Adding a CCTV camera to a system without running more cable.
October 13, 2018 1:08 PM   Subscribe

I have a classic issue with possibly a simple solution. I have an 8 channel system and I would like to add one more camera. On one side of the house I would like to mount 2 cameras where I now have one. I only have one channel to service this side and in any case I don't want to run another cable. Does this simple device exist? Thanks !

I conceived of a device that would simply switch between the 2 cameras every 15
seconds - I don't have time to build one - I can mount this in the loft space and
use the existing single cable run.

If not I can use a 2 into 1 video multiplexer which I have seen on eBay and have to
give up an existing channel.
posted by gypsyfighter to Technology (5 answers total)
 
It would seem like you could get a unit that's intended to auto switch multiple cameras to a single display, but instead have it output to the line that goes to your existing recorder. This unit is obviously overkill, here's another possible option. You'd need to set the device to automatically switch, or depending on your setup, just squish both images into a single frame, and compromise on resolution.

NB: I can't vouch for either of these products in terms of compatibility or quality, they're just things that came up in search results.
posted by yuwtze at 6:21 PM on October 14, 2018


Response by poster: Thank you for your advice I will check those devices out. I was looking at something like this quad unit but I believe all though it has four inputs and four outputs which means I can't put the outputs in to one channel on my DVR unit. I also found this on the same site but it only supports HDMI inputs and my cameras are BNC. This unit seems to have multiple inputs and only one output. Any thoughts on these.?
posted by gypsyfighter at 11:43 AM on October 15, 2018


Response by poster: I think the Pelco unit seems to fit the bill as it supports BNC inputs and only one BNC out.
posted by gypsyfighter at 11:45 AM on October 15, 2018


Best answer: Looking through the manual for the HandyQuad xQUAD050 unit (the site you liked has the wrong manual on their site...), it notes that all four outputs show the same thing. You'd just leave the other 3 outputs unused. Assuming that the technical specifications (last page of manual) are compatible with both your camera and your DVR, it should work, but I'd have two reservations about this product without further research:
1)The Autoseq can only be set down to 3 seconds, and does not mention disabling unused channels. That might mean that it spends 3 seconds on each of the 2 unused channels as it's rotating. Compare with the QUAD040 manual linked from your link, which can be set to bypass unused inputs in Auto Mode.
2) No mention is made of whether it remembers the current mode across a power outage. Depending on your installation, this may or may not be an issue. It might also actually retain the current setting, or the default setting might be the one you need, but I can't say without further research.

If you have BNC cameras, you definitely don't want to get something with HDMI inputs.

And I should note that despite appearances, I have zero CCTV experience, I just took an interest in the question and did some googling.
posted by yuwtze at 3:53 PM on October 15, 2018


Response by poster: Really appreciate your advice I contacted them about the handy quad unit and when it wasn't going to quite support what I was looking for. So I decided to go for another DVR unit instead and use a video mule to run two signals down one RG59 cable.
posted by gypsyfighter at 2:07 PM on October 26, 2018


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