Camera Installation

[cbouch]

Like alot of people I have an abundance of time on my hands during this time of isolation. It seems to be working so no complaints. Anyway, my wondering mind was thinking on how best to install the 4 analogue cameras that I have for my boat. My son bought be a garmin GC12 for my birthday...nice camera about the size of an egg cost about 350.00 depending on where you get it. Back to my wondering mind I was on amazon and saw something that looked exactly like the garmin...I ordered it....size of a hardball.....cost 19.95.....picture quality when connected to my garmin 942xs exactly the same.....looks to be made of the same aluminum body and has the same water rating as the garmin. So, I bought 2 more so now I have 4 cameras to install. The garmin has 1 video connection, all cameras run on 12 volts and all use the same rg59 coax cables. I know that I can buy a box that allows me to switch from camera to camera....4 cameras ports in 1 out.....I have also found a separate 12 volt switch that allows me to put power to one of the cameras at a time....I have not been able to find a switch that does both at the same time. So with what I have found I have to throw two switches, one for the cable and one for the power making sure that they are both set to the same camera. I guess as an alternative I could leave the power on to all 4 cameras all the time having just 1 master switch that feeds them all however I really do not want to do that. So I have come up with the following solution and am wondering if anyone out there has any comments relative to it.

I am thinking that I could somehow splice all 4 camera coax cables together resulting in a 5th cable that would be connected to the chart plotter. Then using the one power switch energize the camera that I want to view. All the other cameras would be dead having no power. I think this is a very simple solution if it works. I would only have one switch to deal with.

Appreciate any comments. Thanks, Cliff

 

[Boatfever]

What's wrong with having them all powered up at the same time? Are they power hogs?

 

[cbouch]

Nope about 1 amp each..somehow they have to get selected as input to the mfd and the electrical switch would look better and is smaller than the cable switch

 

[Boatfever]

Nope about 1 amp each..somehow they have to get selected as input to the mfd and the electrical switch would look better and is smaller than the cable switch

Maybe some electronics and video types can answer.
I'm not sure how much a 4 into 1 combiner will attenuate the video signal. There are powered versions that give some amplification, last I checked.

 

[Barking Sands]

Can you link to the less expensive cameras you bought. I may pick up a few. There must be a way to do it. I follow a Looper on youtube called "what yacht to do" and he has cameras on his Garmin and they scroll automatically between several views and spend about 5 seconds on each screen. I want to mimic his set up.

 

[Codger2]

I follow a Looper on youtube called "what yacht to do" and he has cameras on his Garmin and they scroll automatically between several views and spend about 5 seconds on each screen. I want to mimic his set up.

I have IP cameras on my boat that are run by my Raymarine eS128 and they can scroll automatically for whatever time I want. (5 seconds, 15,30,etc) I had analog cameras but the IPs are so much better (resolution) and pricier! I can view 4 at once or one at a time and I can record with each one. The set up was expensive but the ease of viewing & recording is spectacular.

 

[HiSpirits]

Vessel video survillance (Cheap)

With Garmin and Raymarine (both tested on our boat) just buy a cheap video survillance system (DVR) for home use that has a BNC (baseband video output) this is the same connector on both the Garmin and Raymarine MFD's. Set your DVR to switch between cameras or multiview as desired. Both, cameras and most DVRs use a 12 VDC transformer for power so hook it up to your house battery to prevent low voltage reboot when starting mains if batteries are combined use a stable isolated source. this will also prevent poor video quality from dc voltage ripples. A simple and cheap solution we have used for years. Note: Cheap DVR's usually cost between 60 and 200 USD they normally last a year or two then just replace. O and place it where u can use the IR remote to change camera choices or multi screen output. wiring you can use cat 5 for your wiring running a single wire to each camera to the DVR for both power and video the twisted pair adapters are cheap and much more user friendly.

 

[Barking Sands]

Great feedback guys. Thats what Im looking for. Makes engine room checks easier.

 

[boathealer]

Hope it is not going to completely replace your live checks.

I place big value on live smells and sounds when I do an engine room check - neither of which are available with a typical CCTV camera.

JMHO

 

[Barking Sands]

Of course not. Like the camera idea mainly for seeing large water leaks or smoke. Something that would be better off seen nearly immediately VS a half hour later.

 

[stubones99]

If your camera has VMD (Video Motion Detection), you could have it trigger if there is fog, smoke, or movement in front of the camera

lots of video switches let you switch between camera inputs, and some let you combine in quads or more on a single frame.

A better way to go is using Digital cameras, if your MFD can support it.

 

[stevemitchell]

I had similar limitations on my Furuno equipment and decided to buy an analog camera server instead, and used analog cameras connected to it. Wrote about it here: https://seabits.com/docking-and-engine-room-cameras/

Yes, the camera server is more expensive than, say, a $20 camera, but if you want all four operational at the same time, you could get away with it this way, since this "looks" like one camera to the Garmin, or it can be 4 separate cameras too at the same time.