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[lightiv]

Hi,

I got my refund for the wireless cameras I purchased from X10 so I am now looking for a WIRED camera deal.

My question is what do I need to get to have a 3 or 4 wired cameras functioning in AHP & iWatch.  When I buy I think I will go with the NightWatch2 since I should get good day and night (I do realize that there has to be some light) performance.    Let me know if I am wrong on this assumption.

Thanks

[KDR]

My question is what do I need to get to have a 3 or 4 wired cameras functioning in AHP & iWatch.  When I buy I think I will go with the NightWatch2 since I should get good day and night (I do realize that there has to be some light) performance.    Let me know if I am wrong on this assumption.

Well besides the cams you will need to have a VA11A USB adaptor. It will accept the composite video from the cameras and convert them to digital needed by your AHP and iWitness on your computer. You will need some good RCA "Y" adaptors made for video to cascade the video signals into the input of the VA11A. Having all the video channeled into one source won't be a problem because through the iWitness software one cam is switched on the others are switched off provided you use X10 cams. I have the wired Anaconda cams and they perform very well in the daylight but at night the image is poor at best. Lots of extra light will be needed and that still won't give what i would call a quality image. (dark and grainy, you can compansate some with the iWitness software).

I don't have any of the Nightwatch cams but I have read from other posts that they are not much better and still needs lots of extra light. All of my outdoor cams are nightvision cams and not made by X10 though I still use them with AHP and iWitness. Maybe you could locate a deal on one cam and purchase it to try before you invest in all of your cams.


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[Lexington_Browns]

Right now I would not recommend X10 camera's. I have 2 night watch camera's that were working and then just blinked out.  Another fellow said he has had the same problem.  We are discussing it on another thread.

Right now if I had my druthers I would be going to a local electronics wiring shop and getting some professional equipment.  I am sure that it would be way more expensive but at least I would have a functioning camera system.  Right now I am out 400 dollars and nothing is working.

[lightiv]

Thanks for the replies.

KDR, what cameras are you using for out side?  Can you give me a link?

Thanks.

[KDR]

The outside cams I use are from Astak, model number CM-612W.

I found mine locally at Walmart for about  $60 each. Comes with a power wart and 100 feet of cable. One issue is that the power supply's are not X10 compatable, On all the time.

I ran a couple of them on appliance modules but due to local current sensing the power units didn't turn off completely all the time. In my setup I run all my outside cams to a video switch/modulator first and select my view that way so the power units are on all the time. I will be changing some things around after the first of the year and will deactivate local current sensing on some appliance modules and give them another try.

I just did another search and found another place to purchase them online for the same money Walmart charged, zipzoomfly.com. The only down side I can see is they limit the quantity you can buy to 20.  Guess that shouldn't be a problem for most.

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[KDR]

Another side note to this cam is that it is an all metal housing and about 2 to 3 times the weight of an Anaconda cam. I have all of mine mounted on Ninja pan/tilt units and have not had any problems yet with the Ninjas. Due to the weight I was expecting a failure but has not happened yet (knock on plastic artificially simulated wood veneer.)

(Opted to post a new post due to thread being read already)

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