Kind of long, but hopefully you'll read the whole thing as I feel the need to explain...
OK, I'm a tinker-er.
I am a Computer Engineer, generally roped into stuff related to EE stuff (that is non-microelectronics).
As such, I get dangerous with stuff...Basically I like to take things apart.
So, I thought I was going to have a few flood cams (Vt38A??) around the house.
I hate wireless video.
So, I opened up one of my Flood Cams. Took a look at it. Based on research and "what-not" basically there is a single control board, a single Sensor board, and a single RF board.
The RF board is the same RF board that all X10 wireless cameras use.
Based on silk screen I took the "video" driver wire OUT of that board. The driver wire did NOT have a COM. The RF board only had 3 wires going into it. So I also removed the 12VDC wires. Removed two screws and "pop" the RF video board board is gone.
Next step...take the 12V + wire and put heat shrink on it. Next, cut one end off of an RCA cable that I had laying around.
Attach video ground to the 12V COM.
Connect Video driver line (it's a yellow line in the Flood Cam I opened up) to the center conductor of the RCA cable.
Re-package. Open back up, realizing there was no strain relief to the video cable I added. Put a fireman's figure-8 knot. Test, good to go. Re-package.
Remove X10 flood light from mount near garage door.
Add in flood cam. Try to fit RCA jack through hole in wall. Go get screw gun and large drill bit. Widen hole. Test RCA cable. Good to Go. Re-attach Flood Cam.
Plug in power. Good to go. Based on settings, the flood lights come on when there is motion. Ok, get sacraficial TV. Try to plug RCA jack in to TV. No go...too short. Take apart wires from entertainment center. Add length to RCA cable for test. TV shows surprisingly good image (at least for a X10 camera).
Spend 30 min. with wife walking around pointing camera. All is well.
Next Day:
My server is located in the crawl space. So, if I drill a hole 4" off the ground in my garage, I can punch right into the ceiling of the crawlspace. So, I did.
Next, I ran an ethernet wire from the server to the Flood Cam's rear side (inside).
I had made RCA to Ethernet convertor boxes. Basically take a ethernet juntion box, and solder RCA jacks to it. I have used this box with 100' lengths of ethernet with VCRs to TVs for experiments. The picture (to me) looks identical as running it over 5' RCA cables. I have also used this VCR with 35' RCA cable lengths...yeah, the picture sucks...so, I figure I stumbled on one of those magic impedance settings...
So, I plug the ethernet cable into one box. Then plug the video cable in. Then I decide, well, I need to put the connector on the other end of the ethernet as well. Better to NOT work with a live wire. So, I unplug the ethernet cable.
I go into the crawlspace. Add my connector. Verify on my PPC that the color order is correct. So, I plug the ethernet to RCA box in, and plug an RCA cable into the box. Then I realize that my 4 port Video capture card uses BNCs...dammnit...where are my BNC to RCA convertors...
I go back up to the garage, plug in the ethernet cable up there. Then head back to the office upstairs. Get my BNC to RCA convertors. Go back into the crawspace. Put the convertors on the video ports. Then, I plug the RCA jack into the PC. I get the tip in, all is good. I finish plugging in and I see a spark come out of my convertor box!!
I quickly unplug everything!!
My results:
it seemed as though I was shorting 120VAC (something arched) across the ethernet lines as BOTH pins in the RJ45 jeck that were handling the video line on my box were melted back. The Cable end is blackened. I go to the garage. The box there is nearly undamaged. One pin is slightly heat stressed (it's blue so it got hot, but did not melt off).
The flood cam is dead. It will no longer respond to X10 commands, no video. If you plug it into the wall, the lights just stay on forever. No response.
So...my question, has anyone else done this? Am I missing something? Should I just sell the rest of these and get something else? Is there something else like this?
Do I need to get a video isolator (I've used these on Huge security installations where I've used this guy:
http://www.criticalimaging.net/SR-700.htm ... by the way, I designed some of the electronics in that bad boy, and wrote the control code!)
(maybe my video capture card's ground is not floating as the TV's was?? Hence the Floodcam's ground is really nuetral as most X10 things are... so I did kill it??)?
