Another Newbie

HugChopShop

Young grasshopper
Joined
Jan 14, 2019
Messages
41
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12
Location
USA
Cliff notes: Got the bug, wanted to start small, stumbled a bit, blew the budget, now looking for two more cameras and tweaking BI settings.

Long version:
Bought a IP camera from Best Buy. Was mediocre, opened up google and landed here. Returned the MS camera and started down the blue iris journey.

Started with a Foscam interior PTZ feeding BI on a hand me down 2nd gen i5 vostro. This worked well until the power supply gave up. Also this PC seemed to run hot. Maybe a sign of the power supply letting go. This is a bummer as I didn't factor a new PC into the budget. Now running a 4th gen i5, 1TB, 8gb ram via an off lease Optiplex.

More reading here and the web led to viewing a few "open" local IP cameras. This was enough to talk me into a VPN rather than port forward. My Linksys kept up with port forwarding, cameras, streaming, etc, but didn't offer VPN so I bought a new router. This is budget setback #2.

Added a DB1 doorbell. It worked well for a short bit until it bricked during a firmware update. Returned it and got the newer RCA (DB2?). New doorbell flakiness was solved with a 30VA transformer. New triple the cost doorbell and transformer created budget buster #3.

This setup has been running well. PC runs cooler, laptop login using UE3 is very responsive. Remote iphone login with app and VPN is also quick. So far so good, I just tripled the original budget.

I thought I was taking a break to let the budget replenish until..... someone hit my mailbox at 3am Monday. Its off the doorbell camera view, but can be heard then seen drive by. The doorbell cam can't get much more than a light color truck. The same truck drives by most nights at 3am.

Now I'm looking for a couple cameras to put under the eves. I have house lights and a street light to help with night vision. I'm thinking a varifocal with good night vision, so probably a starlight or what ever they are called.

Also looking for clues on BI triggers. I keep setting it too sensitive then not sensitive enough.
 
Last edited:

GCoco

Pulling my weight
Joined
Jun 29, 2015
Messages
340
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116
Location
Louisiana
Welcome to the site. The only cure is more and better cameras.
 

looney2ns

IPCT Contributor
Joined
Sep 25, 2016
Messages
15,521
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22,657
Location
Evansville, In. USA
Cliff notes: Got the bug, wanted to start small, stumbled a bit, blew the budget, now looking for two more cameras and tweaking BI settings.

Long version:
Bought a IP camera from Best Buy. Was mediocre, opened up google and landed here. Returned the MS camera and started down the blue iris journey.

Started with a Foscam interior PTZ feeding BI on a hand me down 2nd gen i5 vostro. This worked well until the power supply gave up. Also this PC seemed to run hot. Maybe a sign of the power supply letting go. This is a bummer as I didn't factor a new PC into the budget. Now running a 4th gen i5, 1TB, 8gb ram via an off lease Optiplex.

More reading here and the web led to viewing a few "open" local IP cameras. This was enough to talk me into a VPN rather than port forward. My Linksys kept up with port forwarding, cameras, streaming, etc, but didn't offer VPN so I bought a new router. This is budget setback #2.

Added a DB1 doorbell. It worked well for a short bit until it bricked during a firmware update. Returned it and got the newer RCA (DB2?). New doorbell flakiness was solved with a 30VA transformer. New triple the cost doorbell and transformer created budget buster #3.

This setup has been running well. PC runs cooler, laptop login using UE3 is very responsive. Remote iphone login with app and VPN is also quick. So far so good, I just tripled the original budget.

I thought I was taking a break to let the budget replenish until..... someone hit my mailbox at 3am Monday. Its off the doorbell camera view, but can be heard then seen drive by. The doorbell cam can't get much more than a light color truck. The same truck drives by most nights at 3am.

Now I'm looking for a couple cameras to put under the eves. I have house lights and a street light to help with night vision. I'm thinking a varifocal with good night vision, so probably a starlight or what ever they are called.

Also looking for clues on BI triggers. I keep setting it too sensitive then not sensitive enough.
Study this: cliff notes in the wiki

And watch these: Blue Iris Video Tutorials
 
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