CCTV Home Surveillance Security System

[justonething]

We have families in NZ and we have a holiday home there. Its in a very small town with a population of about 5000. We go over there a few times a year, but most of the time, it will be unoccupied. I want to put in a CCTV surveillance camera system. I've seen a few swann systems there when I went to Costco. I think 4 cameras should be enough. Remote viewing is a must, may be also the ability to upload video to a cloud server for safe keeping just in case thieves steal the HD.
I know very little about home surveillance systems but I do know a bit about computers and electronics. Some people tells me that cameras with wireless connections are easiest to install but I don't know if they are have enough capabilities like night vision and wide angle viewing.
I'm thinking about DIY rather than going through a security company.
Today I saw that Bunnings trade is selling a Samsung unit (https://l.bunnings.com.au/trade/our-range_4211400-samsung-security.aspx?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=) for $474. Is it a good unit? Is there anything I should watch out for? Are there any recommendations out there?
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[jms_8087]

I install security equipment for a living happy to help you out. I personally wouldn't use a system like this I'd run with something like a Hikvision setup, it may cost you a little more but you get what you pay for.

PM me if you like and i'll give you all the info you need.

Joel

[rob streeper]

I have one of these: (Refurbished) SDH-C75100 - Samsung 16CH Security System w/ 10 1080p HD Cameras | eBay (http://www.ebay.com/itm/Refurbished-SDH-C75100-Samsung-16CH-Security-System-w-10-1080p-HD-Cameras/142059122386?_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIM.MBE%26ao%3D2%26asc%3D47507%26meid%3Decf4b9623b004939a0ca7571575dc0b0%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D6%26rkt%3D6%26mehot%3Dag%26sd%3D263014245951&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851)
Very good daylight performance and excellent at night. Samsung tech support is excellent, they'll walk you through setting up on your smart device for real time viewing. You must use their cables though.

[graham.murfett]

PM me if you like and i'll give you all the info you need.
Joel
We recently got broken into, so now will go CCTV.
I'm going to PM you. Hope that's OK.

[bryn23]

Are you going to set it up, via the internet so you can remotely check up on the place?

We were planing on doing that with our place in Coromandel, but then ended up selling it instead so we didn't go any further.

"Edit reread it and noticed the remote operation was a must"

[RossM]

https://www.arlo.com/en-us/

Works brilliantly & reasonable cost. Assuming there is Internet in the building of course. I've got this installed in my edlerly mothers home that is interstate, as she has had prowlers. Officeworks sell them.

[justonething]

Duplicated post

[justonething]

Thanks guys for your replies and suggestions. I am still researching on what type of setups that I should get.

I have one of these: (Refurbished) SDH-C75100 - Samsung 16CH Security System w/ 10 1080p HD Cameras | eBay (http://www.ebay.com/itm/Refurbished-SDH-C75100-Samsung-16CH-Security-System-w-10-1080p-HD-Cameras/142059122386?_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIM.MBE%26ao%3D2%26asc%3D47507%26meid%3Decf4b9623b004939a0ca7571575dc0b0%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D6%26rkt%3D6%26mehot%3Dag%26sd%3D263014245951&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851)
Rob, the spec for the samsung unit that I linked is very similar to the one that you have. The specs look very impressive. Obviously the BNC cables means that the cameras are of the high bandwidth variety. Therefore running coax cables around the roof space is a must, together with the power cable. From what I investigated, it uses Linux on the control unit. All that is OK, remote viewing is available via their android or iphone apps which is fine. However there is no mention of upload of footage to the cloud. Have you even tried doing it?

Joel, thanks for your offer. Can you explain a bit why Hikvison will be your choice compared to the samsung units or the units suggested by RossM.

