I've been curious about setting up a system myself. Information seems to be a bit scarce. Thanks for all of the great tips. I'll keep lurking till I get ready to do something.
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No problem if you have any questions feel free to join the thread and we will try to help.
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Thanks for the warning. I also read about the problem with spiders. Those are good tips, we don't want the darn spiders in our video!!!
I just thought of a new setup which would require less work for me. I would run ethernet out from my basement (my switch is here) where the existing telecommunications cables leave my house (already in dirt). Essentially, I would run the ethernet in a conduit alongside the existing telecommunication conduit and then up to soffits. There I will run Ethernet along the soffits to each individual camera mounted on the soffit.
These are the camera I am looking at currently: (the second camera says it can withstand "-30 - 60 DegreeC"
It'll still happen, nothing we do seems to last forever, I use to go around on Saturday cleaning them off problem areas (you do not see them during the day) only to find a new web that evening sometimes the spiders get pissed off and build a more intricate web than the first one was, the thing I've noticed is that the web isn't in front of the camera per-say but is right on the front of the lens going from the lens hood to the body covering the area of the camera and the IR lights, if you look at night it's very hard to see them but a quick wipe with your finger around the IR lens area always removes it.
I would have thought it would be further away, off the camera in the line of sight of the IR where bugs are drawn to....but no right on the camera itself which is why the Vaseline on the edges of the body seem to work at the moment.
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Wow, you're an expert! I will definitely try out the Vaseline method when my cameras are deployed.
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That is exactly how I did the cameras on one of our buildings where the server resides, but I went out a window casing (wood) and drilled a 3/4" hole ran the cables out then sealed the hole with silicon caulk.
The cables were mounted at the point where the soffit and the house meet using self-tapping screws that have a plastic cable holder on them, I hung the cameras and ran the cable hanging it going backwards from the camera to the point I went through the window casing that made for a nice tight cable run that not only is hard to see but has no excess on the outside of the building.
I have two of the TV-IP321's in my system, both have been good cameras, the other two I have no experience with other than I use a couple Hikvision bullet cameras in my system and both have worked great...
Another Pro-Tip: Hikvision and Trendnet cameras (some models) are the exact same camera made in the exact same factory in China, when you look at them side by side the only difference is the labeling on the camera and the MAC addy is a different sequence than the Trendnets, the Hikvision cameras show up in the camera setup software that Trendnet supplies that searches for IP cameras on your network to aid in setting them up (make sure you write down the MAC addy off the camera before installing it, or pre-configure the camera before installing it like I do) ...but anyway the advanced setup is different between the Hikvision and Trendnet because they use different firmware in their cameras, but if you can buy Hikvision because it is cheaper it's worth the money saving.
LOL....no not a expert at all just another guy who has traveled the same road your embarking on and I've already seen some of the sights along the way.
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So since your thinking about mounting to your soffit I'll say a word or two about placement, you will find that depending on where the camera is pointed you will get soffit in your field of view, if your pointing out to catch cars in your driveway you will want the camera out towards the edge of the soffit (close to the gutter) to minimize the amount of soffit is in your view, something else you will see is the IR reflecting off the soffit at night which isn't a good thing but of course you only see this in the view from the camera not with the naked eye.
The higher the soffit and the more angle towards the ground (pointing the camera) you have the less of a issue this will be, so before you permanently hang your cameras do a temp setup at night so you can see what your going to have as a image, nothing sucks more than to do all the work then having to move the camera from it's location because it was fine during the day but at night was worthless....don't ask how I know this.
It will surprise you the amount of light the IR will produce I have one Hikvision camera pointed at my garage that is on the corner of another building 60-70' away and it illuminates the area well enough to cause a reflection on the garage door....but the view at night is a stark contrast to the daylight image, it is to me more important for the view at night to be good because of the lack of ambient light so the IR has to do all the work for the camera to see anything very well.
Just play around with it to get a idea you'll see what I mean.
