Prev/Next


Fun for the whole Family:
www.fojin.com

"No, It's a vicious lie!"






Archives:

2014-Today
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002

January 19, 2016 - 10:23 p.m.
"new hd security cameras"

Hey Journal!

This morning I got up at 8:00, got ready, and made it to work around 9:00. I brought the stuff I had ordered on Amazon to work with me and when I arrived I got started on installing our new camera system.

I was eager to see how it worked and see how well the HD quality cameras really looked but I couldn't get started until I did a few less exciting tasks first. See, the old cameras required 24 volts of power and the new ones require 12 volts. The cameras get their power from these transformer box things that are on the wall in our security room. We have three of them and there are far more slots of power than there are cameras so I have no idea why it was set up the way it was.

I removed one of the boxes... the one which had the least amount of connections. I installed the new 12 volt transformer in it's place and then I was ready to get started.

I decided to start with the kitchen cameras because they were the easiest to reach and I figured it would be a good start. I had to identify which power cord belonged to which camera so that I could move it from the 24 to the 12 volt box and I had to use the process of elimination by disconnecting them one by one and then watching to see which camera went off!

There were a lot of wires that didn't have any effect at all and, the best guess I have is that they were controlling cameras that had been abandoned at some point long ago. Once I'm done setting up all the important cameras I'm going to try to go back and see if I can trace some of the ones that we haven't used in years and possible use them again.

It's just such a tedious process because all of the wires in that room are like spaghetti. They're all tangled and it's so hard to follow them or even move them around.

So, I eventually got the two kitchen cameras identified, switched to the new voltage, and installed the new cameras. They look GREAT. I was really impressed with the quality! It's like night and day compared to the old system!

One by one I replaced the cameras and I did the second floor camera, three in the basement, and then the one in the foyer.

The foyer one was a little trickier because I had a lot of trouble figuring out how it was powered. Every other camera in the building is connected to the basement adapters and this one wasn't. I'd unplug them all and this camera would stay on. I couldn't figure it out. I traced the wire back -- along the wall in the foyer, into the closet, and into the mens' bathroom! I followed it down the wall and into a shaft with lots of electrical conduits. I found it in the basement and saw it cross the hallway... and still couldn't figure out what was going on.

Finally, I figured it out. It was plugged into the battery backup unit and was just connected to it's own separate adapter. I have no idea whatsoever why they did this but at least I had gotten to the bottom of this mystery. It took a while but I pulled that wire out of the spaghetti mess and got it up to the new transformer. Bam!

That was my last one of the day because I had so much to do and I had devoted the entire day up until that point to the cameras.

I feel like I was able to get a lot accomplished today but, unfortunately, there's a lot more left to do!

The new DVR is really great and you can even zoom in to the cameras and it's clearer than the old ones even when zoomed all the way in!

The only problem I really have to solve now is how to set up the TV. We NEED our security cameras on the TV so we can know what's going on in the building. It's only been one day and I was going crazy without them. The problem is that the analog cameras can be easily split and fed into the multiplexer but these digital cameras are completely different and I have no way of splitting the stream and the multiplexer can't even read the signal. So, basically, we're screwed!

After I finished up with the cameras for the day I had my lunch. I got a pasta with garlic sauce and ate at the bar.

When I was done, had to crank out some office stuff. I got some bills paid and went through the mail. Though it doesn't sound like all that much it was very time consuming and took up the rest of the day.

I stayed late at work today because Linda wanted to come by after work so that I could help her print the addresses on her wedding invitation envelopes! She e-mailed me her invitation list and I set up everything on the computer. I entered the size of the envelopes and set up the mail-merge and then we got to printing!

We got all of the addresses printed but then we had a problem with the inner envelopes! They were really thick and neither the little laser printer or the copier were working well on them. The toner wasn't bonding to the paper correctly and it was flaking off and smudging! Instead, we used the ink jet printer. Then, we ran into another problem. Linda wanted to print her return address on the back of the envelope and when we ran them through the printer it made the addresses smudge on the other side! It was quite a dilemma!

In the end, Linda bought a stamper from Staples and is going to put the return addresses on that way. I feel really bad because I wanted to help and wanted the invitations to come out perfectly and I feel like I let her down a little with that. I mean, it wasn't my fault and I did the best we could with what we had, but i still wish they had come out exactly the way she wanted them!

We left the golf course around 7:30 and I headed home. Dan had gotten home from work, went to the gym, got some dinner, and was just finishing eating when I got home. He also pre-heated the oven so I could have frozen pizza when I got home.

I took a quick shower and then, when I got out, I ate my pizza and we watched World News.

After that we watched tonight's episode of The Flash! We're saving Agent Carter's two-hour premiere for tomorrow since it's late!

And now it's time for bed... Until tomorrow...

Goodnight. :)