Byn23, Our place has VDSL already. Its one of the first things that I organized together with power. We like the area and quite like the house. Its quite expensive to keep though with insurances and rates over 5 grand a year, and power and internet about a hundred bux a month. Ideally we would like to get a little bit of income when we are not using it, like airbnb. But I'm not sure of the demand for airbnb in the Kapiti Coast. I have a friend who can go over from time to time to check on the place and the CCTV would be really useful when the place is not occupied.


https://www.arlo.com/en-us/ (https://www.arlo.com/en-us/)Works brilliantly & reasonable cost. Assuming there is Internet in the building of course. I've got this installed in my edlerly mothers home that is interstate, as she has had prowlers. Officeworks sell them.

That seems to be quite a good system. I'm going to office works to have look. Which systems do you have? What do you think of their night vision capabilities? It also seems to have cloud storage for 7 days only. What is the cost for cloud storage?

[RustyArc]

I'll second going for Hikvision - they seem to be the best balance of quality versus cost. Also, they're IP cameras (networked) not analogue units like those Samsung setups. There's a long-running thread on Whirlpool about security cameras - https://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=2617093&p=-1&#bottom - most people seem to order Hikvision cameras and a Network Video Recorder (NVR) from AliExpress or Ebay.

[rob streeper]

Rob, the spec for the samsung unit that I linked is very similar to the one that you have. The specs look very impressive. Obviously the BNC cables means that the cameras are of the high bandwidth variety. Therefore running coax cables around the roof space is a must, together with the power cable. From what I investigated, it uses Linux on the control unit. All that is OK, remote viewing is available via their android or iphone apps which is fine. However there is no mention of upload of footage to the cloud. Have you even tried doing it?



I haven't tried the internet service, IPolis or some such cute name. I installed one for a guy who collects books and furniture. He is completely non-technical. He said that Samsung tech support walked him through set up on both his smartphone and his iPad. He travels frequently and is able to check on his place nationwide without any trouble. Cloud storage I know nothing about, ask their tech people. The 2 Tb disk that comes in the unit is able to store ~100 days of maximum resolution data from sixteen cameras before it starts to recycle.

The cables are called 'Siamese' cables. They combine the BNC video and 12v power with two plugs at each end. As I mentioned, you must use their cable, cheapies don't work well. The manual says you can go out to 100m or so from the base unit. In fact I just got down from the attic pulling five more cables, twelve down four more to go...

The cameras are very impressive for a lower cost system. Daylight range is approximately half as far as I can see by eye with 20/20 vision. The dynamic range of the cameras can be overwhelmed if you have a camera in a dark area looking into a sunlit area. Everything is still visible out to about 20 to 30m. Likewise if the sun is shining into or directly at a camera, they still work but the white balance gets a little stretched.
In suburban light conditions at night the range is ~30m. The LED illuminators work very well. B&W resolution looks better to me than it does in daylight.
The first unit I installed has been trouble free for near three years now.

[damian]

Hi all,

I am not sure if it's better to ask on this thread or start my own. ?

I've been living here for 22 years. In that time I've been knocked off 5 times. It's a low crime area but for some reason every passing mongrel seems to see my place as a great target. The most recent was an airconditioner unit I had in my yard. Panasonic worked perfectly they probably broke it for scrap metal...

So I've put in deadlocks on all windows and doors and an alarm system. Now I want to monitor my front yard.

I don't have a landline nor wired internet. Only my mobile and 3/4g.

Feeling crushed by research so I'm asking here.

I could install a trail camera and have it mms my phone if motion is detected, or I could go for a dvr and a camera or 2. I only want to monitor the front yard and get some vision to give the police. No point on indoors if they have got in I'm done either way.

The trail cameras start at about $80 and I can get a chinese dvr and a pair of cameras for about the same, and stick a decent HD in it, WD purple or a seagate surveillance....for about $70.

I would like to avoid batteries as much as possible.. I'm really sick of changing them every 6 months on each alarm sensor around the house....

It seems no one makes a dvr that takes a sim card nor a device that I can plug into one that will take the pic or video and mms it to my phone...

