My boss gave me this project to install 4 X10 wireless cameras at various points in our high rise office building and get them all working and recording activity for review as a surveillance\security system.
After wading through all the instruction booklets, reading the Vanguard help files I was able to get 2 of the cameras working at the same time. Anyone that has worked with multiple cameras is thinking to themselves "I know exactly what this guy was going through, and eventually he will realize it won't work".
It turns out that the technology behind these X10 wireless cameras allows multiple cameras with one extremely important caveat - ONLY ONE CAMERA AT A TIME WORKS. The transciever has to be able to send a signal to all other cameras to turn OFF, when one is turned ON. If the transciever can't get the single to the other cameras, they all remain transmitting to the video receiver unit and interfere with each other. It doesn't matter what ABCD, or unit code group you select - there is no way around this inconvienient fact - only ONE camera at ONE time may be active.
I called the technical support and after waiting an hour to speak with someone they were all to happy to sell me a quad plex unit for 200 more bucks, but when pinned down as to what it would actually do they eventually conceded that it would not actually change the fact that ONLY ONE camera at ONE time may be active. Sure, their software might give a freeze frame of the last time a camera was active, or setting it to go round robin with each camera being updated might (with a lot of leniency) allow for "multiple cameras" - but multiple cameras all running at the same time providing coverage and surveillance of all areas is beyond the technical abilities of the X10 system. Another glaring fault of the round robin scanning system - when one camera has the focus - all other cameras are forced to be off or the inherent interference would render it useless anyway. The only way this might be effective is for a period where the office is closed, and the motion detection equipment kicks in and "follows" an intruder.
After speaking with technical support, we both arrived at the conclusion that no amount of equipment or setup process could alter this fact. However, I just received an email from their technical support claiming
"To get four live cameras at once, you need three additional video receivers and a quad processor. The PC transceiver acts like a remote control, sending signals to the TM751. If you move your cameras to unit codes 5-8, the TM751 will not click."
from Eric Boyd.
This feels like another sales pitch to buy more stuff when ultimately the fact remains - one camera at one time - or else the interference from the other camera's will render the system useless. It shouldn't matter that I have multiple video receivers if all the wireless cameras are transmitting and causing interference - changing the ABCD transmission channels to other hertz will still not avoid the bleedover and interference effects.
X10 camera systems work well if you are using just one, or if you have no problem with using just one at a time, knowing that when the one you are viewing is on, that the others are dead space. If that is what you intend to do - then X10 is a very cost effective system. If you are using them in a home environment or VERY small office environment they may work. But for a large high rise office environment with the idea to use them as a comprehensive monitoring system - you need wired equipment and a higher quality solutiuon than an X10 multiple wireless camera solution provides.
I hope this helps someone out there. If I am mistaken about any of these points, PLEASE explain to me where I am in error.
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Topic: Using Multiple X10 wireless cameras at the SAME time (Read 9902 times)