Hi,
I’m just moving to the VA area and am near the end of having a home built.
Goals:
1. have a exterior camera system that will cover all entryways and have a decent nightvision capability.
2. Either go with an NVR (most likely) or something similar to
blue iris.
3. From what I’ve read, turret style is where it’s at, so naturally I’d prefer that.
4. Cameras to be metal, weatherproof, and as vandal resistant as possible without having to degrade image quality (domes).
5. If there is a package that has four cameras I could also throw the fourth one in the garage facing out, but not a requirement.
6. The battle between 2mp and 4mp when it comes to night time images goes over my head a bit. I understand the difference of sensor size 2.8mm vs 4mm and the clear difference is size due to mp. But I can’t really relate how those affect the IR ability.
7. Wanting to spend $500-600 for the three cameras and the nvr if possible.
What I’m coming into this with:
A. I had the exterior wired for Cat6 at three major points:
1. Corner of front porch (under roof and protected by side as well)
2. Back left of house (face back door) (2nd story height)
3. Back right of house (was supposed to be on the side but no suffit, so I’m going to have to work out a weird bracket or corner mount somehow to avoid going to to the sidewall)(2nd story height)
B. The rest of the house is wired with cat 6 as well. I will have my ASUS ac3200 router in the office. This will connect to the “hub” of the rest of the cabling in laundry room. Also this router has option for VPN for entire network. I also have a subscription to “private internet access” vpn.
C. Inside laundryoom panel is a nighthawk 8 port managed gaming switch. Will connect the rest of the house.
D. To the right of the panel has the three exterior camera connections.
E. I have a Honeywell security system installed that has some z-wave connections, but I’m wanting to keep these two separate unless it’s highly recommended otherwise.
I intend to buy and uninterrupted power supply for nvr and switch (in laundry room).
I have an iMac, not sure if blue iris would run well on this.
Open to all advice and recommendations.
Welcome Dtsub,
I would recommend getting junction boxes also for the cameras seeing that it maybe a challenge to stuff the
cat5e connections back into the wall/eaves, I found junction boxes to be very useful and worth the money.
Also I suspect you will eventually want more cameras and at different locations, as cameras which are high are very poor for IDing suspects. Some well known and experience people here have mentioned expect to use 6-8 cameras to get decent coverage for a modest home.
Thus at this time you want to confirm your camera locations and see if there are scenes which you have overlooked.
It's easy to get swamped with information here, so I wanted to share some notes with you
Please check out
@giomania 's notes:
Dahua Starlight Varifocal Turret (IPC-HDW5231R-Z)
I have also made notes which are a summary of a lot of the reading I've been doing here,:
Looking for some advice and direction!
Have fun joining us here.
=== my notes from another forum ===
How many cameras do I need?
That's a difficult question to give a good answer to as it varies depending on the quality of the camera and what you are attempting to accomplish. I have seen 32 cameras in just one pharmacy, so you should not be shy about installing more cameras than you initially imagined.
For a modest house expect decent coverage with 6-8 good cameras. For better coverage and / or larger houses / buildings plan on getting a system which can support up to 16+ cameras.
Recommended Locations for outside cameras:
( For modest sized houses cameras can cover multiple areas - example one of the front of the house cameras can cover parking area, expect to use 6-8 cameras for a modest size home. )
2x for front of house
1-2x covering car parking area if outside
1-2x covering front entrance
2x covering side of house ( one on each side )
2x covering back of house
1-2x covering each entrance
1-2x covering sidewalk / street in an attempt to ID vehicles ( you may need a better "zoom" for this camera )
Recommended - optional
- locations for indoor cameras: ( If wiring a new house add cat5e/cat6 connections even if you decide not to include cameras )
1x camera per each entrance
1x camera in the garage
1x cameras hidden facing out from the TV/media center area at face level
Addition DIY installation notes:
1) Bench test all security camera systems before installing to determine if you are happy with their performance. Test both day light conditions as well as night time / low light conditions.
