Just setup my 2nd 5231R-Z as a driveway cam!

[Philip Gonzales]

Moved my front door cam. Seems like I'm capturing almost the exact same area on both cameras though.

 

[mat200]

Moved my front door cam. Seems like I'm capturing almost the exact same area on both cameras though.

If you feel that area is a risk / likely attack location then having multiple views is ok.

 

[Kawboy12R]

View attachment 22895
Did I zoom in too far? I moved it up but then zoomed in. Should I zoom out a hair or leave it as is? Surely you don't want me to zoom in more? Or do You? Lol

Walk around your car at night. Try the door handles. Then check your footage and see how detailed your face is when your press pause. Ask yourself if you would want to ID a stranger with a similar picture. If not, then zoom in more or add more light.

Having said that, you also want to see people on both sides of your car in case their best angle wasn't just as they touched the handle. Hindsight is 20/20 about where you should've had better coverage though.

 

[Philip Gonzales]

Walk around your car at night. Try the door handles. Then check your footage and see how detailed your face is when your press pause. Ask yourself if you would want to ID a stranger with a similar picture. If not, then zoom in more or add more light.

Having said that, you also want to see people on both sides of your car in case their best angle wasn't just as they touched the handle. Hindsight is 20/20 about where you should've had better coverage though.

Ok, thanks for your help. I will do some more testing but I think this is pretty good. My Wife's car is actually the one by the mailbox, but I don't think it will be feasible to try to get an ID shot at that distance as that will mean another camera, plus one more for the right side of the yard (the side that is not covered by the current cameras). I think for sure my neighbors will think I am crazy have 4 cameras in front of my house. My house is only 880 square feet excluding the garage. The camera's area also pretty large, especially since I used the mount as those were easier for me to hide the ethernet cable in, VS drilling a larger hole in a house that I just rent. When I get my own house I will get a bigger house and hopefully on a larger property and have as many cameras as needed. Hopefully within a year or so I will be moving so just trying to get "good enough" for now.

Here is a pic of where my wife parks when I leave, she parks a little further back than me. She has a tint on her front windshield, kind of cool how it looks on camera. I think both views are OK, tough choosing between zoom and overview. I think if I get one more camera mounted to the left of my door camera and angled to the right to catch the right side of the yard I can zoom in a bit more on my front door one. Sound good?



Also I did not know IR shows up on phone camera, pretty neat.

 

[Kawboy12R]

I'd think that the next priority would be good coverage of where your wife parks. Put a third cam on the corner of your house to the right of the front door looking out and zoom it in at an angle towards the mailbox. That'll cover the box, her car, plus decent coverage of everybody walking/driving by. Then, a lower priority would be a 4th camera covering the yard to the right side of the door. Higher priority would be a back door camera.

 

[looney2ns]

@Kawboy12R @looney2ns do you know if it possible to mask out the light and get better night image results? ( in this case we can lower the camera angle, however sometimes we can not easily do that )

My guess is no sense there is a photo cell between the led's.

 

[Philip Gonzales]

I'd think that the next priority would be good coverage of where your wife parks. Put a third cam on the corner of your house to the right of the front door looking out and zoom it in at an angle towards the mailbox. That'll cover the box, her car, plus decent coverage of everybody walking/driving by. Then, a lower priority would be a 4th camera covering the yard to the right side of the door. Higher priority would be a back door camera.

Man, I don't know if adding another camera is going to fly at the moment. I've spent like $1,000 in a month on this stuff, and that doesn't include the server I already had. I still need to replace it with a desktop so that's another $500. No real good place to run/drill a cable easily in that location, plus I don't want to make any more holes in the house since it's not my house. My Wife also thinks I'm crazy for having two camears outside, especially since our house/yard is so small. I'm sure my neighbors think I'm crazy already. I could easily run a cable to the left of the door as my switches are right on the other side.

I think for now two is just going to have to be good enough. We have never noticed any criminal activity down my street in the few years we have lived here. The street is very slow. Hardly any traffic, except for when people drive through my street to pick up there kids. We may get 10 cars in the morning and 10 at night, and a handful during the day. When I do get my own house though I am going to go all out.

 

[Kawboy12R]

Do they use those for exposure and gain settings or just for day/night switching? I'd assumed that it was day/night switching and exposure/gain/etc was done by actual image analysis.

 

[mat200]

Ok,.. I think for sure my neighbors will think I am crazy have 4 cameras in front of my house. My house is only 880 square feet excluding the garage. The camera's area also pretty large, especially since I used the mount as those were easier for me to hide the ethernet cable in, VS drilling a larger hole in a house that I just rent. ..

Hi Philip,

I really like the mounts, very nice solid unit.

Remember you can get a sample can of paint from home depo to match the color of the house and paint the mount and camera casing to better blend in.

