Review- New Design Tendelux 10 Watt IR illuminator.

[Parley]

It's always the best option to solder the connections.

I agree, but I am trying to figure out how to twist ends of the two parallel wires which are right next to each other. That makes for a solid mechanical connection. One set is easy enough to do and then tape it up. If they are long enough maybe there is enough room to twist the 2nd set of wires for a good mechanical connection and then solder them up. Then put the heat shrink over the whole area.

 

[tigerwillow1]

All of the ~half dozen illuminators I've tried are within certain bounds constant power devices. I tested only between 11 and 13 volts, and they were all constant power in that range, so if you're supplying 11 volts at the illuminator you're probably at full brightness. Not meant to discourage you from beefing up the wiring. No sense in adding to global warming with extra heat in the wires I use POE power exclusively for the external illuminators, a whole lot less loss with a ~48 volt feed than with 12 volts.

 

[Parley]

All of the ~half dozen illuminators I've tried are within certain bounds constant power devices. I tested only between 11 and 13 volts, and they were all constant power in that range, so if you're supplying 11 volts at the illuminator you're probably at full brightness. Not meant to discourage you from beefing up the wiring. No sense in adding to global warming with extra heat in the wires I use POE power exclusively for the external illuminators, a whole lot less loss with a ~48 volt feed than with 12 volts.

I agree. A lot less voltage drop with 48 volts than 12 volts. However, I could see the difference in brightness of the plates when I get rid of the 25' of 18-gauge cable and moved the 12VDC power supply out close to the IR illuminator. That is what spurred me on into doing this.

 

[tigerwillow1]

If I didn't mess up the math a 25' run of 2x 18ga. copper conductors has a resistance of 0.32 ohms. At a 1 amp draw, that's 0.32 volts drop. I'm surprised you could see a visual difference, so there must be more to the story. And maybe there is. I pulled the spec sheet for the RC99-A60-24. In one place it says the power draw is 15 watts, in another place it says 1 amp at 12 volts (i.e. 12 watts), and in a third place it says 9 watts. Doesn't give me much confidence of what the real number is. And too, this one might just start dropping off at 12 volts.

https://objects.eanixter.com/PD474592.PDF

 

[Parley]

If I didn't mess up the math a 25' run of 2x 18ga. copper conductors has a resistance of 0.32 ohms. At a 1 amp draw, that's 0.32 volts drop. I'm surprised you could see a visual difference, so there must be more to the story. And maybe there is. I pulled the spec sheet for the RC99-A60-24. In one place it says the power draw is 15 watts, in another place it says 1 amp at 12 volts (i.e. 12 watts), and in a third place it says 9 watts. Doesn't give me much confidence of what the real number is. And too, this one might just start dropping off at 12 volts.

https://objects.eanixter.com/PD474592.PDF

I know and saw the various specifications. The spec sheet that came with the illuminator says 1 amp @ 12vdc. I saw as high as 2 amps in some ads. Now I did not use the same power supply when I moved it. The original power supply for this illuminator was rated at 2amps and that was the one in use the previous night and weeks. Anticipating a bigger power draw with the additional illuminator I went with an 8amp @12VDC power supply. So, there were two different power supplies involved and that might be the difference.

 

[tigerwillow1]

Another detail I noticed, with this illuminator taking 12 vdc or 24 vac, it handles it's input power differently than the 12 vdc only lluminators, Maybe it isn't a constant power device as I assumed. After all, after seeing that 6 different illuminators worked the same way, it's an obvious assumption that all others in the world work the same way

 

[Parley]

Another detail I noticed, with this illuminator taking 12 vdc or 24 vac, it handles it's input power differently than the 12 vdc only lluminators, Maybe it isn't a constant power device as I assumed. After all, after seeing that 6 different illuminators worked the same way, it's an obvious assumption that all others in the world work the same way

Those Illuminators that I shortened the power cable by 30", I cannot say that I see any difference from viewing them tonight. Just a much cleaner installation.

 

[Parley]

The final "hot rodding" for the LP4 pine tree illuminator is done. Turned out better than I thought it would. I eliminated the RCA connector shown in the upper left corner of the picture and then I shortened the power cable to the illuminator by 30". Twisted the wires together from the Cat6 cable and the 22-gauge power cable, and then soldered it all together, and it worked out just fine. I taped both solder joints to keep them from shorting and then I slid the heat shrink over the entire splice. Whether or not this helps is hard to say but I am having fun doing it and this is part of the steps I am taking to get my license plate readings into the 99-percentile range.

 

[Parley]

I have been posting all of my worst plates, so I thought I would post a good normal plate so that people do not get the wrong idea.

 

[Parley]

I have a new one for tonight. A regular California license plate on a golf cart. I do not think I have seen this before.

