Converting a Wireless cam to a wired cam.

[josepy]

Has anyone converted a wireless to a wired cam? Would it suffice to cut the wires to transmitter antenna and wire them directly to the receiver, splicing into the wires at the antenna on the receiver?


Puck Edit: Corrected spelling of "Converting" in message header for searchability.

[Brian H]

Well getting a 2.4 Ghz signal to pass through a coaxial cable; maybe a big challenge. Baseband Video would be easier, though it also would have limited distances; without a better video output in the camera made to drive a coax cable.

[HA Dave]

Has anyone converted a wireless to a wired cam? Would it suffice to cut the wires to transmitter antenna and wire them directly to the receiver, splicing into the wires at the antenna on the receiver?

Puck posted the info your looking for here. Puck simply converted the wireless to wired, disposing of the RF.

[josepy]

Hey thanks for the link!

Makes my day!

[HA Dave]

Hey thanks for the link!

Makes my day!

Thank Puck! He deserves a Helpful for that post.

[josepy]

Thanks Puck!

Makes my weekend

[bd0844]

I bought a XCam2 wide angle camera and was getting interference on all channels, so Puck's conversion explanation was very helpful.  However, I have an additional question.  The power input to the camera is a 3.5mm jack with 3 wires; a red wire which I believe to be the positive, a braided wire which I believe to be the ground, and a white wire which I believe to be something to do with the addressable power supply.  I want the camera to be "ON" all the time and do not need the addressable power supply function.  Can someone please explain how I should hook up the power input?

[Puck]

The power input to the camera is a 3.5mm jack with 3 wires; a red wire which I believe to be the positive, a braided wire which I believe to be the ground, and a white wire which I believe to be something to do with the addressable power supply.  I want the camera to be "ON" all the time and do not need the addressable power supply function.  Can someone please explain how I should hook up the power input?

Tie the red & white wires together. There are 2 separate wires from the power supply to make the camera become instant on. One wire goes to the the camera electronics (always on) and the other wire goes to the transmitter (switched on & off via the power supplies X10 address). So since you will have the camera always on, tying the two wires together is required.

[bd0844]

Thanks again, Puck !

[josepy]

This is a very old X-10 cam with no "instant on" but here is what it looked like when I cut it open

[josepy]

I stuck with the original power supply, and ran the video/audio back to my server



Seems to work

[petervrh]

Joespy,
How did you connect the video and audio to your server ?  What type of connectors do you use ?

[josepy]

I don't recall the spec on the connectors, but they basically get plugged into the capture cards.

I'm on vac for a few days now but when I get back I try to post something more meaningful

[josepy]

This came from Puck hope it helps

--------------------------------

(my message)

Im attempting to hard wire a couple of X-10 cams for the same reasons you did. I've read your post, but am really a neophyte when it comes to the different wiring standards, plug ends etc. I am only interested at the moment in capturing the video (yellow) and would like to wire the camera directly to a Composite video (of which I have one or two) plug.

The composite video plug has two wires, the center and an outer. I presume that the center would be spliced to the yellow wire on the camera? but what color is connected to the other wire on the composite video plug?

Or am I completely off base here?

Any input would be greatly appreciated!

---------------------------------

(Puck's reply)

Hi,

You are correct that the yellow wire (video) will connect to the centre wire of the plug. The Blue wire is the return line to connect to the other wire of the plug.

Cheers

[josepy]

So the wiring is as Puck described it, in my previous post. Many thanks to Puck as always.

And a couple of pictures of my X-10 hookup:

Back plane of the computer:



A closer look at the plugin scheme.



Hope this helps

Joe