Pelco Video Surveillance system.

I picked up a Pelco DX 7100 Series digital video recorder for $10.........It come with the dome mounts for putting the camera(s) on a wall, a fuse box, a matrix switch, a KBD300A joystick/keyboard(?) a cabinet, A CDU box, and one other item, which escapes me, that is a part of the system.....I do not think the system is entirely complete, but was curious what I could make off of it on ebay, or if there is more value in scrapping it? (I'm leaning towards resale value.) The DVR runs on Windows 2000, the one intact camera had a piece of plastic break off when I was holding it looking it over. I am quite sure I will not be able to test everything, except the DVR, and was looking for advice on that, as well as how I should sale the items........I will get pictures posted to this thread ASAP.




PRD

Yes, Sir.........The one I have has signs of wear......So I wouldn't try and get more than $35-40 for it.


PRD

There's no harm in trying but it's pretty old if it's running win 2k. Good guess ... maybe 15 - 17 years old ? It's roughly comparable to a desktop computer of that age ? Hard drive DVR storage of roughly 40 gb ?

The newer Swann systems that i've installed over the last couple of years had 2 TB hard drives for DVR storage and even that is a bit small. The full color video resolution is so good that the camera can read the small print on a newspaper from 15 feet away. The motion tracking software for picking out shoplifters is scary good. Even the Swann stuff is obsolete within five years because the technology is evolving so rapidly these days.

I scrapped out a couple of the older systems. There's a fairly decent mainboard as far as e-waste value goes. Didn't see much of any value in the cameras.

Originally Posted by hills

There's no harm in trying but it's pretty old if it's running win 2k. Good guess ... maybe 15 - 17 years old ? It's roughly comparable to a desktop computer of that age ? Hard drive DVR storage of roughly 40 gb ?

The newer Swann systems that i've installed over the last couple of years had 2 TB hard drives for DVR storage and even that is a bit small. The full color video resolution is so good that the camera can read the small print on a newspaper from 15 feet away. The motion tracking software for picking out shoplifters is scary good. Even the Swann stuff is obsolete within five years because the technology is evolving so rapidly these days.

I scrapped out a couple of the older systems. There's a fairly decent mainboard as far as e-waste value goes. Didn't see much of any value in the cameras.

So essentially I am going to lose money on the system as a single purchase? I have a small, but growing collection of motherboards, peripherals, CPU's, ram sticks, and I am still trying to get more.



PRD

There's a pretty steep learning curve with electronics and so much of it is situational. A lot of it is trial and error. You have to figure out what works best in your own particular circumstance.

If you spent ten bucks and learned something new .... you definitely walked away a winner !

Well it did work out better than expected......I put the joystick and the cable that came with it on ebay for $40 dollars plus shipping. I dropped it down to $32 plus shipping and it sold quickly. I am boxing it up and getting it ready to go out with some Honeywell transformers for two other customers. I stand to net a small profit minus ebay fees.


PRD

Originally Posted by hills

There's no harm in trying but it's pretty old if it's running win 2k. Good guess ... maybe 15 - 17 years old ? It's roughly comparable to a desktop computer of that age ? Hard drive DVR storage of roughly 40 gb ?

The newer Swann systems that i've installed over the last couple of years had 2 TB hard drives for DVR storage and even that is a bit small. The full color video resolution is so good that the camera can read the small print on a newspaper from 15 feet away. The motion tracking software for picking out shoplifters is scary good. Even the Swann stuff is obsolete within five years because the technology is evolving so rapidly these days.

I scrapped out a couple of the older systems. There's a fairly decent mainboard as far as e-waste value goes. Didn't see much of any value in the cameras.

120gb actually......Not feeling inclined to invade anyone's privacy, and not having the proper connector to read the drive, I've scrapped it out, and will eventually pass a strong magnet I got out of a microwave magnetron over it.


PRD

There might be an easier way. Look at the logic board on the back of the drive. Just pick off one or two of the little yellow box thingies with the point of a knife. That drive will never work again.

If you have the little torx bit screwdriver tip ... remove the logic board and sell it as e-waste. Again .... you don't have to worry about privacy / security issues. Each board is specifically " tuned " to the individual hard drive that it's mounted on. Pull the board and the drive will be un-readable.

Reasonably good measures for data security are a lot simpler than they make it out to be.

Not sure if the magnet trick is effective. There are usually two pretty strong Neodymium magnets built into the drive itself. Some folks dismantle the drives and salvage the magnets. If you're having success with the e-bay thing .... selling the Neodymium magnets on line might be another income stream for you ? Not big money, but it all adds up ?