Swann Night Hawk security camera?

Mar 10, 2007 15 Replies
Swann Night Hawk security camera? open original image

Hi,



Is anybody here familiar with the Swann Night Hawk wireless infrared security camera?



It's sold at Radio Shack, on Ebay and elsewhere. Here's a link that providesa lot of info including the technical specifications.



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I read the owner's manual and also found some reviews. If I buy one, I will install it outside by my front door. The receiver will be hooked up to a B&W Sony SSM930 monitor (if I can use a B&W monitor with this camera and receiver). And there will be less that 10ft separating the camera and receiver.



I have 2 questions.



Question 1 - This is a color camera. Will it work with a B&W monitor both day and night, ie. with natural daylight and infrared at night? I don't care about the lack of color. I just need to know if I the B&W monitor will handle the signal during the daytime using only daylight? I assume nighttime images utilizing the infrared light would be B&W. Is this correct?



The owners manual suggests the system be set up with a "clear line of sight" from the camera to the receiver for optimum results. Well, there is no line of sight through a wooden door.



And some of the people who owned these complained about poor reception due to the lack of a "sight line" between camera and receiver. None of them mentioned the distance between the camera and receiver, however.



Question 2 - The signal will have to be transmitted 7-10ft and pass through a 2" thick wooden door. Does this mean the camera and receiver will not work for me?



Maybe I should just go wired. I'm not sure. Any advice will be appreciated.



Thanks,



Sammy


I'll mention a concept that relates, but probably not over this distance at this frequency. It might. I don't have enough experience to say for sure. But, I commonly run into this problem with wireless networks over short distances, especially in two story homes. Here's one contributing factor: the angle of obstruction in relationship to the transmitter/receiver.

Hopefully I can explain this with a rough ASCII drawing. You'll have to view this in a fixed font. (T) is the transmitter, (R) is the receiver, || is a solid wall, like brick.

(T) || || || || || || || || || || || || (R)

Draw a line between T and R.

Because of the shallow angle, even if the wall is relatively thin, it will effectively be much thicker. The wall will absorb or reflect more signal. (I don't remember which - probably both.) A very shallow angle can make a typical wall appear several feet thick, if memory serves me. Have to do the math.

Now, take the following:

|| || || (T) || (R) || || ||

Same wall. But, the reception is going to be better.

In the real world, there are a lot of factors that contribute to the reliability of wireless communication. Angle of obstruction is just one factor of many. When given a choice, I'll always take a piece of copper over wireless. More reliable, and easier to diagnose problems, IMO.

Eric

E. Hill inspired greatness with:

As a rule. I don't respond to posts that mention Radio Shack.

"Cam-man" a écrit dans le message de news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

thanks for the info

sammy inspired greatness with:

Well, since you've already accurately determined my "douchebag" and "asswipe" status I guess I can try to help. When you buy crap from Rat Shack, you are getting just that, crap. I can assure you that you will not be happy with that unit at all.

Petem inspired greatness with:

Vous êtes bienvenu, and thanks for bottom-posting.

your welcome!!

"Cam-man" a écrit dans le message de news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

You mentioned you wanted to go over and kill a jew in revenge for the destruction of a UN outpost in Lebanon resulting in the death of a canadian soldier.

So you did want to externinate at least 1 jew

on that we will agree,I did said that

which is not like what your last post was implying ,that I wanted to exterminate all the Jew's..

like I told here before, Israel need a good kick in the butts ,and the country that support there war against innocent people need it too..

"Mark Leuck" a écrit dans le message de news:

45f61395$0$4855$ snipped-for-privacy@roadrunner.com...

I never implyed that you said "all"

Too bad you don't get so excited about several groups of people who think nothing of killing Jews as well as each other for no other purpose than to support their sick interpretation if the Islamic religion

And yet you seem to only mention people of Jewish origin

"Mark Leuck" a écrit dans le message de news:

45f74a2d$0$27071$ snipped-for-privacy@roadrunner.com...

and you seem to never mention people of Jewish origin..and no other then islamist...

Well thats likely because it only seems that the people causing most of the conflicts, flying planes in buildings, blowing people up by car bombs etc seem to believe in Islam.

Now if there ever comes a time when we get start getting attacked by militant Jehovah's Witnesses then I'll change my tune

"Mark Leuck" a écrit dans le message de news:

45f8a3da$0$16936$ snipped-for-privacy@roadrunner.com...

didn't knew that Timothy McVeigh was islamist..

didn't knew that IRA were islamist

didn't knew that National Liberation Army of Colombia were islamist

same for Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)

or Shining Path, or SL

and here we used to have a small group called the FLQ and they were not islamist..

and the Israel govt,when bombing village of innocent people and UN peace post are acting like terrorist..and are they islamist???

At least none are French thank God.

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