Not cool! (truthfully I’m just trying to get all the wire and conduit off the exterior walls to clean things up a bit, but the zombie thing is a valid point too).

Of course now that I have proper RG6 runs to each bedroom and a seperate RG59 composite feed for the bedside monitor I discover that the Modulator I had (to introduce the multiplexed signal into the CATV feed) appears to have ceased functioning in any useful manner. I’d had concerns from the outset, and this settled it for me.

In fact if you have a second. Both the video distribution and modulator modules I had originally acquired were Steren and they looked to be junk from the moment they arrived. The documentation was horrible (the voltage was not marked clearly on either device, and of the transformer blocks included only one had the output voltage listed - multimeter to the rescue, but honestly?).

The upshot? No confidence, and I’ve chased my tail enough on this. I’ve ordered a surplused commercial unit which should be a little more robust than the Steren garbage, and I’ve got the wiring ready and waiting for it’s arrival (Canadian supplier too, should be faster shipping than something coming across the line).

I’ve also ordered a new amplifier for the CATV signal (although truthfully with only three runs I’m not sure it’s needed, but better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.).

So, one more weekends worth of wiring and some new techno-toys and the DVR system can move to it’s new enclosure (at that point I can then show you all the pictures of the old arrangements, the old wiring and I can point out all the weaknesses and blind spots - once they’ve all been corrected).

This WAS the big one, with this run supporting three cameras, the other two efforts to bring cable in from outside are much smaller in scope at two and one camera respectively. This run also has a hole to allow power out and generator power back in, for the time being I’ve done nothing but leave a length of paracord through that hole so I can seal the interior walls back up and pull the wire through when I’m ready to tackle that project.

Now, taking a short break from fishing wire through exterior walls I’ll see if I can’t drop some cable from the master bedroom down to the basement for that integrated CCTV feed.

-GRIN-

Good times!

My referral code is (it seems) “17389548S1″ so anyone else that wants some free money, and wants to ensure that I receive some myself is encouraged to open up their own ING Direct (Canada) Investment Savings Account.

Click here to get started.

If not, that’s cool too. Every bit counts.

I’m a little out of practice in interviews, and while I think I did fairly well there were a few moments where I lost the cadence of the thing. I’m expecting to hear in the next few weeks either way.

I’ll keep you updated as I get news…

The CATV feed comes in through a high/low pass filter (the silver cylinder - that blocks the frequency range assigned to channels 71-77) and is then fed through the combiner (the brass two in/one out thing). On the other side of the combiner is the “modulated” composite signal from the Multiplexer, the modulated signal is set to show on the frequency range assigned to channel 75 (which has been made clear by the high/low pass filter mentioned above).

Realistically instead of a generic combiner splitter I should have a combiner/distributor which has two in (CATV feed + Modulated CCTV system feed) and eight out (eight feeds for televisions within the house, amplified to prevent signal issues). The one I had does not appear to work in any useful fashion, and I’m in the process of obtaining a replacement.

The entire arrangement would then be moved into a fancier housing, and some blinking and flashing LEDs added (simply because they’re so cheap on ebay, and I love Airplane! - and yes that was an Airplane II reference, just let it drop, ok?).

Darren Brown talks people out of their wallets. I can’t imagine this working on me, but then I’m pretty sure the guys who handed over their wallets both thought the same thing as well.

Yes, this was the beginning of the long awaited CCTV system overhaul and final installation. The first step was finishing the hole in our exterior wall to run cable through (this is the first of three such holes). Sadly my 12″ masonry bit proved to be just a bit short (no kidding…) and some improvisation was called for, in the end para cord was fished through the wall and awaits the effort of pulling wire through a hole that is not noticeably larger in diameter than the wire.

Deciding not to irritate myself any further I started running wire to the permanent location for the DVR, UPSs and so forth (telco, CAT5, RG6, RG59 and power wire along with a GFI outlet - I’ll need to install another breaker for this, but at least the wire is there). Then having done the legwork for that I revisited the CCTV/CATV distribution system (there are pictures of this, but my installation of Paint Shop Pro got corrupted so you’ll have to wait until tommorow to see it) for the house and discovered through trial and error that the combiner/distributor module I’d acquired was NFG, and instead improvised using splitters as combiners.

I discovered that the material I had read online about satellite and CATV happily residing on the same coax doesn’t apply here. Although the two may reside on different frequency ranges any attempt to introduce them both onto the same line results in neither working (actually on reflection this may not be true, as this series of tests was conducted before I discovered the combiner/distributor was NFG).

The upshot is that the CCTV feed happily resides at channel 75, and if I can get another distribution module then I can make sure that every TV in the house can see the cameras. I’ll need another video amplifier, as the one I had originally pushing the multiplexed signal through the house was less than adequate to the task, and the video quality is rapidly diminishing.

So, ending the day I need;

• A new combiner/distributor module for our CATV.
• A new video signal amplifier for the Multiplexor Feed.
• New breaker for my main panel

I’m working some long shifts this week and get a long weekend for my trouble, so hopefully I’ll make some real progress on this soon.

I should also build a new Linux DVR box with a larger HD and better DVR cards (higher FPS rates) as long as I’m relocating the system, but I’ll have to do some shopping around on prices. The existing system is adequate, just not perfect.

Did that make sense to anyone but me? Did anyone actually read down to this part?

-GRIN-

(I’ll post pictures, promise!)

Immediately after the purchase of our home our savings were nil, no RRSP contributions, no emergency fund and no RESP for Jilly. Far from optimal, but we started small.

We set up Jillys RESP almost immediately (unfortunately I think we went the wrong direction with that, we should have gone self directed, instead we went with a “managed” fund) to let compound interest and the government “top-ups” work for us.

We started putting money away in an emergency fund, initially supposed to cover just one mortgage payment should there be a payroll error (then two mortgage payments, then a months worth of expenses). My previously mentioned “skimming” was divided into five accounts;

1) Emergency Fund (set to top out at about $3,000)
2) RRSP Account ($50 a paycheque to the retirement fund, not going to be able to retire soon, but it should be a bit of help come tax time…and ANY retirement savings are better than NONE).
3) Capital Expenses Fund (Not the emergency fund, but stuff we want to buy/fix and whatnot. No specific plans for it right now)
4) Jilly Fund - This is likely going to end up as seed money for a self-directed RESP.
5) Fun Fund (Not much point saving like a maniac if I can’t enjoy it. It was this fund that paid for my PS3, and it’ll be this fund that buys my next boomstick).

Conventional wisdom seems to suggest that you NOT start to save like this, as each account is only getting a little added to it each payday it takes a long time to notice any appreciable increases. This may harm the would-be savers resolve.

Where did the money come from? I quit smoking. I quit drinking 2 or 3 store bought coffees a day. I stopped eating a store-bought lunch each day, we stopped eating take-out food twice a week, we stopped ordering in food… the list goes on, but the gist is a few bucks saved here and there adds up just as quickly as money foolishly spent here and there does.

Quit frankly, if I was prepared to spend almost $10 a day on smoking, I’d feel much better about saving $10 a day for my daughters education. Another $5 a day that I didn’t spend on coffee can go towards my retirement… you get the idea.