Making own home surveillance system?

1. Little Dog

   I set my system up with components mostly from Frys.

   At their website, in the blue tabs on the left, select "Electronic Components", the "Security", then "Closed Circuit Television". In there, the stuff that is interesting to you will be "Recorders" and "Wired Cameras".

   DVR info:
   You did not say how many cameras you want to use. They come in 4, 8, 9 and 16 channel sizes – each channel is a camera connection. Pretty much all the DVRs available now have a way to identify a "motion sensing" area. Normall, the DVR is recording 1 still every 4 seconds (you can change that to more or less often) and when motion is sensed in the defined area, the DVR starts recording real-time and kicks in an alarm log entry. Sometimes the hard drive is included, many times you but the hard drive separately. I find that a 4-camera system take about 25 days to start recording over the oldest video on a 200 gig drive. I use a Lorex DVR.

   Cameras:
   Not too sure about the dome cameras with internal IR. I use the Lorex CVC6997HR, CVC6973HR, some Swann and Clover outdoor rated IR cameras.

   Cabling/Installation:
   Most of the cable runs use the 60 foot cable that came in the box with the cameras. A few of them where the cable was not long enough, I ended up using CAT5 network cable – on runs less than about 150 feet, it works fine (and way cheaper than coax and easier to work with). RCA jacks for the ends of the CAT5 are available at Frys or RadioShack.

   The cameras are placed under the eaves so I don’t have to worry too much about weather impact.

   Other:
   You might consider getting a battery-back up… in the event of a power outage, the UPS will allow the surveillance system to keep working.

   I also ran CAT5 through the house and terminated the cabling where all the televisions are – that way, I can use an auxiliary video input (instead of the game console) to check the outdoor video while watching TV – or just leave the security cameras on the screen if there’s nothing to watch on TV… In the den, there is a second TV that displays ONLY the surveillance cams – the HDTV is for watching programs/movies, etc…

   Each installation is different, so it is difficult to give a complete shopping list.

   You know you will want ONE DVR and at least ONE camera, so get that first and install it – you can build the system from there.

   Most current DVRs can also have an IP address put on them, so you can connect it to your home’s local area network and use a browser to get to the video – even remotely if you have that capability.

   In round numbers:
   $500 for the 4 channel DVR
   $100 x 2 cameras
   $150 x 2 cameras

   That’s $1,000 just for the basic system… then there’s the connectors, extra cable, maybe a $100 for the hard drive for the DVR, connectivity to the house TVs, wallplates, more cabling for that, labor to pull the cable and install the cameras, another $100 for the battery backup… $2,000 does not sound like too bad of a deal – but if you like to do this sort of thing, it is easy to do if your house allows easy access for the cable runs.

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