Drive-by shooting!

[Cold-Lemonade]

@wittaj No. There is a flat roof, but I have no cat6 up there. I have cat6 inside the junction box where the turret is located. My plan is to install a larger junction box and use a splitter to allow me to install another camera in the front.

I wish I had run more cat6 when I had the house gutted a couple of years ago.

 

[Cold-Lemonade]

I could mount the LPR camera on the side of the house closer to the intersection. I have another junction box there with cat6 for another turret camera monitoring the front facade. Do you think that would work better?

 

[wittaj]

Yep, we all wish we had more cable ran LOL.

Could you drop cable from the roof down to the junction box of the current camera or would it be crossing windows and stuff?

Do you think the side of the house would get a better look over the vehicles? I see that as more of your field of view issue than the distance.

 

[Cold-Lemonade]

I can't run the cat6 to the roof from the junction box in the front because I have a yankee gutter that the cable would have to traverse. And I'm in a historic district so the code enforcement folks will be on me like white on rice. I think I'll run the heavy duty (direct burial/UV) cat6 bare from the junction box up about 5 feet to a new junction box that I'll screw onto the facade. That junction box will be the mounting for the LPR camera.

Mounting the LPR on the side of the house closer to the intersection should help me get a steeper angle and look over the parked cars. <fingers crossed>

 

[samplenhold]

If you have UV resistant cable and the run will not be accessible from the ground, then no need to use conduit.

Since this is a one-way street, pay way more attention to the cam that will grab rear plates. Front plates are notorious for giving poor visibility. Rear plates usually have a license plate light and are in better shape. Front plates are usually dirtier and have been worn more than the rear, especially in climes that have snow.

Shooting over parked cars on narrow streets will be difficult. Is there any spots where no car would normally be parked, like at a driveway entrance, that you could focus the cam on?

 

[Cold-Lemonade]

Unfortunately, my side of this block is all attached row houses--no driveways.

 

[Ri22o]

Is that a one way street? Are you planning to try to capture the front plate on the vehicles? Remember, not all states have front plates but all states have rear plates.

 

[samplenhold]

Unfortunately, my side of this block is all attached row houses--no driveways.

Bummer.

 

[Cold-Lemonade]

@samplenhold I read the threads you created to guide folks on LPR cameras. Thank you for those.

Pardon my ignorance. I am still trying to understand how license plate reading works. I purchased a IPC-HFW5241E-Z12E camera. BTW, the zoom on this thing is incredible. Here's my question. I understand that I need to set a very fast shutter speed. But is the camera still going to function as a video camera? Or will it only take snapshots? Sorry I found this a little confusing.

 

[wittaj]

@samplenhold I read the threads you created to guide folks on LPR cameras. Thank you for those.

Pardon my ignorance. I am still trying to understand how license plate reading works. I purchased a IPC-HFW5241E-Z12E camera. BTW, the zoom on this thing is incredible. Here's my question. I understand that I need to set a very fast shutter speed. But is the camera still going to function as a video camera? Or will it only take snapshots? Sorry I found this a little confusing.

It acts just like a normal camera and records we just set it up to capture plates. It doesn't auto read plates though, we do that manually or use a third party reader.

 

[samplenhold]

I currently do not auto read plates. I have taken the tack that if something happens, I can look through the alert snapshots from the LPR cams and look through the video of those cams to find the offending vehicle.

Not having a database of plates really has not bothered me so far. Only twice has there been a time when I would have liked to see if a plate had been by before. So not a big deal.

But I would like that option, except I have not had the time/drive to work on it. There are a few options, some of which have been developed by folks here. Maybe someday I will go down that rabbit hole.

 

[looney2ns]

Do either of these provide any more power than the other one? I'm planning to put up a PTZ camera near a Color4K camera. The max power draw for the PTZ looks to be 21W according to the specs. The max for the Color4K is listed at 10.5. That exceeds the 30W per port max on the TP-Link POE switch I have.

