Yes they can. I have recently converted all mine.
NOTE: This mod will void the warranty and should only be done by those with experience and/or comfortable with performing these type of electrical modifications.
When you remove the bottom of the base you will see the 5 wires joining the camera to the RF transmitter:
- Black: Ground
- Blue: Signal Return
- Red: Power
- Yellow: Video
- White: Audio
You can cut these wires and attach a cable to them. Remember to leave enough wire to work with. The RF transmitter and antenna can then be removed since you will no longer need it. Standard 4-conductor phone cable works good since you can join the Blue & Black wires together.
Sorry I don't have any pictures; if I ever have to open one again I'll update this post.
Thanks for diagram! I am assuming this config will only work if you have analog cable and not digital going through a cable box, is that correct? I don't see how you would able to control the channels through a cable box. If I am wrong or there is a way around it, someone please let me know because I would love to try this out.
Thanks again Puck.
Also, even using there "outside" motion det, the Det would die in about a year.
Puck: Since I use my dedicated home automation PC's TV card to record (via a VCR Commander)?#2: TV card, are you using AHP with it, does AHP support it or are you using another capture software?
?#1: If the power is on the white line is this only for non-audio cameras or is the audio on another color wire?
The following were riding the fence on a new thread, but were in response to Puck's post here, so what to do.
Puck,QuotePuck: Since I use my dedicated home automation PC's TV card to record (via a VCR Commander)?#2: TV card, are you using AHP with it, does AHP support it or are you using another capture software?
?#3: How do you control the start recording through the TV card with the VCR Commander... I didn't think TV cards had IR receivers? I know they have a IR port to control other devices, but I don't think they can be controlled, or can they.
Hey KDR,
I purchased it back in May and have been running it ever since. It works as good as advertised. :)
With it's Output signal combined with the normal Cable TV signal (using a splitter backwards) I have not seen any signal degradation with the normal cable channels.
Since I am sending the signal throughout the house to 3 TV's and 4 PC's, I do use a cable booster amplifier after the combiner just because of the number of loads.
Here is a simplified schematic to show how everthing is connected:
(http://www.geocities.com/puckx10/mods/Camera/CameraWiring.jpg)
Puck Edit: added picture.
1.- If I cut all the cables inside the camera and run cables to the tv set how Do I select which camera want to see if I am not using the addresable relay or do I keep this funtion keeping original power supply ?otherwise if I run all the cables how do I select which camera to watch if have all the video signal tied ?
2.- video modulator is just for having a single signal running in all the tv sets in the house ?
1.- If I cut all the cables inside the camera and run cables to the TV set how Do I select which camera want to see if I am not using the addresable relay or do I keep this function keeping original power supply ?otherwise if I run all the cables how do I select which camera to watch if have all the video signal tied ?
When all the camera video signals are tied together you have to be able to turn on only one camera at a time. This can be done with the addressable power supply that comes with some cameras or use an appliance module for cameras with a regular power supply.Quote2.- video modulator is just for having a single signal running in all the TV sets in the house ?
I use a modulator to add my camera signals to the analog part of my house cable. I did this to have the ability to use any TV in my home as a monitor.
Thanks a lot for your quick response.I still have another question: same logic works for audio cable ? I f I decide to keep addressable power supply at the site where each camera is, I have to run just 2 cables instead of five one for the video and another for audio.this will allow me to turn any camera i want using original equipment provided by x10(my cameras bring video and audio) or I have some other advantage on having a remote power supply ? Which are my best options ?
This is great for TV Jack but I have no TV card in my PC or extra slot for one. Is there an easy way to take the cable coming out of the splitter and convert it to RCA plug? I would like to have both coax for 3 TV's and RCA plugs audio/video for 2 computers.
Hi bohica and welcome to the forum.
I changed mine to wired to eliminate the noise (visual as well as audible) with the wireless cameras. Too much interference from things like cordless phones (mine & most likely my neighbours), household obstacles, distance, direction, etc.
Result: clean video and only the sounds picked up by the cameras.
I used 4-wire phone cable since I had a lot of it already available. 6-wire with running separate grounds would be ideal.
I did use RJ11 connectors, but I made a junction box that these plugged into. This box joins the cameras signals together and distributes it with RCA cables to a Cable Modulator (http://www.smarthome.com/7764.html) which in turn distributes the signals to all house TVs & computers via the existing cable system on an unused channel.
How do you get from RJ11 to RCA cables?
Will I still need to use the power supplies that came with my wireless cams?
How do you get from RJ11 to RCA cables?
I used phone jacks that have the modular socket at front and wired connections at the back. I wired the jacks to RCA female connectors.QuoteWill I still need to use the power supplies that came with my wireless cams?
Yes you will; especially if you want to turn them on & off remotely.
Question 1
I need to wire 3 more cameras. When I do so, can I connect all yellow(video)wires to one male RCA connector and all white (audio)wires to one male RCA connector?
