Mr_D
Getting comfortable
Parts used:
Dahua HDW4231EM-AS 3.6mm fixed starlight turret x 2
Dahua PFA-139 junction box x 2
Samsung 128 GB Evo micro SD card x 2
3/4" schedule 40 PVC conduit & conduit bodies
1" metal conduit clamps
Monoprice solid copper Cat6 cable (already had)
Cable Matters 12 port Cat6 wall mount patch panel (dedicated to cameras)
BV Tech 18 port POE switch (dedicated to cameras - uplinks to existing Ubiquiti Edgeswitch)
After a few months of researching and testing, I finally got my first two cameras up. Like many, I started with a single Dahua 5231 varifocal starlight turret and tested various focal lengths at different locations around the house. Had I not found this site, I probably would have wound up with some 2.8mm, 4MP dome cameras, mounted way too high. I chose the PFA139s due to them being easier to work with than the 130E. The 139's look like they'll still provide excellent protection, plus these locations are semi-protected and should see very little direct rain anyway. I used dielectric grease in the RJ45 connection to protect the conductors.
The house has a pretty big attic, but some areas are still inaccessible, so that factored into placement and cable routing decisions. The two I just installed are on the north-facing garage. The driveway camera is about 7.5' high and aimed northwest. The front yard camera is about 6.5' high due to the eave and aimed northeast. I'll be using conduit to protect the cables when I install cameras in the back, so I decided to run conduit inside the garage to gain experience fishing cable through it. It also looks cleaner.
From the cameras, the wires go straight through the walls, then the conduit takes them to a point on the garage ceiling where there's enough attic space above to work. The Cat6 cable I used was stiff enough to push it between the conduit bodies easily.
Conduit inside the garage: The wires enter the attic at the end of the run to the right of the pink kiddie pool. On the opposite end, above the door, I left a stub of PVC in case I decide to install another camera on the opposite corner of the garage door.
The shots from the cameras are using mostly default setting, except I lowered the noise reduction to 25 and increased the gamma to 70 which helps open up the shadows. I'm still figuring out all of the camera settings. With the IR disabled, they switched to black and white about 20 minutes after sunset.
The camera coverage slightly overlaps directly in front of the front door. I plan on installing a 6mm mini-wedge to the left of the front door. The image below shows a test shot with the entry pretty tightly framed so it should get a good look at anyone approaching. I'll have to tune the final camera to deal with that backlighting.
I already have a Ring doorbell to the right of the door, so I have some ultra wide angle coverage of the entry area. I may eventually add an overview camera or replace the ring with an onvif camera but that's a ways down the road.
I had planned on using my existing Synology NAS to record temporarily, but it doesn't seem to like the 4231's even though I got the 5231 to work. For now, I'm just recording motion to the SD card and using Smart PSS on the PC and TinyCam Pro on my phone to monitor. I plan to buy a used PC and run Blue Iris for 24/7 recording. I have a VPN server on my Edgerouter so I can view the cameras remotely without forwarding ports.
Dahua HDW4231EM-AS 3.6mm fixed starlight turret x 2
Dahua PFA-139 junction box x 2
Samsung 128 GB Evo micro SD card x 2
3/4" schedule 40 PVC conduit & conduit bodies
1" metal conduit clamps
Monoprice solid copper Cat6 cable (already had)
Cable Matters 12 port Cat6 wall mount patch panel (dedicated to cameras)
BV Tech 18 port POE switch (dedicated to cameras - uplinks to existing Ubiquiti Edgeswitch)
After a few months of researching and testing, I finally got my first two cameras up. Like many, I started with a single Dahua 5231 varifocal starlight turret and tested various focal lengths at different locations around the house. Had I not found this site, I probably would have wound up with some 2.8mm, 4MP dome cameras, mounted way too high. I chose the PFA139s due to them being easier to work with than the 130E. The 139's look like they'll still provide excellent protection, plus these locations are semi-protected and should see very little direct rain anyway. I used dielectric grease in the RJ45 connection to protect the conductors.
The house has a pretty big attic, but some areas are still inaccessible, so that factored into placement and cable routing decisions. The two I just installed are on the north-facing garage. The driveway camera is about 7.5' high and aimed northwest. The front yard camera is about 6.5' high due to the eave and aimed northeast. I'll be using conduit to protect the cables when I install cameras in the back, so I decided to run conduit inside the garage to gain experience fishing cable through it. It also looks cleaner.
From the cameras, the wires go straight through the walls, then the conduit takes them to a point on the garage ceiling where there's enough attic space above to work. The Cat6 cable I used was stiff enough to push it between the conduit bodies easily.
Conduit inside the garage: The wires enter the attic at the end of the run to the right of the pink kiddie pool. On the opposite end, above the door, I left a stub of PVC in case I decide to install another camera on the opposite corner of the garage door.
The shots from the cameras are using mostly default setting, except I lowered the noise reduction to 25 and increased the gamma to 70 which helps open up the shadows. I'm still figuring out all of the camera settings. With the IR disabled, they switched to black and white about 20 minutes after sunset.
The camera coverage slightly overlaps directly in front of the front door. I plan on installing a 6mm mini-wedge to the left of the front door. The image below shows a test shot with the entry pretty tightly framed so it should get a good look at anyone approaching. I'll have to tune the final camera to deal with that backlighting.
I already have a Ring doorbell to the right of the door, so I have some ultra wide angle coverage of the entry area. I may eventually add an overview camera or replace the ring with an onvif camera but that's a ways down the road.
I had planned on using my existing Synology NAS to record temporarily, but it doesn't seem to like the 4231's even though I got the 5231 to work. For now, I'm just recording motion to the SD card and using Smart PSS on the PC and TinyCam Pro on my phone to monitor. I plan to buy a used PC and run Blue Iris for 24/7 recording. I have a VPN server on my Edgerouter so I can view the cameras remotely without forwarding ports.
