DIY: Compact DVR With 4 Night Vision Security Cameras
Making a compact digital video recorder (DVR) with four night vision security cameras is possible though it will take some degree of time. By hooking the night vision security cameras to your router via CAT 5 cable you can send the data over your local area network. Once the data is made digital, your can use a regular laptop to act as a digital video recorder, giving you the compact form factor that you want.
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Things You'll Need
- Small laptop
- Router
- Cat 5 cable
- 4 NV remote video cameras
- Power drill
- Safety goggles
- Grease pen
- Ladder
- Painters tape
Instructions
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1
Look at the area that you want to monitor and visualize where you want to place the cameras. You want there to be overlapping fields of view such that a person is always monitored and cannot exploit any dead spots. Make sure to trim away any obscuring bushes or debris from the field of vision where the cameras will be mounted. Use a pencil and some paper to roughly sketch out where the cameras will go so that you do not forget.
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2
Place the security camera where you would like to mount them. Use a ladder if the position is high up as you will be drilling and wiring and will need a stable platform. Put on safety goggles beforehand so that you do not forget when doing the actual drilling. You should always use safety goggles when using power tools. Put the security camera's mounting bracket flush against the wall and tape it into place with painter's tape. Painter's tape is able to secure objects to walls without damaging the paint it is adhered to. Mark the location of the bracket holes with a grease pen just in case the camera falls and you need to find the placing again.
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3
Place the screws that came with the night vision security camera on the tip of the power drill. Place the tip of the screw in the middle of the bracket hole and screw it down until the screw head is flush with the face of the bracket. Repeat this process with each security camera. Angle the night vision security camera if the camera has moved while being screwed in place. Hook the CAT 5 cable to the back of the camera and string it to your router. Plug the CAT 5 cable into the back and repeat this process for each camera.
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4
Plug your laptop into the router with a CAT 5 cable. Turn the computer on by pressing the power button. Slide the security camera's driver disc into your computer and follow the on screen prompts. Select your main hard drive, the hard drive that Windows 7 is installed on, as the drive you want to install the camera software on. Wait for the installation procedure to complete, then restart your computer to allow the drivers to settle into the operating system cache.
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5
Double-click on the night vision security camera program and enter in the directory you want to use to store the movie files. It is best to use a separate external hard drive for this but you can use the laptop's own hard drive as well. Set in the amount of time that the files are to be kept and then click "Record."
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References
- Photo Credit laptop image by Du...¡an Zidar from Fotolia.com
