I read the Wiki about three times and had to join.

[Scott Kdot]

Hello everyone, I started building a new home in Wisconsin and was planning on installing a simple Sam's club ip camera setup with NVR and now I'm a member here. Thank you for the Wiki, what started as a simple project turned into a whole new level of planning. I will have a number of questions moving forward but I am not quite ready. I was planning on 6 to 8 cameras but am planning on a 16 channel NVR, I also think using a dedicated POE switch in addition to the NVR sounds best for my plans. My driveway is about 500' long and my pond is about 300' to the closest edge so I think two, 5 or 8 MP cameras and the remaining 2-4MP. I still need to calculate storage needs for either one or two weeks of continuous recording at h.265 compression. My ideal setup would allow me to access the live stream from my phone or laptop while away, I don't necessarily need to access the recorded storage while away but that would be nice. I will be pulling 2 Cat6 cables to each place I would like to place a camera and will have 2 places I can place a camera facing the home from 75' or so away.

I am in Wisconsin, our weather here is about everything you can imagine from -15F degrees to 105F degrees, rain, snow, hail and wind so the cameras may take a bit of a beating but most if not all will be under eaves. I would also like to have an ip cam in the doorbell that can be recorded on the NVR too. There are probably more things I need and more that I want but this is my new starting point.

Thank you and I look forward to putting out a list of what I think I want and your suggestions. First thing is to order a couple boxes of solid copper wire and checking to see if I can use standard outdoor electrical boxes or if I need to have special boxes for cameras.

 

[TonyR]

Welcome to IPCT!

Sounds like you're off on the right foot, reading the Wiki (and hopefully the Cliff Notes), studying and planning.

I'd plan on using mounting boxes made specifically for your cameras, they may cost just a tad more than standard round electrical boxes (if you bargain shop) but they'll have a better appearance and better fit and won't require as much drilling and screws, etc. This is true especially if you purchase the most recommended turret-style vs. bullet or dome.

The cost of a standard, round PVC box with lid and SS screws, washers and nuts is close to $12 (and your time to adapt it as I did here ==>> Bullet Camera Mounting Box) so if you look around, the box made for your cam isn't much more and will look and fit better, IMO. I only did what I did because they were standard bullets with no available box.

Regardless of which box you end up with, I commend you for using them: you can hide and protect the cam's pigtail in there, drill a small 3/8" hole for your CAT-6 vs. a twice-as-big 3/4" hole for the pigtail.

 

[gwminor48]

Hello Scott, welcome to the forum.

 

[DRZmaui]

Three times, hell that rookie numbers. Been at this for over year, have 30 cameras, and still refer back to cliff notes.

 

[Scott Kdot]

Cliff Notes are great. I will look at different turret cameras, I had no preference coming into this so I will be relying on the experience of the members. I have a little bit of time, the rough carpenters are starting today so getting everything pre-wired and boxes are my number 1. I will probably order 1 or 2 different cameras to play with onsite just to get a feel for what field of view cameras I want to install. I may skip the 4k cameras all together after some of the reading I did last night, it will help with storage and night vision.

 

[SouthernYankee]

--------------------------
Welcome, you are off to a great start.
Plan on more cameras then you think you will need.
Do not worry about the picking cameras, work on camera placement. For example I have two cameras at every door outside and one camera at every door inside point directly at the door.
I have a camera inside the garage and two cameras on the garage pointing down the driveway to the street ( I live in a subdivision)
Think about inside cameras, you do not need to install them, but have the cables and connectors run. I have 8 inside cameras, All public areas are covered.
Think about have cameras at the base of the driveway point to the street, this can be a major effort.
Think about using a single zoom camera an laptop to test your locations and lens. You can do this after the studs are up and before the sheet rock.
If you want good night coverage stick to Dahua starlight or Hikvision darkfighter, There are no 8MP (4K) cameras for good night video that are in the affordable range (maybe in a year).


Read,study,plan before spending money ..... plan plan plan
Test do not guess

------------------------

My standard welcome to the forum message.

Please read the IP Cam Talk Cliff Notes and other items in the IP Cam Talk Wiki. The wiki is in the blue bar at the top of the page.

Read How to Secure Your Network (Don't Get Hacked!) in the wiki also.

