Bob Sherger
Young grasshopper
- Joined
- Dec 4, 2016
- Messages
- 36
- Reaction score
- 2
Hi all,
I am finishing up a camera installation job that I should have done years ago. Several years ago, I used my IPC-HDW5231-Z cameras and placed one inside the garage about 7 feet high. The other two I installed in the front of the house on the eves. I couldn't figure out the front door camera because I had an air conditioner in the attic and a brick wall, but I have finally fished a wall down at 6.5 ft high to the left of the door, so success there (had to use magnets, string and hardware)! I intend to put a new black IPC-T5442T-ZE there that I just got from Andy along with black PFA130-e boxes to drill into the brick and hold the cables.
Years ago, I also couldn't figure out how to get a camera in the back porch because I have no crawl space (2nd story) and also brick everywhere. Recently, I used TP-Link powerline adapters and have been testing them for the past week. They seem to be rock solid. I can use a PoE injector and run an ethernet cable behind the brick wall since there a chimney access door there and put the PoE injector and network equipment in a box and attach it to the wall. I can get at least one camera to view my entire back deck area where people enter the deck from stairs and most of the seating area at eye level. The other black IPC-T5442T-ZE and PFA130-e box will go here.
My issue with the driveway and front yard cameras is they are 10+ ft high and I am looking at the top of people's heads. I want to move them down and add a third camera to the far left corner where the overgrown bush is, although I may have to put that higher on the eve since its harder to get something behind the brick wall there because it gets very narrow with the roofline in the garage attic in the third garage bay so can't really reach the drop of that wall easily or do any drilling. I might make that one more for situational awareness since I have 2 driveway cameras that can see just about the whole driveway and the front door camera.
For the two that are currently on the eve, I have a picture of where they are now and drew where I want to move them. I basically have to put them below the wall lights which puts them about 6ft high. This should get me good shots but I'm concerned about the aesthetics. The cameras I have are white and I will need to order PFA130-e boxes to attach them to wall. I am trying to figure how I can make this look decent looking. I was thinking of going with a brown to match the brick but there are many patterns. I could try tan to match the garage door or wicker for the gutters/eve paint. Several people think black would match the light fixtures and I think that black will also look classier on the brick in general (hence why I chose black for the front/back door). But this area is FULL SUN in the afternoon, while backyard is shaded, and I live in Texas so concerned about black color and overheating issues. These cameras being white have never had any issues being in full sun.
Just checking for opinions on my setup, mainly concerned about the front driveway placement and aesthetics. Attached are the front of house, current driveway cam views and front door area I recently drilled and ran ethernet.
Questions:
1) Should I paint them black or go with a lighter color that will blend so they won't overheat as much?
2) For paint, I read Plastidip is good if you ever want to remove the paint. Does this hold up in the sun well? Not many color options and it seems like you have to buy in bulk for colors other than white or black.
3) If not, will a Rustoleum primer and satin enamel paint work for a more permanent solution? I believe the housings are aluminum if I'm not mistaken. Any tips on painting permanently?
4) How do you mask off all the holes so it looks clean?
5) Which is better for up close vs distance, the IPC-T5442T-ZE or IPC-HDW5231-Z camera? Or does it matter?
6) Are PFA130-e boxes recommended for soffit installations? I'm not using them in this case but I had to drill out almost an inch to shove the pigtails up there and I used waterseal silicon tape to make sure they stay dry. The PFA130-e boxes will require a smaller hole for the cable to go through but also are "longer."
7) I'm still on Blue Iris 4. Should I buy the $30 support to upgrade to version 5? I've noticed Blue Iris 4 is consuming quite a bit of CPU (30-50%) with 6 cameras running. I changed all settings to 15fps on camera and in blue iris since 30 fps on some of them was killing it. Running an i7-6700 CPU with 16GB of RAM but I'm not doing direct-to-disc recording or any other optimizations outside of default settings. I was thinking of upgrading and then optimizing this as much as possible to run a total of perhaps 8-9 cameras if that's possible.
