X10 Community Forum
📸Cameras & Camera Software => Legacy non Wi-Fi X10 Cameras => Camera General Discussion => Wireless Cameras(non IP) => Topic started by: Fletch55 on November 27, 2009, 02:58:01 PM
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Ok i bought a 6 camera wireless x10 setup came with motion sensors, pc viewing and . It came with 3 color cameras 3 b/w cameras, a motorized base,a tv setup and soo on.. I hooked it all up did the driver for the pc first. Now heres what I get. The motorized base moved to the left when first plugged in and yet to move since. I loaded all 6 cameras on the computer all have A 1-6 selected on them and all are rcognbized in the pc and software. The controls for the motorised base show up but the camera doesnt repspond.The images for the cameras is at best like trying to watch scrambled tv channels while squinting. If 2 cameras are in the same room you get dual layered static images from both cameras at the same time. My business is an old 2 story house so I have the recievers on the first floor with 2 cameras on that floor 2 in the basment area and 2 upstairs all are viewable except rolling static scrambled images. Whn all plugged in I no longer get a wi fi signal on my belkin wireless N+_ router. If i disconnect my signal comes back.Never had this issue until adding these.The audio you get is just feedback noise and squelching. these are 2.8 frequency and phoines are all 5.8 or 6.0. Anyways to fix this or are these just junk products and need to be returned. Cheap baby moniter work better thewn these lol..I also will have to go buy my own battery power adapters as I bought these as wireless but they only came with plugs no battery adapter so they have to be tehered to an outlet which isnt wireless but since no viewable image or working controls thats my least worries..any idea before I box this junk back up??
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If 2 cameras are in the same room you get dual layered static images from both cameras at the same time.
Sounds like you have two cameras on at the same time. The X10 setup turns OFF cameras in the group-of-four. You might want to read a bit at the X10 wiki: http://kbase.x10.com/wiki/Multiple_Camera_System_Setup
I no longer get a wi fi signal on my belkin wireless N+_ router. If i disconnect my signal comes back. Never had this issue until adding these.
That can happen. The cameras have "channels" A-D make sure all cameras and video receivers use the same channel... but try changing to a different channel.
Cheap baby moniter work better thewn these lol..
And many also work on the same 2.4ghz as your cameras.... humm
I also will have to go buy my own battery power adapters as I bought these as wireless but they only came with plugs no battery adapter so they have to be tehered to an outlet which isnt wireless
I have flaslights that are "completely wireless"... but they also won't run all night before the battery dies. You will find the same with battery operated cameras.
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Do NOT substitute a power adapter. The ones supplied with the cameras are addressable as you may have seen the dials on them.
They are setup so when one goes on the others go off. If more than one camera is on. They will cause interference with each other.
Sounds like part of your problem is more than one on at a time.
Did you get any controller that sends an X10 power line signal to control the power supplies?
What was the model number of the PC Adapter?
Did you receive any transceivers? Like a TM751?
X10 does make a battery adapter. It is not addressable and only one camera can be used as it can not be turned on and off remotely and has a mechanical on off switch. Also the set of four AA batteries is rated to last four hours.
Yes the router and cameras maybe sharing the same 2.4 GHz frequency range. Besides trying the four channels on the cameras. Some have also had to set their router channel to a different one. 2.4 GHz phones can also be a problem. Some microwave ovens also.
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I guess I just bough the wrong company product as I wanted a completely wireless system where all cameras are on at same time and they can auto cycle on a screen, be used with non wired power, can be controlled online and have a clear image without router interference as claimed on the site I bought... I did find that replacing all the cheap rca a/v cords that come with the system with good thick gold plated ends made alot of the static go away. i also found that making sure the video recievers wer at least 25 feet from the computer or tv would help and that making a large foil dish like reciever over the little plastic ones made the picture viewable still jumpy but can see things and identify them now. As far as not using batteries on them I had some in the past from x10 and battery packs worked fine and came as a secondary option. My other cameras I have run about 10 days per 9volt battery so 3 batteries a month for 24 hour pure wireless as I dont have outlets where the cameras need to be so I guess calling them wireless at this point was just false.The site claimed crystal clear pictures and even has a whole paragrapgh on how these do not interfere with a wireless router which is wrong unless the router is at least 20 feet from any camera or reciever and well having 2 or more cameras on the smae floor of the building you just get double images as you cant adjust to seperate freeguency in the 2.8 range so nothing can do and yes I have the little white box with antenna plugged in to cycle cameras but doesnt help... I am hoping that Dave_x10_L isnt an employee of x10 as his comment about flash lights using batteries in regards to a customers legit questioning of x10 claims is way off base and in my profession he would be relieved of his job.The router and phones are all not on the 2.8 frequency and yet I have found no way to make the remote controlled base to work other then I said when plugged in it will turn all the way to the left then thats it cant be controlled or tilted or panned via the pc comand..
