DIY home security DVR
 

Bear with me, this post became a lot longer than I had imagined but the information is really good.

My post for a DIY home DVR generated a lot of interest, both in the thread and from the PM's that I received, so I decided to create a new thread on it so everyone can benefit from it and we can have a group discussion.

Here is the parts list:

Cameras
Security Labs SLC-130S black and white outdoor camera
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16881617004

LTS LTCB246VMB10 480 TV Lines Night Vision Wide Angle Vari-Focal Camera
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16881381006


DVR
LTS LTD2316 16 x BNC H.264 Pentaplex DVR with VGA Output
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16881381060


Hard drive
HITACHI Deskstar 7K1000.C 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822145304


CD/DVD Burner
Samsung Black 22X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 16X DVD+R DL 22X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA DVD Burner LightScribe Support - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827151188


Integrated video/power cables
LTS LTS006BNCPB 60' All-In-One Video & Power Cable
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16881381016


Power supply
LTS LTPB9F10DUW8 Power Supply 9 channels
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16881381012



First let me say I did some research on the "off the shelf" models like the ones everyone have seen at BestBuy, CostCo, etc., and the biggest complaint with them is the cameras. Honestly, the cameras are everything when it comes to having a home security DVR. Most of them have decent daytime clarity, however the nighttime clarity is where they suffered. Some couldn't record objects or people beyond 20 feet, and mounting them up high eats up so much of the recording distance that it would be almost impossible to see past the dash of the vehicle in the driveway ..... and this means all you would see, at most, is a shadow stealing your car or truck from your own driveway. The second issue I had with them was the small hard drives installed in these units. Being able to record alot of video was important to me, because I can review it to make sure we don't have someone casing the neighborhood (same car/person at various times kind of thing) or worry about how much recording time is available.

The DVR is a 16 channel unit so I've got some expansion if I choose to use it and an additional channel strictly for audio, plus connectors for motion sensing/alarm horn. I'm not concerned about audio so it wasn't a priority for me, nor will I hook up an outdoor microphone to it. For the sake of security, I won't say how many video cameras I'm currently running but I am running several, and with the 1TB hard drive I have about 6 weeks worth of video recording capability, and once all the cameras are installed I'm looking at just under 3 weeks of video recording capability. The included software was easy to use and walks you through formatting the drive, setting up the options for recording, and even labeling your cameras (Front Door, Garage, Backyard1, Backyard2, etc.).

The Security Labs cameras are "bullet cams", meaning they are about the size of a grown man's thumb, not including the mount. These cameras (black and white video) came with their own power adapters and right now this is how I'm powering them. Later on when I centralize the DVR and setup the boxed power supply I'm going to run all the power for my cameras from there with a decent battery backup from APC. These cameras do not have night vision LED's, but will pick up light down to 0.5 LUX; I've tested them as a front door/front of the house camera and with ambient lighting from the neighborhood they work prefectly.

The LTS cameras are about the size of a can of soda pop (not including mounting bracket) and will be the ones I eventually use for the backyard. This model includes LED's for night recording out to 90 feet and this will cover my backyard very well. These cameras will turn on/off their LED's for night time operation and are supposed to switch from color recording in the daylight to black and white with the LED's on for night recording. The LED's used in this camera are not visible to the human eye, unlike some that are with their red ring around the lens. You may or may not experience insects clustering around the cameras as they can see the LED's and will be attracted to them.

Templates are included for drilling the holes for mounting and cabling to pass through the wall for both cameras, and wiring for power/video are hidden for both. Video quality for both are superb, however you might want to transfer video via CD/DVD or USB thumb drive to a home computer to really see the details. Running the playback on the DVR, the video quality looks really bad and I thought I had made a bad choice until I copied it over to my laptop and saw the difference.

The DVR also has the ability to connect to the internet so you can view videos, live feed or recorded, while you're away from home. You'll need to subscribe to a third party provider (DyDNS, etc.) so that you receive an e-mail with your IP address as residential internet service doesn't offer static IP addressing. These services are generally no cost/low cost so you'll need to decide if that is something you want to do.


I hope this answers most of your questions ...... and if not, just ask.




Kris

Wow, that's a really complete write-up, thanks! Nice job BTW.

