Security CCTV PC Power loss queston

[johnyt]

Hi

I have just built a small CCTV computer using the Geovison GV-650 (nice work if you can get it BTW) for a customer and its all set up and working fine. I had explained to the customer that if the mains power failed the computer would obviously shutdown and no loner would be recording the CCTV footage. I had suggested something like an APC 1000 which would give about an hours grace if the monitor was excluded.

He asked me “but what after an hour there is still no power and there is no one around to switch it back on?" Now that’s a good point. I said that there are better products that would hold a longer charge but would obviously start costing a lot more especially with replacement batteries ect later on.

He didn't like the sound of "cost more money" so I said I would look into a solution. Stupidly he does not mind if he looses some CCTV time just as long as the pc turns on again when the power is back that’s fine, but hey what ever the customer wants.

So I was thinking would it be ok just to put a short over the green and black cable of the PSU. It’s what I usually do if I need to quickly test something like a fan or open a CD drive with a spare PSU. In theory it should be ok but it would be nice to see if any one has ay better Ideas.

Also I have seen PSUs with a stated 85% efficiency I've never been that bothered to find out but as I'm here what is the efficiency of these presumed lower quality PSUs?

Thanks for looking

 

[calyn]

Any PC can turn back on automatically after AC powerloss, this is a BIOS setting. There is one issue though. If nobody can turn the machine back on then nobody can start the recording back up. So you need to mak sure the recording application can actually run as a service (which allows it to run even if nobody's logged in).
Of course, this only works if the UPS has no juice left after shutdown and befor main power comes back.

For this situation it may be best to just have a basic UPS, send out an alert (possibly via SMS) to someone who can come in before the UPS actually shuts the machine down.

 

[johnyt]

Yes just a few minutes ago I found that option, a bit silly really I didn't realise there was a submenu in the Power menu of that bios.

Thats pretty much nailed it really the guy just wan'ts an hours grace and the machine to turn on again automatically when AC is restored.

The Geovision software is set to start as windows does. Ive not set any acount up on windows it just loads right into the desktop. A user still has to login to the geovision software to access the menu's and veiw the camera's but it's always recording no matter if any one is logged in or not. That was pretty much it's default setting. It's very easy to set up and you can download their software free. http://www.ezcctv.com/software-download.htm

Its the first time I have taken the task of building a CCTV computer if I can get tis right I might take a few more on.

Thanks for your time Calyn