Installing a outdoor camera

[mark smith 20Participant @marksmith20]

[mark smith 20Participant @marksmith20]

Hi , Im a bit of a twitcher and like watching wildlife and occasional visiters to the garden.

Ive bought a PTZ camera off Amazon , which appears to work quite nicely on the bench,great picture quality.

My problem is i want to mount it around 15ft up on the house wall , its fed power by a small ac to 12v dc adapter and i intend running an exterior rated ethernet cable to it .

The ac /dc adapter is only around 3ft long cable length. Ive bought some pond cable but want to know if i can keep the adapter in the house and feed pond cable from the 12v dc side of the adapter around 20ft to 30ft to the camera wire harness that comes out the back of the camera bracket? Or do i have to feed ac the 20-30 feet to the ac side of the adapter and have the adapter near the camera(i.e in the aluminium ip66 box ive bought.)

On to the box. I want to fix the camera to the front of the box and have the wiring harness cable ends in the box . How do i do this ensuring everything is waterproof ?

The cable harness comes out the back of the camera mounting bracket . I was going to drill a hole in the front of the box to feed the camera harness through but unsure if thats the best method ?

Im not too great on electrical installation stuff .

Heres a photo of the camera ,aluminium box and adapter just to the left of the photo.

Any advice appreciated.

 

Edited By mark smith 20 on 14/07/2017 20:20:17

Edited By mark smith 20 on 14/07/2017 20:23:29

[Frances IoMParticipant @francesiom58905]

I’ve fed similar cameras via 15m or more of cable that handled power, audio + video – no problems – it is some time ago but think the cable was bought from Maplin – try them and just use the cable in its reel to chk out your camera (don’t forget the camera must be sited not to overview neighbour’s property esp if it imposes on their privacy ) – not sure re camera being watertight – fairly easy to buy small cable jointing boxes from an electrical wholesaler which should be easy to seal (or buy the jointing gel to fill the box)

[mark smith 20Participant @marksmith20]

Hi Francis, its the power drop that ive read about when extending 12v dc . I think im ok (i believe i read something like 270 ft wit the wire thickness i have) but do you think its ok to keep the adapter in the house and extend the feed of the 12v side to the camera. I suppose i can check the 25m reel i bought and see if the power still operates the camera properly before i commit to installing it.

What exactly is jointing gel? Does it make it impossible to adjust the cables etc if i ever need to fix it or whatever?

Bob

[Frances IoMParticipant @francesiom58905]

The connections to such analogue cameras appear to be standardised and the feed cable comes complete with matching plugs + sockets in various lengths – just buy the needed length and try out camera –
an alternative is to feed it via a CAT 5 or 6 (Lan) cable + balun – my local electrical wholesaler TLC sell such devices that will handle 4 cameras – such are typically used in smaller shops + offices – not that expensive and should cover much greater distances

Re jointing gel – some types can be relatively easily removed – just make sure you get the correct type – in SE England you have Wilts (Rexel), TLC and City Electrical but no doubt many more such exist

[Nick_GParticipant @nick_g]

.

With such low voltages good quality self amalgamating tape will be good enough **LINK** providing it is applied correctly.

Radio hams use if at HF frequencies successfully for many years in harsh conditions in an antenna joint applications that would be very unforgiving to moisture ingress.

Nick

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

We have an IP camera on the house with a 15-foot extension from the wall wart, which is plugged straight into an RCD socket.

It came with a sealed socket.

Neil

[Antony PowellParticipant @antonypowell28169]

Several of my cameras have 30m extensions for both power and picture without issue, buy off the bay maplin's is far too expensive and use the proper plugs / extension leads they are waterproof enough, mine have been up for three years without issue. (you could put a dab of Vaseline on if you want).

Tony

[Dave MartinParticipant @davemartin29320]

Mark,

You mention Ethernet cable, and the picture you show appears to have, in addition to a possible analog output, a shrouded RJ45 jack similar to those on the Hikvision cameras I use. If that is the case, you may be able to dispense with running separate DC power if the Ethernet connection supports POE (Power Over Ethernet) – if so, all you need to do is run a full Ethernet cable (using the appropriate hood to seal it at the camera end) and once you get it indoors, run it to either a POE hub or via a POE injector.

Dave

[Speedy Builder5Participant @speedybuilder5]

Why not extend the mains cable and put it all into the box, run an earth lead to the metal case. In the house, use an RCD protected feed as sold for lawn mowers etc. – I don't think the mains voltage drop would be of any concern. If you were worried about feeding the mains outside, think Halogen security lights – mains fed, outside in all weathers, abused, and often fed without any RCD protection.

[mark smith 20Participant @marksmith20]

Thanks for the further replies, i tested the dc power by fixing male and female dc jacks to either end of the 25metre reel and plugging in to the camera and output side of the ac/dc adapter.

Camera worked fine so no power loss from the adapter to the camera . So i will keep the dc adapter inside and just run the ethernet and power cable to the box.

Dave the POE was an option but was a few pounds more and being a skinflint i just got this one. I believe a POE injector bought seperately is still an option but i think i`ll just stay with this if it works fine.

It probably is similar to the Hikvision PTZ camera though a bit cheaper. It does have a waterproof ethernet connector but to install it means cutting off one end of the cable i have and fixing on a new connector once threaded through. Ive never fixed a ethernet plug on a cable before (probably simple ,dont know)

Just need to make sure everything is watertight.

The picture on these things is amazing compared to an old camera i used to have. Someone commented being able to see ants at 200ft away.

 

 

Edited By mark smith 20 on 15/07/2017 19:37:40

[V8EngParticipant @v8eng]

May be a bit late into this discussion but here goes anyway:-

I have an 8 channel CCTV system on my house (Bungalow), the cameras are 1080p HD but not PTZ.

The longest lead is 40 metres (@12 volts) which operates a camera some 26 metres away from the house without problems.

The 40 metre lead was purchased ready made (from CPC), I am quite handy with a soldering iron but find some of these things are less bother if bought ready made.

I put the connectors in water tight boxes if exposed to the elements in any fashion, or otherwise tucked away out of sight of tinkering hands.

Edited By V8Eng on 15/07/2017 21:57:28

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