POE - Way over priced

Chust

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I just cannot believe the prices for POE! I'm not a rocket scientist or anything; but, can't you just cut the ethernet cable at both ends and splice an adapter power on one end and then use a connector plug for the other end that goes to the ip cam? (I know, certain ones are power and others data) If you buy your adapters and connectors on Ali your looking at $3 a camera or less. Heck, I could buy a 8 port gigabit switch No POE for $23 and add my 8 adapters/connectors in for a whole Whopping $47.
I'm looking at 17-22 Hik IP Cams by summer. LOL - not at these prices!:laugh:
I know there's got to be a cheaper prettier way of feeding power to these cams.
Any of you doing something like this?
Any of you got something better for cheaper?

Chust Me :mad-new::mad-new::mad-new:"Mad At POE Prices":mad-new::mad-new::mad-new:
 

Chust

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[h=1]There you have it!:lemo:[/h][h=1]WS-POE-8-48v60w passive Power Over Ethernet POE Injector for 8 IP cameras, VOIP phones or Access Points, 48 volts, 60 watts max[/h]
 

bp2008

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Yes, you can just cut the ethernet cable at both ends and splice a power adapter in, like you described. However that power adapter is typically 12 volts and will suffer significant voltage drop over significant distances, which may be enough to cause the camera to malfunction or the power adapter to overheat/fail.

Myself, I just use PoE. Less than $45 gets a 4 port PoE switch, or as you discovered, an 8 port injector without switching capabilities. The injector of course requires a separate switch and additional cables which is a bit of a mess. A year or two ago I upgraded my stack of small PoE switches to a big managed switch with 24 PoE ports on it. These run $300-$400 new and can often be found much cheaper used on Ebay.
 

nayr

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your going to spend some serious cash on ~20 Hikvision IP Cameras, and an NVR to make those cameras actually useful... but a few hundred for a PoE switch is too much? You realize a decent non-poe 24 port switch isint free right?

And no, your entirely wrong about active PoE that your Hikvision cameras use, its more than a power supply spliced in.. there are electronics in the switch looking for a specific resistance across the power pairs, only when a PoE compatible device is plugged in does the switch apply power.. This way only devices that are prepared to handle power ever receive it, if you plug your laptop or another non PoE device into a PoE cable/outlet/plug then it will not do any damage to it.

passive PoE injectors are only safe for the device they came with, they are not standardized and they will provide power on the unused pairs constantly regardless whats plugged into the other side... passive PoE typically runs at 12-24VDC and wont make it as far down a cable run as active PoE that runs @ 48VDC

Most active PoE switches also provide some sort of management, at least allowing you to monitor power use and toggle power to specific ports through a nice web interface.. handy if you need to reset a hung camera from halfway across the country.. Others will support some very nice security features, like port authentication and vlans.. when setup properlly your cameras must authenticate before given access to the LAN, this makes taping a cameras network cable virtually impossible.. Which can be a concern for cameras exposed to the public and vurnable to tampering.
 
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Chust

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Yep, a guy on Amazon told me his set-up and it's a 24 port set-up which is actually not bad priced. He calmed me down!:D
 

Sakuji

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Yep, a guy on Amazon told me his set-up and it's a 24 port set-up which is actually not bad priced. He calmed me down!:D
Bro, can you describe that set up that was shared to you like what exact units he used. Thanks.

In relation to the poster's topic: is this a reasonably priced 4 port POE? http://www.amazon.com/TP-LINK-TL-SF1008P-100Mbps-8-Port-802-3af/dp/B003CFATT2/ref=cm_cr_pr_sims_t/179-8337744-5680023#customerReviews

I was looking for an 8 port POE atleast that is good price. Thanks guys.
 
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bp2008

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That TP-Link is exactly the 4 port PoE I recommend to most people.

For 8 port PoE, consider

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00H2VAJ0G

or

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00H58P8RU

Note the 9th port to use as an uplink so you don't waste a PoE port. It is also important to note that this is just a 10/100 switch, so you don't want to daisy chain other switches off of this one. And when full it would be sending 8 cameras worth of video out that 9th uplink port. I would strongly recommend you connect the uplink port to a gigabit (1000 Mbps) switch because you will likely need the increased capacity of a gigabit network once you are running 8+ cameras.
 