2) test the view in the locations you plan to place the cameras before running your wiring, you may need to adjust the location a bit. A gopro on a stick, or your cell phone on a selfie stick can be useful here. You can also run temporary wiring to the location and use the phone app and view the cameras in realtime to adjust the view. Remember to take account of the FOV ( 88 degrees for these cameras ) of the cameras you plan to install - it will be different than your cell phone or gopro camera.
To obtain better night time images try to minimize the view of surfaces which will bounce the IR light back to the camera and negatively affect the night time exposure. ( reduce the view of walls, roof over hangs, fascia, soffits, .. )
3) If you plan to use the cameras to potentially ID suspects, place the camera(s) lower than 8ft covering potential entry ways. Also remember the spec for IDing purposes is 100+ppf. Thus wide FOV cameras have shorter ID distances. A 4K camera will have 2x the distance to ID compared to a like 2MP / 1080P camera ( given both captures same quality of pixels ).
4) keep the wiring bundle protected from the elements by either pushing it back into the wall / attic area or use a junction box ( for this model please see the reference above ) I used silicone tape such as the following to help keep the water out of the connections
https://www.harborfreight.com/1-i...61414.html
5) recommend getting a 1000ft bulk cat5e/cat6 cable from monoprice ( watch them for sales during weekends, get solid copper ) and the appropriate
tools to crimp RJ45 ends to the cables - this will allow you to drill smaller holes during your installation. ( otherwise you will need 3/4"+ holes ) [
DO NOT buy CCA (Copper Clad Aluminum) wire - it is a fire hazard ]
6) Have a friend help you with the wiring pulls
Bench Testing, What do I need to do?:
You want to test to be certain that everything is working from the kit.
Connect the NVR and cameras up and power up all devices, view at night and day time, see if focus is OK, IR lights work, colors good during daytime. Test each port of the NVR. You can then also play with possible locations and positioning of your cameras before finalizing your wiring. You may also want to test the configuration and settings of the NVR at this time.
Test the LNR6826K kit ( NVR: LNR6100 / LNR6108, 6x 4K PoE cameras LNB8005 ) on screen display ( OSD ) live view, try both a computer monitor and 4K TV if you have one. There have been reports of lag on live viewing w/screens attached to the NVR, so you will want to determine if that is acceptable or if you should be purchasing a higher model kit, or more powerful NVR, or using a i5/i7 PC running Blue Iris. Reports that live viewing directly from the cameras work well. Remember, the value of the cameras alone is significant and thus you will still have a deal if you decide to use these cameras with another recording / display system.
New Construction additional notes:
- Before the drywall goes up is the most affordable time to add wiring. Pull wires to all locations you may use - better to over do it now than under do it.
- Pull N+1+ cat5e/cat6 wires to each location, N=the number you plan to use, pull at least one extra line.
- Remember to add wiring for alarms, extra electrical sockets to support your security cameras, media center, data center ( that's where your switch, NVR, NAS will be ), as well as the front entrance, wifi access points and routers, voice control units like Echo Dot, speaker/audio wiring,..
- Pull electrical and several cat5e/cat6 lines to your front gate area. ( 2 sets of underground conduit is best - one for electrical the other data/cat5e/cat6 )
- Plan for the option to install video intercom / video doorbell by the front door and gate. ( example of such a product http://www1.dahuasecurity.com/pro...-7391.html ) Plan for future upgrades as this tech is changing quickly.
- Have the electricians install METAL boxes - I have seen too many subcontractors and later tenants break plastic gang boxes.
- Inspect the job site regularly - even daily, Inspect for straightness and squares, many subcontractors measure only once...
- Consider hiring an independent inspector to help you.
- "Wireless connections are for devices that run on batteries. Everything that can be wired should be. Save yourself and others from years of connectivity problems and run network cables to your office, bedrooms, media center, and locations where you want to install wifi access points. Unless you like slow speeds and intermittent connections." - from another forum
