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CCTV camera tester

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signcrafter

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I've put in a handful of POE camera setups in the last decade and have all the tools to terminate and test wires and get them working. Need to add a few more cameras to the house we moved into and have another system to do in the near future. So naturally always looking to add new tools to make things easier each time. Would like to get one of the tablets that are made for camer installations. Ones I'm looking at test the wires, trace wires, and can hook camera up to it like a monitor to position it(main reason I want one).

Don't need a top of the line one since I'm not doing this for a living or using it everyday. But willing to spend 3-400 bucks on one to make installation easier. Main feature like I said would be when I'm up on a ladder trying to figure out the best spot for the camera I can plug camera into it with a small jumper and it powers the POE camera and I would be able to move camera around to see the best position before I drill holes to fish wires. In the past I've had to set up the whole system and then setup the app on phone to be able to use my phone while up on a ladder positioning camera. A pain and also if I'm doing it for someone else I don't need or want to setup an account to use mobile viewing from my phone. Rather have a dedicated tool that will do that without setting up account to access someone else's camera system.

Prices and features are all over the place for most of these Chinese testers. Wondering if anyone has experience with any of these and can help narrow down which one might be my best option in the 400 plus or minus dollar range.

One brand that has a ton of options on Amazon is rsrteng. There are so many different ones in the 3 to 400 range. I'm not an expert with camera systems but I know enough to be able to install them and get them working. So not sure what I really need and from what I can tell most models will do what I mainly want. Just be nice to have some guidance from someone more knowledgeable before spending that much money. Always over analyze these types of things because I hate to spend 399 on one and find out the one for 425 had a feature I could have used.

Here are some options I've looked at but I'm open to any brand or model.




 
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BrandonV

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BrandonV

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Well I just looked up the battery in my unit and it takes me to Rsrteng so I guess they are the same unit.

Triplett probably would give you better support if you ran into an issue. I can vouch this is a solid unit. I use it professionally.

Don't be blinded by a bunch of extra features. You really just need a unit which has enough PoE power to power whatever camera you want to test.
 
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signcrafter

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BrandonV said:
This is the one I use. $300 and not from some random Chinese brand. $250 from Home Depot I believe.

Truth be told the OS looks similar so I'm guessing all these units use the same Android based OS.

Click to expand...

BrandonV said:
Well I just looked up the battery in my unit and it takes me to Rsrteng so I guess they are the same unit.

Triplett probably would give you better support if you ran into an issue. I can vouch this is a solid unit. I use it professionally.

Don't be blinded by a bunch of extra features. You really just need a unit which has enough PoE power to power whatever camera you want to test.
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Thanks for the advice. I will look into the Triplett testers. I like simplicity so not trying to be blinded by extra features but at the same time Im just trying to make sure whatever I get will work with most cameras and have as many useful features as I may need. Not that I'm a pro and need every feature imagine able but hate to spend 300 bucks and find out down the road that it doesn't have a feature I could use that if I had spent 350 or 400 that tester would have whatever feature.
 
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LXCam

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signcrafter

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LXCam said:
Tell ya what scott I know this recommendation is a budget buster but I highly recommend it. It covers all the bases and the battery life is impressive. I bought this one a couple years ago and it’s seen at least a couple thousand installs without a single glitch.


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Thanks for the advice Cam. I don't mind spending money on tools, especially test tools that cheap ones can send you chasing your tail. But I don't do many cameras, was thinking 400 was a good amount for a tool I don't really "need" and won't get used much. Lol. I do have a setup to do at the banquet hall I remodelled last year so might be able to justify that much. My main reason was just for being able to hook up camera while on ladder to see picture in order to determine best placement before drilling any holes. At my house I just ran a 100 foot Ethernet cable threw the house and put the door to the camera and used my phone while up on ladder to see the view it. It works for the little I do but I like tools and excuses to buy new ones.

