Advice on Camera Choice - 2 Cameras, 180 degree FOV

Paul G

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the cable is snaked through one of the holes after removing a plug, leaving the hole open? Then open up a hole in the soffit beneath the box and jam everything to into the hole in soffit?

hmmm, I suppose I could also add some silicone or whatever where the cable enters the bike in the box.

thanks again
 

Paul G

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okay, i'm sure you'all are getting a bit tired of me, sorry for being so anal. Just re-ordered them. The camera does look real nice - i'll make the installation work.
thanks again for all your patience.
 

sebastiantombs

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wittaj

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the cable is snaked through one of the holes after removing a plug, leaving the hole open? Then open up a hole in the soffit beneath the box and jam everything to into the hole in soffit?

hmmm, I suppose I could also add some silicone or whatever where the cable enters the bike in the box.

thanks again
If you do not use the junction box you install the camera directly on the soffitt and shove the wiring through the hole made in the soffit.
 

sebastiantombs

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If the soffit is vinyl, in segments, you can bend the facia aluminum trim out of the way (carefully), and slide out a section of the soffit. That gives you lots of room. Then if you use a piece of aluminum flat stock cut to the full width of the soffit to mount the camera to the cable can be located in a groove of the soffit and no holes needed at all. Just bend the aluminum facia trim back into shape and you're good to go. A coat of aluminum primer and a coat of finish paint to match helps as well. Oh yeah, before putting the primer on use a scrub pad and dish soap to clean off the surface oxide to get the best bond between the primer and aluminum.

soffit mount.jpg
 

Left Coast Geek

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Dahua (and empiretech andy) has these lovely wall mount brackets for their turret cams, there's two versions, the 203 and 204, one is for a 3-screw mounted camera, and the other for a 4-screw mount. whiel in my picture, the wire is external, you can of course, feed it right through the wall behind hte mount (tough on a brick chimney).



the amcrest on the left is a very wide angle 8MP that provides a driveway/parking area overview, can't identify someone but can see whats going on.
the T5442 on the right is set for 12mm zoom, and is aimed at the driveway entrance for more detail (and much better night vision) on anyone or anything coming in.

I find these cameras very easy to aim. loosen the torx clamp screw, and you can rotate and tilt them with one hand, and they stay where you put them until you tighten said set screw. I bring my 8" tablet up the ladder with me, and pull up the BI 'web' (or app) view of the camera to aid in framing.
 

Paul G

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I've received the 5442 varifocal. Playing with it inside before getting on a ladder. Up and running easily, working with BI. Trying to get the feel of the Camera's ui/settings. I can't seem to find anything with enough detail. so
1) Can somebody point me to some detailed documentation on setting it up
2) I'm using the web ui that comes when you hit the camera IP address. Is this the one i should be using? is there another one? I see different pictures on line that don't look like what i'm looking at. I saw mention of browser extension(s) but i generally stay away from them - or is that something i should do.
3) Specifically and most importantly is the simple act of choosing the focal length - thus the FOV which it appears will remain at installation (which is fine)
I'm not sure where that is? Presumably its a zooming capability somewhere - is there a difference between setting it up for installation, but then using it real time? What is the difference between motion detection and IVF, should i use both? This/these are the kinds of questions i seem to not be having much luck at finding on line.
so, a pointer to a page or document is sufficient. In the meantime i'll keep messing with it and maybe it will all come to me.

also, looks like triggering motion to BI works fine, IVF - can't get it to work. I've gone through articles and others who have had this issue.

thanks
 
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sebastiantombs

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Use Internet Explorer which is still available in Win10. Just type "explorer" in the search bar. Some Dahua cameras are sensitive to what browser is used and IE is what the web UI was designed for.

All the settings are available in the settings tab. General conditions, brightness, contrast, etc. The exposure tab sets shutter control, speed speed and exposure compensation. The rest are basically self explanatory. The Day/Night tab will let you set the basic mode, such as auto, color or B&W. Many use the Sunrise/Sunset utility to force a manual change of day and night settings based on the changing sunset and sunrise times rather than the time only limitation of the camera firmware.

Most of us use a manual shutter speed rather than "auto". Day settings of 0.001 to 16.66 ms work fairly well. Night settings are similar. Exposure compensation is a balancing act to keep noise low. Slowing the shutter below 16..66ms, about 1/60th of a second, will result in blur especially at night..

I normally don't' use WDR, wide dynamic range, or any other enhancements like that. They generally introduce noise and/or blur especially at night. If you do use them try to keep the gain as low as possible to keep blur to a minimum.

With the 5442 most run a CBR, constant bit rate, set at 8192. Frame and iframe rates should match and 15/15 is fine for video surveillance. Encoding is another Catch22. I use H264 exclusively but others use H265. Don't use H265+ because it is more or less a proprietary encoding that may not be compatible with your VMS software.

Bottom line is to fool with the settings for both day and night to balance them all for the best possible video. Avoiding blur at night is the hardest part.

If you get stuck, just ask but post the question with screen shots of the settings.
 
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