home with existing cams

[brian1023]

Hi, i recently bought a house that had several dom IP cams around the exterior. All cat6 run to same place in basement. I am new to IP cam world....what is the cheapest way for me to test each cam to confirm they actually work before i begin investing in switches, nvrs, etc. ? from what i can see from the ground, they are all hikvision branded.

willing to spend some money, but honestly if they don't work from the start, ill just go with an amazon cloud cam, etc.

appreciate the assistance in advance.

 

[mat200]

Hi, i recently bought a house that had several dom IP cams around the exterior. All cat6 run to same place in basement. I am new to IP cam world....what is the cheapest way for me to test each cam to confirm they actually work before i begin investing in switches, nvrs, etc. ? from what i can see from the ground, they are all hikvision branded.

willing to spend some money, but honestly if they don't work from the start, ill just go with an amazon cloud cam, etc.

appreciate the assistance in advance.

Welcome @brian1023

Don't go cloud cameras if you have a good cabling already done. Seriously, once you've got good cable runs to appropriate locations the hardest part of the job is already done.

You can then replace the old cameras and any NVR if you like.

So what to do?
1) Remove one camera and look for the model number. Check the model number and see how old the camera is. If it is too old - plan to buy new cameras.
2) Get a cat5e/6 cable tester and see if the cable appears good. Check the markings on the cable.

If the cable is good - take some time to review the cameras that SouthernYankee posts in his new member list and see if any of those would be nice to have.

Read the cliff notes.

 

[brian1023]

thanks @mat200 . with regular Ethernet devices, theoretically i could ping something to see if there's a response. can i plug each cam into my router and ping? is that even a thing with these?

 

[jaybowee]

Just hooking to your router will not power the cam. You could buy a cheap single POE injector from Amazon for a few bucks then you could test it. I use one of those for testing purposes. It’s possible to gain access to the login screen but most likely you’ll have to factory reset the cam to reset the original login password If the previous owner changed the default.

 

[fenderman]

Hi, i recently bought a house that had several dom IP cams around the exterior. All cat6 run to same place in basement. I am new to IP cam world....what is the cheapest way for me to test each cam to confirm they actually work before i begin investing in switches, nvrs, etc. ? from what i can see from the ground, they are all hikvision branded.

willing to spend some money, but honestly if they don't work from the start, ill just go with an amazon cloud cam, etc.

appreciate the assistance in advance.

go with the amazon cloud camera. They are probably better then the old domes you have. Then when you are frustrated by every aspect of the cloud camera in including the poor image quality, come back here for proper cameras. Sometimes you need to try the other options to appreciate a quality product.

 

[mat200]

thanks @mat200 . with regular Ethernet devices, theoretically i could ping something to see if there's a response. can i plug each cam into my router and ping? is that even a thing with these?

Hi @brian1023

Will "ping" test work? In theory yes. Of course, it is possible to have devices which have ping disabled. So if you get a return ping you will definitely know it is functional on the IP stack level.

Naturally as jaybowee notes you will need to power up the cameras with some POE power sourcing equipment. Many of us prefer to have a small PoE switch for that and testing or a PoE injector.

Once powered up you can also go look at the cameras when it is dark to see if the IR leds turn on. While that does not tell you the camera is 100% functional it will show you if the camera is getting power and the IR leds are getting turned on. ( if you do see the IR leds on, then there is a higher chance that the camera is ok )

 

[brian1023]

i got on the ladder, took the thing down....i dont think this is an IP camara at all!

its a HIKVISION DS-2CE56D1T-VPIR

they have spliced on a regular CCTV and power plug thats dongle is an rj45 with cat6 wire. this explains my frustration of an NVR not working

new question, the end of the cat 6 in my basement is still the standard RJ45, what dongle do i need to buy to convert back to regular cctv cable and provide power?

 

[mat200]

i got on the ladder, took the thing down....i dont think this is an IP camara at all!

its a HIKVISION DS-2CE56D1T-VPIR

they have spliced on a regular CCTV and power plug thats dongle is an rj45 with cat6 wire. this explains my frustration of an NVR not working

new question, the end of the cat 6 in my basement is still the standard RJ45, what dongle do i need to buy to convert back to regular cctv cable and provide power?

Hi @brian1023

Specs look decent on the camera compared to what I was expecting.

https://us.hikvision.com/sites/default/files/ds-2ce56d1t-vpir_datasheet.pdf

Definitely not an IP PoE camera tho ;-)
HD Video Output 1 analog HD-TVI output

Q: new question, the end of the cat 6 in my basement is still the standard RJ45, what dongle do i need to buy to convert back to regular cctv cable and provide power?
A: Yes, and a DVR that can handle HD-TVI

If looking for a new DVR perhaps drop @bigredfish a note and ask what he is using (? XVR of some sort ?)

 

[bigredfish]

Mine's an older model but very similar to this minus all the AI goodies

https://www.dahuasecurity.com/products/allProducts/417/7257?tab=7277

Less expensive

https://www.dahuasecurity.com/products/productDetail/20627

Basically you can run a mix of IP and CVI/TVI analog cameras on these quite easily.