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[anthony185]

Hi,

I just recently purchased AHP for my PC.  I currently have four wired (non X10) cams already installed in my house.  The cams all use ONE power supply which I control by AHP with an in-line module (works great).

I am planning on getting the USB--->RCA X10 adapter and either getting a quad OR using Y connectors to bring the four cams into the USB adaptor.

My question is, with the ONE power supply controlling all FOUR cams, what kind of functionality will I have using AHP and Iwitness?  Will I see all 4 video inputs?  Will I be able to select one input?  I believe the quad module would help, but I would like to maintain control of the cameras through SW and via the internet. 

WithOut getting 4 new addressable PowerSupplies what would be the best way to hook these things up to give me the most control of the cams via AHP/Iwitness?

Thanks
Anthony/

[KDR]

Hi,

The cams all use ONE power supply which I control by AHP with an in-line module (works great).

Thanks
Anthony/

Anthony, could you elaborate a bit more on how you have AHP controlling the cams and with what type of in-line module? How do you view the cams now, before adding AHP?

If all 4 cams are powered by one supply and all 4 have video output at the same time you can't use the "Y" connectors because the video outputs will all mix together and you won't see a usable image. A quad processor or video switch would be needed. You bring in each cam into the processor and it combines the output to a 4 window pane (each pane showing live video). Some processors are selectable for each cam or a combination of all 4. The output can go to the VA11A adaptor and then to AHP and iWitness but you still won't be able to control each cam via the web. Same goes with a switch instead of the processor. You would have to manually operate the switch to select one cam at a time.

The only way I can see doing via the web would be for each cam to have its own supply and control each supply with a appliance module with the current sensing disabled. Then you could just "Y" the camera outputs together to the VA11A.

[anthony185]

KDR,

Thanks for the reply.

I don't remember the name/model # of the thing.  It is an X10 addressable device that is wired in-line with an appliance etc when it is not feasible to use an X10 switch/outlet.  Basically, it is installed on the input of the camera PS and it gives me control to switch the PS (cameras) on/off using X10 commands.   The only bad thing is--it's either all 4 on, or all 4 off.  This didn't give me any issue with my old application (I was using a GV800 vid capture card in my PC which allowed me to switch inputs even when they were all on) but I am not sure if it will work with Active Home Pro and Iwitness.

Thanks,
Anthony/

[KDR]

The GV800 card won't work with AHP or iWitness... however and this is just a thought since I don't use a video capture card, does the card have a composit video output jack? It might that if it did you could take the output if its only one cam at a time and feed it into the VA11A adaptor which AHP and iWitness can use. Can you control the GV800 via the internet?

[anthony185]

That's a great thought actually--if the GV800 had a composite out that would work perfect, I hadn't thought of that.  I just looked, and it doesn't.

Yup, you can access the GV800 via the internet.  I do know that I can't use the card with ActiveHome, that's why I was seeing if I could get my already installed wired cameras to work with similar functioinality in ActiveHome.   The GeoVison SW is kind of crappy--kind of lame.  I'd to have my home automation and CCTV all in ActiveHome.

How are the X10 wireless cams?  I seem to have bad luck with wireless devices--I'm guessing if they are claiming 100 ft range, it's more like 20 so long as nobody is walking around, no one is using a cordless phone, etc etc.

 

[KDR]

You are correct on the wireless cams. All 6 of my cams are wired and the 7th wireless. 3 are nightvision and work very well. I use a video switch on 4 of them and don't have any need at the moment for web viewing really.

I looked at the GV800 card, your right no video output although it looks like a very nice card. Let me give it some more thought and I will post back here tomorrow sometime.

[anthony185]

Ok Thank-you.  I appreciate the help.

[KDR]

Well there are not many alternatives to this problem. It would be nice if X10 offered a 4, 6 or 8 channel video switch controlled by PLC but there is nothing. I looked to see if someone else made anything and struck out there as well.

In order to use the web to control your 4 cams with AHP and iWitness you will also need the MyHouse plug-in to make the connection to their server. At this time X10 doesn't offer any other solution but may have some new stuff in the not to distant future.

The best way is to put single power supplies on each camera and control the ON and OFF with appliance modules. This will allow you to have only one cam sending composit video at a time. You can then use "Y" adaptors to bring all the cams into one single input to the VA11A digital converter (USB). You could then write some macros that will turn OFF the unused cams when you select a specific one to view or manually turn off the cams not used and turn ON the one you want.

What type of power supply (voltage rating and current rating) is the cams using now? If the voltage and current ratings match the X10 switchable supplies from either their cams or Ninjas you may be able to purchase those and not need to use appliance modules. I have both and can check the ratings as soon as you post them.

[anthony185]

Thanks KDR.

15VDC.  I remember I had to shop around to get the power supply.  I ended up getting one from Jameco and built it into my service box along with the in-line module.   I'm thinking that the X10 ones are probably 12Vdc

[paulnoel12]

i have heard that using a quad splitter works really well, there is a program called ultravnc which if you have it installed on both of the computers you are using and run it in its server mode then you can actually access one from the other and run the computer as if your are there. Also i have not tried it yet but will probably do so when i install my new system and that is that radio shack sells a remote controlled video switcher and it says that it will work with any remote so i am thinking of trying it with an x-10 remote that i can controll from my computer and see if it will switch it or not has any one tried something like this before?