What all do you use yours for besides powering up and viewing camera before mounting? I did electrical for a few years out of high school back in early 2000s and we did some home automation when it was becoming a thing back then. So I know the basics and can run and fish wires. But for some reason networking goes over my head, never really got into that part of it. I know enough to get by but assigning ips and that stuff is not my thing. Probably should do some homework on that sometime. When I do restaurants and stuff I know enough to run the wires and terminate to get it setup for the Internet and the POS systems. The POS company takes it from there. I just do the basic camera systems for them so I don't have to do the technical stuff usually. So I have all the tools to terminate and test and trace my wires and have got by so far. But thinking while I write this I really need to learn more about CCTV systems.

But curious what all you use that tester for to see what features I may need or want?

Thanks and happy new years,
Scott
 
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LXCam

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Happy new years Scott.

That’s a bit much to one finger out on my phone tonight but I will get back to you tomorrow

Hope you and the family are doing well.
 
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Snapped-off

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I just use a laptop and a POE injector. Tablet sounds handy though.

We have a couple hundred cameras, but don't have to fiddle with them much, fortunately.
 
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LXCam

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signcrafter said:
What all do you use yours for besides powering up and viewing camera before mounting? I did electrical for a few years out of high school back in early 2000s and we did some home automation when it was becoming a thing back then. So I know the basics and can run and fish wires. But for some reason networking goes over my head, never really got into that part of it. I know enough to get by but assigning ips and that stuff is not my thing. Probably should do some homework on that sometime. When I do restaurants and stuff I know enough to run the wires and terminate to get it setup for the Internet and the POS systems. The POS company takes it from there. I just do the basic camera systems for them so I don't have to do the technical stuff usually. So I have all the tools to terminate and test and trace my wires and have got by so far. But thinking while I write this I really need to learn more about CCTV systems.

But curious what all you use that tester for to see what features I may need or want?

Thanks and happy new years,
Scott
Click to expand...

You already know the arena I work in so access to camera for any type of physical adjustments can be a major challenge. Things most won't know about installing cameras in a institutional setting is anything under a mounting 12ft elevation requires them be sealed with pick proof caulking. What that means is if you need to service the camera, you'll breaking out a hammer and chisel or multitool to remove the caulking. Also there's that little issue of going back into a facility or area after its been occupied, that can be a huge deal. You might spend 2-3 hours between waiting on a ******, tool check in, inmate lockdown, 5 minutes troubleshooting the problem..you get the picture.

Also most of the time the camera VMS system is not up and operational at the time of install. So having the ability to IP / vector and do all the physical adjustments upfront plus take snap shots of the view for owner approval saves us a massive amount of manhours. Plus with this we can log and create the IP schema sheet along with the MAC address at the touch of a couple buttons and not have to duplicate that process with written logs or whatever with this tool.

Side note: Normally a camera package is sent to our IP Camera Department for configuration, either in Denver or San Antonio. So when we're talking a few hundred cameras, the shipping adds up PLUS we need to sort the units in the field and pray my guys make absolutely certain the right camera is installed at the right location. This really isn't hard but sometimes even my best techs become mouth breathers and.... The other issue I've ran into has been the right firmware wasn't pushed at the lab and other misc programming errors. The other real kick in the nards is missing hardware - that's pretty standard. As of about 1.5yrs ago have given up on our lab even touching them. Just ship the package to me and we'll do it in the field. That mitigates a whole bunch of finger pointing.

The cable testing ability does come in handy when troubleshooting at times but since you already have those basics covered, its not the end of the world. Also since the POE injector is rated for 24watts, that covers most camera manufactures demands for basic operation and to date I've yet to find a manufacturer this one doesn't work with. Mind you everything we do is either Axis, Bosch or Wisenet but I do have customers with old Pelco **** and other misc brands so having an all in one power supply sure keeps things simple. One last item this one does is voice path, normally in our industry that's a big no-no but some facilities are now having us install microphones and recording what's going on. Once again field confirmation at the time of install really helps manage wasted time.

Sorry about jumping around with the answers to your questions bud.
 
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