 

[Parley]

The final 3 Illumina IR Illuminators showed up today. These are the higher power ones. I have been making new mounting brackets to get these as close to the camera as possible. Here is one example. I should have some results over the next few days.

 

[Parley]

One interesting thing I have noticed on my early morning walk. One of the houses I go by has security lights next to the garage door that are just about my height. Across the street there is a car parked in the driveway. If I trigger the security light to full on, the license plate on the car across the street really shines. The closer my eye is to the security light the brightness of the reflection off of that license plate really picks up. So, from that experience I am putting these IR illuminators as close to the camera as I can.

I installed one next to my LP1 camera yesterday and it really helped. It already has a Speco IR illuminator which only draws 4/10 of an amp. I left it in place and installed the Illumina 1 amp illuminator by the camera for all the IR I can get. Of course, the IR on the camera is also set at 100%. The one in the photo above is going next to my LP2 camera. I will get that job done today. It also has a Speco illuminator which I will leave in place. I can see getting into the 99 percentile of the plate readings, and that is even with all the people trying to defeat the stop light cameras by dirtying up their plates. We sure have a lot of them in my neighborhood.

 

[Parley]

These Illumina IR illuminators are flat out doing the job. I am really elated on how this is all turning out. I mounted the one (LP2) shown above yesterday, and I have a couple of pictures from last night at about 100' to show that they are easily doing the job at that distance. I will say that I have reached my goal to get 99% of the plates going by my house. The thing about the harder to read plates is that I now have a nice "contrast" so that I can read them. I am running 16FPS and if I need to, I can go frame by frame as the light conditions change with each frame on the hard to read plates with the reflectivity being so low. When I order them from B&H Photo it takes just under two weeks to get them. They are well worth the wait. The manufacture part number is Illumina IRC99-A60-24.

Now for the pictures. One is another golf cart at about 100', as I am see more and more with a big California license plate on them. The other is a normal plate on a car at about 100 feet. Again, this is just to show the true reach of this illuminator as it is rated at 100 feet. The Speco unit is rated for a much further distance but does not compare to this one in real life. I mounted the final one this morning next to my LP3 camera. I should have results tonight.

 

[Parley]

Boy, I was way off on the distance to those license plates in the above two pictures. I walked on some wet lawn, and then on the sidewalk to measure my normal walking step. It is 25" from heel to heel. Multiply that times the 90 steps that it took to get from my LP2 camera to the last cone in the picture and it comes out to 187.5'. I did it both ways and it came out the same each time. My 5442E-Z4E camera and the IR illuminators are doing better than I thought. Do not get me wrong, as those are good normal plates with good reflection and the plates are too small at that distance. With dirty plates and low reflection, I will say 75' is probably the max with this camera.

 

[Ssayer]

First one was from 3 days earlier. While it may be brighter, that's not what matters. Zoom in on the driver to see the difference. I put in the Tendelux 10 today and was lucky enough to get an almost exact pic to match up. FWIW, there's no ambient light around here.

 

[Parley]

How far would you say it is from the camera to the car? Also, what camera are you using?

 

[Ssayer]

Approx 20' horizontal and approx 12' vertical. The cam is a B5442E-E.

 

[Parley]

The "final" piece of the puzzle went in today. Basically, I moved the two IR illuminators closer to my LP1 camera. They are physically about 1/2" from it, from the one of the side and the one on the bottom. I do not know how much difference it will make, but I am trying to leave nothing to chance. Here is a photo. My LP1 camera is a Dahua B442E-Z4E. The one below it is the same, but not used for license plate duty.

 

[Parley]

OK, after a couple of nights watching the video, I think I am pretty much done upgrading my LPR cameras until something better comes on the market. After watching the video, I have been wondering where the dirty plates have gone. Well, they are still there but the contrast is so good that they are now much, much easier to read. The only ones that are still giving me some trouble are the "retro" plates with the orange/yellow lettering on a black background. I think a certain group of those have a paint with very little reflection or have a 750nm number. However, viewing the video from two different cameras I can piece most of those together. There are some without a front plate and I cannot get those unless the car comes by again. Here are a few thoughts on what has worked at my location.

1. Locate the IR illuminator(s) as close to the camera as possible.
2. The Illuminar IRC99-A60-24 made the biggest difference at my location.
3. The Speco IR60 made a difference and was a nice upgrade from the camera only IR lights, and was the first ones that I bought.
4. After installing the Illuminar units I had the Speco units left over. So, I decided to use those in conjunction with the Illuminar units and IMHO it put me right where I needed to be. Any more IR light and the highly reflective plates would have too much glare to read.
5. The LPR cameras that I am using at my location are the Dahua B5442E-Z4E.

 

[wittaj]

I wonder if the new 3M printed plates are less sensitive to the location of the IR as the older plates with the reflective properties of them of bouncing the light back towards the source?