From Issue #1 , Page #70 | By James Gerhart

Remember those days when you used to make fun of your parents or grandparents for peeking out windows to see what those noises were? Your day will come too, my friend—or maybe not.

All you need is an extra set of eyes—eyes that come in the form of video cameras mounted outside the home. There are numerous surveillance cameras on the market for home use. These cameras vary greatly in price and capability, so you have a little work ahead of you.

Which Camera?
Since the cameras are to be used for outdoor surveillance, they must be weatherproof and able to deliver a decent picture with limited light as well as in daylight. Color cameras need significantly more light than black-and-white cameras, so to avoid installing floodlights all over the yard (and supporting the electric company more than we do now), we opted for the black-and-white model.

We selected the X10 NightWatch II for compatibility reasons. The new exterior cams come complete with addressable power supplies, which use the same powerline commands and transceiver as the interior X10 cams already in the house. This compatibility allows us to use the X10 ScanPower Director remote control to switch between cameras.

Placement & Installation
The farther away you place the camera from the area to be viewed, the larger the field of view will be. The tradeoff is, of course, the farther away you are, the less detail you will be able to make out. Normally, mounting a cam along the eave edge of a two-story house will provide a fairly large field of vision while maintaining decent clarity.

Decide what areas are to be viewed. Take a look around to spot the best vantage point for viewing that area. Make sure the mounting area has no blind spots caused by trees, shrubs or a downspout you forgot about. Decide if all the cameras are to be mounted to the house, or if you want one or more cameras mounted to a tree or post facing the house.

Mark the areas of the house for camera placement. That means it's time to take the ladder out and put your eyes where the camera will be—it's the only way you can see what the actual view will be. Use a pencil or marker to mark the location, then move to the next location.

Tip: Make sure to place the camera high enough so that it is not easily accessible from the ground. You don't want someone to steal your cameras, now do you?

Test Camera Locations
Run the cable into the house through a window or door for the TV hookup. Once it's connected to the TV, check the range and angle of the camera from various test positions. After tweaking the camera mounting into the best position, mark each location.

At the marked locations outside the house, drill holes to lead the cable into the attic. Then from the outside, push the cable through the hole to the inside of the attic. It's always a good idea to have an outside person and an inside person to feed the cable into the attic.

Attach the camera-housing bracket to the outside of the house, using the screws provided with the camera. Connect the cable to the camera per its instructions, and insert the camera into the housing bracket. Securely mount the camera with the supplied screws.

From Remote Mounts
For external locations that face the house, trees or poles make excellent platforms. If you select a tree, make sure it is substantial enough to resist strong winds; you don't want a video camera being tossed about in a thunderstorm.

A great platform is a laundry line pole. These poles are set into the ground using a concrete base, and their tops can be easily modified to accept a camera. These poles are usually hollow, so powerlines and audio/video lines can be run up through the interior of the pole for a neat and weather-tight installation.

Underground-rated conduit should be used to carry cable between the house and external locations. Ideally, the conduit should be buried below the frost line; this will vary from state to state, so consult your local resources for this information.

From House Mounts
Once the cables are in the attic, they can be fished down through the walls to where the switcher is located. Using the junction box as a template, a keyhole saw can make a quick opening through which to pull the cables and fit the junction box. Connecting each pair of cables to a matching pair of connectors on a faceplate makes a nice clean application and allows for cables to be run from the faceplate to the switcher.

Switchers
Switchers are devices that allow you to hook up two or more cameras to your monitor and/or VCR. They are commonly sold in 4-, 6-, and 8-input models. "Input" just refers to the number of cameras (inputs) the device can handle.

Switchers operate by cycling through all your cameras, one at a time. You may also manually "pull up" a single camera at your discretion. Advanced models allow you to hook up alarm inputs (like a motion sensor) so that in the event of an alarm situation, the switcher will target and lock on to the alarm's corresponding camera. For this project we selected a basic manual switcher, since we'll be using the remote control to pull up the various cameras to view.

Connections
Once the cables were attached to the switcher, it was time to make sure they were connected to the corresponding cameras. A visual test of all cameras with the switcher will quickly show any discrepancies between listed and actual camera numbers. This is also a good time to fine-tune the camera angles. Now with four cameras on the exterior of the house, those late-night noises can be checked out easily without scurrying from window to window. Ah, more time on the couch—don't you just love technology?

Wiring Tip
Anytime the cable needs to cross a walkway, it’s best to go under the concrete. Gently undercut the sidewalk on both sides and use a metal rod to push through the dirt. Feed the conduit under the concrete and then backfill the holes.

About The Writer
Name: James Gerhart
Age: 49
City/State: Reading, Penn.
Occupation: Writer
One thing people would be surprised to know about me: I’m an excellent cook (I’m told I make a mean coq au vin!)

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