Anyone installed an IR illuminator indoor behind windows?

TechBill

TechBill

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Nov 1, 2014
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All my cameras are mounted outdoor but I am wanting an extra illumination in that one spot and I am wondering if anyone ever installed an IR illuminator behind windows indoor before?

I plan to try this out tonight myself to see how it works. I already know if you install camera with IR behind windows then it'll reflect the IR back to the camera len. I wanted to try setting up IR illuminator behind windows which is indoor with easy access to the outlet for power adapter rather than to find a way to weatherproof the power adapter for outdoor uses.

I will report back on my findings on this.
 
Yes, I have IR emitters located inside in 2 different locations shooting through the glass. They work great and should extend the life of the emitter and P/S.
 
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NightLife said:
Does the sunlight coming through those windows feel warm?


Yes? Then yes...;)
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Then again newer windows have UV blocker film on it that block out certain UV rays so I wasn't sure if that would also affect the IR light spectrum too.

One way to know for sure is to test it tonight :) and I wanted to see if anyone else here had positive or failed experience with it.
 
TechBill said:
Then again newer windows have UV blocker film on it that block out certain UV rays so I wasn't sure if that would also affect the IR light spectrum too.

One way to know for sure is to test it tonight :) and I wanted to see if anyone else here had positive or failed experience with it.
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Yes, I would imagine glass will allow certain parts of the IR spectrum through .. the shorter, the better perhaps? Then you have the number of panes, coatings, colour of glass and so on.


Testing is always best. Good luck.
 
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If you have a spare IP cam not mounted anywhere, you could use it to test. Just turn off its IR LEDs, wait until it is dark outside, and use it to look out the window at anything you already have illuminated with IR. This should give you some idea of how much IR makes it through your window.
 
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bp2008 said:
If you have a spare IP cam not mounted anywhere, you could use it to test. Just turn off its IR LEDs, wait until it is dark outside, and use it to look out the window at anything you already have illuminated with IR. This should give you some idea of how much IR makes it through your window.
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I got a bunch of IR illuminator still new in the box. I brought it all about 6 years ago and I've never gotten around to installing it on the soffit cuz I didn't really want to crawl in the attic to add a power source for it up there. Running thousand feets of ethernet cables was a pain enough for me :P

The reason I got a bunch of it is because IR illuminator was still fairly a new thing back then so I got different brand and type of leds but all in the 850nm range to test it out with and since IVS didn't really exist in cameras back then unless in one of those high priced camera, we had to rely on motion detection and IR were bringing bugs up close to camera lens making it look like human size triggering motion detection. Same with rain or snow reflecting off of IR up close to the len too. My goal back then was to disable IR on camera and place IR several feet away from the camera to hope to reduce falses on the motion detection triggers.

When Starlight sensor and IVS features came out, I threw aside the IR illuminator project all together and just swapped all of my cameras with starlight and IVS which made a huge difference in the world. Now all of my Dauha cameras and NVR about a little over 5 years old and still running strong. NVR is also Dauha running 4.x firmware.

It possible that my camera sensor is aging which seems to be darkening in some area on the screen that IR illuminator would not be able to restore unless it the camera's IR itself that is aging and the sensor is still fine then I would suspect IR illuminator should fix this.
 
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TechBill said:
t possible that my camera sensor is aging which seems to be darkening in some area on the screen that IR illuminator would not be able to restore unless it the camera's IR itself that is aging and the sensor is still fine then I would suspect IR illuminator should fix this.
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I'd suspect the IR LEDs. Seems far more likely to fail, and far more likely to cause that sort of problem. Unless the "darkening" happens with an artificially sharp edge that might indicate a problem with the sensor.
 
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If you have Low-E windows it may not work well. I have older windows without a coating and my IR illuminator works perfectly behind the glass.
 
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