ShortCourse
n3wb
Just wanted to share how I recently installed a few cameras around my house down here in the southwest.
I really didn't want to run any exterior conduit and I never want to have to see any wiring, but due to the two story construction and my refusal to start doing copious amounts of drywall repair, I decided to do two small runs of exterior conduit from an attic "Bird Block Vent" on the second story to the eave below on the first story.
I did a lot of searching for solutions to this, because I didn't want to start drilling multiple test holes in the exterior stucco without relative certainty of where it would land on the interior. Depending on the area, I seem to have 12" to 18" of inaccessible vertical space between the first and second story, and then once in the attic, there are certain areas near the front exterior walls that are virtually inaccessible due to framing/plywood in the attic. The wall that I wanted all of the ethernet cables to come out of in my office had a joist and part of this plywood framing that made access to the walls header virtually impossible. Luckily, there was an existing coax cable that will never be used again and was able to pull it back up the wall with some fish tape, remove the existing box, cut the hole into a double gang and install a new low-voltage cut-in. I could then pull down the new cat5 cable with the fish tape.
I also clamped the cameras in place over night where I thought they would be best and was able to fine tune their exact location over the next day, which actually really saved me because my initial gut location would have put two cameras in pretty bad spots.
I was also going to use EMT conduit but ended up using PVC. It's used in another location on the house and has held up for 10+ years so I didn't see any issue with this. I used a pretty dense foam to pack each opening and then drilled two holes at the bottom bends to drain any water condensation that forms.
Now the real battle with BlueIris begins.
I really didn't want to run any exterior conduit and I never want to have to see any wiring, but due to the two story construction and my refusal to start doing copious amounts of drywall repair, I decided to do two small runs of exterior conduit from an attic "Bird Block Vent" on the second story to the eave below on the first story.
I did a lot of searching for solutions to this, because I didn't want to start drilling multiple test holes in the exterior stucco without relative certainty of where it would land on the interior. Depending on the area, I seem to have 12" to 18" of inaccessible vertical space between the first and second story, and then once in the attic, there are certain areas near the front exterior walls that are virtually inaccessible due to framing/plywood in the attic. The wall that I wanted all of the ethernet cables to come out of in my office had a joist and part of this plywood framing that made access to the walls header virtually impossible. Luckily, there was an existing coax cable that will never be used again and was able to pull it back up the wall with some fish tape, remove the existing box, cut the hole into a double gang and install a new low-voltage cut-in. I could then pull down the new cat5 cable with the fish tape.
I also clamped the cameras in place over night where I thought they would be best and was able to fine tune their exact location over the next day, which actually really saved me because my initial gut location would have put two cameras in pretty bad spots.
I was also going to use EMT conduit but ended up using PVC. It's used in another location on the house and has held up for 10+ years so I didn't see any issue with this. I used a pretty dense foam to pack each opening and then drilled two holes at the bottom bends to drain any water condensation that forms.
Now the real battle with BlueIris begins.
