Nursery Camera Recomendations

[drvnbysound]

You can make your own power over ethernet if you have an rj45 crimper. Only 2 of the 4 pair are used for data on a cat 5 (the other 2 pair do nothing). Put a transformer at the one end, connect two of the unused wires to a transformer, then crimp the other wires into the rj45 as per usual leaving the slots empty where the two power wires would have been. At the other end of the wire crimp your rj45 end on with the two power wires left out just the same. Then those two wires get connected to a plug of the appropriate style for your device. The simple thing to do is to take the power cord that the device came with and cut it in half using the plug half in the nursery and the transformer half at the other end.

Of course this is only for low voltage (like 5 volts).

In the standard wiring scheme, only the green and orange are used. So you can use the blue or brown to carry your low voltage power to the nursery and do what nov0798 did. In fact, you could power both the rf modulator and the camera using the blue pair to carry power to the one and the brown to carry power to the other. Of course I am assuming that you have a power plug near the other end of your cat 5.

This post confused me, as standard PoE is ~48V.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_over_Ethernet

I do understand that a formal PoE injector may not be required, and that you can fab your own with a 48V power supply, but the quoted post referred to this being only for 'low voltage (like 5 volts)'.

 

[tmbrown97]

I almost posted that, but left it alone. Normal POE switches do deliver 48-volts. The higher voltage keeps amperage lower. And in gigabit ethernet, all the pairs are used - and POE power is on multiple pairs - so there are pairs with data and power on the same wire.

 

[pete_c]

I'm curious about the 5V / 1 AMP draw for the POE. I have one camera mounted in the garage and decided not to utilize POE and use a second 16 guage pair of wires for the power.

Personally I never used a camera in the nurseries for my two children but rather at the time just the sound devices sold. It worked fine for me.

One day in the 1980's I was using a baby intercom in FL. I was having a new roof put on an old house (this was the eventual tear down). It was a construction crew which worked for two days. It was nap time (as every afternoon was nap time) and my son slept fine with all of the pounding of nails on the roof the afternoon in question. I was sitting in the Lanai at the time with the small wireless intercom. I heard a loud crash. I ran into the bedroom where my son was sleeping in a crib. The overhead ceiling fan had crashed into the crib. The fan blades broke the fall of the fan itself and missed my son's head by only a few inches. He slept thru the whole endeavor never waking up.

My neighbor used a portable wireless with IR setup for his infant. I looked at at the display one night and couldn't see any shapes or detail with the views he saw on the monitor; so it seemed kind of useless.

Personally too I wouldn't use a camera with an IR illumination anyways. I don't care if they do sell them.

I don't think the pupil responds to an IR light; so if the eyes are open; its still hitting the back of the retina and while most studies show that the low dosage doesn't do anything; I would tend to be more cautious anyways more so with infants.

 

[apostolakisl]

This post confused me, as standard PoE is ~48V.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_over_Ethernet

I do understand that a formal PoE injector may not be required, and that you can fab your own with a 48V power supply, but the quoted post referred to this being only for 'low voltage (like 5 volts)'.

This is not formal "poe", this is your own custom job with voltages specifically dedicated to the items you are using at the other end. Video cameras and rf modulators tpically use something in the 5 to 12 v DC range. If you have a long run of wire and your devices need high amps, then this might not work. But, I doubt that will be the case. What I was getting at is that it is not code to put line voltage onto cat5 wire and for good reason. 48v would be fine but you will need to have a transformer at the other end dropping it to the voltage of the camera. I don't know where you would find a 48v to xv(where x is a lower voltage)transformer.

I hadn't ever looked into how gigabit uses the pairs. Thanks for the info. So then don't use gigabit for this (shouldn't be a problem as most cameras aren't gigabit).

The concept here is quite simple, you are splicing the unused pairs of the cat5 between the camera transformer and the camera as an "extension cord". Just imagine a wall wart with a super long wire comming off of it.

Also, IR light is what we as humans perceive as heat. If you look at your roaring fire on a cold night your eyes are getting blasted with massive doses of IR light (way more than a milliwatt led), or if you look at your hot oven element, again, same story. Or a space heater. As you can see (no pun intended), IR light has a long track record of not hurting eyes.

 

[apostolakisl]

Why don't you just make your life simple and forget about using the cat5 all togeter.

