OpenALPR - No more free rides

[Robert G.]

I believe there are a lot of users here who use OpenALPR's Watchman software, the free license edition that allows you to use 2 cameras and they retain data in their cloud for a couple days - no alerts.

I just went to their site and it looks like they are making changes. I see a new home license is showing at $5.00 per camera.

My account has changed from the free level to a commercial trial that will expire at the end of Feb.

I have not received any email about this change, but it looks like the free ride is over.

Does anyone have any other details about what OpenALPR is doing?

 

[hndymann]

That sucks. There is no info anywhere on this change. It appears to be cloud only. I wonder if it can still be exported for the LPR tool.

 

[Robert G.]

I did a bit of finger searching and found a bit more information.

In March 2019 Matt Hill, sold OpenALPR to a company called Novume.

Then a few weeks later Novume changed its name to Rekor Systems, Inc.

Rekor is a public company with a current market cap of 97 million. They have been loosing money since 2016, the last time the company made money was 2015.

I don't know for sure, but this looks like a case of a buyout of some cheap stock (Novume) to take an entity public without the normal IPO route.

Their markets are toll road, government sercurity etc. So little guys like most of us here should expect changes :-(

 

[tech101]

Yes Just noticed it on my account as well, What are the alternatives ? Any good one Or can we run our own.. If yes, Is there a guide.. on how to go about it.. Thank you !

 

[DLONG2]

The OpenALPR poducts page was still recently listing the free 2 day retention plan. The commercial version was like $59 a month while the enterprise plan was $99 a month as I recall. And there was the free 2-day plan.

Today, I see their products page has changed, showing the $5 a month per camera plan. I derive a lot of value to getting this data captured and retained, and will definitely sign up if there's no more free tier, or unless a better alternative is found. The service isn't perfect but it does a decent job of acquiring plates.

 

[Robert G.]

I derive a lot of value to getting this data captured and retained

I agree, it is excellent value. You will notice however that the new $5.00 plan no longer includes any make/model/color of the cars.

 

[DLONG2]

That sucks. There is no info anywhere on this change. It appears to be cloud only. I wonder if it can still be exported for the LPR tool.

FWIW, I had their free cloud-based 2 day tier, and can still download the CSV files, although I am now in an expired commercial account.

 

[DLONG2]

I agree, it is excellent value. You will notice however that the new $5.00 plan no longer includes any make/model/color of the cars.

That's certainly a shame. Hadn't noticed that feature was missing. It got the vehicles right occasionally. That will leave a big hole.

 

[DLONG2]

Reading the Watchman setup, I am intrigued by the ability to set a data destination. With the free tier, I thought there was only the cloud location, but it looks like this new Watchman plan can allow local storage as well as application integration.

 

[Robert G.]

Reading the Watchman setup, I am intrigued by the ability to set a data destination.

That is 100% not available in the free edition. They wanted a lot of money to activate that feature.

 

[tech101]

The OpenALPR poducts page was still recently listing the free 2 day retention plan. The commercial version was like $59 a month while the enterprise plan was $99 a month as I recall. And there was the free 2-day plan.

Today, I see their products page has changed, showing the $5 a month per camera plan. I derive a lot of value to getting this data captured and retained, and will definitely sign up if there's no more free tier, or unless a better alternative is found. The service isn't perfect but it does a decent job of acquiring plates.

That is what I Am thinkin, If there is no other option I will pay $10 for two cameras..

 

[tech101]

Also another thought is how about getting a camera designed for LPR how much it will be which is say same as

• 

IPC-HFW5231E-Z12E
But just has the lpr function built into it.. Since it seems like if we do 5x12 that is also $60 a year for open alpr a year for now hopefully that price would not go up in future anytime soon anyhow, so say if the lpr camera are only $100-200 more might even be an option for some people to consider that and have the built in LPR function into the camera. But again I do NOT know any pricing I hope other or Andy can chime in and see if we even have a camera which has LPR function built into it and has about 12x motorized zoom function and if yes at what price point. Thanks !

