IR for ALPR

[wpiman]

Some quick responses....

My son just actually showed me an AWESOME trick to set up the IR. If you have a Quest 2 headset, you can put it in pass through mode and see EXACTLY where the light was pointed. I think it will be super useful for when I get the mounter..

I know I will have to dial these in.... Here is what I have for night. Dusk has been a bitch.










I have the plates and stats going into Homeseer via MQTT. Some place to grep out, log, and trigger...

5/8/2023 8:17:14 PM
Script
Plate
Plate detected: 1708 Probability: NightPlate:91%
5/8/2023 7:47:41 PM
Script
Plate
Plate detected: 6PT155 Probability: DayPlate:100%
5/8/2023 7:10:24 PM

 

[wittaj]

Are you getting focused plates with the focus set to semi-auto?

Many of us the focus is different for color and infrared and we have to set the focus to manual.

Unless the cars are flying you could probably drop the shutter to 1/2000 or 1/1000.

 

[DLONG2]

I have the plates and stats going into Homeseer via MQTT. Some place to grep out, log, and trigger...

5/8/2023 8:17:14 PM
Script
Plate
Plate detected: 1708 Probability: NightPlate:91%
5/8/2023 7:47:41 PM
Script
Plate
Plate detected: 6PT155 Probability: DayPlate:100%
5/8/2023 7:10:24 PM

I, too, have HS4. Curious to learn more about the collection to HomeSeer. Can you share some details on this? For example, if my camera sees my plate arriving then I could open up the garage door with automation.

 

[wpiman]

I, too, have HS4. Curious to learn more about the collection to HomeSeer. Can you share some details on this? For example, if my camera sees my plate arriving then I could open up the garage door with automation.

join us on the HomeSeer mcsMqtt thread here for details. Basically blue iris posts an mqtt message.

BlueIris and MQTT - HomeSeer Message Board

Hi Michael, Making small progress with BlueIris and MQTT but I'm almost there. I'm able to send a MQTT topic and right now sending an email. How would I pass the &Plate to the email? Bear with me, not as fast as long time ago :-) Thank you.

forums.homeseer.com

 

[wpiman]

Are you getting focused plates with the focus set to semi-auto?

Many of us the focus is different for color and infrared and we have to set the focus to manual.

Unless the cars are flying you could probably drop the shutter to 1/2000 or 1/1000.

good question. Mostly but I have noticed occasionally it messes up. I’ll give it a switch.

here is my latest. Not a lot of traffic on my street tonight.

 

[Vettester]

good question. Mostly but I have noticed occasionally it messes up. I’ll give it a switch.

here is my latest. Not a lot of traffic on my street tonight.

You've got some tweaking to do. Here's a screenshot of mine using manual focus and without an external IR source.

 

[MikeLud1]

Here are my settings, the plate is about 100 feet

 

[wpiman]

Thanks guys. The mount comes tomorrow, so I will get that all dialed in tomorrow night with the oculus and adjust my settings.

Those pictures look pretty damn good. I was thinking of putting some tape on the light sensor of the illuminator to keep it on.

I don't get a ton of traffic at night on my street (dead end- maybe 20 houses). I might have to park my car out there with the light on.

 

[MikeLud1]

Thanks guys. The mount comes tomorrow, so I will get that all dialed in tomorrow night with the oculus and adjust my settings.

Those pictures look pretty damn good. I was thinking of putting some tape on the light sensor of the illuminator to keep it on.

I don't get a ton of traffic at night on my street (dead end- maybe 20 houses). I might have to park my car out there with the light on.

For a standard 1/4 20 mount you need to tap the hole. I think the IR mounting hole is taped with a 1/4 28 or metric

 

[wpiman]

It looked to me like the 3 holes were all varying sizes? I currently have it mounted with a standard tripod that came with my microphone....

 

[wpiman]

Mount came today...

Just got this... Nightplate 98% 2PFZ19

How do you like them apples?

And other one just came through-- got that one too....