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Sakuji

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That TP-Link is exactly the 4 port PoE I recommend to most people.

For 8 port PoE, consider

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00H2VAJ0G

or

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00H58P8RU

Note the 9th port to use as an uplink so you don't waste a PoE port. It is also important to note that this is just a 10/100 switch, so you don't want to daisy chain other switches off of this one. And when full it would be sending 8 cameras worth of video out that 9th uplink port. I would strongly recommend you connect the uplink port to a gigabit (1000 Mbps) switch because you will likely need the increased capacity of a gigabit network once you are running 8+ cameras.
Thanks BP! Will take note of your advice tho at this time I'll start off with 4 cam initial install and I reckon I'll go to 6 units max for my whole house.
Thanks again.
 
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nayr

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with 6 cameras you could get away without a Gigabit network, but I would put two network cards in your NVR, dedicate one to the PoE switch with all your cameras and the other hook to your LAN, this way you can peg the bandwidth on the LAN interface (say download/backup video) without interfering with the throughput of your cameras.
 

bp2008

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Yup that is a good idea, and that isolates your cameras from the rest of the network and the internet so they can't be security risks.
 

Sakuji

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with 6 cameras you could get away without a Gigabit network, but I would put two network cards in your NVR, dedicate one to the PoE switch with all your cameras and the other hook to your LAN, this way you can peg the bandwidth on the LAN interface (say download/backup video) without interfering with the throughput of your cameras.
Yup that is a good idea, and that isolates your cameras from the rest of the network and the internet so they can't be security risks.
Well, obviously I'm a total noobie here so pls I apologize: I didn't know that we can add extra network card to an NVR. Can you point out to me a you unit that we can do that pls. Thanks.

To be clear, I'm actually torn between setting up a standalone dedicated NVR w/ poe (like this one http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Hikvision-DS-7104N-SN-P-with-4-Ethernet-ports-surveillance-DVR-NVR/1919007896.html) or a Synology NAS (tho a bit more expensive due to the license expense for extra cams.) My additional question is it true that resolution recording for Synology (or any NAS) for that matter is also limited to 1080p? I kinda like the NAS due to its easy data scalability and other mod capability.

Thanks guys.
 

nayr

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If you intend to use all Hikvision cameras, your probably best off going with the Hikvision NVR..

It has 8 PoE ports for cameras and has one dedicated network interface for your LAN, no PoE switch needed with that unit.

The Hikvision NVR will support the camera's internal Events/Alerts and other features, a 3rd party NAS probably will not.. If the Hik NVR dont appeal to you then your proabibly be better off with a dedicated PC running BlueIris than a NAS solution... NAS Recording is pretty minimalistic as far as features go.
 

Sakuji

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If you intend to use all Hikvision cameras, your probably best off going with the Hikvision NVR..

It has 8 PoE ports for cameras and has one dedicated network interface for your LAN, no PoE switch needed with that unit.

The Hikvision NVR will support the camera's internal Events/Alerts and other features, a 3rd party NAS probably will not.. If the Hik NVR dont appeal to you then your proabibly be better off with a dedicated PC running BlueIris than a NAS solution... NAS Recording is pretty minimalistic as far as features go.
100% agree specially that it's way more simpler that way. However on the particular NVR I linked (and fenderman suggested previously) it can only record up to 1080p which basically defeats the 3mb capability of the Hiks I bought. I've been trying to look for an nvr with 3mb capability even just a 4 port with almost similar price point but so far I can't find one.
I've seen the Blueiris in person but it really does require building up an I7 chipped pc that really pushes my budget out of range. I've been leaning over a Synology NAS mainly because I have a friend who can give me one almost for free and that I've seen this review by networkcameracritic: http://www.networkcameracritic.com/?p=1762. Atleast based on this review it seems like the DSM Surveillance Station will fit my needs.

Hoping for more ideas.

Add on: I've seen this kit http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Original-Hikvision-IP-camera-NVR-Kit-DS-2CD2032-I-3MP-cctv-camera-NVR-Hikvision-cctv-systems/2040804853.html?tracelog=back_to_detail_a and the included nvr is 3mp. I just can't find the exact model for me to buy it stand alone. Any ideas?

Edit that. Found it: Its DS-7104N-SN/P. Reading on it.
 
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