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[afqu]

Been reading, great site.
I raise parrots and need security for theft, and creature protection at night. We currently have 3 monitors (TV) that displays 4 pictures, or scans each of four for a certain amount of seconds, or one picture continuously. All cameras are B/W and low light (I think, manual says…Minimum Scene Illumination…0.2lux(F2.0, 50IRE whatever that means.) We have flood lights all over property. The cameras are great, they see everything.

Cameras are connected to a cable that has something like a phone plug.  So we have 12 cables running all over the property from monitor to cameras. There is no addition electrical hookup, except for the monitors in home. These were sets from Sam’s Club many years ago. The monitors and cameras are slowly wearing down, and not working as well as should be. Since this was so inexpensive years ago, One replacement camera, cost almost as much as one whole set up, and I think there is better technology today.

I use one screen on each monitor at night since the audio from any camera in each area picks up sound well enough to wake us, if the birds make any noise at night. I do not need to do any recording.

So my questions are. Can I use the same cables I now have?  I am prepared to change the clips if necessary.
Will I be able to flip thru the screens to see a certain camera angle, if we are alarmed by a noise?
Which camera is best suited for my purpose?
From my reading here, (if I am understanding correctly) it appears I will use my PC, but I can only see one camera at a time? I need to see and hear 3 of the 12 cameras at night. How do I get around that?
I now I will have more questions. I just hope I supplied enough info to start.
Thanks
Jean

[dave w]

1. Are the cables exposed or protected from outside environnment? If exposed you may have a cable degradation problem, not a camera problem...especially if the cameras have solid state pick-ups and not old tube cameras.

You may also have "burn" on your monitor CRTs How many "quad processors" do you have? Three, for the 12 cameras?

2. X10 wired cameras have four conductors (ground, power to camera, video return, audio return). If your present system is coax and camera power is fed down the coax then the easy answer is: no, you can not use your existing cables. Is your phone plugs, two, three, or four conductor?

X10 does not have an easy way switch 12 cameras with audio. However, others here on the forum are doing it. I just wanted to point out your system may be easier to fix than replace.

[nybuck]

I agree with everything Dave W said, and would also add that if you're looking for .2 lux, X10's inexpensive line may not fit your needs.

X10's "off the shelf" inexpensive line (The more expensive line includes the Sentinel and Vanguard at approx $400 each) shows one camera at a time, and requires reasonable amount of light.  In my guestimation 3.0 lux or more.  There is no infrared illumination off the shelf.  To get multiple cameras to show at once, you would need a 3rd party "quad box" (multiplexer) or similar item.  I use a 4-input PCI card in my computer.

I hope that helps.   

[Brian H]

I found the Samsung SSC-12 listed on a few Google search pages. Though most say sold out.
Looks like the monitor has four camera inputs and can multiplex the video on the screen with out any outside multiplexer.
Also powers the camera from the monitor along with two way audio.
Uses an RJ11 interface cable but almost 100% bet it would not match the X10 pinouts. 

[afqu]

1. Are the cables exposed or protected from outside environnment? If exposed you may have a cable degradation problem, not a camera problem...especially if the cameras have solid state pick-ups and not old tube cameras.

You may also have "burn" on your monitor CRTs How many "quad processors" do you have? Three, for the 12 cameras?

2. X10 wired cameras have four conductors (ground, power to camera, video return, audio return). If your present system is coax and camera power is fed down the coax then the easy answer is: no, you can not use your existing cables. Is your phone plugs, two, three, or four conductor?

X10 does not have an easy way switch 12 cameras with audio. However, others here on the forum are doing it. I just wanted to point out your system may be easier to fix than replace.

Not sure if I am replying correctly. I have tried twice.
1. Most cables are protected. I have two that I move around, but those are fine. Hubby says cameras are solid state. I have 3 monitors, which manage 4 cameras each.

2. Hubby says he doesn't think coax cables. To me they just look like a better grade phone wire. Camera is powered by the monitor, according to the manual. Not sure what you mean by two, three, etc conductors. Manual says........Pin numbers of the clips are:
1. Speaker (Hot)
2.Video out
3.GND
4. Speaker (Cold)
5. Audio (Out) Alarm (Out)
6. 12V DC
I set up the old system, just followed directions. Husband ran wires where I asked him to. So this is my baby, although I have no clue. Just a good direction follower.
Thanks Dave.

