4 ms·

>> I've (mostly) stopped crimping cables because I've had too many go flaky and don't have 4-5 figure testing equipment. I just redid a lot of the ethernet wir

>> I've (mostly) stopped crimping cables because I've had too many go flaky and don't have 4-5 figure testing equipment. I just redid a lot of the ethernet wiring in my house, and it's super easy compared to how I did it 10+ years ago. If you use EZ-RJ45 jacks (the only way to go, imo), it's super easy to get cables working properly the very first time. The wires feed through the jack so you can verify wire order before crimping. I spent less than $200 on the tools I used to do my wiring: * EZ-RJ45 crimper * RJ45 cable tester with probe and toner (this was easily the most important tool I bought) * Punchdown Tool * An adjustable Cat 5 stripper Out of the several cables I did, I only had one with problems, I wired one end backwards (it was before I had my morning coffee), and it was quickly "debugged" with my cable tester.

linsomniac 8y ago
I did a look at those EZ-RJ45 ends when another replied about them in this thread and notice that they are rated for solid or stranded, which I think would help. They look pretty good. I've installed a few (and have a few more to install) of the Ubiquiti cameras, and I've been using keystone at the end and then patch cables. That has worked well, but I'd be tempted to just crimp the outside end. I'd have to see how the shielding works with the crimping, that gear is all on shielded cable per spec. Shielded plenum rated cable is kinda spendy...
- slantyyz 8y ago
  I just finished installing the G3AFs (outside) and G3 Flexes (inside) at my house, and I crimped the outside ends. For my outdoor cameras, I used outdoor rated cat6 solid. It's a little harder to work with, and I had to buy a spool of 1000 feet because the 500 feet spools were out of stock when I needed them. Are you using back boxes? I think it would be extremely hard to use keystone and patch cables given how little room the cameras have for running the cables, especially the G3AFs with the shielded cables if you are not using back boxes.
  - linsomniac 8y ago
    I'm not using boxes, I'm putting them under the eaves, mounted to the plywood. I drilled a hole just big enough to fit the keystone through (1"? 1.25"? I forget), then I put the keystone on it, put a grounded patch in that, and pushed it up inside the hole. Then I mount the ring and plug the camera in, and mount the camera. The cable runs are in the attic. This is all the G3 Dome, they didn't have anything else when I bought the cameras. I thought about putting a G3AF mounted from the upper eaves to get another view, but haven't done that yet. That'll be a bit more of a project. I'm fairly happy with the setup, but it's kind of a bit flaky. The motion detection fires all the time, with wind blowing trees or the like. Then it'll sometimes cut off in the middle of a recording when it seems like it should be detecting motion. I've been wanting to put an SSD in their little appliance, or just migrate that appliance to a Ubuntu host of my own, but haven't done that yet. The hardware seems solid, but the software seems flaky. A coworker has the Nest cams and those seem to be a bit less flaky. I may need to reevaluate this before I go further in, and it's been a year, maybe there's something else I should look at.
    - slantyyz 8y ago
      For the G3/AFs, you feed the wire into the mount, which is tight especially if you're not aiming straight ahead (which I assume few people are doing). The Flex gives you more leeway, but because the cameras are inexpensive, the wall mounts for them are reflective of the cost savings, which means "not great". The motion sensing is quite sensitive and there's no machine learning behind the analysis like there is with Nest. I prefer the Unifi Video's motion sensing set up over that of Zoneminder which I was using before. I find myself creating less-sensitive motion sensing zones where I know there are plants/trees that are going to blow plus where they might cast shadows. The "before" and "after" settings for motion detection are pretty important if you think your footage is getting cut off at the beginning or the end of the clip. I use a setting of 5 seconds. Since I came from crappy wifi IP cams, I've been very happy with my setup. I'm currently using an inexpensive NUC as my Unifi Controller and NVR. I have four cameras recording on motion sensing (the others are for monitoring only). The only time I have issues is when I run Duplicati in the background to backup the video files to a NAS. Duplicati is a bit of a pig, but I'm not a Linux expert, and Duplicati was familiar and easy to set up. From everything I've seen and heard, Nest is great, but I find the subscription fees to be excessive, but ymmv based on your own needs.

linsomniac 8y ago

I did a look at those EZ-RJ45 ends when another replied about them in this thread and notice that they are rated for solid or stranded, which I think would help. They look pretty good. I've installed a few (and have a few more to install) of the Ubiquiti cameras, and I've been using keystone at the end and then patch cables. That has worked well, but I'd be tempted to just crimp the outside end. I'd have to see how the shielding works with the crimping, that gear is all on shielded cable per spec. Shielded plenum rated cable is kinda spendy...

slantyyz 8y ago
I just finished installing the G3AFs (outside) and G3 Flexes (inside) at my house, and I crimped the outside ends. For my outdoor cameras, I used outdoor rated cat6 solid. It's a little harder to work with, and I had to buy a spool of 1000 feet because the 500 feet spools were out of stock when I needed them. Are you using back boxes? I think it would be extremely hard to use keystone and patch cables given how little room the cameras have for running the cables, especially the G3AFs with the shielded cables if you are not using back boxes.
- linsomniac 8y ago
  I'm not using boxes, I'm putting them under the eaves, mounted to the plywood. I drilled a hole just big enough to fit the keystone through (1"? 1.25"? I forget), then I put the keystone on it, put a grounded patch in that, and pushed it up inside the hole. Then I mount the ring and plug the camera in, and mount the camera. The cable runs are in the attic. This is all the G3 Dome, they didn't have anything else when I bought the cameras. I thought about putting a G3AF mounted from the upper eaves to get another view, but haven't done that yet. That'll be a bit more of a project. I'm fairly happy with the setup, but it's kind of a bit flaky. The motion detection fires all the time, with wind blowing trees or the like. Then it'll sometimes cut off in the middle of a recording when it seems like it should be detecting motion. I've been wanting to put an SSD in their little appliance, or just migrate that appliance to a Ubuntu host of my own, but haven't done that yet. The hardware seems solid, but the software seems flaky. A coworker has the Nest cams and those seem to be a bit less flaky. I may need to reevaluate this before I go further in, and it's been a year, maybe there's something else I should look at.
  - slantyyz 8y ago
    For the G3/AFs, you feed the wire into the mount, which is tight especially if you're not aiming straight ahead (which I assume few people are doing). The Flex gives you more leeway, but because the cameras are inexpensive, the wall mounts for them are reflective of the cost savings, which means "not great". The motion sensing is quite sensitive and there's no machine learning behind the analysis like there is with Nest. I prefer the Unifi Video's motion sensing set up over that of Zoneminder which I was using before. I find myself creating less-sensitive motion sensing zones where I know there are plants/trees that are going to blow plus where they might cast shadows. The "before" and "after" settings for motion detection are pretty important if you think your footage is getting cut off at the beginning or the end of the clip. I use a setting of 5 seconds. Since I came from crappy wifi IP cams, I've been very happy with my setup. I'm currently using an inexpensive NUC as my Unifi Controller and NVR. I have four cameras recording on motion sensing (the others are for monitoring only). The only time I have issues is when I run Duplicati in the background to backup the video files to a NAS. Duplicati is a bit of a pig, but I'm not a Linux expert, and Duplicati was familiar and easy to set up. From everything I've seen and heard, Nest is great, but I find the subscription fees to be excessive, but ymmv based on your own needs.