Thanks in advance for the advice if you can spare some!
Bob
I am finishing up a camera installation job that I should have done years ago. Several years ago, I used my IPC-HDW5231-Z cameras and placed one inside the garage about 7 feet high. The other two I installed in the front of the house on the eves. I couldn't figure out the front door camera because I had an air conditioner in the attic and a brick wall, but I have finally fished a wall down at 6.5 ft high to the left of the door, so success there (had to use magnets, string and hardware)! I intend to put a new black IPC-T5442T-ZE there that I just got from Andy along with black PFA130-e boxes to drill into the brick and hold the cables.
Years ago, I also couldn't figure out how to get a camera in the back porch because I have no crawl space (2nd story) and also brick everywhere. Recently, I used TP-Link powerline adapters and have been testing them for the past week. They seem to be rock solid. I can use a PoE injector and run an ethernet cable behind the brick wall since there a chimney access door there and put the PoE injector and network equipment in a box and attach it to the wall. I can get at least one camera to view my entire back deck area where people enter the deck from stairs and most of the seating area at eye level. The other black IPC-T5442T-ZE and PFA130-e box will go here.
My issue with the driveway and front yard cameras is they are 10+ ft high and I am looking at the top of people's heads. I want to move them down and add a third camera to the far left corner where the overgrown bush is, although I may have to put that higher on the eve since its harder to get something behind the brick wall there because it gets very narrow with the roofline in the garage attic in the third garage bay so can't really reach the drop of that wall easily or do any drilling. I might make that one more for situational awareness since I have 2 driveway cameras that can see just about the whole driveway and the front door camera.
For the two that are currently on the eve, I have a picture of where they are now and drew where I want to move them. I basically have to put them below the wall lights which puts them about 6ft high. This should get me good shots but I'm concerned about the aesthetics. The cameras I have are white and I will need to order PFA130-e boxes to attach them to wall. I am trying to figure how I can make this look decent looking. I was thinking of going with a brown to match the brick but there are many patterns. I could try tan to match the garage door or wicker for the gutters/eve paint. Several people think black would match the light fixtures and I think that black will also look classier on the brick in general (hence why I chose black for the front/back door). But this area is FULL SUN in the afternoon, while backyard is shaded, and I live in Texas so concerned about black color and overheating issues. These cameras being white have never had any issues being in full sun.
Just checking for opinions on my setup, mainly concerned about the front driveway placement and aesthetics. Attached are the front of house, current driveway cam views and front door area I recently drilled and ran ethernet.
Questions:
1) Should I paint them black or go with a lighter color that will blend so they won't overheat as much?
2) For paint, I read Plastidip is good if you ever want to remove the paint. Does this hold up in the sun well? Not many color options and it seems like you have to buy in bulk for colors other than white or black.
3) If not, will a Rustoleum primer and satin enamel paint work for a more permanent solution? I believe the housings are aluminum if I'm not mistaken. Any tips on painting permanently?
4) How do you mask off all the holes so it looks clean?
5) Which is better for up close vs distance, the IPC-T5442T-ZE or IPC-HDW5231-Z camera? Or does it matter?
6) Are PFA130-e boxes recommended for soffit installations? I'm not using them in this case but I had to drill out almost an inch to shove the pigtails up there and I used waterseal silicon tape to make sure they stay dry. The PFA130-e boxes will require a smaller hole for the cable to go through but also are "longer."
7) I'm still on Blue Iris 4. Should I buy the $30 support to upgrade to version 5? I've noticed Blue Iris 4 is consuming quite a bit of CPU (30-50%) with 6 cameras running. I changed all settings to 15fps on camera and in blue iris since 30 fps on some of them was killing it. Running an i7-6700 CPU with 16GB of RAM but I'm not doing direct-to-disc recording or any other optimizations outside of default settings. I was thinking of upgrading and then optimizing this as much as possible to run a total of perhaps 8-9 cameras if that's possible.
Thanks in advance for the advice if you can spare some!
Bob