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The Ninja Pan and Tilt base uses direct RF signals from a camera remote or USB sender connected to the PC.
If the base is not in RF distance of the control. It will not do a thing. Sounds like the first time you powered it up. It did a self center waiting for commands. If it ran all the way to the left and is stuck. It maybe defective or something is sending a constant Left Command. If you have more than one Ninja. The addressable power supply that selects the camera also turns the base on and off. If two bases are on. Both will try and Pan and Tilt.
We are all volunteers here, except for a rare visit by an X10 Employee.
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Well I have 1 ninja pan and I do have the pc desktop usb sender. They are about 6 feet apart direct line of site just nothing happens. It was the first camera I setup with no others even plugged in..All controls for the camera tilt pan zoom or whatever are greyed buttons in the web program and it came with a physical remote but that has no effect either so Im going to gues its just another faulty piece in a bad system. I have decided to just return it and buy working system elsewhere as so far nothing works as claimed and support direct from x10 is sketchy at best.
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.... I have decided to just return it and buy working system elsewhere
Sometimes returning the product is best. Although X10 pioneered the home security camera business and is likely still the largest seller... these systems aren't for everyone. The setup is DIY and does require a little hands on. They aren't out-of-the-box setups.
I've reviewed your posts... and they are all just complaints. I can't guess if you took the time to search the forum to find solutions for your problems. But I certainly don't see where you've asked for help ether. It is rare that someone who makes a effort to setup their cameras don't get satisfactory results.
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All this brings up a good point; everything I ever saw in X10 lit said cameras in 'groups of 4.' So say we have them as g1,g2,g3,&g4. If we pick camera g1, it comes on. then we pick g2 by clicking on the g2 camera icon in ahp. I expect to see g1 OFF then g2 ON sent (watching F2 activity monitor). what is actually sent is G OFF then G2 ON - most of the time - back to this is a second....
So guess this is why the 'groups of 4' is NOT a limitation and we can use more than 4 and it most of the times turns off the previous camera before turning on the next one. I have 9 cameras and most of the time it switches correctly; so by having all cameras on the same house code here the simple G off (in my case) turns off the last camera turned on.... Never saw this written anywhere, just the talk of 'groups of 4 cameras' like that is the max supported in ahp.... Of course the little 4 camera remote can only do 4 at a time but that still works with my 9 camera system here.
Back to the works 'most of the time' comment above..... I think ahp sends the G OFF milliseconds before the Gx ON; result is my required smarthome http://www.smarthome.com/4816B2/SignaLinc-trade-Plug-In-Phase-Coupler/p.aspx stomps on the two commands with it repeat function and sometimes only the last one gets thru; hence the 2 cameras on at the same time.... as I think this thru and write it down, it seems to me I will try adding camera off command then 3 sec timer in my macros BEFORE selecting next one to turn on - at least my motion activated snap shots might be better...
anyone else try this?
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... what is actually sent is G OFF then G2 ON ...
So guess this is why the 'groups of 4' is NOT a limitation and we can use more than 4 and it most of the times turns off the previous camera before turning on the next one. anyone else try this?
Very interesting mike.
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sorta but not optimum..... it takes ahp like 15 sec to turn each camera off individually then turn on the RIGHT one..... too long!
I can't seem to find a way to send "G OFF" which is all that is needed! so i am using 'all lites off' command since i have all cameras in the same 'room' called cameras...
anyone know a way to send something like G OFF?
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In the macro window, if you scroll down where you see the delay, you will see a control for each house code. Drag your house code to your macro and then you can select "All Units Off".
Just to add a comment about the "group of 4" topic: This is by design of the camera's addressable power supplies. For example, if you have cameras on G1, G2, G3 and G4 and issue a G2 ON command, The power supplies set to G1, G3 & G4 see this commands as being within their group of 4 and turn themselves off automatically. If you had a 5th camera set to G5, that camera would ignore the G2 ON command because it is outside of its group of 4 and therefore will not automatically turn itself off.
