 wires to a jack. You need to figure out which wire is positive and which is negative, then mark it. You also need to know how much power your camera uses., ... say 250ma or 3Watt or ...

So, according to: this, if your camera draws 0.25amp at 12Vdc (=0.25amp*12V=3Watt) or less, then your Cat5 (which uses 24awg wires) can be run 93 feet, or 358feet if it is 24V at 3W.

Since you have 2 spare pairs, you can also 'parallel' these, in essence, making the 24awg cable about a 21awg cable.

Toby

 

[Squintz]

IVB,

I am also interested in this camera you have. Can you provide a link to where you got it from? I am wondering if a porchlight would be enough to make a person visible at night if they are standing at the front door.

 

[upstatemike]

There are 2 common standards to wire cat5
T568A
T568B

T568B is the best choice if there is a chance you want to use the Cat5 for telephone (the telephone Cat3 plug, snaps right in a RJ45 Cat5 Jack as BraveSirRobin can attest!!!!). The phone wiring colors are: Red, Green, Yellow, and Black, and with T5568B wiring standard, it matches up as follows:

Red Blue
Green White/blue

Yellow Orange
Black White/orange

I think you may have gotten this reversed. It is T568A that has the color matchup you are showing. On 568B the Black and Yellow wires would be paired with White/Green and Green as noted HERE.