Installation questions, neighborhood gate entrance location

[Jono83]

Looking for experts advice. Our neighborhood is upgrading our front gate drive entrance / exit. Since we are in the Vegas area there has been much discussion about how to protect recording equipment from the intense summer heat. Current thinking is some type of housing unit for pc and storage drives that is cooled to protect the equipment.

Any similar type of installations out there? What solutions can you think of given the outside temps?

Thx,
Jono

 

[wittaj]

calling @bigredfish

 

[Holbs]

this will be an interesting discussion for outdoor camera equipment.
Being Las Vegas and reaching 110+ degrees in summer under brutal UV & sunlight...I would be putting any equipment in metal or PVC vented with fans HAVE to be under shade.
But then again, why would the PC and recording equipment be out in the field? I could see doing a Ubiquiti P2P or WiFi router out in the field from a camera location back to a building structure...but the actual PC/NVR?

 

[bigredfish]

We have 2 NVRs with routers and cable modems in NEMA plastic enclosures. Florida heat and hurricanes since 2016 and no problem with simple vents

Sorta like these

https://www.l-com.com/nema-enclosures-universal-ac-powered-18x16x8-in-enclosures

 

[Holbs]

We have 2 NVRs with routers and cable modems in NEMA plastic enclosures. Florida heat and hurricanes since 2016 and no problem with simple vents

Sorta like these

https://www.l-com.com/nema-enclosures-universal-ac-powered-18x16x8-in-enclosures

Do you use ventilation fans in those boxes? Ever figure out inside temp/humidity during the hottest days?

 

[bigredfish]

Nope. Just vent holes. I’ll find better pics but this gives you an idea

 

[bigredfish]

Here's some better shots. We're fortunate that we have only 1 entry/exit pont and a culdesac on a street of just 41 homes.

We have 3 fixed cameras including 5231Z-12 for LPR at the entrance along with the PTZ, and soon the same at the culdesac if I can get the other PTZ mounted this weekend.


We had the power company set a meter for each location (2), and the cable company run a dedicated internet drop with dedicated IP at each box.
Inside is a cable modem, asus router, and 4200 series Dahua PoE NVR. with dual 4TB HD's Running WD Purple HD's and Ive had one HD failure in 5 years which I suppose is to be expected. Contractor installed the 14ft 4" aluminum poles and ran the wire, so really simple for me to hook things up.

I have since cleaned up some of the hillbilly engineering from our the mounting of the 5241 on the back of the wall and the old holes in the pole, but you get the idea.

 

[mat200]

Looking for experts advice. Our neighborhood is upgrading our front gate drive entrance / exit. Since we are in the Vegas area there has been much discussion about how to protect recording equipment from the intense summer heat. Current thinking is some type of housing unit for pc and storage drives that is cooled to protect the equipment.

Any similar type of installations out there? What solutions can you think of given the outside temps?

Thx,
Jono

Hi @Jono83

Las Vegas.. Shade the enclosure.. will need ventilation, but I do suspect with it hitting the high temps in the summer you will need to plan to replace equipment often..

I'd try a solar panel driving additional fans..

 

[bigredfish]

Yeah, we tend to hang in the 90-95 degree range in summer so we dont see 110 like Vegas, but we do also see 70-90%+ humidity all summer long as well.

And the occasional hurricane (sustained 70mph gusts at our house that night)


View attachment Overall+Cul+de+Sac+Wekiva+2017-09-11+02-20-00.mp4

 

[Holbs]

Here's some better shots. We're fortunate that we have only 1 entry/exit pont and a culdesac on a street of just 41 homes.

We have 3 fixed cameras including 5231Z-12 for LPR at the entrance along with the PTZ, and soon the same at the culdesac if I can get the other PTZ mounted this weekend.


We had the power company set a meter for each location (2), and the cable company run a dedicated internet drop with dedicated IP at each box.
Inside is a cable mode, asus router, and 4200 series Dahua PoE NVR. with dual 4TB HD's Running WD Purple HD's and Ive had one HD failure in 5 years which I suppose is to be expected. Contractor installed the 14ft 4" aluminum poles and ran the wire, so really simple for me to hook things up.

I have since cleaned up some of the hillbilly engineering from our the mounting of the 5241 on the back of the wall and the old holes in the pole, but you get the idea.

