Accessories

Installation accessories: the parts that make everything else work

UTP cable, junction boxes, hard drives, camera poles, racks, WiFi extenders, memory cards and mounts. This is the category nobody searches for by name, and the one that ruins an installation when it is bought by weight. We sell and install in Málaga and the Costa del Sol.

Who it is for

For people fitting it themselves who do not want to be missing one part on a Saturday afternoon, and for installers restocking. Also for the customer who bought cameras elsewhere and found out that a recorder’s hard drive is not any old computer drive, or that hardware-store cable will not carry PoE over forty metres.

What to compare

1. Cable: copper or CCA. Pure copper handles PoE and long runs; copper-clad aluminium (CCA) heats up, loses power and causes drop-outs on switch-powered cameras. Outdoors, you also want a weather-rated jacket.
2. Hard drive. Recorders need drives designed for video surveillance, rated for continuous 24/7 writing. A desktop drive lasts months and dies without warning, exactly when the footage matters.
3. Junction box. Real ingress protection if it goes outside. A badly sealed box is the first failure of an outdoor installation, before the camera.
4. Pole or mount. Height and rigidity: a pole that vibrates in the wind turns an 8 MP camera into a useless picture.
5. Rack. Enough depth for the recorder, and ventilation. Today’s undersized cabinet is tomorrow’s mess.

How it gets installed here

On the Costa del Sol sun and salt air eat weak materials, so outdoor boxes, fixings and mounts are chosen for that, not for price. In residential communities the central rack and properly labelled cabling are what let the next technician understand the system without dismantling it. If you ask us to fit it, the installation material is sized with the project.

Worth reading first

• Cat6 home network wiring
• What it costs to install 4 cameras in a villa

Two references: the Hikvision 256 GB Class 10 U1 micro SD card and the Hikvision building converter DS-KAD704Y.

Frequently asked questions

How do I know the cable I am being sold is real copper and not copper-clad aluminium?
The spec sheet has to say copper or “solid copper”, and you can feel it when stripping: CCA is stiffer and the strand looks greyer. If the spec does not say, assume CCA. Ask us before buying a reel for PoE — it is the fault that shows up months later and nobody blames on the cable.

How far can a network cable run for a PoE camera?
The practical limit is around 100 metres per run with good copper cable. With CCA cable or poor joints the trouble starts much sooner: the camera boots and then reboots on its own. For longer distances you need an intermediate switch.

Do I need a rack if I only have four cameras?
Not strictly, but a small ventilated cabinet keeps the recorder, switch and router together, cool and out of reach. Fitting it at the start is cheaper than reorganising the whole cupboard when you add more cameras.