Greetings All:
I recently ordered 2 Dahua SD1A203T-GN from Andy with the mindset that I wanted to try to recess them into the ceiling within my house. I've attached a few pictures below with what I came up with. The intent is to support the camera and mount as flush up against the drywall as possible. I made sort of a hybrid mount between a recessed ceiling speaker and a recessed hi-hat light. The mount consists of a few plywood rings and a backing circular plywood piece to hold the mounting plate for the camera itself. I ended up spacing the plate off the last circle with a 1/4"-20 nut at each screw to get the camera to sit where I wanted it. The mount assembly with camera is held into place with 3 "wings" that are turned out of the way to pass through the hole in the ceiling, that then flip out and tighten down against the drywall within the ceiling cavity. I also drilled a hole to access the locking screw for the mount. The wings are short L shaped pieces of cherry that have 1/4-20 threaded inserts for the 4" long 1/4-20 screws. The final wood circle is also piece of cherry that I planed down to thickness. I was going to go thinner with the final cherry ring, but didnt want to risk it snapping or warping. Everything is glued and screwed together. I gave the mount a test by trying to mount it from the underside of a piece of plywood that I propped up without reaching above or peeking above to adjust anything as if I was mounting in the drywall itself and it worked quite well.
I'm going to paint everything white to match the ceiling and get removable plugs for the screw heads. In the end, I'm pleased with the result. The black portion of the camera is not obstructed at all. If for whatever reason the IR acts funny with camera being recessed then I will just plug in an external illuminator. If I could do it over, I would make the plywood rings wider so I could space the screws out a bit further from the camera itself.
-Ryan
EDIT: Added photo of finished product.
I recently ordered 2 Dahua SD1A203T-GN from Andy with the mindset that I wanted to try to recess them into the ceiling within my house. I've attached a few pictures below with what I came up with. The intent is to support the camera and mount as flush up against the drywall as possible. I made sort of a hybrid mount between a recessed ceiling speaker and a recessed hi-hat light. The mount consists of a few plywood rings and a backing circular plywood piece to hold the mounting plate for the camera itself. I ended up spacing the plate off the last circle with a 1/4"-20 nut at each screw to get the camera to sit where I wanted it. The mount assembly with camera is held into place with 3 "wings" that are turned out of the way to pass through the hole in the ceiling, that then flip out and tighten down against the drywall within the ceiling cavity. I also drilled a hole to access the locking screw for the mount. The wings are short L shaped pieces of cherry that have 1/4-20 threaded inserts for the 4" long 1/4-20 screws. The final wood circle is also piece of cherry that I planed down to thickness. I was going to go thinner with the final cherry ring, but didnt want to risk it snapping or warping. Everything is glued and screwed together. I gave the mount a test by trying to mount it from the underside of a piece of plywood that I propped up without reaching above or peeking above to adjust anything as if I was mounting in the drywall itself and it worked quite well.
I'm going to paint everything white to match the ceiling and get removable plugs for the screw heads. In the end, I'm pleased with the result. The black portion of the camera is not obstructed at all. If for whatever reason the IR acts funny with camera being recessed then I will just plug in an external illuminator. If I could do it over, I would make the plywood rings wider so I could space the screws out a bit further from the camera itself.
-Ryan
EDIT: Added photo of finished product.
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...The circles are pretty easy, just attach a rectangular piece of plywood to a trim router, screw it down at the center-point of the circle, turn the router on and guide the router around. The screwed down plywood will keep the cut equidistant from the screw, and give you a circular cut. Youtube videos would explain in depth.