Our house has some older CCTV cameras that have not been in operation for years (previous person living here took the control unit, not the cameras). These are wired up quite nicely using a 6-pin DIN connector coming into an idea place to power the cams.
It appears there are 5 shielded wires and one exposed underneath the heatshrink. Can I hijack a few of these wires to splice in USB connectors and run power from the included wall wart? The wires appear to be a similar gauge to the internals of a USB wire.
My backup plan is to try and tether the wires so I can pull through the new USB cable (not ideal if I can splice). There’s some other ideal locations and this would save me a ton of time. Very comfortable splicing and can heat shrink any work I do.
Worst case, I might just try it… but wanted to float the idea by the community in-case anyone has come across a similar existing setup.
You can buy DIN-to-USB converters, right? Why not try that? You might want to test the voltage coming off the wire to make sure you won’t fry the camera.
Sadly time is not on my side. Our existing location in the window did not provide enough detail for an ongoing event. I like the adapter idea for testing/expanding to the other 3-4 camera locations though. Worst case, I’m running the new 25’ USB this evening and sealing the existing hole through the building.
Glad you mentioned voltage testing. I’ll be sure to check the power coming out of it after splicing to make sure I don’t fry the camera.
Just a follow-up. I had great success using the existing wires. They were very well insulated/protected and ended up being the same gauge wire.
I used some 6 inch MicroUSB cables that only had the two power pins hooked up for the spliced tips. I never really had a use for these power-only charging cables due to the potential for confusion, so it’s a win-win.
I would be very cautious of using any kind of plug-in converter. There are standards for DIN connectors, but those refer to the physical layout of the pins, not what is carried over them.