Quick start
1) If you do not have a wired monitored alarm system, get that first
2) Use Dahua starlight cameras or Hikvision darkfighter cameras if you need good low light cameras.
3) use a VPN to access home network (openVPN)
4) Do not use wifi cameras.
5) Do not use cloud storage
6) Do Not use uPNP, P2P, QR, do not open ports,
7) More megapixel is not necessarily better.
8) Avoid chinese hacked cameras (most ebay, amazon, aliexpress cameras(not all, but most))
9) Do not use reolink, ring, nest, Arlo cameras (they are junk), no cloud cameras
10) If possible use a turret camera , bullet collect spiders, dome collect dirt and reflect light (IR)
11) Use only solid copper, AWG 23 or 24 ethernet wire. , no CCA (Copper Clad Aluminum)
12) use a test mount to verify the camera mount location. My test rig: rev.2
13) (Looney2ns)If you want to be able to ID faces, don't mount cams higher than 8ft. You want to know who did it, not just what happened.
14) Use a router that has openVPN built in (Most ASUS, Some NetGear....)
15) camera placement use the calculator... IPVM Camera Calculator V3
16) POE list PoE Switch Suggestion List


Cameras to look at
IPC-T5442TM-AS-LED Review IPC-T5442TM-AS-LED (Full Color, Starlight+)
IPC-T5442TM-AS Review-OEM 4mp AI Cam IPC-T5442TM-AS Starlight+ - 4MP starlight+
IPC-HDW2231R-ZS Review-Dahua IPC-HDW2231RP-ZS Starlight Camera-Varifocal
IPC-HDW2231T-ZS-S2 Review-OEM IPC-T2231T-ZS 2mp Varifocal Starlight Camera
IPC-HDW5231R-ZE Review-Dahua Starlight IPC-HDW5231R-ZE 800 meter capable ePOE
IPC-HFW4239T-ASE IPC-HFW4239T-ASE
IPCT-HDW5431RE-I Review - IP Cam Talk 4 MP IR Fixed Turret Network Camera
DS-2CD2325FWD-I
IPC-T2347G-LU Review of the Hikvision OEM model IPC-T2347G-LU 'ColorVu' IP CCTV camera. (DS-2CD2347G1-LU)
N22AL12 New Dahua N22AL12 Budget Cam w/Starlight -- low cost entry

Other dahua 4MP starlight Dahua 4MP Starlight Lineup

My preferred indoor cameras
DS-2CD2442FWD-IW
IPC-K35A Review-Dahua IPC-K35A 3mp Cube Camera

If interested in Blue Iris and other setup items see the following post

Newbie Starter Guide to IP Cam System – VPN setup – Computer Hardware – Blue Iris – Dahua Cameras

This is an intermediate / newbie guide for people just starting out looking for a surveillance setup. I know this setup might not be for everyone and there are many options. You can find a lot of this information in the Wiki: IP Cam Talk Wiki | IP Cam Talk A great place to start in the Wiki...

ipcamtalk.com

Before asking a question search the forum first...
The best way to search the forum is to use Google Advance search

Google Advanced Search

set site or domain to ipcamtalk.com

Read,study,plan before spending money ..... plan plan plan
Test do not guess

 

[Scott Kdot]

I realize this is just a welcome thread so I may look for the proper place to start a new thread, I am thinking about posting my floor plan and asking for suggestions. I will print a set and scrub off the personal information, scan it and get it posted this afternoon. I generally buy my wire from Monoprice so that is easy. I will make a link to the new forum and post it here. Thank for the warm welcome and I look forward to reading more reviews and becoming a member that can help others out at some point.

 

[Scott Kdot]

One issue I will run into is how much coverage I want to deal with, I have an odd property that is part of a subdivision but my property is 11.5 acres and my driveway is between two lots that are part of the actual subdivision with roughly one acre lots. I will see what I can shrink down and post. My biggest concerns is getting the driveway, pond and edge of the woods covered.

 

[looney2ns]

Welcome.

 

[djernie]

Welcome and good luck.

 

[Scott Kdot]

So I've finally started a new thread in the installation area and will be posting the blue prints soon. Thank you for all of the warm welcomes.

New construction planning

Well it took me a few days but I have my prints in a small enough file to post. I will also include a small survey of the property. I am currently most interested in how many cameras I should plan for and how many boxes to order. I am good with the wire but on the fence about NVR vs. Blue...

ipcamtalk.com