Anyway any thoughts appreciated. Now to dive back into that whirlpool thread... :(

[russ57]

Maybe something based on a raspberry pi.
Pretty sure you can get 3/4g modems to plug in. The pi can monitor the dvr for movement then send a message.



Russ

[Bernmc]

Damian, do you have a home hub with a permanent internets via mobile 3/4g? If you do, then you can use a project like this one (https://videos.cctvcamerapros.com/digital-io-alarm-in-out/send-security-camera-photos-from-raspberry-pi-via-mms-text-message.html). Most of the projects on the net for pi-based cameras rely on internet access, and will use an internet—>mms online service.

If your home 3/4G isn’t permanently active, then I think things are more complicated, and you will need to do some programming. You can get SIM ‘hats’ (plug in modules) for the raspberry pi - eg Pi Sim Hat (https://www.iot-store.com.au/products/sim7000e-nb-iot-raspberry-pi-hat-emtc-edge-gps-gnss?variant=12314093486167&currency=AUD&utm_campaign=gs-2018-09-30&utm_source=google&utm_medium=smart_campaign&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI9rmk99LO4gIVjQ4rCh3rxQzgEAQYBCABEgKh0fD_BwE). You’ll be able to set up a basic motion detection system (like the one above), and get the system to talk to the SIM and send you a pic. Fair bit of work, but I’ve found these things are doable with a lot of google, cut and paste, and swearing.

The ‘out of the box’ solutions like NEST cameras need to talk to the internet to do their advanced image processing. Even if you go more DIY and use something like Amazon Web services to handle picture processing, I suspect there’ll be a lot of data whizzing about the nets.

[graham.murfett]

I'm using a Swann system. 6 x HD day/night cameras, power over ethernet, NVR, viewable via smart phone.
Happy with it. Works well.

Now that I have cameras, my new question is...
- What is a reliable alarm system?

[damian]

Thank you very much for the replies.

30 years ago I would have said those rasberry pi's look like great fun but at my age I have neither the eyesight, the patience nor the clarity of thought to get back into electronics and programming. Gee I would have loved that as a kid though, there are such great toys now...

No there is no permanent internet at my place. I have lots of old stuff laying around like an NB9 various switches and routers and adsl modems etc and of course computers. My only internet access now is through my mobile, usually tethering my laptop. I only switch on data as I need it. I've been online since 1990 and frankly I'm much less interested now, a few forums and some shopping that's it.

The swan stuff is interesting. Lots of reviews online either really good or really bad.

The silly thing is any old mobile phone has all this functionality, but as far as I know no one has built the app. There are apps that motion detect and upload photo and video to a 3rd party website and push notify you, but none that just mms a picture to your phone. I started to write one years ago but the android programming environment was...confusing...

I'm not after everything. Obviously it'd be nice to have everything but I'm being realistic.

Maybe what I'll do is build both as basic systems, use a trail camera for alarms and a 2 camera dvr system to just record all the time and record over the old video.

Has anyone any experience with the very cheap systems on ebay ? This seems suspiciously cheap...

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Anran-8CH-AHD-1080P-CCTV-Camera-Security-System-1080N-Outdoor-Night-Vision-DVR/202683428963?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649

add a $70 1tb hd and your up, assuming it works...

[Lappa]

One of my colleagues ar work uses Ring units, including the video door bell. He gets immediate updates on his phone if they trigger and he can speak through his phone to the speaker in the door unit. It costs a fee per camera per year for the privilege but it’s not that high. He loves it.

https://shop.ring.com/collections/security-cams

[damian]

Thank you for the suggestion.

As far as I can see they use your home wifi network for notifications/remote monitoring. I don't have a permanent wifi or nbn network, that is my problem. If I did I could replicate that system for about 1/10th their prices. I could be wrong though, I may have misread their website.

I keep reading and learning but gee it's a lot of work.