Mar2025

March 28, 2025

Front Porch CCTV

Was able to examine the ball camera at the front door. It is a ProVideo CVC-360BC (b/w?) with audio. Dropping it down from the overhang, it has a proprietary triple-wide flat cable. I was able to pull the slack out as far as the strain relieve on the far end from the camera. The Middle cable has been snipped off. Couldn't pull any more cable out, no COAX, and using my boroscope provided no further information other than the fact that the under-the-window-seat-and-niches area is hollow. I saw the red-colored security system siren wire, and a blue CAT5 cable (to the keypad), but couldn't trace the camera cable. Perhaps it is buried in the few inches of insulation that is on the floor of the hollow space. Need to further research this camera for details about the cable.
Removed the Wyze camera mount from the opposite side of the porch. The Wyze camera is not usable without a base station.

March 27, 2025

Front Doorbell

Worked on front 'doorbell'. This a companion "DoorPhone" for the Panasonic PBX
- removed from the mounting bezel; loosed the single screw at the bottom-front
- disconnected the blue pair of wires
- made a temporary test rig
  - connected the DoorPhone to the PBX DoorPhone module using a pair of wires.
  - press DoorPhone button rings all house phones connected to the PBX
  - pickup of any phone connects to the DoorPhone, with works very well, though the Mic volume is low-ish.
    - TODO: May need to clean the Mic baffle.
  - can call the DoorPhone from any telephone by dialing '33'
- Re-installed the DoorPhone at the front door
  - reconnected CAT5 cable Blue/White as (+) and Blue as (-)
  - at wiring closet, connected the "DOORPHONE #1' terminal's Blue pair to a cable with RJ11 plug
  - connected RJ11 plug to the PBX DoorPhone module
  - tested operation, all good (except low MIC volume, as noted above)
Because the Gate's DoorPhone and this Panasonic DoorPhone are so similar I wondered if they were interchangeable. Alas, no. The DoorBell Fon DoorPhone runs at 12v at idle, 18v in operation; the Panasonic at 5v at idle, 2.5v in operation. The circuit boards are dissimilar, and that finished the idea. A quick Internet scan shows the DoorBell Fon DoorPhone at around $80 new, the Panasonic DoorPhone at around $300 new.
It would be nice to eliminate the DoorBell Fon components and simply have a second PBX DoorPhone. Two are supported and it would eliminate the complexity of having two systems, with different behaviors and operational modes. The Panasonic unit is about an 1/8" wider, but the same height, and if one could be found at a decent price, it might be a good investment.

Gate Camera

Removed the camera from it's pole-mount housing
- disconnected the power leads (which are dead, not supplying any power at present, reason unknown)
- disconnected the COAX lead
- cleaned it up from all of the years of dust and wasp infestation
Connected up a test rig to the HIKVision CCTV DVR and tested
- Using my bench power supply, set at 12V DC, powered the camera
- Connected the camera's VIDEO-OUT to the HIKVision Channel 1 INPUT
- attached USB mouse to HIKVision DVR
- Connected VGA monitor to HIKVision DVR
- connected HIKVision DVR to the household network using wireless client bridge (WRT54G running DD-WRT)
Camera works! and provides signal to the DVR, which is displayed on-screen and recorded to internal storage for later replay
Learned that the HIKVision DVR can support
- four (4) directly connected COAX cameras
- one (1) IP camera (I was hoping for two, rats!)
- has motion sensing, and only records to the internal storage during that time
- supports HTTP access to video, BUT, only on Microsoft Internet Explorer using ActiveX plugin
Left system up and running overnight

March 26, 2025

Worked on the gate controls today.

DoorKing keypad
- removed from enclosure (x3 nuts on hinge)
  - disconnected the green pair of wires from PINs 5,7; for the time being, I connected them together to keep the gate OPEN
  - disconnected the brown pair of wires from PINS 13,14; this is the 12V DC power to the unit
- cleaned and disassembled the unit, getting to the keypad PCB
  - very tiny '0405' LEDs are surface-mounted to the PCB. Only two are still operating (in BLUE), so I plan to replace them all (in AMBER)
- reassembled the unit, and reinstalled in the gate pillar for now while I wait for new LEDs to arrive
DoorPhone
- removed from the mounting bezel; loosen the single screw at the bottom-front of the unit
- disconnected the blue pair of wires
- in a temporary setup I tested the DoorBell Fon system
  - connected my old telephone to the DoorBell Fon control unit as PHONE OUT
  - connected the DoorPhone removed from the gate pillar to the control unit as DOOR #1
  - powered up, the DoorPhone LED lighted dimly and when the Call button is pressed, the telephone rings
  - picking up the phone 'answers' the call, but while the Mic is working, the Speaker is not. No audio from the telephone user
- the speaker is showing an open circuit, not 8-ohms, so it has gone bad. (or I damaged it while I cleaned the unit?)
- ITEM NEEDED: New 2-1/4" general purpose, round speaker
- I reassembled the unit and reinstalled it in the gate pillar

March 12, 2025

Obtained a water test kit from Culligan office on 5th Ave.
- Master BA His sink HOT and COLD tested separately, results: 0 grains both cases
- Master BA Mini-bar COLD, results: 2 grains

March 10, 2025

Been researching VoIP and IP PBX solutions, to possibly replace the old Panasonic analog PBX that was originally installed in the home.
Asterisk/FreePBX
- Open-source free PBX solution which is pretty powerful, but a steep learning curve
- https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/introduction-asterisk
- can run on a Pi or other Linux setup
Linksys SPA-9000 (discontinued!, cheap on eBay)
- Plug and play appliance
- supports 4 SIPs (outside lines)
- supports 16 phonesets
- includes 2 RJ11 connections for POTS devices (fax, analog phones, etc.)
IP phonesets
- VTech Eris Terminal VT-VSP861 (discontinued by mfg.)
  - dirt cheap, ~$25 new in box (eBay)
  - seems functional enough
  - Power-over-Ethernet (or, wall wart (5VDC 1.5A), not included)
Questions:
- How to replace/replicate the front door DoorPhone function?
  - is there a VoIP doorbell that can talk to SIP PBX?
    - would it be able to ring through to all phones (call group?)
    - could it have a distinctive ring?
- How to replace/replicate the gate opening function?
  - is there a device that i can 'call' as an extension that trips the relay?
- How do tie the HomeWorks Tel9 into the phone system, given that it is POTS?