Now if I could find a remote controlled up and down, 360 degree rotation weatherproof housing to put a camera in, I could do away with about 1/2 the amount of cameras I'd need! [laugh]

Kris, thanks for the very complete write up. It is much appreciated. Good job.

I have a system very similar to this myself. Also have a motion sensor set up to set off a little buzzer in my bedroom, if someone comes up into my driveway where I keep my vehicles parked outside (truck won't fit inside the garage). One of my cameras is set up to just look at my driveway, where the car and truck are parked. My monitor is my bedroom tv, with just a push of a button on the remote, brings up all my cameras up on one screen, or each camera separately. With the resolution that my cameras are using, I can save up about 3 and a half weeks of video on my dvr, and then it just starts re-recording over the oldest data. Had my system for almost two years, and never had any problems with it. Several times I've had my neighbors come to me and ask me to play back video on some of my cameras that cover my front yard and street, which covers some of their houses, because of problems they had with punk kids. And of course, my whole system is backed up by Gomer, the family Rottweiler! Oh, and by myself, with my trusty .45!

I do not know the quality, but Harbor Freight has a DVR set that I get coupons for...

http://www.harborfreight.com/4-chann...ras-67139.html

I see it in my weekly coupons for 100 bucks off from time to time.

Thanks Kris, for the writeup. I have two interests here, system building and CCTV so I hope you don't mind me chopping this up a bit to ask a few questions. Both true statements. Will you post sample pictures of your output both day and night, with and without a person in the frame? I wonder if the software is available separately as I build my own computers from the empty box up. Could you provide the software name and version information? (labeling isn't an issue as I know where I pointed my cameras)If you can get good images without LEDs, great. Please post samples of these too. That may give you a warm fuzzy, but there is a REAL easy way to make those LEDs very visible too, and most of the crooks are aware of it. Once you have it installed, go out there at night and take a picture of it with your cell cam and post that too. Does the DVR have the ability to reside on your home network?
Back to morning brew. . . [coffee]

thanks brother! I am going to start building my system and let the games begin!

I've got a picture but its buried in my e-mail so let me see what I can do. I'm overseas so I'll ask my little techie at home (my oldest) to see if he can send me some video clips and screen shots. We got this primarily for safety while I'm away, but also because I have a neighbor that needed the sheriff to come out and explain that raising his fist to my wife is assault. We filed the report and he spent most of the five weeks I was home hiding like the coward that he is, and just in case he wants to get stupid while I'm back over here all we need to do is turn over the video to the sheriff and DA and he goes away for a while.



Yes, the software is available for a PC based version but you have to buy it with the controller card for the cameras. IIRC, its cost was almost as much as the DVR itself. The DVR is much more user friendly versus setting up the software to run as a service, because sometimes Windows services don't start up properly and it wasn't something I wanted to troubleshoot 12 thousand miles from home.



I'll see if I can have him send me video clips/pics and post them, and have him take pictures with our digital camera and his iTouch to see if the LED's show up.



Yes, but I'm not using these features yet. Once I do it will reside in a DMZ so that I can access it from both the home network and from a public IP address. It was one of those "must have" features that I was looking for and runs through a web interface.




Kris

Umm, one of the cheap Lorex camera models does just about what you were describing but I know what you really want. Fess up, you want a rotational camera that can fire 50cal rounds at what its pointed at.

You will need a good PTZ camera, they are not cheap, you can get them with a good optical zoom.

The one I am waiting for is going to cost me $1200.00

http://www.dvrmaster.com/category-38...z-cameras.html

Something bigger actually. I need something that can take out 1/2 a trailer park with one well placed round.

Yes, that IS what I need!

I want in on this. I got a couple trailer parks in mind that need clearing. Where's a tornado when you need it?

$1200? Wow, let's think this one out. A PTZ (Pan/Tilt/Zoom) can be 'better' than a fixed camera under 4 basic conditions;

1. You are going to be able to sit there (or have someone sit there) and control the camera (local or network) whenever you think its important (like 24/7)
2. You want to use the PTZ for watching different things at different times (you park your target truck in different areas of your yard each night, so you move your cam each night)
3. You have Video Analytics, software that will drive the PTZ to follow suspected targets
4. You want to put the PTZ in "Tour" mode, where it moves to here, there or wherever you want it, constantly, as you have programmed it to do

There are pluses and deltas for each. A plus for all is the great dome it is mounted in. The camera is heated, no fogging issues.

