splicing wire on camera and added 100 FT phone-line???

[Jeremyj]

I just bought an Anaconda and Night Watchman camera. I plan on splicing the wire and extending the 60 ft cable by adding an extra 100 feet with phone line. Will this work? Any other suggestions?

[tjdavj]

While I wouldn't recommend it, it's probably worth trying. The main issues are going to be video signal loss due to an excessive cable run, and/or RF interference with the video signal.

Definitely try the camera before adding the additional cable, so you have a point of reference to see how badly the signal is affected when you add the additional cable.

Good Luck and let us know how it turns out..

[KDR]

Jeremyj: I have used the 6 conductor flat phone cable (100 feet) with no problem or loss of video with the Anaconda. I would however not cut and splice the wire. The Anaconda comes with a 6 connector phone type plug, and you can buy the 6 conductor plugs and crimp them on to the new cable. Then use a end to end adaptor (6 conductor) to couple the 2 cables. Be careful when putting on the new ends (if your using 2 male plugs) in that you flip the one connector correctly so when it plugs into the female to female adaptor it doesn't flip any of the wires wrong.

[JimC]

Jeremyj,

I also have extended the length of the wire on my wired cameras by using 6 conductor phone wire with the appropriate ends and a coupler as KDR suggested. Most of the items ( wire and connectors) are available at Radio Shack.

[HA Dave]

I plan on splicing the wire and extending the 60 ft cable by adding an extra 100 feet with phone line. Will this work? Any other suggestions?

I extended a color cam with a 50 foot phone (six wire) extention which worked fine. However, some phone extentions DO switch the wires around, so be careful with that.

Since my initial installation, the phone extention was chewed by a chipmonk. I now use CAT5 wire that I attached the proper "six connector phone plugs" with a tool and parts from a home improvement store.

[KDR]

Dave, is Cat 5 chipmonk proof? Maybe if you would start feeding the little critter it would leave your cables alone?  

[hostilejava]

I would recommend using cat5 over regular phone wire as it's got much better shielding.

[Puck]

Whether you use Cat5 or normal 6-conductor phone line, when you run the cable, try to keep it away from AC power lines and chipmonks ( ).

If you can't avoid AC lines, try (where possible) to cross them perpendicular (+) and not parallel (=) to decrease the amount of noise it can pick up.

[Jeremyj]

Thanks all. Some very helpful advice.

[robster]

As a former Telco guy, CAT5 wiring is better to use than "regular" (also known as CAT3) phone wiring because its copper pairs have more twists per linear foot than CAT3 wiring.  CAT5 is a 4-pair twisted-wire standard.  The twisting reduces crosstalk, thus improving transmission characteristics (Goes Farther! Cleaner Signal!).  CAT5 cabling is not shielded, and if you are running it in your home, try to NOT run alongside electrical wiring - run it perpendicular to electrical wiring where you need to cross over it.  Good luck!

Rob