Just buy this.
http://www.amazon.com/Foscam-FI8918W-Wireless-Camera-Viewing/dp/B0046710G6/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1303482339&sr=1-1

plug it into a power outlet and let it log into your homes wireless network. You can put it anywhere you have a power outlet and just set it on a shelf or something. It says it has "smartphone" viewing but you should just make sure it has an iphone app since iphone is famous for not supporting things like java.

 

[Digger]

Why don't you just make your life simple and forget about using the cat5 all togeter.

Just buy this.
http://www.amazon.com/Foscam-FI8918W-Wireless-Camera-Viewing/dp/B0046710G6/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1303482339&sr=1-1

plug it into a power outlet and let it log into your homes wireless network. You can put it anywhere you have a power outlet and just set it on a shelf or something. It says it has "smartphone" viewing but you should just make sure it has an iphone app since iphone is famous for not supporting things like java.

There are several iphone app's that will view and control the Foscam camera's. I think eKeypad actually added Foscam recently as well. Foscam is becoming a popular low cost camera. I tried a few and you have to be careful of counterfeits that are not the same quality. The true Foscam are ok in my opinion but they are not anything high end for sure.

 

[pete_c]

So I am curious then; is it OK to push 1 AMP on multiple 22 guage wires for a DIY cat5E POE setup?

An infant is still in the early stages of developement even out of the womb and for a time afterwards.

The nervous system is not all there yet....try doing a reflex activity - tickle the bottom of a baby's feet and look at the response. Then try the same on an adult. Ask yourself and look what else yet is not developed in an infant...

I personally would not utilize a camera with IR illumination in a baby room; that is me.

The new Foscam PT IR's are so bright that they are actually visible to the naked eye as little red dots around the circumference of the camera.

The IR illumination actually is the only thing that I like about this camera because I can see my cars in the garage in total darkness (40 feet or so across to the end of the garage).

The Foscam PT IP camera is definitely low end but a nice intro to the world of an IP PT camera. It looks fine in the garage but is looks obtrusive for the interior of the home (even a white one).

 

[Digger]

I believe on the newer models you can turn the IR off. I agree its a good idea to do that.

 

[apostolakisl]

So I am curious then; is it OK to push 1 AMP on multiple 22 guage wires for a DIY cat5E POE setup?

It depends on the distance. The wire will have resistance to flow and thus you will lose potential as a direct function of distance. If the voltage drops too much your appliance will not function properly. If your device at the end has a consistent internal resistance you could increase the voltage of your power source to compensate for it (like a 6v transformer instead of 5). However, the drop in voltage is directly related to the amperage, so, if your device sometimes uses .1 amps and sometimes uses 1 amp, you can't just increase the voltage of the power supply and get a flat increase in voltage at the device.

The effect is easily seen by taking an extension cord and plugging a space heater and a light into the end of it. Turn the space heater on and the light will dim. The longer the cord and/or the smaller the guage, the greater the effect. When the space heater is on, the current through the wire increases and the voltage drops at the end of the wire due to internal resistance in the wire. When the voltage at the light bulb drops, so does the current since the internal resistance of the bulb is unchanged (V=IR).

Another way to think of it is that the wire itself is like an appliance that has been placed in series with the appliance at the end of the wire.

An infant is still in the early stages of developement even out of the womb and for a time afterwards.

The nervous system is not all there yet....try doing a reflex activity - tickle the bottom of a baby's feet and look at the response. Then try the same on an adult. Ask yourself and look what else yet is not developed in an infant...

I personally would not utilize a camera with IR illumination in a baby room; that is me.

The new Foscam PT IR's are so bright that they are actually visible to the naked eye as little red dots around the circumference of the camera.

The IR illumination actually is the only thing that I like about this camera because I can see my cars in the garage in total darkness (40 feet or so across to the end of the garage).

The Foscam PT IP camera is definitely low end but a nice intro to the world of an IP PT camera. It looks fine in the garage but is looks obtrusive for the interior of the home (even a white one).

What you are seeing is not infrared radiation. It doesn't matter how bright the IR is, you can't see it. Your eyes are not capable of seeing IR, period. The led's are visible because they are making some red light as well as IR light. Every IR red led camera I have ever owned has that slight visible glow. You can only feel IR. IR is radiant heat.

IR is not at all the same thing as UV. UV is ionizing, IR is not. UV does damage eyes (baby or not), and you can't feel it or see it. IR will hurt (burn) like crap before it is high enough energy to damage you. IR=radiant heat

I don't follow where an immature reflex has any correlation to whether IR is toxic to a retina or cornea. You can't just say an infant is different than an adult in one way and therefore assume that an infant is different in some other way.

