IR Hot Spotting Low Tech Fix

[guykuo]

Several of my cameras had pretty severe IR hot spotting. My fix was 4 to 5 layers of 3M Scotch Tape over the IR emitters. Super simple, reversible, quick, and cheap. Put several layers just over the emitter's, not the rest of the optical cover. Add more layers until the IR is diffused the amount you need.

Give it a try if hot spotting is a problem.

 

[bigredfish]

nice

 

[TonyR]

Several of my cameras had pretty severe IR hot spotting. My fix was 4 to 5 layers of 3M Scotch Tape over the IR emitters. Super simple, reversible, quick, and cheap. Put several layers just over the emitter's, not the rest of the optical cover. Add more layers until the IR is diffused the amount you need.

Give it a try if hot spotting is a problem.

View attachment 226128

Too simple, can't possibly work.....I don't like it.
</end sarcasm>

 

[CCTVCam]

Only issue is it probably won't last long due to the IR, but then again it's cheap and replaceable. You could explore other alternatives such as uv stabilised plastics with patterns in them, maybe even some vision obscuring window films such as used for bathrooms etc . At the end of the day, what you're doing is creating a diffuser. Only danger I see to any of this is you are insulating / maybe reflecting some of the light back into the housing, so it might not be advisable if it's subject to high temps.

 

[Iemand91]

Lol, gave it a try and some of my camera's and it actually works great. Much more equal spread of light.
EDIT: well; less hot spot, maybe not more "spread".

 

[guykuo]

BTW, if you ever need to remove old Scotch tape that is too brittle to peel, coat the tape with some Purell hand sanitizer and cover the gel with a piece of plastic wrap. Let the gelled alcohol soak in for 20-30 minutes. Thereafter, everyone pretty much wipes off without any effort. The key is plastic wrap keeping the hand gel from drying out so it has time to soften the adhesive.

 

[guykuo]

A demo video showing what six layers of frosted 3M Scotch tape does on a PTZ that has bad hotspotting. I layer the tape on a piece of glass, lift off glass, trim to size and then apply over IR emitters.

 

[Defender574]

Wow, that's a noticeable improvement

 

[TonyR]

BTW, if you ever need to remove old Scotch tape that is too brittle to peel, coat the tape with some Purell hand sanitizer and cover the gel with a piece of plastic wrap. Let the gelled alcohol soak in for 20-30 minutes. Thereafter, everyone pretty much wipes off without any effort. The key is plastic wrap keeping the hand gel from drying out so it has time to soften the adhesive.

Great advice!

And in some situations where more stubborn tape glue stays after removal, I spray a shot of cooking spray (canola oil), let sit a bit, apply some elbow grease then wipe off, sometimes another application is needed if really thick or stubborn. When the glue is off completely some rubbing alcohol (or maybe hand sanitizer!) will take the cooking spray off.

The idea is to get the oil between the glue and the surface it's adhered to so it'll release.....kind of like how the surfactant in dish soap and most detergents work.