I would love to use one of these but unfortunately in my state we only have rear license plates so it would take two.
IPC-HFW5231E-Z12 LPR from 137 feet
- Thread starter crc2004
- Start date
- Apr 18, 2016
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bigredfish
Known around here
Thanks @crc2004 , using your nighttime settings I was able to get my new Z-12 dialed in pretty well for day #1.
Still need to re-aim the camera up the street a bit and zoom in a bit more, but getting there.
Appreciate it.
Still need to re-aim the camera up the street a bit and zoom in a bit more, but getting there.
Appreciate it.
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- Apr 18, 2016
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bigredfish
Known around here
Yeah I didnt get the camera hung until 5pm and its been windy and rainy and cold as shit here today, so I didnt have the time to tweek the final aimpoint. I need to aim a little further up the street, more right, and more zoom. But your settings saved me an hour of headache 
- Apr 18, 2016
- 213
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It took me quite awhile to get the focus adjusted. I didn't want my girlfriend to stop her car in the middle of the street for 30 minutes while I adjusted because I didn't want my neighbors to know about the camera. I created a spreadsheet with the focus values and kept adjusting until it looked good. Spreadsheet is attached.Yeah I didnt get the camera hung until 5pm and its been windy and rainy and cold as shit here today, so I didnt have the time to tweek the final aimpoint. I need to aim a little further up the street, more right, and more zoom. But your settings saved me an hour of headache
- Apr 18, 2016
- 213
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If you're using OpenALPR at 1080P resolution you'll want to change the max_detection in openalpr.defaults.conf to 1080P
; The detection doesn't necessarily need an extremely high resolution image in order to detect plates
; Using a smaller input image should still find the plates and will do it faster
; Tweaking the max_detection_input values will resize the input image if it is larger than these sizes
; max_detection_input_width/height are specified in pixels
; max_detection_input_width = 1280
; max_detection_input_height = 720
max_detection_input_width = 1920
max_detection_input_height = 1080
; The detection doesn't necessarily need an extremely high resolution image in order to detect plates
; Using a smaller input image should still find the plates and will do it faster
; Tweaking the max_detection_input values will resize the input image if it is larger than these sizes
; max_detection_input_width/height are specified in pixels
; max_detection_input_width = 1280
; max_detection_input_height = 720
max_detection_input_width = 1920
max_detection_input_height = 1080
bigredfish
Known around here
bigredfish
Known around here
As I'm not recording/streaming local to my home, (streaming to a NVR about 40ft from the pole in a box) I'm not sure I can do the OpenAPLR thing, but I'd sure like to..
From reading about this software on the forum I was under the impression it was difficult to set up and use.
Is this not the case? Is it a simple windows install and go?
Any idea what the full version costs?
How much CPU would this use for 1 camera? I'd be running it on the same computeerror as BI.
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- Apr 18, 2016
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It's pretty easy to setup.I developed software for 32 years and it took about 10 minutes to set it up. If you know your way around a Windows box it should take less than 20-30 minutes.
I have 6 cameras on BI that used about 40% before adding the OpenALPR process and it added about 4%. I lowered my FPS to 5 since 7-10 frames per car was plenty to capture plates and a lower FPS makes a big difference.
I'm using the free version, a paid version is $39/month per camera which is too expensive for me. After running the app for over a month I''m not sure it's really needed. Another solution would be to run your video files through the free open source OpenALPR process if you have an event.
Also, both times I wanted to get the plates of a suspicious car at 3:00am from the prior night both front and rear plates had been removed or masked.
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@crc2004 Are you using some daemon like (alprd) on your Windows server? If not, what do you do to automatically feed video/snapshot image(s) to alpr on Windows?
- Apr 18, 2016
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I have no experience with the 5216p nvr so someone else will have to chime in. If your 12Z is a IPC-HFW5231E-Z12 try signing on to the camera directly instead of through the NVR and see if you can replicate the setting I used above. If that doesn't work you might get more help if you create a separate thread and post an image of the car.
I've also been struggling with camera settings for LPR. It's not apples-to-apples because my camera is close enough to the plates for the IR to work. The big problem I have is to find a single setting that works in different lighting conditions. Optimizing for lower light conditions results is washout when sun reflects off the plate. Optimizing to read a front plate at night results in the rear plates getting washed out by the license plate lights. What I have now is looking like the best I've hit so far, for a different model Dahua camera:
Picture settings: Gamma 25, all the others around 50.
Exposure settings: Manual mode, shutter 1/250, gain 0-30, 3DNR on grade 30
Backlight: off
IR light: manual 100
Picture settings: Gamma 25, all the others around 50.
Exposure settings: Manual mode, shutter 1/250, gain 0-30, 3DNR on grade 30
Backlight: off
IR light: manual 100
bigredfish
Known around here
Thanks to the setting pointers from @crc2004 I've got a pretty good setup on day 2 of my new Z-12 bullet. Still have to tweek some but getting there.
Distance is right at 120ft
Notice the night time TwoFer
Distance is right at 120ft
Notice the night time TwoFer
- Apr 18, 2016
- 213
- 144