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Author Topic: Increasing Range??  (Read 4777 times)

tom j

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Increasing Range??
« on: March 20, 2006, 04:10:38 AM »

Hi anybody know of a mod that can be done to the receiver to increase the overall range. I live in the city and have noticed a rolling effect if I get more the say thirty feet from the camera not even close to the advertised specification on 100ft. Really perfect picture if it's relatively close so i was wondering if the receiver could be modified for a little better range and reception.  ??? Thnaks

Tcj
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JimC

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Re: Increasing Range??
« Reply #1 on: March 20, 2006, 07:19:17 AM »

tom j,

I have several cameras around my property, one as far as 80 feet from the receiver. The closet is only 10 feet from the receiver. What I have found is that any metal in between the camera and the receiver degrades the picture. The camera that is 80 feet away line of site through a window and the picture is perfect. The camera that is only 10 feet away must get its signal through the aluminum siding on the house and I have a very difficult time getting a picture that is acceptable. The position of the receiver is critical. Moving it only an inch or two one way or another can make a very large difference. I have had to add a longer cable from the receiver to the monitor so that I could position my receiver in a location that allows me reception of all seven of my cameras.

It sure would be nice if the cameras put out a stronger signal but my guess is that that is limited by the FCC.
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Brian H

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Re: Increasing Range??
« Reply #2 on: March 20, 2006, 04:32:20 PM »

Any Wireless networks or cordless phone in the 2.4 Ghz band? If so try them off. The 2.4Ghz devices share the frequencies with X10s cameras and will interfere with each other.
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JimC

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Re: Increasing Range??
« Reply #3 on: March 20, 2006, 07:14:17 PM »

Brian H,

Glad you mentioned the wireless networks. I currently have a wired network. I will be moving into a new house in a couple of weeks and was thinking about putting in a wireless network. I will now have to give that some more thought.

Thanks,

Jim  :) :)
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Brian H

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Re: Increasing Range??
« Reply #4 on: March 21, 2006, 06:46:16 AM »

Many of the wireless networks have enough channels so you may find one that agrees with the cameras. It still is not a 100% deal on sharing.
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bbissitt

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Re: Increasing Range??
« Reply #5 on: March 21, 2006, 09:47:35 PM »

I'm also having major difficulty with my cameras rolling and I don't know what to do and my wife is totaly disgusted with me spending this money and the picture just rolls. So nobody knows of signal booster for the cameras.
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tom j

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Re: Increasing Range??
« Reply #6 on: March 24, 2006, 12:59:58 AM »

Hi Jim thanks for your help, I'll give what you suggested a try in response to the other post, I  got rid of my 2.4 phone system a long time ago and replaced it with a 5.8 system, My 5.8GHz is actually a hybrid system with the base communicating with the handset at 5.8 and the handset communicating back to the base with the base at 2.4. This means that the only time I might experience any interference is when I'm talking. I really use the system mostly when I'm not at home to record any activity that might be picked up by the motion detectors. The reason I didn't get a complete 5.8 system is that the true 5.8 really drains your rechargeables really fast after about 4 hours the handset has to be placed back on the charger. Also most folks rely on the little motion detectors to trigger the camera's and anyone that has used theses in daylight know how they are PRONE TO FALSE ALARMS, Brian H gave me this fantastic link that may help almost completely eliminate these false triggers. I really found this information extremely helpful and gained tremendous insight into the working of theses little marvels. Had a couple of these hidden in my driveway and set them to the night mode they completely foiled any attempts to steal my new car. Hope you guys find this info as helpful as I did! I might even be able to use this infomation as a basis for improving the false alarms on the MS10A ::)

http://www.edcheung.com/automa/ms14a.htm

Tcj
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tom j

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Re: Increasing Range??
« Reply #7 on: March 26, 2006, 07:19:36 PM »

"I'm also having major difficulty with my cameras rolling and I don't know what to do and my wife is totally disgusted with me spending this money and the picture just rolls. So nobody knows of signal booster for the cameras".
 
Hi bbissitt, say maybe I can help it now seems as through after a lot of time and effort tuning this thing the rolling has stopped. Try this put the receiver in the same room as the camera hook it up to your TV and see if the picture improves get as close as possible, the picture show be perfect. This way you can eliminate the possibility of a defective receiver or camera, that's the first thing I did. Upon doing this I saw the picture was excellent. So I figured the stuff is working correctly and it must be a reception problem ind I wasn't matching the two properly for the max signal strength. So I got out my trustee family band radios (the ones my wife told me I was wasting my money on) and worked with her until I had them aligned perfectly. This took some time but the result was a pretty good if not excellent picture. The only concern now is getting all three camera to work together if it took this much effort for one trying to get them all pointed at the receiver perfectly might really take so doing!!! Really think the antenna could have been designed a little better It you're only using one camera that's one thing but with multiple camera well..... and I know they say to lay the antenna down flat for but that didn't even work with the one camera, seems like a more powerful receiver or better designed antenna or both is the true solution. Hope this may help.

Tcj
 
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