I have a area behind our new barn/garage that I ordered one of these to try.....(might not be the exact model number I ordered)
It is what is called a EXIR camera (extended range on the IR) and is suppose to illuminate out to 150' it was shipped from China the other day so we will see once it comes in how well it does, I'm trying to cover a lot behind our garage that is about 40' wide by 100' deep a normal camera just doesn't work very well at illuminating the area at night and there is no ambient light for the camera to work off of..
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So since you considering the server I'll tell you about mine, I have roughly between 6-700$ USD in it and it is built around this CPU.
The MB is a Asus unit I had that wouldn't work for another project I was doing at the time but it was around $100
It has 16g of DDR3 that was around $80 if I remember correctly, the PSU is a 650w that I also had laying around but it's like a $60 item, the HDs are WD purple that have been upgraded it originally had one 1TB but now has it and a 2TB just for Zoneminder to use and is housed in a cheap 4u server case, no optical, no GPU, it runs headless and is accessed directly through SSH on my Fedora daily driver. so all together it's in the neighborhood of say $650 USD
The PoE switch I bought (first one) was a Netgear managed switch like this one...
But I paid less on a deal from Newegg it was over $200 but was less then $250.....
The switch I just bought to add to the network in the garage/barn (so I didn't have to run 8-10 camera feeds back to the original switch) was one of these...
But was right at $200 not Amazons price. I thought initially that I'd only need 6 cameras out there but have 8 running right now (2 inside) and will be adding the EXIR when it arrives so that will be 9 of the 12 PoE ports used.
Because I ran conduit underground between the two buildings I only had to run one cable between the switches and used the 1gig connection between the two of them (it's like a up-link connection) to connect to the network, worked like a charm. We bought managed switches because we have a rather large network and will eventually separate the cameras off into it's own VLAN, we have plans to use the server for other functions besides just the CCTV system.
Of course the monitoring software is Zoneminder and is free......but I prolly have $1500 invested in cameras....
My only point is to show you with your budget of $2000 you should have money left over as long as you don't go crazy on the server side of things.
I'll shut up now (the forum software is telling me that I should let others talk) lol
Oh I forgot the server OS is Ubuntu 14.4 server...which is of course free also....
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I just found out that I had an existing conduit running from my basement to ground level, originally for my satellite TV dish that I don't use anymore_. Once I am at ground level, do I need to have the ethernet cables in a conduit going to the soffit?_ I will have 3 cameras going the same direction on the soffit.
Thanks for the pro-tip, I think I will go these ones:
The first one says it can for sure withstand "-30 - 60 DegreeC (-22 - 140 DegreeF)" good for winter time.
Good tip. I will mount the cameras near the edge of the soffit close to the eaves¡trough.
My driveway is around 15 to 20 meters long and around six to eight meters wide. I have neighbors across my driveway.
I do not think I need the EXIR camera as the driveway is not that long.
The second camera will face my backyard and the sidedoor.
The third will only cover a side door and a strip of the side of my house.
I am talking looking at a Dell Vostro PC with an i7 and 8GB of RAM for $150 CAD.
I think this system will suffice since I only will have around 4 cameras.
I can upgrade the memory to 16GB in total.
I will probably get a 3TB WD Purple and install Windows on there (Blue Iris) and then store footage there.
Currently, I only have the Netgear ProSafe 24 Port unmanaged gigabit network switch.
Thinking of getting either for as a PoE switch:
OR something of eBay:
Do I need to get a gigabit PoE switch? I think most cameras still use 10/100.
Or should I get a completely new PoE switch and act as a network switch as well?
Or go with 1 network switch and 1 PoE switch?
P.S: Do in need special ethernet cables for -30C weather?
You mentioned solid core ethernet
What ethernet cable do you recommend that can withstand -30C ?
Wat... The IP is assigned by the router which is behind a firewall... The MAC address isn't used for routing... What...?