Depends on the camera. If that PTZ is rated for POE+, then the only way you will get reliable operation out of that cam is to run another eithernet line of at least 24AWG wire size.
If the run is very long, then use 23 AWG wire sized, and of course there's this: Why we harp about NEVER using CCA ethernet cable. | IP Cam Talk

 

[CaptainCrunch]

Depends on the camera. If that PTZ is rated for POE+, then the only way you will get reliable operation out of that cam is to run another eithernet line of at least 24AWG wire size.
If the run is very long, then use 23 AWG wire sized, and of course there's this: Why we harp about NEVER using CCA ethernet cable. | IP Cam Talk

Thanks. I kept looking and found a 1 to 4 splitter that has a 60w max by combining 2 ports from the poe switch into the one cable that runs to the camera. It's a Steamemo brand so I don't know about it's reliable. But then I figured it's not really worth worrying about it. There's no cable yet so I've got to run it to that spot. And if I'm going to run one, I may as well run two instead of trying to figure out how to turn 1 into 2.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BKKF3RRR

 

[Cold-Lemonade]

It acts just like a normal camera and records we just set it up to capture plates. It doesn't auto read plates though, we do that manually or use a third party reader.

Okay. This is exactly how I hoped it worked. Thank you @wittaj

 

[wittaj]

I currently do not auto read plates. I have taken the tack that if something happens, I can look through the alert snapshots from the LPR cams and look through the video of those cams to find the offending vehicle.

Not having a database of plates really has not bothered me so far. Only twice has there been a time when I would have liked to see if a plate had been by before. So not a big deal.

But I would like that option, except I have not had the time/drive to work on it. There are a few options, some of which have been developed by folks here. Maybe someday I will go down that rabbit hole.

It comes down to how many vehicles go by daily and your patience to scrub thru snapshots and video LOL.

I have been using one of the utilities created here and it aids in my morning ritual of seeing did anything happen my cams might have caught. I can pull up the utility and immediately see if a new vehicle came past.

When something has happened and we catch the offending plates on cam, I can instantly see if they had been back here before.

I just wish OpenALPR would quit raising rates LOL.

 

[looney2ns]

Thanks. I kept looking and found a 1 to 4 splitter that has a 60w max by combining 2 ports from the poe switch into the one cable that runs to the camera. It's a Steamemo brand so I don't know about it's reliable. But then I figured it's not really worth worrying about it. There's no cable yet so I've got to run it to that spot. And if I'm going to run one, I may as well run two instead of trying to figure out how to turn 1 into 2.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BKKF3RRR

If you need to pull cable still, then yes, pull cable' don't try to take shortcuts by using splitters.
If you think you may need 2 cables at the location, then pull 3 or 4.
Pulling good quality cable will work out best in the long run.
Don't cheap out on the cable. Purchase from a reliable source such as TrueCable.com.
It's a lot easier to do it right the first time, rather than need to redo it down the line.

 

[Cold-Lemonade]

If you need to pull cable still, then yes, pull cable' don't try to take shortcuts by using splitters.
If you think you may need 2 cables at the location, then pull 3 or 4.
Pulling good quality cable will work out best in the long run.
Don't cheap out on the cable. Purchase from a reliable source such as TrueCable.com.
It's a lot easier to do it right the first time, rather than need to redo it down the line.

Unfortunately, I completed the renovation of my rowhouse and have no stomach for opening up any walls and floors to run more cat6 at this point. I wish I had run two sets of cat6 to each location but that ship sailed ages ago. I am going to try the splitter and see how it goes.

 

[CaptainCrunch]

If you need to pull cable still, then yes, pull cable' don't try to take shortcuts by using splitters.
If you think you may need 2 cables at the location, then pull 3 or 4.
Pulling good quality cable will work out best in the long run.
Don't cheap out on the cable. Purchase from a reliable source such as TrueCable.com.
It's a lot easier to do it right the first time, rather than need to redo it down the line.

I got some 24 awg outdoor rated solid copper wire. It's not shielded but I don't think that will be an issue.

 

[Cold-Lemonade]

@wittaj I bought the cat6 combiner/splitter that you recommended. Thank you for suggesting it. I tested it out on one of the cables running to the rear of my house. I used it to add a new camera to my system--the new addition zooms into the area where I park my car.

If anyone is looking for the link to the combiner/splitter I am using, here it is:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08JS45B89

 

[Cold-Lemonade]

I am still working on getting a camera to read license plates. I've been thinking it would be nice if I could use this PTZ camera to capture license plates. Because it is a PTZ, it would give me added ability to use it scan the street when there is trouble. Then when I am not actively using it, I could return it to its LPR position and settings. What are your thoughts?

This is the PTZ camera, I am thinking of using:

https://www.amazon.com/EmpireTech-PTZ1A225-HNR-XA-Starlight-Positioning-PTZ1A225U-IRA-N/dp/B08LGVS1RR