Maximum camera to computer distance

exlibris · Post by **exlibris** » Wed Oct 06, 2004 9:53 pm

Howdy,

This is likely more a question about cams rather than Zone Minder, but since I am just starting to do a system install, with ZM, I figured I would try asking here:

How far can the cam and computer be apart? I am hoping to put a motion detector in my garage ~40 feet from my server. Would a USB cord connect this far? Or would I have to run ethernet out to the garage? The ideal would be somehow having a camera which gets it power souce from the cable... Anyone have experience with this? Cheap camera brand recommendation?

Many thanks.

fernando · Post by **fernando** » Thu Oct 07, 2004 12:30 am

maximun usb is 8 meters
if use bnc 150 meters using rg59
or 300 meters using a good camera and rg59 90% copper shield rg59 heavy shield.

Post by **zoneminder** » Thu Oct 07, 2004 12:33 pm

You can get 'plug and play' video type cameras which run 12V alongside the coax video cable. These can go way further than 40ft so that should work. Alternatively you can get PoE (Power over Ethernet) network cameras (or power units that break it out) but these are not cheap by any means.

I would think you'd be better off with a true video solution, it's easier to wire and most of the expensive stuff (ie video card) is in your house and it's only the camera that's stuff in the garage. Plus you have more options like low-light or IR assisted cameras than for USB or network cameras.

I don't know any brands but feel free to click on some (all!) of the adverts to compare prices. They're mostly pretty similar the only issues I've had are that some aren't sealed very well so get condensation on the lens. I end up stuffing them with silicone grains to keep them dry. It's probably worth getting a quality video card though depending on how many cameras you are planning.

Phil,

zaius · Post by **zaius** » Thu Oct 07, 2004 1:41 pm

If you want to stick with a USB camera you can consider ways to extend it. Active repeaters aren't too expensive and let you get another 10 metres. Also, if you want to go even further I have seen a few fibre optic USB extenders that can extend the usb device range by huge distances. By the time you did this though, it might be cheaper just to buy a new coax camera

David

gnuorder · Post by **gnuorder** » Thu Oct 07, 2004 8:35 pm

Passive power over ethernet can be bought for $5 or less if you can make it yourself. Here is a site you can get them from:

http://www.pcengines.ch

I'm sure there are other places that have them and you can build your own but I needed something compact and these fit the job. Note, you can use them at either end if your device isn't POE.

Here is a site to calculate your needs:

http://www.gweep.net/~sfoskett/tech/poecalc.html

maron · Post by **maron** » Fri Oct 08, 2004 8:14 am

You could also use a wireless bridge, which is often much cheaper than cabling. I have 8 axis netowrk cameras in a house 390 meters away from the house with the servers and they're working very well to say the least.