Indoor CCTV with no power socket

GodAtum

GodAtum

GodAtum

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27 Sep 2009
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Hi all,

I'm thinking of buying the D-Link DCS-5222L to provide CCTV cover indoors. I need wireless as I dont want wires dragging around the place but I think the power is wired? I dont have a power socket nearby. What can I do? I dont want to drill anything or do any DIY. The camera will sit onto of a shelf.
 
POE would have been a better option, then you just run network cable to the camera, nice and simple. It tickles me how many at first think wireless means totally wireless.
 
It will not be entirely cable free, it will either need a network lead or a power lead. The camera will not function without at least a power lead.
 
Put a diesel generator on the shelf with it, that way the power cable would only have to be short.
 
GodAtum said:
What can I do? I don't want to drill anything or do any DIY. The camera will sit onto of a shelf.
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Either use PoE and clip a network cable to the skirting-board (and then up a bit of self-adhesive bit of trunking to get to the shelf) or do the same if the power lead is long enough.

Not really DIY banging a few cable grips in, is it?
 
Is there any sort of electrical device near the shelf where you want to put it?

Might be potential to run a power feed from that device.

Totally wireless, you'd be looking at something that runs off batteries (9v) which would need the battery changing often and might not be in real time (time lapse only).
 
Yeah, There is nothing you can get to be there full time and not have cables. Wifi cameras are waste of time, since they still need cable, so all you do is lower bandwidth for your streaming. Power Over Ethernet is best option but will require injector or switch, basically something to connect between your regular ethernet and POE network. And obviously camera that supports POE. Voltages can be minefield so make sure you device receiving power and sending power are of the same spec.

Another thing people don't think about is software. You'll need software to view it, react to motion, catalogue, playback while record etc. This in most cases needs dedicated box/PC/DVR, whatever you chose. Yes, the camera you picked has memory card slot of some description, but that's more of a buffer than full time thing. For it to be easy to maintain and make sense it needs to record to something you don't have to wipe and clean every few days.
 
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POE is easy, all you need is a balun, this lets you connect your network cable and wire in a dc power supply, this way it doesnt matter what volatge the camera needs you just get a same voltage and amp psu, or you could go expensive and get a POE switch.
 
robj20 said:
POE is easy, all you need is a balun, this lets you connect your network cable and wire in a dc power supply, this way it doesnt matter what volatge the camera needs you just get a same voltage and amp psu, or you could go expensive and get a POE switch.
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Erm, a balun is for altering the impedance of Cat5 cable so that it's the same as rg59 coaxial cable, allowing you to transmit analogue images down a twisted-pair without loss of image quality and 'ringing'. It hasn't got anything to do with connecting power (in fact, it blocks either ac or dc power, I can't remember which) or with POE, or in fact with networks as the signal would be an old style analogue one.

You sound a bit like your talking about some sort of break-out POE power injector/extractor, allowing you to use the spare cores in cat5 (blue +blue/white, brown +brown/white) to transmit power while using a spare pair for data, which works fine for POE compatible IP camera, but then you wouldn't need a balun. If you used a balun then you wouldn't be able to 'go expensive' and use a POE switch, as the camera would be analogue and likely 12vdc/24ac and you wouldn't be able to extract the video on the switch end as it would be wired into a network switch.

Basically you're entire post in nonsense.
 
This would sort of make it a POE camera, you input the power at the far end and the extract it as the camera end, it's not quite as tidy as a proper POE camera however.
 
You would have thought that you could buy them with lithium batteries in this day and age just like a camcorder so that they would actually be wireless. Suppose you could connect a battery to an inverter.
 
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Well there are some battery powered cameras, I actually build kits that will last a week or so, and you wouldn't need an inverter as most cameras are 12v anyway. It still isn't ideal for long-term tho.
 
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