Question 2
Since I would have all the camera wires going to one central location (Laundry room in my case) what is the easiest way for me to go from the newly created RCA connectors to a TV (viewing only) and Laptop (for recording). Both TV and Laptop are located in separate rooms. I was hoping that I can connect to the TV coax connection and in my case connect to the Laptop or PC with the video capture device.
Question 1
I need to wire 3 more cameras. When I do so, can I connect all yellow(video)wires to one male RCA connector and all white (audio)wires to one male RCA connector?
Sure as long as the cameras are setup in a "group of four" only one camera will be on at a time anyway... should work perfectly.
Question 2
Since I would have all the camera wires going to one central location (Laundry room in my case) what is the easiest way for me to go from the newly created RCA connectors to a TV (viewing only) and Laptop (for recording). Both TV and Laptop are located in separate rooms. I was hoping that I can connect to the TV coax connection and in my case connect to the Laptop or PC with the video capture device.
I do that myself. I return all camera singals wired and wireless to one location. There I feed into my cable line as channel 3 using a modulator (for my office TV). I also resend the signal using the video sender/receiver units. Both work great.
Thanks for the information Dave. Can you tell which modulator you are using and where I can get it. ? Does your modulator have a coax output connection to the TV? You also mentioned that you use a video sender/receiver unit. Is this for sending the video to a PC. Can I get a wired to connection to both TV and PC. I am trying to reduce and type of interferance.
I attached the connector that I think you are refering too. Please correct me if I am wrong. Perhaps, thats why I am confused.
I just have my FloodCam left to do. Can I use the same wiring setup to convert the FloodCam?
By the way, in your instructions you used an RJ11 for each Cam, but I went directly to the RCA connector. Is there any special reason why you used the RJ11? Just curious as to whether I will get better results with your method.
How do you get from RJ11 to RCA cables?
I used phone jacks that have the modular socket at front and wired connections at the back. I wired the jacks to RCA female connectors.QuoteWill I still need to use the power supplies that came with my wireless cams?
Yes you will; especially if you want to turn them on & off remotely.
can you post a link for those phone jacks.....I dont understand
can you post a link for those phone jacks.....I dont understand
Here is a good picture example of the phone jacks modules I am referring to with the jack on one side and wire connections on the other: wall plate (http://www.national-tech.com/specs/wall-plate/301-02100iv.htm)
These can be found at Radio Shack or most home building supply stores.
That will leave me one extra as I am going to run two wired cameras to it, then I will have the video receiver receiving a signal from two wireless cams. Sound right?
That will leave me one extra as I am going to run two wired cameras to it, then I will have the video receiver receiving a signal from two wireless cams. Sound right?
Just make sure you have a way of shutting down the wireless video receiver when you want to view the wired cameras. If left on, it will interfere.
...or do I need to plug the video receiver into a lamp module so it will turn off when the wired camera turns on? (is that possible?)
I have Vanguard, I assume that that will do it
bronco: I just use the one modulator. I actually have 7 cameras that have all their videos tied together, as well as their audios tied together, to create just the one input to the modulator. I use motion sensors & AHP macros to control them so that only one camera will be on at any one time.
Since I use my dedicated home automation PC's TV card to record (via a VCR Commander), I needed all camera signals to appear on just one channel.
That modulator works so good, I plan on getting another to transmit the currently tuned digital TV channel to all the analog TV's as well.
Big deal, I just thought someone could use this info.
Puck - Do you have an example of the Macro you are using to turn on one camera at a time via appliance modules?
Puck - Do you have an example of the Macro you are using to turn on one camera at a time via appliance modules?
Welcome to the forum stevegipson. There are a couple of ways you can handle the camera switching macros when using just appliance modules for power:
The simplest method: When you turn one on, you also send the commands to turn each of the others off.
Using Flags: Designate a status flag for each camera. When you trigger a macro to turn one on, you use "else conditions" to check if any other camera is currently on (looking at each designated flag). If another status flag is set, then the macro will turn just that camera off, turn the new camera on, clear the old flag & set the new flag. If no flag is set, then you just turn on the camera and set its status flag.
The flags method is more complicated, but I recommend using flags if your cameras are controlled by motion sensors. This way when a camera switches, the previous motion sensor's off signal can be ignored so the camera that is currently on does not get turned off until its dedicated motion sensor sends an off signal.
I originally had my macros set up this way and when I factored in all the various action combinations based on daytime/nighttime - home/away, the number of the else conditions per macro was enormous. At that point I purchased some auto-switching camera power supplies from X10 to use instead of appliance modules. However, I still use dedicated flags for each camera to make sure another zone doesn't turn off the wrong camera.
BTW do you know the part number for the auto-switching power supplies that you ended up going with?
Is it ok to run the power through a Cat5 Cable with the audio and video? It would be nice if all the power supplies were in the same location rather then finding a plug close to the camera.
Is there any limit to distance a distance the power supply?
If i have Cat5 with 8 wires, what should i do with the two power wires (Red and White) from the addressable power supply?
i have two wired and two wireless cams also and want to convert them over to wired.