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MichelR
join:2011-07-03
Trois-Rivieres, QC

MichelR

Member

[Serious] Extension cord for IP camera?

I recently bought a IP camera (no time to get into the reasons right now). As with a lot of electronics, the power cord is rather short (roughly a meter and a half, maybe a little less). Unsurprisingly, such a short length does not allow me to place it where I'd like.

What would be a safe (as in adhere to the electrical code and won't start a fire or even just damage the camera) solution to the short power cord? This is for my condo, so it's not going to be running inside the walls or anything - I just want the camera set higher above the wall outlet than the cord allows me. I've heard that an extension cord is not a good idea for a permanent solution? (Never mind that we had PCs at work hooked up to cheap extensions 20+ years ago. )

ArthurS
Watch Those Blinking Lights
Premium Member
join:2000-10-28
Hamilton, ON

ArthurS

Premium Member

What kind of power supply does the camera use? Better still what model camera? What kind of DC output plug is on it? Is it POE? How much further do you need to go with the power cable? There's too little information you're providing here to explore various options.
MichelR
join:2011-07-03
Trois-Rivieres, QC

MichelR

Member

Yeah I wasn't sure what information was pertinent, so I waited until somebody asked something specific.

The camera is a D-Link DCS-5020L. This is from the manual:

Power
Input: 100-240 V AC, 50/60 Hz
Output: 12 V DC, 1 A

I don't know what POE means?

I'm still debating placement for the camera, but I'd say 2m extra at most, *maybe* 3m.

ArthurS
Watch Those Blinking Lights
Premium Member
join:2000-10-28
Hamilton, ON

2 edits

ArthurS to MichelR

Premium Member

to MichelR
I don't see any reason why you can't use an AC extension cord for your camera, other than having to look at an ugly wall wart dangling in the middle of the wall.

As a prettier alternative, you can buy a DC extension cable, one end female, the other end male, that will extend the 12VDC further to your IP camera. Here's some examples, I'm sure you can find a local electronics shop that might have them:
»www.jameco.com/webapp/wc ··· amecoall

However you need to get the right diameter plug and jack. They come in all kinds of sizes, either measure with a caliper, or bring the AC adapter with you to the electronics store to find the right one that fits.

Try this store locally, they probably have it: »www.gervaiselectronics.ca/

LazMan
Premium Member
join:2003-03-26
Beverly Hills, CA

LazMan to MichelR

Premium Member

to MichelR
Only advice I can offer?

Code doesn't allow extension cords to be used for "permanent" installation - so no fastening, no fishing through the wall, etc. It would work, but isn't technically allowed for long-term use.

It'll be a little ugly to use an extension cord - something like this:

»www.dlink.com/ca/en/busi ··· pter-kit

Would make it much cleaner - it runs the power over the Ethernet cable; then splits it back out at the Camera end; but may be a little spendy, since it's considered a "business" product... People have made their own power injectors as well, but don't know how comfortable you are with electronics and wiring.

GreenEnvy22
join:2011-08-04
St Catharines, ON

GreenEnvy22 to MichelR

Member

to MichelR
Others have answered your question, so I'll just provide a tip for next time.
Unless Wifi is required because you can't run ethernet to where the camera is, look for a PoE (Power over Ethernet) capable camera next time. This will let the camera be powered by the ethernet cable that is running to it. Back at the other end of the cable, where it hooks into your switch/router, you have a PoE injector to add the electrical to the cable.

This way you can plug the camera in wherever you can run ethernet with no power required near the camera.

Standards
@131.137.245.x

Standards to MichelR

Anon

to MichelR
Just make sure your extension cord is certified by either CSA and/or UL(C) and it should be safe enough to use. Make sure it's not subject to water, elevated humidity, direct heat, etc.

A DC extension is not a very good idea as there is much more loss of power to heat the longer the cord gets with DC than with AC.

PoE means Power over Ethernet, which allows you to power the device through the Ethernet cable if both the device and the networking device it's connected to support it, as well as the Ethernet cable connecting them. It's very unlikely to be the case in your situation so I would rule that out.

HiVolt
Premium Member
join:2000-12-28
Toronto, ON

HiVolt

Premium Member

Meh, I've done ghetto DC extensions all over the shop for IP cameras... just cut the wire, splice and solder at both ends and done... Some are like 20 feet long and there's no issues with the IP Camera, and they work fine with the PTZ motors and IR led's.

I've even done ghetto PoE, using 2 pairs of ethernet for power, and 2 for ethernet.

It works.