 

[looney2ns]

There is a 4mp version as well that @Wildcat_1 reviewed.
Review-Dahua IPC-HFW7842HP-Z AI, ANPR Ultra 8MP Varifocal Starlight Cam | IP Cam Talk

 

[Robert G.]

There is a 4mp version as well that @Wildcat_1 reviewed.
Review-Dahua IPC-HFW7842HP-Z AI, ANPR Ultra 8MP Varifocal Starlight Cam | IP Cam Talk

While that camera looks nice, it just can't zoom out far enough for me to be used for LPR :-(

Is there anyone one here that is using the open source edition of OpenALPR? There has not been an update to it in years, but might be worth looking into. I was thinking about a hybrid open source & paid solution to keep costs down.... Since I just do ALPR for fun mostly.

The open source edition can't connect direct to the camera stream from what I can tell. No idea how you go about automating the process when using the open source edition.

Can anyone share how they are doing it if using the open source version?

 

[Arjun]

Best bet is to buy one with AI built in such as this model, IPC-HFW5241E-Z12E

Never depend on the cloud

 

[Robert G.]

Best bet is to buy one with AI built in such as this model, IPC-HFW5241E-Z12E

That camera has some AI features, but no license plate recognition. If there is a camera that has that much zoom and can do plate recognition, please point it out I suspsect there would be several others in this forum interested in something like that.

 

[tech101]

Best bet is to buy one with AI built in such as this model, IPC-HFW5241E-Z12E

Never depend on the cloud

I do already have one IPC-HFW5241E-Z12E. I does not have LPR function ..

There is a 4mp version as well that @Wildcat_1 reviewed.
Review-Dahua IPC-HFW7842HP-Z AI, ANPR Ultra 8MP Varifocal Starlight Cam | IP Cam Talk

Thank you Looney so much that seems like it has LPR function. However zoom is not as same as the other camera. Do you know anyhow how well does it pick up plates ? In the built in LPR system ?

That camera has some AI features, but no license plate recognition. If there is a camera that has that much zoom and can do plate recognition, please point it out I suspsect there would be several others in this forum interested in something like that.

Yes, I will be interested in a LPR camera with same zoom power as IPC-HFW5231E-Z12E I think which was about 12x zoom ...

 

[thendawg]

Hmm this is very interesting, I started looking into openalpr a year or two ago, but have never bought the extra dedicated cameras for lpr (still plan to at some point). Back then I though I remember someone saying there was a forked version of openalpr from when it was still a true open source sw? I wonder if any more development was done by the community on this branch, or even if its still in the wild. Worst case, perhaps we start a community project to develop a replacement? I couldnt imagine grabbing the text and doing some basic filtering for plates would be too difficult with tensorflow (Ive played with the text recog models a couple times and theyre pretty solid) - the issue would be retrieving the details and what not that openalpr does.

 

[Robert G.]

Bummer.... I just received the following email from OpenALPR.

Dear OpenALPR User:
Please note that effective January 30, 2020, we will no longer be offering a Free Tier of our Watchman software (formerly Cloud Stream). While the Free Tier is going away, we are excited to offer our new Watchman Home plan at only $5 per month. It offers some fantastic benefits that were previously not available with the free plan:

1. Receive alerts on up to 5 license plates via text message, email, or through the OpenALPR Dashboard.
2. 5-day data retention (increased from 2-day data retention).
3. Dashboard access for up to 3 users (increased from 2 users).

Additionally, as a gesture of goodwill for test driving the OpenALPR platform, we have applied an extra 30-day free trial of our Watchman Commercial plan to your account. This promotional credit has already been applied and you will see your time remaining when logging into the dashboard.

We realize that this adjustment may cause difficulties for some users; but, we think you will love Watchman Home, the new design of OpenALPR.com, and the other great updates soon to come. If you have any additional questions about our available Watchman plans, please email us at info@openalpr.com. Thank you for your understanding.

 

[Arjun]

As long as it works, I wouldn’t mind supporting the developers