 

[Philip Gonzales]

So I was able to get the set screw tightened down to the cam above the garage. My boss made me my own stubby hex tool.

Worked perfectly!

 

[EMPIRETECANDY]

Here is where I mounted it. Just above the garage door.

20171025_200731_1508981926312 by philipgonzales3, on Flickr

I made extra sure to not make a noob mistake of setting my camera up too high. And I Fucking put it close to the trip!!! Almost impossible to tighten the set screw now!! What an idiot I am lol. I'm going to try and cut one of those hex bits in half and hold it with some pliers to see if I can tighten the screw.

20171025_200815 by philipgonzales3, on Flickr

Even though I hate the way it looks on monitors I decided to go with corridor mode as it seemed appropriate.

20171025_201951 by philipgonzales3, on Flickr

What do you think? Anything I can do to improve the situation?

1508985142170 by philipgonzales3, on Flickr

Also now I'm not too sure what to do with my front door cam? I just zoomed out all the way and said ehh overview camera I guess?

1508984956708 by philipgonzales3, on Flickr

As always your input is always welcome. Even if it is to call me an idiot for mounting my camera too close to the trim!

Great Job Phillip!

 

[jrf]

What is the added benefit to the bracket vs just attaching it directly to the side of the house?

 

[Philip Gonzales]

What is the added benefit to the bracket vs just attaching it directly to the side of the house?

For me it was easier as I could stuff the pigtail wires inside of the mount. This was especially helpful in another location where I did not want to drill through the wall and did not want the pigtail part exposed to the elements. I also like the way it looks.

 

[mat200]

What is the added benefit to the bracket vs just attaching it directly to the side of the house?

Hi jrf -

The wall mount does a great job of helping to protect the wiring connection from rain if you chalk the area the wall mount meets your wall.

I really liked it, and plan to use it for the next camera or 2 I add to my garage.

 

[jrf]

For me it was easier as I could stuff the pigtail wires inside of the mount. This was especially helpful in another location where I did not want to drill through the wall and did not want the pigtail part exposed to the elements. I also like the way it looks.

More confused now. Wouldn't the pigtail be more protected inside the house vs in the mount? Or am I just missing the fact you didn't want to drill that large of a hole in the side of the house to fit the connector?

 

[Philip Gonzales]

More confused now. Wouldn't the pigtail be more protected inside the house vs in the mount? Or am I just missing the fact you didn't want to drill that large of a hole in the side of the house to fit the connector?

Bingo. For one of my cameras I used an existing hole in the house that was previously used for coaxial cable. I am just renting so I wanted to make the smallest impact possible. I did drill a hole above the garage, but I got permission first. I guess I could have drilled a bigger hole but then I would have the pigtail just hanging in the garage. I like the way the mount looks also.

 

[Akguy25]

Man, I don't know if adding another camera is going to fly at the moment. I've spent like $1,000 in a month on this stuff, and that doesn't include the server I already had. I still need to replace it with a desktop so that's another $500. No real good place to run/drill a cable easily in that location, plus I don't want to make any more holes in the house since it's not my house. My Wife also thinks I'm crazy for having two camears outside, especially since our house/yard is so small. I'm sure my neighbors think I'm crazy already. I could easily run a cable to the left of the door as my switches are right on the other side.

I think for now two is just going to have to be good enough. We have never noticed any criminal activity down my street in the few years we have lived here. The street is very slow. Hardly any traffic, except for when people drive through my street to pick up there kids. We may get 10 cars in the morning and 10 at night, and a handful during the day. When I do get my own house though I am going to go all out.

If you are crazy then i am nuts! My last house was 800 sq ft and had 8 cameras. My new house is 1750 sq ft and has 14 cameras

 

[Philip Gonzales]

If you are crazy then i am nuts! My last house was 800 sq ft and had 8 cameras. My new house is 1750 sq ft and has 14 cameras

Man don't tell me that! I already have like 3 more spots where I want a camera in front of the house. I was thinking I could have two on top of the garage, one zoomed in on one car and one zoomed in on the car behind it. Then another PTZ on the opposite corner zoomed in on the mailbox/parkign spot in front of the mailbox. Plus one catching the side of the yard that has no cameras. And an overview camera. That would be a total of 5 in my front yard alone!! haha I better stop until I buy my own house.

 

[looney2ns]

More confused now. Wouldn't the pigtail be more protected inside the house vs in the mount? Or am I just missing the fact you didn't want to drill that large of a hole in the side of the house to fit the connector?

Water proofed properly, it will be just fine in the mount.
By properly means, use the water proof boot that comes with the cam. Put Die-electric grease into the RJ45 female jack before inserting the male RJ45. Wrap it all with self bonding tape if you feel you need the added protection.