[Brian H]

Yes it looks like a better grade phone style cable. Some of the on-line vendors also say the cable is a better grade phone style wire.

Conductors is the number of wires in the cable between the camera and the monitor.
Your description of the signals. Indicate it is a six conductor wire and what each wires signal is.

Do your present cameras have a speaker in them. So you can talk to the subject in the cameras video?
That feature is not anything an X10 camera can do.

I found the signal pinouts for the wired X10 cameras in the wiki.
The signal pinouts don't seem to match your original cameras setup.
Custom wiring would be needed and X10 cameras may not be 100% compatible with your original SSC-12 system.

http://kbase.x10.com/wiki/Pin-out_for_Wired_Camera_Connectors

[dave w]

I dunno, IMHO it will be a bunch of trouble to convert system to X10. X10 ads show four "pictures" on the computer screen and they are just that: Only one picture is active video, the other three are static, frozen shots from the other three cameras. X10 switches from camera to camera by turning on power to only one of the four cameras at a time. You can get around this by using only the X10 wired cameras,  but you would need three quad processors and three monitors. Based on your response to Brian, you might be able to use your existing wires, but you would have to splice everything togeather, you could not do a plug for plug replacement. It would require a real hack job to use your existing wire. Also, as nybuck pointed out, your current cameras are MUCH better in low light conditions than X10 inexpensive cameras.

Required disclaimer:
Others on the forum with more X10 camera experience may feel otherwise, but I see conversion to X10 cameras as pretty problematic. I also think the cameras you have are higher quality than the low cost X10 units. Your degrading image quality could be from CRT burn on the monitors, common where your cameras never move. And there is little recovery from that other than new monitors.
My $0.02 but I will wave charges. 

[afqu]

I dunno, IMHO it will be a bunch of trouble to convert system to X10. X10 ads show four "pictures" on the computer screen and they are just that: Only one picture is active video, the other three are static, frozen shots from the other three cameras. X10 switches from camera to camera by turning on power to only one of the four cameras at a time. You can get around this by using only the X10 wired cameras,  but you would need three quad processors and three monitors. Based on your response to Brian, you might be able to use your existing wires, but you would have to splice everything togeather, you could not do a plug for plug replacement. It would require a real hack job to use your existing wire. Also, as nybuck pointed out, your current cameras are MUCH better in low light conditions than X10 inexpensive cameras.

Required disclaimer:
Others on the forum with more X10 camera experience may feel otherwise, but I see conversion to X10 cameras as pretty problematic. I also think the cameras you have are higher quality than the low cost X10 units. Your degrading image quality could be from CRT burn on the monitors, common where your cameras never move. And there is little recovery from that other than new monitors.
My $0.02 but I will wave charges. 

Thanks for all the answers everyone. Most everything I've read in this thread is about what I had imagined.
I don't need audio back and forth, I don't need any more than one screen on the monitors at a time. If I can manually scan thru them if I hear a noise, and see what each camera sees, that is good enough. My biggest concern is the low light necessity. If opossums or raccoons are climbing on my parrots flights/cages, I need to see them, and they are night critters. All flights are outside, since I am in Florida.

If I can find new monitors for my old system, I will try to stay with it.
Thanks again

[dave w]

I need to see them, and they are night critters. All flights are outside, since I am in Florida.

If I can find new monitors for my old system, I will try to stay with it.
Thanks again

Even the X10 "Night Watch" needs flood light assistance at night. I think the $500 Sentinel is low light (moon light) however.

Back to your present system: Your monitors are the type that have a built in video switcher, and you have "Video Out" BNC connector on the back. So, as a test, connect a TV with "video in" capabilites to the Video Out from the monitor (you may need a BNC male to RCA female adaptor, they are available from Radio Shark.  The resulting picture will tell you if your poor picture is from CRT burn. If so, the simple solution would be to get some inexpensive used B/W monitors like these studio "Ikies".
http://cgi.ebay.com/Ikegami-PM-509-B-W-Monitors-3-Lot-Rack-Mount-/370437965117?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item563fd2c53d