OK, I'm a tinker-er.
I am a Computer Engineer, generally roped into stuff related to EE stuff (that is non-microelectronics).
As such, I get dangerous with stuff...Basically I like to take things apart.
So, I thought I was going to have a few flood cams (Vt38A??) around the house.
I hate wireless video.
So, I opened up one of my Flood Cams. Took a look at it. Based on research and "what-not" basically there is a single control board, a single Sensor board, and a single RF board.
The RF board is the same RF board that all X10 wireless cameras use.
Based on silk screen I took the "video" driver wire OUT of that board. The driver wire did NOT have a COM. The RF board only had 3 wires going into it. So I also removed the 12VDC wires. Removed two screws and "pop" the RF video board board is gone.
Next step...take the 12V + wire and put heat shrink on it. Next, cut one end off of an RCA cable that I had laying around.
Attach video ground to the 12V COM.
Connect Video driver line (it's a yellow line in the Flood Cam I opened up) to the center conductor of the RCA cable.
Re-package. Open back up, realizing there was no strain relief to the video cable I added. Put a fireman's figure-8 knot. Test, good to go. Re-package.
Remove X10 flood light from mount near garage door.
Add in flood cam. Try to fit RCA jack through hole in wall. Go get screw gun and large drill bit. Widen hole. Test RCA cable. Good to Go. Re-attach Flood Cam.
Plug in power. Good to go. Based on settings, the flood lights come on when there is motion. Ok, get sacraficial TV. Try to plug RCA jack in to TV. No go...too short. Take apart wires from entertainment center. Add length to RCA cable for test. TV shows surprisingly good image (at least for a X10 camera).
Spend 30 min. with wife walking around pointing camera. All is well.
Next Day:
My server is located in the crawl space. So, if I drill a hole 4" off the ground in my garage, I can punch right into the ceiling of the crawlspace. So, I did.
Next, I ran an ethernet wire from the server to the Flood Cam's rear side (inside).
I had made RCA to Ethernet convertor boxes. Basically take a ethernet juntion box, and solder RCA jacks to it. I have used this box with 100' lengths of ethernet with VCRs to TVs for experiments. The picture (to me) looks identical as running it over 5' RCA cables. I have also used this VCR with 35' RCA cable lengths...yeah, the picture sucks...so, I figure I stumbled on one of those magic impedance settings...
So, I plug the ethernet cable into one box. Then plug the video cable in. Then I decide, well, I need to put the connector on the other end of the ethernet as well. Better to NOT work with a live wire. So, I unplug the ethernet cable.
I go into the crawlspace. Add my connector. Verify on my PPC that the color order is correct. So, I plug the ethernet to RCA box in, and plug an RCA cable into the box. Then I realize that my 4 port Video capture card uses BNCs...dammnit...where are my BNC to RCA convertors...
I go back up to the garage, plug in the ethernet cable up there. Then head back to the office upstairs. Get my BNC to RCA convertors. Go back into the crawspace. Put the convertors on the video ports. Then, I plug the RCA jack into the PC. I get the tip in, all is good. I finish plugging in and I see a spark come out of my convertor box!!
I quickly unplug everything!!
My results:
it seemed as though I was shorting 120VAC (something arched) across the ethernet lines as BOTH pins in the RJ45 jeck that were handling the video line on my box were melted back. The Cable end is blackened. I go to the garage. The box there is nearly undamaged. One pin is slightly heat stressed (it's blue so it got hot, but did not melt off).
The flood cam is dead. It will no longer respond to X10 commands, no video. If you plug it into the wall, the lights just stay on forever. No response.
So...my question, has anyone else done this? Am I missing something? Should I just sell the rest of these and get something else? Is there something else like this?
Do I need to get a video isolator (I've used these on Huge security installations where I've used this guy:
http://www.criticalimaging.net/SR-700.htm ... by the way, I designed some of the electronics in that bad boy, and wrote the control code!)
(maybe my video capture card's ground is not floating as the TV's was?? Hence the Floodcam's ground is really nuetral as most X10 things are... so I did kill it??)?
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