For #1, nobody is going to sit there 24/7 to watch. If you expect to wake up to an alarm then try to control the cam, you might have already missed all the action.

For #2, its a pain to do this every time you park somewhere different and eventually you will miss a night, or two, or a week, or two...

For #3, VA could be expensive depending on the sophistication of the software. Still, imagine the PTZ moving to follow some guy walking by, away from the truck till the truck is out of the frame, then someone doin your truck...

For #4, this will give an overall view of your yard, but if something is happening at your truck, it will only catch it if the PTZ happens to be pointed there. If you had 4 target areas, then it is watching one of them less than 25% of the time (count PTZ delays) and then, is it at the right zoom level?

Alternatives? Always. Fixed cameras are cheaper. How many fixed cameras with the correct lenses (wide angle for the 'big' picture, and zoom for ID purposes) can you install to get the whole picture all the time? Are the fixed cameras going to work in Wisconsin when there is no Red in the thermometer?

Then there is the 'way different' alternative. You might have seen that cop program on TV where they park a bait car somewhere and let it get stolen by some dirt bag. Well, you could also mount a couple IP cams in the truck and let them run wirelessly to your DVR in the house or garage. Someone breaks in, you have close ups of what dirt-bag did it. If they end up stealing the truck, the video in in the house/garage.

Anyway, things to think/chat about before spending big bucks on one single camera.

What you need is on of these mounted high atop a nearby hill.

I currently have 13 cameras on my system watching every side of my house with prices ranging from around $150.00 to $400.00 each.

2) Front door,
1) Back door,
2) Cameras watch my truck from different angles in the driveway,
3) Cameras watch the front yard,
3) Cameras watch my back yard,
2) Cameras high atop a 20' mast watch the street and cross traffic approaching my house, 1) 12mm lens 280' IR and 1) 20mm lens 300' IR (where my PTZ is also going to be mounted)

Also for security reasons I cannot tell you exactly what is being covered but you might see something like this happened when you were not home.

http://gi245.photobucket.com/groups/...TreeBranch.jpg


$1200? Wow, let's think this one out. A PTZ (Pan/Tilt/Zoom) can be 'better' than a fixed camera under 4 basic conditions;
You are going to be able to sit there (or have someone sit there) and control the camera (local or network) whenever you think its important (like 24/7)
You want to use the PTZ for watching different things at different times (you park your target truck in different areas of your yard each night, so you move your cam each night)
You have Video Analytics, software that will drive the PTZ to follow suspected targets
You want to put the PTZ in "Tour" mode, where it moves to here, there or wherever you want it, constantly, as you have programmed it to do
There are pluses and deltas for each. A plus for all is the great dome it is mounted in. The camera is heated, no fogging issues.

For #1, nobody is going to sit there 24/7 to watch. If you expect to wake up to an alarm then try to control the cam, you might have already missed all the action.

My PTZ will be used mainly for hunting and following images that will have already been recorded by any of the stationary cameras, with a decent optical zoom used for recognition.

nobody is going to sit there 24/7 to watch.

Do not surprise yourself, I have been working in security systems for years and when I installed my systems my wife thought I was overreacting, you will be surprised what is going on around you and dangerous situations you did not know existed.

Like if your wife is home alone during the day and you never knew some guy had been sitting in his car for over an hour at the end of the block.

We are up at any hour of the night checking if the motion detector goes off on one of the cameras.

I am sitting here right now at my computer and I can see completely around my house down the street and the cross street about 1000 feet away by looking at the monitor on either side of my computer screen, yes at 3:00 A.M.

I also have multiple monitors, besides the master, I have 2 slaves, 1) on the bedroom wall opposite the TV and
1) In the living room that can be seen from the kitchen.

For #2, its a pain to do this every time you park somewhere different and eventually you will miss a night, or two, or a week, or two...

You always have at least 2 cameras viewing an important target, wide angle and close up.

To enhance the images, have some floodlights on a motion detector on the target to illuminate the area when someone approaches.