View attachment 90895 View attachment 90896 View attachment 90897 View attachment 90898 View attachment 90899 View attachment 90902 View attachment 90903

Looks like a good amount of trees offering shade over the PVC box most of the time?
Couldn't you save monthly $$$ and just do point-to-point to existing office internet? Or are you like our HOA where there is no commercial internet to use, only personal (which is not a good idea).

We had a IT guy at a local swimming park who put a 16port switch in a metal 12"x12" NEMA box facing the full force of the sun. I warned him that the switch is going to turn to bacon in 3 weeks. It actually took 4 days

 

[bigredfish]

Yeah office is off site, so that would mean using 2 homeowners connections. Two Dedicated Interwebs connections and static IPs cost the HOA $175 p/mo and everyone has a guest access login to view live

yeah the one box stays shaded, the one behind the wall at the entrance not so much

 

[Holbs]

@Jono83 you now have your blue print of slapping in the necessary hardware. I would add in at least putting some kind of reflective insulation inside the box to help keep out those magical sun waves (radiant heat insulation? reflective insulation?). And maybe some sort of monitoring thermostat (WiFi or Z-wave) just to keep tabs on the temp. Oh...and maybe also paint the box white with sun reflective paint. Las Vegas gets brutal with those UV rays and heat. Add in fake tree limb or leaves nearby to assist with shading.

 

[Holbs]

ohohoh...and...and...$1000 portable air conditioner unit. oh...and now you need a couple cameras to keep on the other cameras.
the list goes on and on

 

[eggsan]

almost same hot temperature/rainy as in the Caribbean. Installed same pvc cabinet on building roof to connect all outside cameras to poe switch + ubiquiti antenna. Drill several holes at the bottom, cover up with a 12v extractor brushless fan. Used an splitter to power the fan

 

[biggen]

I'm also in Florida like @bigredfish and have a PoE switch mounted in a NEMA enclosure on a 40' billboard. Runs a couple cameras and a Ubiquity Nanobeam PTP link. Its been mounted for over 5 years now and I've never serviced it. I think I have gone up in a bucket lift once or twitce and opened up the box just to check on things and was surprised on how clean it was. No bugs at all.

The enclosure I use is a vented and powered enclosure:

https://www.l-com.com/nema-enclosures-18x16x8-inch-120-vac-vented-weatherproof-enclosure

You can get enclosures that have fans in them but I positioned the enclosure to be in the shade 100% of the time. That takes a lot of heat off of it.

 

[Jono83]

Thanks guys! Great advice / discussion.

The comments are in line with my thoughts as well. I'll post back as we make progress here in Vegas so we can all have another data point

 

[Jono83]

Well I am learning more about what our HOA has done in the past and what is currently being installed (done before my time) for our HOA entrance security system.
The HOA selected a security vendor who is putting in:
1) a Nemo 4 enclosure with an AC/heating component from a company I believe called "mirror" (not sure if I have that spelling / pronunciation right on the ac unit for the nemo enclosure)
2) Geo Vision NVR with 6Tb storage (storage I believe is from Geo Vision
3) we apparently have 4 Geo Vision camera's already that are not being replaced (trying to figure out what those camera models are)

Of course the vendor is claiming Geo Vision much better than the "china crap, like Dahua, etc". Is Geo Vision a reliable mfg for NVRs, cameras? I know everyone has their personal favorite but just trying to get a general idea is Geo Vision reliable, cost competitive, technically right up there, etc.? Is Geo Vision software good enough?

Anybody heard of "mirror" as a mfg of ac units for nemo enclosures? maybe I completely missed on the name "mirror" so I am trying to verify the specifics.

 

[looney2ns]

Geo Vision is made in Taiwan.

 

[Jono83]

Thanks looney, kind of what I figured. What's not made in Asia Pac these days!

Is Geo Vision good enough if that's what I am inheriting? As far as NVR, software, camera's from a reliability and accessing stored video perspective?

 

[Jono83]

correction to my post on spelling, its a "Mier" unit not a "Mirror" unit. Our HOA has already ordered a Mier air conditioned & heated Nema 4 enclosure. Probably something like this (but I'm trying to get specific model numbers) Mier Products BW-1248ACHTW | Air-Conditioned & Heated (ACHT) (alldataresource.com)

So the "train has left the station with our HOA ordering" so to speak. Hopefully the GeoVision NVR system and software is at least in the "good enough category" when it comes to reliability and ease of use in searching for recorded events.