Finally, if you don't want IR illumination of your baby, then you have 3 choices. 1) Don't bother putting a camera on your baby at all. 2) Leave a visible spectrum light on. 3) Buy a camera capable of seeing super low lux IR light (that will pick up the IR radiated from your baby's warm skin). Also known as a night scope. But be prepared to spend big money.

 

[pete_c]

Thanks Lou.

I want to move some of the analogue cams over to IP and would prefer the POE method. Right now about 4 analog cameras I have are using the Cat5E baluns to provide both power and video at distances of around 50-150 feet. I am curious about maybe using POE and IPCams with same wires. I'm wanting to test a short 30 foot run IP camera with a POE style setup and have not yet. The camera has a 1 amp draw and I am using a separate 16 guage pair to supply power to it.

I don't follow where an immature reflex has any correlation to whether IR is toxic to a retina or cornea. You can't just say an infant is different than an adult in one way and therefore assume that an infant is different in some other way.

I am not saying that IR is toxic to the retina but I am stating that the nervous system including the optical pieces have not matured (developed to maturity - finished as in an adult).

My statement doesn't relate to any other kind of light, nor frequency of said light; just what is used for IR illumination; simply stated such that it is not confusing.

An infant's nervous system is not fully developed and not even close to that of an adult; similiar yes.

The immature reflex refers to a path that has yet not developed; simply stated and just one example of how immature the infants nervous system is.

What else has not developed is a question that's always asked; more and more is found out everyday; and it'll still be a mystery for years to come.

 

[drvnbysound]

Similar to Siamese for legacy CCTV (RG59+18/2)... if I were doing some form of a camera (or other device) that needed external power (e.g. 12VDC) and a RJ-45 connection, I would likely use Siamese cable that was Cat5E + 18/2:

 

[project_x]

Not a camera suggestion, but I use several TP-link POE splitters (TL-POE10R) to provide power to networked things that aren't POE out of the box, the splitter provides selectable 5V or 12V DC. I paid about $12 shipped for them. This may open up additional possibilities by limiting yourself to purely POE enabled.

If you use one of the TP-Link POE splitters, they enable any camera to be POE saving the trouble of running additional wires. I believe they are limited to 12-15W depending on the voltage. They are cheap, easy to use and open a wider range of cameras if you have a POE enabled router.

 

[apostolakisl]

You can splice RCA jacks onto twisted pairs of cat5 wire as well. You will have signal degredation (signal to noise ratio loss) with increasing distance. Cat5 is not shielded so you have to be careful about staying away from noisy stuff like 120vac wires. Always cross 120vac at 90 degrees and stay at least a few inches away.

Always use a twisted pair as well for your rca jack. The twisted pair will reduce noise. If you want to use two twisted pairs for increased effective gauge, then take one half of each pair and connect two to center and the other two to ring. For example, solid blue solid green to center post, striped blue striped green to ring.

 

[pete_c]

Thanks for the info guys.

 

[tmbrown97]

Couple of thing:
Lou is right about being able to steal a pair without hurting 100MB Fast Ethernet. In the old days there were times when I would split off one pair for phone by taking specially modified 8P8C splitters on each end. You could even run 2 pairs in 2 jacks to get a single Cat5 jack to be two separate network jacks... not fun but it works fine.

For the babycam - I worried about that for a while... my 2.5yr old had just a hand-me-down analog monitor that she still uses... but for my 7mo old son, we did spring for a nice wireless babycam about a month ago. There is a small amount of IR that's hitting him. Here's my logic though - if he's in his crib, he's asleep with his eyes closed. Now he's old enough to roll, so if he's awake, he flips on his stomach and screams until I come get him - so there's very little time where it's actually hitting his eyes. But it is kinda nice to be able to watch him at night, or in the morning to gauge how much longer I'm gonna be able to sleep in. I have the receiver plugged into a 23" LCD dedicated to that up on the dressor so I can see it from across the room.

I've also done as Lou suggested and carried RCA line-level audio throughout a building over the cat5 cabling using specially made 1/8" stereo to RJ45 adapters (a few sets with male and female stereo ends) - no noise whatsoever. Cat5 really is flexible.

I do like the idea of the TP-LINK POE adapters though and using a POE switch if you have one - I've seen that before and it's a nice option for cutting down on wall-warts and simplifying cabling and power backup.