You can have the motion detecting zones of the DVR trip your floodlights by using wireless home automation modules.

For #3, VA could be expensive depending on the sophistication of the software. Still, imagine the PTZ moving to follow some guy walking by, away from the truck till the truck is out of the frame, then someone doin your truck...


For #4, this will give an overall view of your yard, but if something is happening at your truck, it will only catch it if the PTZ happens to be pointed there. If you had 4 target areas, then it is watching one of them less than 25% of the time (count PTZ delays) and then, is it at the right zoom level?

This is why you have as many fixed cameras as you can afford, PTZ's are for a special purpose and should not take the place of fixed cameras unless you have a lot of money to spend.
Most PTZ's do not have IR's for night but are designed to operate at a very low lux.

Alternatives? Always. Fixed cameras are cheaper. How many fixed cameras with the correct lenses (wide angle for the 'big' picture, and zoom for ID purposes) can you install to get the whole picture all the time? Are the fixed cameras going to work in Wisconsin when there is no Red in the thermometer?

You can replace the lens on almost any camera, box cameras are available and you can add any lens configuration you need including auto iris and zoom but for these you will need to install them in an outdoor housing which can also have environmental protection such as heater, air conditioner and a windshield wiper.

Extreme environmental housings can keep them operating from sub freezing to extremely hot.

If you need them, you can also get nitrogen charged bullet proof housings, explosion proof housings.


Then there is the 'way different' alternative. You might have seen that cop program on TV where they park a bait car somewhere and let it get stolen by some dirt bag. Well, you could also mount a couple IP cams in the truck and let them run wirelessly to your DVR in the house or garage. Someone breaks in, you have close ups of what dirt-bag did it. If they end up stealing the truck, the video in in the house/garage.

Anyway, things to think/chat about before spending big bucks on one single camera.

I am planning on a mobile DVR for my truck much like the ones on police cars with at least front and rear camera and have it use wi-fi to download to my server when I am parked in my driveway.

Like anything else if you want something good you are going to have to pay for it, there are a lot of low grade equipment on the market now for the consumer that you will not be happy with, expect to pay at least $150.00 and up for a decent IR camera and around the same for a box camera and then another $50.00 to $300.00 for the lens.

Stay away from anything wireless unless you absolutely need it like mounted on a distant pole where you cannot run cables.

Do secure your unit somewhere inside a strong box or locked closet so if the intruder does get in they do not steal your system.

At one of my installations, I had 2 of the cameras stolen off the mast.

In the ugly world it is common for dope heads to steal the cameras and use them to protect their drug house to see when the cops are coming.

I see people in Fry's buying cheap cameras that they want to put in their mom and pop stores and I try to discourage them because when you are going to need the video after you just got robbed the images will usually be unusable.

Monitors:
For the best images you will need to get a High Resolution CRT monitor the image will be far better that with an LCD.

Cables:
I make my own cables using good copper core RG-59 75 ohm cable I get in 500' rolls power is carried on a separate 16-gauge cable.

Power Supplies:
I tried using a power supply like the one listed but found it would not support all of my cameras at night when the IR's were on so I made my own using 2) NES 200-12 Mean Well industrial power supplies mounting them in my own enclosure.

http://www.meanwell.com/search/nes-200/default.htm

Here are some of the cameras I am using.

http://www.elyssacorp.com/PDF_Cutshe...I-IR80_Cut.pdf

http://lorexstore.lorextechnology.co...t.aspx?id=2039

http://www.viewcamcctv.com/pdfs/VCT-IRI6420-520.pdf

http://www.viewcamcctv.com/pdfs/VCT-IR07380.pdf

This is the PTZ on my wish list.
http://www.viewcamcctv.com/pdfs/VCT-PTZ37-550.pdf

The balance of cameras are of different vendors and chosen for their application.

Like everything else I do, I am constantly upgrading my system.

Yes even 940nm covert IR cameras can be spotted with any digital camera or camcorder, before all of the high tech toys came around they were impossible to detect without an infrared viewer.

Jim

Update:

Finally got my oldest to download some video from the DVR, but please give me some time to download it and prep it for posting.

He's been excited about passing his driver's ed class and got his permit in time for his 15th birthday, so he's been more focused on searching the web for "his truck".



Kris