[JeffCharger]

with multiple cameras hooked up to an ASEL, I would like to provide switched power to only the camera that's "active". An obvious solution is to put each walwart on an appliance module, but there's gotta be a better way. I've seen panels such as this distributed power panel - but this doesn't allow you to switch the power ON/OFF. Do you guys switch the power to cameras, or just run them all, all the time?

[Jay]

24/7/365 here.

If you want to see something fast, like a view tripped from a motion sensor, I'd avoid power switching. It depends upon how quickly your cams come to life after being powered up.

[JeffCharger]

I'm on a dialup service, so (unfortunately) time isn't an issue. Nothing is going to move slower than my ISP. Prior to the ASEL, my switch-time was 3-5 seconds. This was fine. Of course with the ASEL it's really fast. I was purely thinking only of the life of IR bulbs and power consumption. It would make sense to only power the camera that's ON.

[Jay]

OK, I wasn't thinking of online. That's prob because my office is at home and I like to see who or what is coming and going. I'd prob go w/appliance modules.

Question. "IR bulbs"?

[JeffCharger]

thanks. By IR bulbs I was referring to the IR LEDs.

[Jay]

I suspected

Their life expectancy is 50-100K hours. No?
And, don't they switch on a dusk and off at dawn? If so, that's a LOT more when you count in months/years.

[JeffCharger]

yes agree, its at least 50k hours..... so it's at least 5 years if on all the time. They do switch off at dawn, so that would increase the life expectancy by a factor of 3. .... but that's still only 15 years!

[Jay]

I think you're just a cheapskate.

[JeffCharger]

oh, undoubtably so!

[Jay]

[Shawn]

My cams are powered 24x7 too.

I could imagine using an open NPN switching circuit using the ASEL to switch a common power supply to the subject camera, but that would require running an extra pair of dc wires from each camera to the ASEL.

[JeffCharger]

could the ASELProc switch an NPN relay?

[Jay]