ArthurS
Watch Those Blinking Lights
Premium Member
join:2000-10-28
Hamilton, ON

ArthurS to Standards

Premium Member

to Standards
said by Standards :

A DC extension is not a very good idea as there is much more loss of power to heat the longer the cord gets with DC than with AC.

For the length and gauge of wire in this situation (no more than 6 feet, 18AWG typical), the loss of power to heat is negligible, do your Ohms law. I install short DC extension cords more times than I care to think about, no problems whatsoever.

Thane_Bitter
Inquire within
Premium Member
join:2005-01-20

1 edit

Thane_Bitter to MichelR

Premium Member

to MichelR
PoE - Power over Ethernet.

In a PoE system an injector (midspan, switch, etc) mixes -48Volt power with the data, at the camera or other device end a similar device extracts the power from the data, converts it to the required voltage to power the device. If you have seen a Cisco IP desk phone in an office its powered by PoE. The reason for the high voltage is to reduce current loss along the Ethernet cable.

Injectors and spliters are dropping in price however if this camera is just a 100/10 MBPS device a home brew solution will work perfectly. At these speeds only 2 of the pairs are carrying data, the rest do nothing, so you tap into the unused pair and send power down them to the other end. Really its just a matter of hacking a patch cable with the appropriate male/female power connectors and making sure the polarity is correct.

Here is a link you might find useful about DIY PoE: »tuxgraphics.org/electron ··· oe.shtml

EDIT: if you are using wireless and just need power, measure the power connector (barrel connector) and order a pre-made cable + a female barrel connector of the same size from an electronics parts place (like Digikey or a brick and mortar store). I did this because my modem used a rather odd sized barrel connector and none of the DC power connectors I had would fit it.
MichelR
join:2011-07-03
Trois-Rivieres, QC

MichelR to ArthurS

Member

to ArthurS
Alright, I'm back from work.

Lots of interesting information in this thread, thanks all! Learned quite a few things there. I had no idea what to look for, really. I did see that Foscam had power cable extensions (DC, I guess) for their cameras on Amazon, but just about every piece of info I found otherwise was about using extension cords, all the way up to adding wall outlets (a bit overkill for a couple of cameras!)

It *looks* like the DC extension cable suggested by ArthurS will be the way to go in my case. I shouldn't need very long cables, so any possible loss of power will most likely not be a problem. PoE is not an option with this model of camera, plus that would require quite a long Ethernet cable for one of the cameras (though I probably have one long enough, from my pre-WiFi days when I had a bunch of cables running all over on the floor...)

Now looking at local suppliers for DC cables, in case there's one close by (Gervais is a hike from here).

Thanks again!

Spike5
Premium Member
join:2008-05-16
Toronto, ON

4 edits

Spike5 to MichelR

Premium Member

to MichelR
I've powered a TrendNet PTZ camera over 50 foot of Cat6 via the ghetto PoE method, worked fantastic for the 2 years I had it setup. As HiVolt mentioned, 2 pairs for 100mbit Ethernet, 2 pairs for power. The camera I used is powered by a 12V source which does allow you a decent amount of length before voltage drop becomes a problem with 2 pairs of cat6. I've tried this method with 5V cameras before but the voltage drop was too great, you need at least 9V at the source to compensate for a 50 foot length. The voltage drop with 12V is a much smaller overall percentage which the camera is much less likely to be affected by. In the end its all regulated to much lower voltages inside the camera.

There is no heat on the cable, you're dealing with peanuts for wattage. It also doesn't look any less professional if you heatshrink all your connections.

If you don't want to go that route, just extend the adapter cable. Buy some cheap speaker cable (similar gauge as the power adapter) and extend the wires. On most wall wart plug packs, one wire has a white stripe, make sure that remains the same when you splice via the speaker cable.
MichelR
join:2011-07-03
Trois-Rivieres, QC

MichelR

Member

ugh - I'm not really comfortable doing this. The most "techy" thing I've done with wires is strip and plug in speaker cables. My brother-in-law is an electrician. That's something he'd probably do with his eyes closed.

Guspaz
Guspaz
MVM
join:2001-11-05
Montreal, QC

Guspaz to MichelR

MVM

to MichelR
We're setting up a surveillance system for a new office, and we went with IP cameras with PoE support too. We got an 8-port gigabit Netgear PoE switch (with PoE on all 8 ports) for $150, the cost has come down a lot. We've got six cameras, one port for connecting to the server, one empty.
MichelR
join:2011-07-03
Trois-Rivieres, QC

MichelR

Member

This guy here has a pretty sweet setup: »www.thomasclaudiushuber. ··· s-phone/