I know AHP does handle cameras differently. The group of 4 was primarily for a system that was not under software control.
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thanks for pointing me down past delay! I feel like star trek - going where no man has gone before! never had reason to look down there before! That did solve it - now all camera's off takes about sec - thanks!
Also thanks for history lesson the group of 4 - makes more sense now why they still say that. Watching activity monitor I see that they solve more than 4 cameras now by letting you put effectively upto 16 on a system and ahp indeed now sends G OFF command just before sending G2 ON for that camera. So this added all code off that you pointed me to gets me more pix and less fuzz as it is just a 2nd try to make sure the last camera actually turns off. Works better. tnx
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.... I feel like star trek - going where no man has gone before!
Yes... we all know that feeling. For many of us here at the forum... this is our only contact with other X10 users. But with the support of the X10 community and useful infromation from users like Puck... we can boldly go forward with our projects.
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Well Dave I will have to disagree and say obviously you havent read my posts or you can clearly see I asked for help and suggestions after stating my issues and concerns. There were a few idea that were given and I responded after trying thos so not sure what you qualify as a question or response. As stated no 2.4 anything in my building.All cams on same house channel and I have gone through A-I and tried to use the different A-D channels on the reciever base. i also attempted to fine tun each camera with its slider switch. Still images from any camera more then 8 feet away is like watching the old scrambled HBO signalls with static, lines and bits and pieces of images. The setup came a a 6 camera package with 3 color and 3 b/w . one ninja pan which i now have working just had to make sure that was no more then 8 feet away. Images still overlay each camera or will randomly show the other camers like i might get a bit of picture on camera 2 then all of the sudden an new blurred image from camera 6 shows up instead. If yu put 2 cameras within 8 feet of each other then you get a mess and they cancel each other and black screen with lines comes on.I have followed the install guid exactly per the manuals and it doesnt help. I asked for other solutions as to why they max out at 8 feet from the rciever when its claimed over 100 fett in direct line and so far no real answer but a few who think they are funny and remark about its not ready to go..yes I know this I am an IT networking technition with a background in wireless networking so its not an unfamilar area for me. I have tested my cheap little closed circuit cmos cameras in the same place and all work crystal clear from all 3 floors no interference and yes they use an optional 9v battery pack that lasts for weeks. I also found out on the camera closest to the reciever if I use a surge protctor I can get a clear image if I use the wall outlet direct it goes blank or blurred. The house was just gutted and redone so has all fresh electrical installed though out with all wires in conduit...so now with your expertise and commenting what would you do to solve this other then the comments I already got tried and responded to??
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Well Dave I will have to disagree and say obviously you havent read my posts or you can clearly see I asked for help and suggestions after stating my issues and concerns.
I have read your complaints... and I hear your frustration. I still don't know what your using to control the cameras... a TM751 and a palmpad? A CM19A and software? I am just a customer like yourself... I don't know what you've bought... no one here does.
All cams on same house channel and I have gone through A-I and tried to use the different A-D channels on the reciever base. i also attempted to fine tun each camera with its slider switch.
X10 devices use the X10 PLC (powerline command) protocol. There is no "house channel". X10 has House and Unit codes. Your cameras should be set on the same house code (the A-I letter) and then on individual numbers in a group of four. The first camera would be on the number 1, the second on 2, then 3, and 4.
There is no "fine tune slider switch" ether. Under the rubber plug on each camera is the channel selector switch. The channels are A-D. These are the channels that the cameras can broadcast on. The The video receiver must be set to the same channel as the cameras.
what would you do to solve this other then the comments I already got tried and responded to??
I would try reading more. Start with the directions that came with the stuff you bought. Countless thousands of people have setup these cameras. You can too. Take your time and try getting ONE camera to work properly first.... follow the step-by-step directions that came with the cameras.
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What module did you get to receive the RF commands from the USB Adapter? TM751; RR501? Without a power line control signal you would never be able to turn one camera on as the others go off.
Yes there are groups of four cameras. Same House Code A-P. Unit codes 1-4;5-8;9-12 and 13-16. Turn one on the other three go off. To have more than four cameras it looks like the software sends an Off to the house code turning the camera off. Then it turns on the camera chosen to be on.