# Surveillance Camera



## bohaiboy (Aug 19, 2009)

Our GC wired the house for three surv. cameras. The outlets have a coaxial cable and a two wire cable. Am I correct in assuming the coaxial will carry the video and teh two copper wires will power the camera? So with that almost any camera will work that requires powering, correct?


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## Yoyizit (Jul 11, 2008)

Yes, coax has a wide bandwidth for carrying video signals. What gauge copper?


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## bohaiboy (Aug 19, 2009)

Not sure but the wires are fairly small. I woiuld think 18 gauge or thereabouts.


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## Yoyizit (Jul 11, 2008)

bohaiboy said:


> Not sure but the wires are fairly small. I woiuld think 18 gauge or thereabouts.


The gauge # and the length will limit how much current your camera can draw.


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## Warden (Sep 27, 2009)

Most of the consumer type camera's (bullett, pinhole, dome) can run variable voltage usually between 9 and 18 volts DC.

I've got 4 ( a mixure of several) on our CCTV system. I am using a single non-regulated 12 v DC power converter; not much bigger than you would find on a calculator, or a power supply for a radio/portable TV etc. I think it is around 12v 800ma and I have had absolutely no problems powering all 4 cameras. Cam 1 has a run of around 25 feet, 2 has about 40 feet, 3 has about 50 and 4 has about 70 feet of run. The cable has coax 59u and the power leads are 16 ga.

Been running um 24x7 for several years now and not a single problem with any of them.


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## Sprayboy (Oct 21, 2009)

Yea, most cameras today will run on 12vdc or 24vac. The chips are set for CAT5E and POE (power over ethernet). The most POE power you can have is 15 watts/camera so 45 watts would be plenty for you. Use the 18/2 for power and the coax for video as you have Analog wiring. I prefer multi-camera power supplies because each output is individually fused. You can get power supplies from E-bay, Amazon, SES, or Spytown.com. You won't need much for three cameras unless you go with an outside enclosure with a heater/blower. Get decent color cameras and connect them to a DVR. The DVR will have an ethernet port and you can plug that into your internet gateway for viewing over the web. We do this everyday.


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