I have my camera and mount pointed like 70 degrees from the house. The mounts are super strong in that position. Has anyone ever like hit them with something sticky to make them a little more secure? I was thinking some hot glue? When the snow comes off the roof in 9 months I am not sure how good this will be pointed...

 

[MikeLud1]

To check if you have it aimed good stand out in the street in the FOV of the camera you should see all six IRs. If you do not see all six IR you need to adjust the aim

 

[wpiman]

Yeah, so I see all the lights when I stand out there. I put a reflective stake in the camera view and then used the night vision to check the spot light alignment. I have the stick slightly to the right of the center of the beam. I tried to capture an pass through image on the Oculus but it doesn't take picture in that mode. Tonight, maybe I can try another camera.

These images are with the light pointed SLIGHTLY to the right of the night before. I got two out of the three. Big improvement. I am wondering if the first one isn't some license plate UV cover.

I also checked the wattage with a kill A watt meter. I see about 6 Watts when I cover up the light detector. That seems about right.

My street is SUPER dark as well. There is another house across the street- but we have 2 acre zoning and no street lights. If anyone has any more hints on improvements I am all ears.

 

[samplenhold]

Is that bad one a front plate? If so, that might be the reason. Front plates can be hard. They have no license plate light, they get dirty and can be deformed. They can have the image blasted off in climes that have snow.

It may be a paper/temporary plate, or not even a plate at all, like a dealer's name plate that is not reflective.

 

[MikeLud1]

Yeah, so I see all the lights when I stand out there. I put a reflective stake in the camera view and then used the night vision to check the spot light alignment. I have the stick slightly to the right of the center of the beam. I tried to capture an pass through image on the Oculus but it doesn't take picture in that mode. Tonight, maybe I can try another camera.

These images are with the light pointed SLIGHTLY to the right of the night before. I got two out of the three. Big improvement. I am wondering if the first one isn't some license plate UV cover.

I also checked the wattage with a kill A watt meter. I see about 6 Watts when I cover up the light detector. That seems about right.

My street is SUPER dark as well. There is another house across the street- but we have 2 acre zoning and no street lights. If anyone has any more hints on improvements I am all ears.

View attachment 162935
View attachment 162936
View attachment 162937

Post your camera settings also how close is the IR mounted to the camera.

 

[wpiman]

Post your camera settings

Last night I used the exact settings you had in post #47. In one of the earlier posts your picture settings were quite different. I actually just copied what you had earlier for tonight....

I wish Dahua has a way to save the settings to a file...

 

[wpiman]

Post your camera settings also how close is the IR mounted to the camera.

Here is where it is mounted. I tried to get them close with the IR Ahead. They are also pointing left- so the angle between them it very, very small.

It is low off the ground but to the left, the ground drops off a bunch, and there is a valley and the road is elevated.

 

[MikeLud1]

Here is where it is mounted. I tried to get them close with the IR Ahead. They are also pointing left- so the angle between them it very, very small.

It is low off the ground but to the left, the ground drops off a bunch, and there is a valley and the road is elevated.
View attachment 162941

View attachment 162942

Try mounting closure to the camera from your photo it looks like it is mount 3+ feet away from the camera.

 

[wpiman]

Try mounting closure to the camera from your photo it looks like it is mount 3+ feet away from the camera.

View attachment 162944

View attachment 162945

I'll give it a whirl. Man, I didn't notice how badly the house needs a powerwashing until you blew up the image.

 

[wpiman]

Try mounting closure to the camera from your photo it looks like it is mount 3+ feet away from the camera.

View attachment 162944

View attachment 162945

So the Camera to IR is 28" laterally, but in the field of view plane- it is 15".

If I am reading that graph correctly, I am probably closer to the second one up, but it is exponentially better to get even that distance down.

I'll give it a whirl. The pain in the ass issue is it was hard for me to fish that wire from there, but that is a one time issue.

Off to have my wife yell at me about more holes in the house!