Finally some progress with my cameras.

[wantafastz28]

Still have one more camera needed for the west side of the house(hopefully Andy ships it soon), and inside the garage. I should be complete after that. Thanks to everyone on the board that has helped with questions I had. @nayr @fenderman @tangent @EMPIRETECANDY and others were a huge help. It definitely helped me buy a more reliable setup then I originally planned before coming here.

Windows 10 pro box running BI
ASUS RT-AC87U
24port patch panel
Triplite 12u server case in the office
2 - 8 port Zyxel POE/Gigabit switches.
4 -Dahua Starlight Varifocal Turret (IPC-HDW5231R-Z)
1 IPC-SD59230-HNI (the zoom on this is overkill, but why not)
1 Amcrest 1080p ptz for baby room.

 

[wantafastz28]

First pic is walkway next to my house, 2nd pic is max zoom trying to see the ADT sign 1 block over. If the tree wasn't in the way i think it would be legible. Rest of pics are yard, and partial view of park behind me, and walk way next to house.

 

[mycoma]

Nice Install!

 

[Camit]

You have a good size truck ! How close are you to that camera pulling it in the garage?

 

[bababouy]

What a difference it makes when the cameras are the same color as the house. That PTZ looks sweet too. Nice job.

 

[wantafastz28]

You have a good size truck ! How close are you to that camera pulling it in the garage?

Lol, the truck doesn't fit on that side, the tahoe does though, and there is over a foot of clearance. I was going to put it above the light, but I feel like this is more discrete.

 

[wantafastz28]

What a difference it makes when the cameras are the same color as the house. That PTZ looks sweet too. Nice job.

Yeah.... I have concerns though... the walk way is fairly active, and all it takes is one person bitching and I might have a problem... the cc&r's say as long as it doesnt make noise I'm good, so we will see. But yeah, paint makes all the difference in the world.

 

[tangent]

Nice job. I hope the plastic (looked like plastic) wiremold on the ptz holds up to the phoenix heat (paint should help). If not you can always paint some EMT.

You may be able to get some of your cams to look a little better if you play with fine tuning some of your image settings (ptz especially). What do you currently have your noise reduction, wdr, and gain set to?

 

[smiticans]

Windows 10 pro box running BI
ASUS RT-AC87U
24port patch panel
Triplite 12u server case in the office
2 - 8 port Zyxel POE/Gigabit switches.

Have you had any issues the Asus RT-AC87U? I had mine just a little over two years. I wasn't that happy with the 5Ghz band and every so often the router locked up and I would have to do a manual reboot.

I upgraded to the Asus RT-AC88U (running Merlin firmware) a few months ago. The network seems to be more stable and I haven't had any issues with the router locking up.

 

[wantafastz28]

Nice job. I hope the plastic (looked like plastic) wiremold on the ptz holds up to the phoenix heat (paint should help). If not you can always paint some EMT.

You may be able to get some of your cams to look a little better if you play with fine tuning some of your image settings (ptz especially). What do you currently have your noise reduction, wdr, and gain set to?

Yeah, I'm curious myself.... hoping the paint will help a little, it is screwed into the wall instead of relying on the adhesive. I have some steel molding, but not the right sized couplers. All settings are factory settings. I have a ton of adjusting and tuning to do with the cameras and blue iris... blue iris is a little more of a learning curve then I expected...

 

[Camit]

I wish I lived in a house the had 2 ac units lol ...

 

[wantafastz28]

Have you had any issues the Asus RT-AC87U? I had mine just a little over two years. I wasn't that happy with the 5Ghz band and every so often the router locked up and I would have to do a manual reboot.

I upgraded to the Asus RT-AC88U (running Merlin firmware) a few months ago. The network seems to be more stable and I haven't had any issues with the router locking up.

So far it has been flawless... i was super skeptical because of the bad reviews it was getting... i bought it mainly for the free dynamic dns feature. 5 ghz I haven't dabbled with too much... haven't had any negatives so far though.

 

[wantafastz28]

I wish I lived in a house the had 2 ac units lol ...

You say that...but it is more power, and twice the maintenance...

 

[smiticans]

Yeah, I'm curious myself.... hoping the paint will help a little, it is screwed into the wall instead of relying on the adhesive. I have some steel molding, but not the right sized couplers. All settings are factory settings. I have a ton of adjusting and tuning to do with the cameras and blue iris... blue iris is a little more of a learning curve then I expected...

You definitely need some WDR on the front door camera and on the one by the AC units.I have my WDR set to 10 or 15

 

[zero-degrees]

Nice looking install - It'd be nice to see a third image for each location added to the original post showing your night time image

Nice clean install though!

 

[wantafastz28]

Nice looking install - It'd be nice to see a third image for each location added to the original post showing your night time image

Nice clean install though!

Too lazy to insert them in the original post, but here they are. I'm not sure, but I feel like there might be enough ambient light to keep the front cameras on in color mode? I'm still learning how to configure them to swap from color to black and white, and what optimum time that is to do so with recordings of the previous day.

Black and white stock settings.
Black and white WDR 15


Stock settings in color


Black and white stock settings

Black and white WDR 15

Stock settings in color

PTS IR only


PTZ IR on, WDR 15

 

[smiticans]

@wantafastz28 I usually only keep WDR on during the day (switches to night profile with WDR disabled at a set time).

 

[wantafastz28]

Gotcha, yeah I'll definitely start tinkering around to get these dialed in. I'm just happy they are out of my office cabinet!

 

[tangent]

Too lazy to insert them in the original post, but here they are. I'm not sure, but I feel like there might be enough ambient light to keep the front cameras on in color mode? I'm still learning how to configure them to swap from color to black and white, and what optimum time that is to do so with recordings of the previous day.

Experiment with moving objects not just static shots. Walk towards the cam, across the frame, run across the frame, drive by the cameras, stick on a hoodie or baseball cap and try it again, you get the idea. Create some fairly standardized walk tests that you can repeat, go outside walk around, then review the footage and tweak your settings.

Auto exposure in color at night might be just result in a blur or streak when there's motion.

You could run 1 of your driveway cams in color and the other with IR so you get the extra clarity of the ir for detail if you want.

 

[wantafastz28]

Will do, I'm still working on the triggers as well on BI, I had 2 kids walk up to my door, and of the 3 that they came through, only 2 flagged it. Will do some more testing tomorrow at different parts of the day. Work in progress.