If the cams are behind a router, there's less of a risk indeed. But judging by the amount of life feeds to be found on sites like Insecam, there are plenty of IP cameras that either use an external IP or at least are easy to find through scanning and use a default password (either because the owner hasn't bothered changing it or because it can't be changed).
As for the MAC address, I was wrong on that in that it was the serial number, not the MAC. Here's an example.
https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/4ortwb/i_bought_and_returned_a_set_of_wifi_connected/
Based on how that happened, all you'd need is an account in a fake name and the serial number of any of their cams, which is easy enough to get. Just go to any large electronics store that sells them and start taking pictures when nobody's watching.
I assume that Netgear has patched this by now, but it is highly unlikely that they're the only ones with such flawed security.
For instance there is also a certain brand of baby monitors that allows people to view the stream via the manufacturer's site. All that is required for authentication is ... yup, you guessed it, the device's serial number.
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It's a matter of security, if the area is accessible to the public then yeah it would be a good idea to keep someone from tampering with the wires, if it's in a area, like a fenced in yard that has limited access then no it's probably not necessary.
Good choice......the only thing about dome cameras is that they require removing the dome cover to adjust the elevation of the camera lens (up-down) then the only right-left adjustment is in how you mount it, so you need to get it right the first time, you have to remount it to change the right-left, a good tip is to choose your location then shoot one screw in to hold it in position, then go look at the output, make your adjustments before installing the other two screws and installing the dome cover. (once you install one you'll see what I mean)
Dome cameras are not as big a issue as bullet cameras, domes by how they are made move the lens away from the mounting area and the lens is normally smaller on domes (2.x vs 3 or 4mm) so the focal length and field of view are different (wider angle I think) so are less of a issue, still test before mounting to find the sweet spot.
You might want to test first, with only 4 cameras you may not need the extra memory, but the PC will be fine and is cheap enough, good find!
No you don't but if you opt for a switch you will want a gig switch just for the sake of usability down the road, , honestly I'd buy that PoE injector you listed above for $25, it will work fine, keep your costs down, and allow you to add other cameras if you choose to down the road.
Nope, if you are going to make your own cables you will be buying solid core or solid wire Cat5e cable, this will come in rolls from 25' to 1000' , I don't know how long your runs will be but a 500' roll should allow you to run the 4 cameras in a normal installation.
This is similar to what I use.....but in white since my soffit is white on the house and one out-building.
And that is a consideration.....the color of the cable vs the color of your soffit.
But keep in mind running your own cable is the best, but you will need RJ45 ends (buy bulk), you will need a crimp-er, and you will need a cable tester, none of these things are expensive but are absolutely necessary to make your own cables, the good thing is once you master this you can make custom cables for everything you do networking-wise, it is a great skill to lean and have.
These are similar to the connectors I use...note 2 piece construction.
Below is actually a good deal on the crimper, punch down tool and tester.......for limited usage they will work just fine...
I know you don't need the punch down tool, but the crimper alone is worth the price, it's like getting the rest for free, the tester is the same one I use, no frills and works off a 9v battery.
These are the cable mounts I use to keep the cable where I want it...
Good luck!!
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I know above somewhere you said you were going to use Blue Iris software, since you will be using a Windows box, I'd wait on the software and try the free Trendnet software that comes with the cameras, it will control up to 32 cameras, is Windows based and is really good software, you can't beat the price, at least try it before spending the $$$ on a version of BI that will run 4 cameras, I think the free version only supports one camera, you can install both at the same time to choose which gives you the best value.
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And that is the thing....CCTV cameras once installed shouldn't be moved, and the cable is in a fixed location, the quality of the cable is important but it being able to remain pliable in sub-freezing temps isn't a issue in this application at least in my opinion.
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This is one of the problems I have with WiFi in general and the stand-alone CCTV systems that use the manufacturers website to view your cameras when away from home, it's a shit setup that isn't secure, if you go to all the effort to install the equipment why would send the feeds to a third party to view? Yes I know for the convenience.....